Shogi

level of the nihongo|professional ranking league|順位戦) and the nihongo|third-level pro qualifier league|奨励会三段リーグ. Unless exceptional permission is granted, applicant normally need to have experience in the pro qualifier leagues, and cannot become professionals if they have retired from the leagues, but given the reforms taking place in the Association, it would be by no means unlikely if another Shōji Segawa were to appear.

The spread of shogi outside Japan

The game of shogi has developed independently inside Japan, and its pieces are differentiated by Japanese characters written on them, factors which have impeded the spread of the game outside Japan. By way of comparison, the game of go has spread internationally for a combination of many reasons, including the facts that it originated in China, its rules are (more or less) unified at an international level, it is played using black and white stones, and that it does not resemble games unique to another country (as is the case with shogi, which is one of many games resembling chess).

However, in the 1990s, efforts to make shogi popular outside Japan began in earnest. It has grown to be particularly popular in the People's Republic of China, and especially Shanghai. The January 2006 edition of nihongo|Kindai Shogi|近代将棋 states that Shanghai has a shogi population of 120,000 people. The game has been relatively slow to spread to countries where Chinese characters are not in common use, although attempts have been made to aid adoption by replacing the names of pieces with symbols indicating how they move.

Changes in the shogi population

According to the nihongo|"Leisure White Paper"|レジャー白書 by the nihongo|Japanese Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development|財団法人社会経済生産性本部, the "shogi population" (the number of people of 15 years or over who play at least one game of shogi a year) fell from 16.8 million in 1985 to 9 million in 2004, and 8.4 million in 2006, and is continuing to fall gradually.

During the above period, in which the shogi population fell by a half, shogi has often appeared in the general media, for example Yoshiharu Habu's achievement of taking all seven titles in one year (1996), the airing of the NHK TV novel nihongo|Futarikko|ふたりっ子 (1996), the reporting of the affair between nihongo|Makoto Nakahara|中原誠 and nihongo|Naoko Hayashiba|林葉直子, Shōji Segawa taking the professional entrance exam (2005), and the debate about the management of the meijin-sen being passed to a different body (2006). However, none of these led to the birth of a "shogi boom", and in some cases unfavourable media reports accelerated the decline in the number of shogi fans.

The number of 10 to 19 year olds playing go is said in the "Leisure White Paper" above to have increased due to the story "Hikaru no Go", serialised in Shonen Jump. (The overall go population is decreasing.) However, the 2006 Leisure White Paper reports that go is most popular among those in their 60's, while shogi is most popular between those aged 10 to 19.

From around 1996, internet shogi programs such as nihongo|Java Shogi|Java将棋 and nihongo|The Great Shogi|ザ・グレート将棋, which allow users to play games over the internet without the need for an actual shogi set, grew to be widely used. At present, many games are played using services such as nihongo|Shogi Club 24|将棋倶楽部24, nihongo|Kindai Shogi Dojo|近代将棋道場 and Yahoo! Japan Games.

Computer shogi

Developments have been made in computer shogi, a field of artificial intelligence concerned with the creation of computer programs which can play shogi. The research and development of shogi software has been carried out mainly by freelance programmers, university research groups and private companies. As the game of shogi has the distinctive feature of allowing captured pieces to be reused, shogi has a far higher branching factor than similar games such as chess; the computer must examine all games leading on from dropping each piece currently in-hand in every legal drop point, as well as examining regular chess-like moves.

In the 1980s, due to the immaturity of the technology in such fields as programming, CPUs and memory, computer shogi programs took a long time to think, and often made moves for which there was no apparent justification. These programs had the level of an amateur of kyu rank.

In the first decade of the new millennium, there have been large steps forward in both software and hardware technology, and it is currently estimated that the strongest program is prefecture champion class (around amateur 5-dan). In particular, computers are most suited to brute-force calculation, and far outperform humans at the task of finding ways of checkmating from a given position, which involves many fewer possibilities. In games with time limits of 10 seconds from the first move, computers are becoming a tough challenge for even professional shogi players. With the past steady progress of shogi computers as a guide of the future, the prediction is even computers with a large handicap will be unbeatable in the future [cite mailing list |url=http://lists.topica.com/lists/shogi/read/message.html?sort=d&mid=813103510&start=2563 |title=Re: Exhibition Match at the 18th WCSC |date=2008-5-7|accessdate=2008-08-12 |mailinglist=Shogi-L |last=Kaufman|first=Larry] .

In 2005, the Japan Shogi Association sent a message to professional shogi players, telling them that they should not compete against a computer in public without permission. The intentions behind this are to preserve the dignity of its professionals, and to make the most of computer shogi as a potential business opportunity. Many people disagree with this decision. The top shogi professional wins a tournament against a computer brings more prestige to the shogi professional. It shows shogi professionals have greater imagination than players of other chess variants because a shogi professional is still able to beat the computer. Prohibiting professionals means professionals are poorer because they cannot collect fees from playing the computer.

