Chess players initiation to shogi

It held saturday the 25 of june, a shogi meeting in Abidjan Cocody Angré, with the Ivory Coast shogijin and the best national chess players. This meeting was the idea of Simplice Armel Degondo, a 2 dan chess player.

Degondo is the best chess player of Ivory coast who take part in many international chess tournaments for Ivory Coast. Recently initiated to shogi, Degondo has been fascinated by this wonderfull game. Amazingly, he played more than hundred games on playok, just some weeks after his initiation. Now he has already played 111 games on 81dojo since he has been initiated one month ago.

27 people came at this meeting. Among them, commandant Diomandé Moustafa, the first president of Ivory coast chess federation; Edoukou Ernest, champion of Ivory Coast in the past...That was a great shogi event. After the initiation, we have both chess and shogi game, and talk about a partnership between chess and shogi players

MEDIA SENSATION - TV FEATURE ON SHOGI ON MUSIC CHANNEL MTV (GERMAN EDITION)

The current year of 2011 is a very important year with regard to the
international promotion of Shogi - as a consequence of the
groundbreaking decision that has been taken by NIHON SHOGI RENMEI in
order to stage the International Shogi Forum 2011 outside of Japan for
the first time, namely at Paris, France.
With regard to the ambitious goal of popularizing Shogi globally, it is
very good news that the German edition of music-channel MTV plus the
German-language music channel VIVA, both have aired a feature on Shogi!
Please check out the link as follows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9eZ373GS1g


There you will see the Hamburg-based author Dr. Rene Gralla who makes
the case for Shogi by outlining the historical background of that great
strategic game - the BATTLE OF SEKIGAHRA that has marked a watershed in
the history of Japan on October 21st, 1600 - and by demonstrating the
rules of Shogi on a three-coloured big board that is crowded by figurine
pieces in 3D. That innovative set has been hand-made by Dr. Rene Gralla
himself; you can watch some close-up views of board and chessmen
Japanese style after 2:04 minutes running time of the Shogi-clip on
Youtube.

The creator of that prototype of SHOGI IN 3D is convinced that his
version of Shogi with eye-catching figurine pieces complies with the
viewing patterns of the Manga- and MTV-Generation. "Figurine SHOGI IN 3D
is the perfect tool to get modern kids to turn to Shogi - be it in Japan
or outside of Japan", says Dr. Rene Gralla.

At least that set of SHOGI IN 3D has been very helpful for the purpose
of convincing SIMON and BUDI - the popular presenters of that very
TV-magazine GAME ONE that has featured Shogi on MTV and VIVA - that they
should produce a TV-reportage on Shogi. And BUDI gets that thrilled by
Shogi that he even sits down at the board of SHOGI IN 3D and battles out
a match against Dr. Rene Gralla.

That feature on MTV and VIVA is a QUANTUM LEAP with regard to the
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION of Shogi, since GAME ONE - that TV-magazine that
has now featured Shogi - normally covers EGames only but NO BOARD GAMES!
Therefore the very fact that Shogi, the board game par excellence, has
been featured by GAME ONE, that is a real media sensation: Shogi has
succeeded in getting accepted by the young and modern community of
Egamers.

Now SHOGI has become POP itself - by having been covered by music
channels MTV and VIVA!

And that is the perfect prelude for the ESC/WOSC 2011, this year's
second big event of Shogi in Europe from July 14th, 2011 to July 17th,
2011, at Ludwigshafen/Germany!

Handmade shogi by shogi kenya

The newest shogi players from kenya have decided to go ahead again. After their game meeting with chiaki Ito, they now have decided to handmake shogi boards to be able to initiate people there Kenya; not only through internet. So Charles Ngariuya, after some hours of working has made its own shogiban. When I ask how much boards have you made he answered that he started with one but after he will see the way to forward with its friends. That's sure, those guys do really like shogi. And as possible we must think the way of sending them materials to help spreading shogi i, Kenya.

Just to add; yesterday, a south african has been initiated to shogi by charles and me at 81dojo. Now the 4 sides of the continent have at least one player: South Africa, East Africa, West africa, and North africa with Mido from Morroco...

Article of George Githui from Kenya

SHOGI FROM A CHESS PLAYER POINT OF VIEW. Learning Shogi has not only been fun but also interesting. I have played chess for about four years now and I thought it was the greatest game I had and would ever play. At times I did agree with some quotes from some men of long ago claiming that man must have been a demigod to have invented such a great game. Indeed, chess is a great game to play, however learning Shogi has shown me that chess is not necessarily the greatest game in the world. In the past few weeks when I have been learning Shogi, it has dawned to me that Shogi is a really sweet, interesting and mind-racking game, better than chess, if I may say so.In chess you have only sixteen chessmen to coordinate in order to win you the game and only another opponent’s sixteen to beat. This is quite different from Shogi where you have twenty pieces to deal with on both sides of the board. A Shogi board is also far much bigger than a chess one. In chess, castling and other moves like en passant are so easy to play as compared to Shogi where you require quite a number of moves to safely castle and protect your king. One of the most fascinating features in Shogi is ‘dropping’. Whereas in chess, you have to think over both your moves and the opponent’s moves based only on the pieces on the board at a particular stage of the game, in Shogi you have to push your concentration, imagination and thinking a notch higher to accommodate for the captured pieces which are potential enemy ‘soldiers’ as they can be dropped any time.In chess, one can get a checkmate in very few moves indeed if you are playing a weaker player which I have noted is not the case with Shogi. Despite being a beginner in Shogi, the games I have played much more experienced players over 81-dojo have not been a walk in the park for my opponents. It requires quite a number of moves and some time to finish a Shogi game hence I think you have to cultivate a lot of patience if you are to play Shogi. Chess is a rather straight-forward game with only one type of chess men (pawns) to promote. You may consider it bit boring as with only a slight advantage you can easily win the game. Many a chess master nurse only a pawn advantage to the very end of the game in order to promote it and eventually win the game but in Shogi, as I have come to observe, advantages are gained and lost which gives players a reason to always have a fighting spirit as it is never over till one is checkmated. I am not against chess but all these, to me, show that Shogi is one great game. It commands patience, ‘laser-sharp’ focus and concentration and above all a fighting spirit.Kudos to Ivory Coast for taking their initiative and forming a Shogi federation in their country. As for us Kenyans, we should follow their example. I have had fun playing this game and it would be very selfish of me and anybody else out there here in Kenya to withhold this game from others. Therefore I think we should make it our obligation and put our best foot forward in spreading this game all over Kenya. I am most grateful to Lionnel Kouassi from Ivory Coast and Charles Ngaruiya( my former classmate and fellow chess club member) for initiating me into to this wonderful game. I am reciprocating that by trying to initiate some more people here in Nyeri to Shogi. It is my belief that we have what it takes to play really well; hence we should form a Kenyan Shogi federation soon. With the leadership of Charles Ngaruiya, help from Chiaki and Lei and much of our practice and hard work, we can do it and we will do it!!!Finally, I appeal to all who wish to learn this game to contact me or Charles (via FB) and we will do our level best to initiate you into this game. You may also visit 81-dojo or read the enormous material there is on Shogi on the net. Now I have to go. I need to visit 81-dojo for my daily practice. I have to get myself accustomed to the Japanese Kanji characters as I have been using the ‘chess-like westernized’ Shogi characters. BYE!!!