from all other regional variants of chess, is that pieces captured from the opponent are retained and may be ‘dropped’ back onto the board as one’s own. This single feature affects the nature of the game in a number of ways in comparison with Western chess: play tends to be more dynamic, with material advantage being less important than the momentum of an effective attack; very few games end in draws (less than 1% for games between professionals); and players of significantly different strength can play each other on equal terms through a carefully calibrated ‘handicapping’ system in which the stronger player removes certain pieces from the starting line-up. Arguing about whether chess or shogi is the ‘better’ game seems pointless. But it is certainly true that a large proportion of chess players who take the time to learn shogi end up becoming fascinated with the Japanese version of the game.
Despite its undeniable strengths as a strategic game, the spread of shogi outside Japan has been slow. There are, I think, three main barriers. Firstly, the vast majority of the literature on shogi – including openings manuals, collections of games by professional players, and checkmating problems – is written in Japanese only. Secondly, the Chinese calligraphy that appears on each shogi piece, and which distinguishes one kind of piece from another, can be initially off-putting to those learning the game. Thirdly, outside Japan it is difficult to get hold of shogi sets and boards on which to play the game.
What makes Leggett’s book pioneering was not just the early date of its initial publication, but that the author takes steps to address all three of the above issues. For one thing, the book is itself (of course) written in English! In addition, Leggett minimizes the confusion caused by the appearance of the pieces by printing both the calligraphy and an identifying letter from the roman alphabet (for example, “G’ for ‘Gold General’) on each piece in every diagram in the book. Finally, each book includes a paper shogi board and punch-out cardboard pieces.
Harder to pin down, perhaps, but no less important, is the way in which the book is infused with Leggett’s own familiarity with Japanese language and culture. Trevor Leggett was an influential teacher and practitioner of judo, and he also had a deep knowledge of Zen. In an article written in 2000 for the Bulletin of the Kano Society, Leggett writes of achieving a state of mind that involves
“giving up all thoughts of win-or-loss…. If the mind can be emptied of such thoughts, a clear and unexpected result comes about.… The great shogi grand-master, Yasuharu Oyama, told me that he did this mokoso at the beginning of a match. He used to sit perfectly still, sometimes for several minutes, before making his first move.”
Western practitioners of shogi tend to have encountered the game either through a prior interest in chess or through a prior interest in Japanese culture. Leggett definitely falls into the second camp, although this did not prevent him from becoming a strong shogi player. (Just how strong is unclear: he is reported to have received a fifth dan ranking from Oyama, which is equal to the highest ranking ever achieved by a non-Japanese player. But the fifth dan ranking is purely honorific, and as such is not necessarily a reflection of playing strength.)
In his postscript to the first edition of Shogi: Japan’s Game of Strategy , Oyama wrote
“Interest in the game is now increasing in countries other than Japan, and I am certain that, like judo, there will soon be shogi tournaments held on a world-wide scale.”
Despite the obstacles mentioned earlier, shogi has succeeding in spreading and putting down roots outside Japan over the past four decades, and countries such as the USA, Sweden, Holland, and France now have active shogi scenes, including national organizing bodies, local shogi clubs, and a calendar of regular tournaments and national championships. This progress is due in part to the efforts of Japan’s governing shogi association, the Nihon Shogi Renmei , to promote shogi internationally. Initiatives have included organizing four triennial ‘International Shogi Forums’ which bring top amateur players from over twenty different countries to Japan to compete in both team and individual tournaments and to interact with shogi professionals.
A second major trend that has helped the spread of shogi has been the rise of internet-based play. It is now possible to log on to websites from anywhere in the world that enable you to play games in real time against shogi players of all different strengths. Although this cannot duplicate the full experience of face-to-face play, it enables shogi enthusiasts to keep in practice even if they live far from any active shogi community. For additional information on shogi, log onto www.shogidojo.com/eng/engindex.htm, http://groups.google.com/group/shogi-l, or www.shogi.net.
If you are coming to shogi for the first time through this book, then you can look forward to becoming acquainted with one of the world’s most fascinating, challenging, and culturally rich games of strategy. I wish you well in your future shogi pursuits.
Alan Baker, 3-dan
warthmore, Pennsylvania
U.S. Shogi Champion, 2008
INTRODUCTION
SHOGI is the Japanese representative of the family of chess games, off-shoots of the Indian chatur-anga which was traditionally invented by the legendary Emperor Ravana to exercise his generals in strategy and tactics. Chatur-anga literally means four limbs, and some authorities believe it referred to the four “arms” of the military in India: elephants, chariots (or boats), horses, and foot.
The name became corrupted to shatranj when it spread westward to Persia, which introduced it to Europe. The chess words “check” and “mate” are from the Persian shah (king) and mat (dead). The traditional elephant remains symbolized by the castle, or Rook, be cause originally the archers shot from a howdah on the back of the elephant. The horse has become a Knight, with the same peculiar move in the Far West and Far East. The foot soldiers are Pawns the world over, usually with the right to advance only in single steps. Their power to capture, however, varies in the different forms of chess.
The object of the game is everywhere the same—to capture the leader of the opposing forces, generally by depriving him of most of his men first. In the West this leader is the King, but to the Chinese a second Emperor on a level with the first was inconceivable, and the Chinese game is fought out between two “commanders-in-chief.”
In the course of time the Chinese made considerable alterations. Instead of the castling maneuver, the commander is provided with a special enclosure which he cannot leave; he has a special body guard of two retainers who remain in it with him. An early allusion to the game is supposed to date from about 570 A.D. The Chinese later incorporated an entirely new piece which is like a Rook except that it must jump over another piece and can then capture anything on the line beyond. This piece is called a Cannon, and a twelfth-century text mentions a mock war game in which each side has sixteen men: two Cannons, two Elephants, two Horses, two Chariots, two Knights, one Commander, and five Foot.
The game went to Korea and is believed to have entered Japan in different forms about the eighth century. However there is considerable confusion and few reliable records. When it first came to Japan the board was probably already nine squares each way, the pieces totaling 36. The elephants had become Gold and Silver generals.
It is thought that Shogi had already divided into two or even more forms by the time it reached Japan. The simplest was begun with the pieces on the back rank, or horizontal row of squares, with the Pawns on the second rank—rather like the Western chess opening position. The game must have been extremely tame because most of the pieces could only move one square at a time. The Japanese courtiers soon livened up the play by introducing (or rather re-introducing) the Rook,