From 2005 until 2008 only one professional has been given permission to play a computer. The Japan Shogi Association gave reigning Ryuo Champion Watanabe permission to compete in a showdown against the reigning World Computer Shogi Champion "Bonanza" (designed by Hoki Kunihito) on 21 March, 2007. The game was played with 2 hours each and 1 minute byo-yomi per move after that. Those conditions were thought to favor Watanabe. The match was interesting because Bonanza was stronger than before due to program improvements and a faster computer. Watanabe prepared for a weaker Bonanza as Watanabe studied old Bonanza game records. Watanabe commented after the game that he should have lost if Bonanza had played a defensive move before entering the endgame. This time, however, the computer choose to attack immediately instead of taking its time (and using its impressive endgame strategies) which cost it the match. Bonanza resigned after move 112. After Bonanza’s loss Watanabe commented on computers in his blog, “I thought they still had quite a way to go, but now we have to recognize that they’ve reached the point where they are getting to be a match for professionals.”

Ryuo champion Akira Watanabe clarifies his position on computers playing shogi. Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper quoted Akira Watanabe on June 27, 2008. Watanabe said "I think I'll be able to defeat shogi software for the next 10 years". He was explaining the point that not only have computers not reached the level of top professional today, but also they will not reach the level of top professional for 10 years.

The Computer Shogi Association of Japan organizes an annual computer vs computer world shogi championship. The first championship was in 1990 with 6 programs. In 2008 it grew to 40 programs. The computers play automated games through a server. Each program has 25 minutes to complete a game. [cite web|url=http://www.computer-shogi.org/index_e.html|title=Computer Shogi Association|accessdate=]

Shogidokoro is graphical user interface (GUI) that calls a program to play shogi and displays the moves on a board. Shogidokoro can automatically run a tournament between 2 programs. This helps programmers to write shogi programs faster because they can skip writing the user interface part. It is also useful for testing changes to a program. [cite web|url=http://www.geocities.jp/shogidokoro/index.html|title=Shogidokoro Shogi Graphical User Interface|language=Japanese|accessdate=]

Milestones in Computer Versus Human Competition

:In the 2005 Amateur Ryo tournament program Gekisashi defeated Ogawa in the first knock out round.:In 2005 program Gekisashi defeated amateur 6-dan Shinoda in a 40 minute exhibition game.:In 2008 computer program Tanase Shogi beat Kato Yukio after 75 moves in a 15 minute exhibition game.:In 2008 computer program Gekisashi beat Shimizugami Toru after 100 moves in a 15 minute exhibition game. [cite web|url=http://gamelab.yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp/SHOGI/CSA2008/18csa.html|title=18th CSA Computer Shogi Championships Exhibition Games|author=Reijer Grimbergen|accessdate=]

Shogi literature in English

*"SHOGI Magazine" (70 issues, January 1976 - November 1987) by The Shogi Association (edited by George Hodges)
*"Shogi for Beginners" (1984) by John Fairbairn
*"Guide to Shogi openings: Shogi problems in Japanese and English" (1983) by Aono Teruichi, translated by John Fairbairn
*"Better Moves for Better Shogi" (1983) by Aono Teruichi, translated by John Fairbairn
*"The Art of Shogi" (1997) by Tony Hosking
*"Habu's Words" (2000) by Habu Yoshiharu, translated by Takahashi Yamato and Tony Hosking
*"Classic Shogi" (2006) by Tony Hosking

Professional players

* In Japan, about 200 professional shogi players who are members of Japan Shogi Association have games with each other for seven titles: Meijin (名人), Kisei (棋聖), Ōshō (王将), Ōza (王座), Ōi (王位), Ryūō (竜王) and Kiō (棋王). The winner of previous year will have to defend the title from the challenger chosen from knockout or round matches. The latest, most famous champion, Yoshiharu Habu, is said to earn more than US$1,000,000 each year. He is also one of the best chess players in Japan and is ranked with FM level.
* Current title holders::: "2008 66th Meijin":Yoshiharu Habu (won over Toshiyuki Moriuchi 4-2):: "2007 20th RyūŌ": Akira Watanabe (won over Yasumitsu Satō 4-2):: "2008 79th Kisei": Yoshiharu Habu (won over Yasumitsu Satō 3-2):: "2007 48th Ōi": Koichi Fukaura (won over Yoshiharu Habu 4-3):: "2007 55th Ōza": Yoshiharu Habu (won over Toshiaki Kubo 3-0):: "2008 57th Ōshō": Yoshiharu Habu (won over Toshiaki Kubo 4-1):: "2008 33rd Kiō": Yasumitsu Satō (won over Yoshiharu Habu 3-2)

See also

* Chu shogi
* Dai shogi
* Shogi variant
* Chess variant

Software in English

* GNU Shogi
* [http://gamelab.yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp/SHOGI/SPEAR/spear.html Spear Shogi] -strong freeware
* Shotest Shogi
* Clubhouse Games includes Shogi as an unlockable game for the Nintendo DS

Notes

* Much of the History section was translated from the equivalent section in the Japanese Wikipedia, as retrieved on September 17, 2006.

External links

* [http://www.shogi.net/shogi.html Shogi.Net]
* [http://gamelab.yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp/SHOGI/shogipage.html Reijer Grimbergen's Shogi Page]
* [http://www.ricoh.co.jp/SHOGI/index_e.html Ricoh Shogi Page]
* [http://www.crockford.com/chess/shogi.html An Introduction to Shogi for Chess Players]
* [http://shogipro.com/forum/index.php Shogi prospect - international shogi forum]