Two player strategy game a winner

Last week started the first of two parts on the great game of Shogi through the eyes of one of Canada’s best players Colin Ng.

Readers will recall 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.

Ng won the Canadian Shogi Championship in 2014, and has competed internationally representing Canada.

So how did Ng come to love shoji?

“I discovered Shogi by accident via an arcade game called “Syougi no Tatsujin”. When I saw the initial position of the pieces, I thought that it looked like chess, and decided to check it out,” he recalled. “At the time, I had lost most of my interest in chess, and I was frequently playing a chess variant called crazyhouse chess, which I loved, and is very similar to Shogi (literally chess with a drop rule).”

The drop rule, returning captured pieces to the board under your control, is a key element of shoji for Ng.

“Shogi’s drop rule and irregular piece movement is the reason why I love the game so much,” he said.

“In chess, all non-pawn pieces can move back to where it came from on the next turn.

“However, Shogi pieces are designed to attack forward and have trouble retreating. Some Shogi pieces cannot even retreat at all. When combined with the drop rule, this creates many tactics and possibilities.

“Another effect of the drop rule is that Shogi pieces are never out of play.

“The board is always very busy and chaotic, especially during the endgame when both sides race to mate the opposing kings.

“Chess endgames, on the other hand, usually are about securing the amount of extra material required to mate the opposing king (i.e. pawn promotion), instead of actually trying to trap and deliver checkmate.”

Ng said to be good at Shogi, the first step is simply loving the game.

“A strong interest for Shogi, I think, would be needed for someone to improve their game,” he said. “Sure, the game requires a lot of brainpower and some unique judgment, but honing these skills is just a matter of practice, even for those who may think their brainpower may not be up for the task. “The more practice one gets, the better,” said Ng. “When I had the most time, I spent about two to three hours in one sitting playing Shogi. I would do this a couple times a week, so it roughly averages out to an hour or two per day.

“In my case, I did have a chess background, so learning the basics was a breeze, and I improved quickly; my experience probably is not a good reference though.”

“When I first started to play Shogi, I had no access to books,” said Ng. “Shogi books printed in English are quite rare. Even now, I have less than 10 Shogi books, and of those that are printed in English, I purchased them when I was at the ISF 2014.

“Raising interest in Shogi means telling the world: ‘Hey! This game is called Shogi. It’s fun. Give it a try!’ Online Shogi dojos don’t exactly do this.

They are only available for people who know where to look, or those who seek it.”