;)

;)

onigoroshi: I think it is best to stick to the formal handicap's of which huge amounts of litterature already exist and not offer rare or new ones :)

Takodori: Thanks, I didn't know that :)


Fencer: Will the handicap shogi games affect our normal shogi BKR & win/loss statistics? or will it be shown in a seperate rating section?

The white King (Osho) is the one with the extra dash.

source: http://shawnbrown.com/basement/shogi/shogi_rules_1.html

Conclusion:

The white king with the extra dash, denoting wealth, is the reigning king.

The black king is the challenging king, and thus has the first move, attacking the reigning king's kingdom, because he needs the money. ;)

I also happened to notice that with your current kanji shogi characters both King's are denoted as the "gyokushō" (jade general).

The "ōshō" (royal general) King looks the same but without the small dash next to the 'E',
which denotes the gyokushō king's wealth.

This is a common 'error' and might trouble programming? But correcting this issue would at least impress shogi player's with brainking's intrinsic attention to detail. ;)

/Nico

I think this has been somewhat confused.

In both Go and Shogi black ="Sente" has the first move and the first notation in the protocol etc. (white ="Gote")

Sente actually means "the first move".

The real japanese word for black is "Kuroi".

In Go, black was considered to have the advantage (moving first) so the komi rule was introduced (reducing 2 1/2 points from black's score after the game was finished) this changed certain opening strategies, which is why "kosumi" is only found in old go game that predate the rule.

In Shogi, black is also considered to have a (very small) advantage, however in certain openings and handicap games black (the first mover) is at a disadvantage, like the aigakari static-rook opening where black can fall for the classic bishop trap.

Handicap-Shogi is also quite popular at the shogidojo24.

By the way according to the Chess Grandmaster "Adorjan" from Hungary, black has the advantage, he has released two books explaining why Black is better than White (in Chess). He says we think white is better because of the psychological implications of the word "White" (=positve, pure, clean, etc.) etc.

Even Fischer has been quoted as saying that black is better, also world-champion Karpov never played 1.e4 ever again after losing his title to Kasparov in their 1.e4-c5 games =)

Some shogi master's think the kakugawari opening will die because black gives away a tempo to white, so one day white will find a winning strategy and kill the opening, but I don't believe that. =)

/Nico

I'm compiling a list of all the online shogi sites in realtime, so far I only know of:

-shogidojo
-kurnik
-yahoo! japan
-yahoo! america
-javashogi

Anyone feel like contributing more sites to my list?

much appreciated Eriisa.

wow thanks Eriisa, it seems like I could only sign up for 1 tournamnet so I chose the Face-Off.

Hi, I'm new here, are there any shogi tournaments? I looked in the "waiting tournaments" menu but couldn't find any :(

Thanks

Nico