Shogi game comparable to chess

When you have been doing something for years, you have to occasionally look for ways to keep it fresh.

So for the next few weeks I am going to indulge my own interests, and share some cool articles on some timeless boardgames by interviewing Canadian Association personnel, and more importantly some national champions.

The first is the first part of two covering an interview with Colin Ng, one of the top shogi players in Canada.

Shogi, also known as Japanese chess or the Generals’ Game, is a two-player strategy board game in the same family as Western (international) chess, chaturanga, makruk, shatranj, janggi and xiangqi, and is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan.

If you like chess, you should try shogi. With pieces upgrading when they reach a certain rank on the board, and captured pieces able to return to the board on the opposite side, it is a different enough experience to intrigue, with the core chess elements you should expect.

Ng won the Canadian Shogi Championship in 2014, which is of course what I asked about. How was it to be the best in Canada?

“Satisfying,” he said. “There were not many players, but it was rough nevertheless. You cannot let your guard down at all. It was a fun tournament, and I am happy that I played my best. The side effect of representing Canada at the ISF was a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it felt great to be able to go. On the other hand, no pressure, right?”

The win allowed Ng to attend the International Shogi Forum in Japan in 2014.

“Overall, it was a great experience,” he said. “You get to play with players from all over the world, and you get to meet and even play with some of the professional shogi players.”

Not that it was all perfect.

“Personally, I felt that the event was kind of rushed a bit,” said Ng. “Getting to know everyone was also quite difficult, since I had very little time to socialize, and I am very poor at it. There were lots to do, but not quite enough time to explore or enjoy all of them, especially some of the minor events.

“Exploring everything meant you would go to bed late, and you would need to wake up early the next day for the tournament.

“A lot of minor events also took place at the same time during the tournament, so if you were fortunate enough to make it close to the top, you would miss out on those events.

“Playing the tournament itself was less nerve wracking than I had expected. Once you are focused, you will not notice those butterflies in your stomach. All in all, the ISF was quite hectic. Very fun, but a little lacking in free time.”

Of course in terms of Shogi Canada is not exactly a powerhouse internationally.

Ng said the level of player in this country is “completely different,” from Japan, the heart of the game’s following. “The level ranged from roughly 1-kyu to 4-dan. That is about novice to pro / amateur level. Compared to the games I managed to play in Toronto, games at the ISF were at least a level or two higher. We cannot really compare Canadian play with anything since we hardly have any players in the first place.”

That said Ng did add it was hard to get a good handle on numbers of players in Canada, although there are resources such as https://sites.google.com/site/canadianshogi/ or the Canadian Shogi Federation on Facebook.

“Honestly, I have no idea,” said Ng. “I do get the feeling that there are people who do know about shogi, but they do not seem to be excited about it.

“That, however, is reasonable, since Canadians are so spread out. There are already very few, if any, places in Canada for shogi.

“The lack of English shogi resources also compounds this problem. Online shogi dojos will help, but something needs to be done for shogi awareness.

“I also think most people end up choosing chess over shogi because of how chess is so widespread. There are chess clubs everywhere, chess books everywhere, and chess tournaments everywhere. One would have to try really hard to not be able to find any of these. With shogi, it’s the exact opposite.”

Still, Ng did well in terms of being Canadian, having the best ever result at the event by a Canuck.

“I am glad I got that far, and I hope I have made Canada proud along the way,” he offered. “My mindset for the tournament was: ‘Just play my best, and offer as much resistance as possible.’

“I am happy with the result that I got, although I must admit I made some questionable moves in my quarterfinal game. I guess I finally snapped to the pressure, and I also did not expect I would get that far.

“All the effort I had ever spent was worth it. I managed to participate and play the ISF tournament, and learn even more about shogi.”