Art of Shogi - AND Go [1/1]
John Fairbairn
In article <33b3ee56....@193.131.66.1>, Steve Lamb <s...@als.co.uk>
writes
> "The Art of Shogi"
>
> (a 288 page book with 725 diagrams)
>
> by Tony Hosking.
>
>
I have just seen this book. The thread is not as off-topic as you might
think (but if still in doubt, see the go bit at the end).
Although a form of chess, shogi uses concepts such as thickness, aji,
sabaki etc that derive from go. Since many western go players know
chess, they might find it interesting, possibly even useful (in each of
the games), to explore the synergy.
The crux is whether you can rely on this book. After a good browse
rather than a read, I would give it a strong recommendation tempered
only by a niggle about some irritating misprints, the lack of a good
index a la Yutopian and the fact that it is rather mean-spirited with
its credits.
In the latter case I am not thinking about myself because my work for
Shogi magazine was voluntary and so is already in the melting pot
(though perhaps considering that every page has examples of terms or
themes I introduced, a wee bit more than a passing mention may be
merited), but I see no reference to the pioneer Glyndon Townhill and,
above all, the reference to George Hodges does not seem to reflect even
a fraction of his contribution. Anyone who compares this book with Shogi
magazine would see instantly that there is a debt to be paid. I think it
would have been a good gesture to give the address of George Hodges - he
still has magazines, books and equipments galore to sell (PO Box 77,
Bromley, Kent, UK).
Among the misprints I spotted browsing in the bookshop were Shorekai
instead of Shoreikai (bad because it is repeated so often), tatokin
instead of takokin, and Kriegspiel instead of Kriegsspiel. You will have
to make your own judgement about whether this bodes well for the
accuracy of the rest of the text - a very high proportion in an
unnecessary new notation - as I didn't play any games or openings out.
Nevertheless, the range is good, the price is fair, and it crams a lot
in. There is enough there to make you a dan player.
Now the go part. It doesn't often come over in English writing on go how
close the world of professional go and shogi are. At the very least the
players of one game tend to play the other for relaxation. But the
social links between the respective players are often deep, probably
because of their shared experiences in a precarious occupation and
perhaps also because they can let their guard down yet still talk about
their games to someone who will be empathetic but who is not going to be
a rival. These things emerge in the parts of Japanese magazines that are
rarely translated (interviews, round-table discussions, etc).
Sometimes it goes a tad further. The great shogi player Yonenaga Kunio
has written a go book, for example: Gogataki ga naite kuyashigaru hon,
230 pages of dense text with scarcely a diagram that claim to contain
secrets he has discovered which will take you to high amateur dan level.
It is full of insights and sidelights from the world of shogi, of
course, and much of it is about inculcating the right attitude rather
than about go techniques. But there are some technical "discoveries":
e.g. don't let your opponent's stones go sideways. Yonenaga is a very
bright cookie (he could have gone to the elite Tokyo University) and in
some ways is a go player manque. He describes in this book how he blew
every penny of his first earnings from professional shogi on a rare copy
of the Castle Games. He is good enough to beat Cho Chikun on 3 stones -
a game is in the book. (Published by NON Books, Yodensha, ISBN
4-396-10248-8 C0276, at 750 yen.)
The latest shogi sensation is Habu Yoshiharu. He plays go too. Below is
a game by him against Kato. This is taken from another book I will
strongly recommend, this time without reservations. It is Igo Taizen (Go
Compendium), a snip at 2300 yen. It is a coffee-table size book, full
colour throughout on art paper, 190 pages, dozens of photographs. Apart
from a full commentary and stunning photos of the game below, it has
well illustrated sections on many top players, history, ladies go
(historical and modern), historical baords and making modern go boards
(this section is especially large and good), iroha go cards, and there
is a very big section (almost a third of the book) on European go, with
pictures of recent congresses. Much of this is from our old friend
Nakayama Noriyuki. Even if you don't read Japanese the photos alone are
worth the 2300 yen (that's less than the Art of Shogi and barely much
more than most western go books), and showing this sort of book around
at home will make people realise you don't waste your time on a silly
game - this is real CULTURE. Published by Nihon Keizai Shinbun-sha, ISBN
4-532-18019-8 C9476.
The game below is in Ishi .GO format. Many, many more games in this
format, together with free viewers and GoScorer, are available from
Games of Go On Disk: tm...@gogod.demon.co.uk
[ Section: 1/1 File: katohabu.go Encoder: Turnpike Version 3.03a ]
begin 644 katohabu.go
<uuencoded_portion_removed>
5(#$W('!O:6YT<RX-"D5.1$-/30T*
`
end
sum -r/size 16471/2662 section (from "begin" to "end")
sum -r/size 18684/1911 entire input file
--
John Fairbairn
Jan van der Steen
John Fairbairn <J...@harrowgo.demon.co.uk> writes:
> The game below is in Ishi .GO format.
> begin 644 katohabu.go
> end
Here it is in SGF format:
(
;
AB[pd][dd][dp][pp][pj][dj]
PW[Kato Masao]
WR[9 dan]
PB[Habu Yoshiharu]
HA[6]
RE[W+17]
;W[nq];B[pn];W[fq];B[jp]
;W[dn];B[fp];W[gp];B[fo];W[eq];B[do];W[go];B[fn];W[cr];B[oq]
;W[np];B[jn];W[mm];B[jl];W[mk];B[gn];W[pl];B[qn];W[qf];B[oi]
;W[nc];B[oe];W[og];B[mi];W[mg];B[ki];W[me];B[lq];W[lp];B[kp]
;W[lr];B[lo];W[mo];B[mp];W[mq];B[lp];W[nn];B[oo];W[no];B[kr]
;W[pm];B[nl];W[nk];B[nh];W[of];B[rm];W[rl];B[qk];W[ql];B[rk]
;W[sk];B[ri];W[lj];B[li];W[qc];B[nr];W[mr];B[or];W[kl];B[km]
;W[kk];B[jk];W[kj];B[jj];W[lm];B[ih];W[cf];B[ch];W[fc];B[ee]
;W[cc];B[cd];W[dc];B[ge];W[bj];B[ck];W[bk];B[cl];W[ci];B[di]
;W[bh];B[cg];W[bg];B[df];W[bl];B[cm];W[be];B[bd];W[hd];B[he]
;W[id];B[gd];W[gc];B[ie];W[je];B[jf];W[ke];B[rf];W[rg];B[re]
;W[qg];B[pc];W[rb];B[qd];W[pb];B[rc];W[qb];B[sd];W[sf];B[cq]
;W[bq];B[bp];W[dq];B[cp];W[br];B[bm];W[kf];B[jg];W[kn];B[jm]
;W[hr];B[bc];W[io];B[ln];W[bb];B[ce];W[bf];B[ab];W[cb];B[cj]
;W[bi];B[al];W[ak];B[am];W[ip];B[iq];W[ir];B[hq];W[jr];B[jq]
;W[gq];B[js];W[jo];B[ko];W[in];B[im];W[hn];B[hm];W[qi];B[rh]
;W[pi];B[ok];W[ol];B[qj];W[oh];B[qh];W[ph];B[nj];W[on];B[sj]
;W[sl];B[sh];W[sg];B[sm];W[op];B[po];W[ng]
C[207 moves played; 171 moves given.]
)
--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jan van der Steen jans...@cwi.nl
Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI)
The World Wide Web "http://www.cwi.nl/~jansteen/"