How do I disable this distracting feature?

1) the claim that stalemate would be a draw in shogi is false and should be removed from the rules.
2) rules about sennichite need to be added.
3) rules about jishogi need to be added, including how to address this for handicap games.

There might be problems having Popii shogi here as it was originally designed as an advertising gimmick for a life insurance company. In any case it's a very limited game. On the other hand, we have permission to use Kyoto shogi, which is an excellent game.

That promotion rule isn't unique, it occurs in the larger historical shogi variants.

Thanks.

Does anyone know where I can find the Ryu-O final game online?

2-1 to Habu.

Yury: I've been playing shogi for more than 25 years and I've never played either a sennichite or a jishogi, draws aren't very important in shogi.

Yury: Like I said, Japanese dont need rules for every situation, they dont like rules if possible. Anyway, maybe Takodori can answer better than I can.

Thanks.

And you're the moderator?

Yuri: did you read my reply?

I guess you mean jishogi rules for official amateur tournaments? I dont know the details, Takodori should be able to help. Generally Japanese dont feel the need to have everything covered by rules, so some situations, for example jishogi in handicap games, can vary considerably.

Sennichite is repetition of move and position 3 or 4 times, I dont remember how many by present rules. Jishogi involves both sides getting their king into the opponent's area ie their own promotion zone. If both kings are safe from attacks and no loose capturable pieces remain outside the promotion zones, the pieces are counted up, 1 point each, 5 points for rook or bishop, 0 points for kings, if both sides have at least 24 (maybe 25?) points it's a draw.

Among professionals sennichite occurs about once in 50 games and jishogi about once in 200 games.

I believe there's a distinction with sennichite being considered a non-game and only jishogi considered a genuine draw. Of course there should be no agreed draws.

At normal amateur level, if a player makes, for example, a nifu (dropping a pawn on a file with a pawn already on it) if the opponent wants to claim the game they need to do so immediately, once the position of nifu on the board has changed there is no violation, this is different from chess. In shogi the king is a piece that like any other can be captured, it's not "illegal" to put it where it's in check, however it can seem that way as if a player points out that it's check they are effectively announcing that they will capture the king, so the opponent will resign and in professional games the score-keepers will stop the game.

Niccar: Correct, an illegal move in shogi loses whereas an illegal move in chess is impossible. The way in which shogi is conducted in Japan, at amateur tournament level the player would normally capture the king.

Okay, thanks for the correction.

There's a couple of score keepers, recording the moves and keeping track of the time with a stop-watch. Typical time limits in qualifying rounds are 5 or 6 hours each for the game, in title matches 9 or 10 hours with the play over two days. If a player uses less than a minute it's counted as "no time" and nothing is deducted from their allotment, so when a player has used all his time he carrys on playing within a minute per move.

A complete beginner is amateur 15th kyuu, a full strength amateur is 4th dan. Amateur 4th dan is weaker than the lowest (beginner) pro rank, which is 6th kyuu.

Normal amateur ranks are up to 4th dan. To get 5th dan I think a player has to qualify for a major amateur national championship (Meijin, Ryuo, Osho) by winning their relevent prefectural tournament. 6th dan requires winning the Ama Meijin three times and there are some homourary 7th dans. Titles can be awarded for other reasons too, for example Tamiya Katsuya, the inventor of Kyouto Shogi has a 4th dan for tsumeshogi composition. Students enter the Shoureikai when they're around 10-12 years old, at that age they are usually already amateur 5th dan, apart from their previous results they have a pretty stiff written exam before being admitted.

(Kyuu are negative grades, a player needs to be promoted 6th to 5th to 4th etc, after 1st kyuu comes 1st dan, then the player needs to be promoted 1st to 2nd etc. Professionals have to reach 4th dan by the age of 25 or they're kicked out of the shoureikai -a continuous tournament for apprentice pros.)

There's no comparison. Chess has a far narrower ability range than shogi. The strongest players at BrainKing are around 4th dan amateurs. That's below 6th kyuu professional. Professionals need to score around 80% in a continuous tournament to be promoted from 6th kyuu to 4th dan. Likes of Habu could be expected to win a reasonable proportion of games against BrainKing's strongest players giving a two piece handicap.

Here's a link for the Tony Hosking book I mentioned below (sorry for misspelling his name): http://homepage.virgin.net/skp.stratford/

The Leggett book has some mistakes according to George Hodges. Tony Hoskins' book is the best in english.

DragonKing: go to this site http://gamelab.yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp/SHOGI/kifumain.html and look at game 2 of the 50th Osho match. Tanigawa (at the top) plays a mino. On the other hand, I dont know what "mino pawn" is meant to mean.

You've got the wrong 'please'. It's more like 'please treat me well', 'please help me out', that kind of thing.

Onegaishimasu means 'please', it's formed from the verb negau- to wish. The full expression used at the start of a game is yoroshiku onegaishimasu, yoroshiku means something like 'well', when two players of widely disparate strength meet only the weeker says "yoroshiku onegaishimasu". Yoroshiku can be written with the numbers 4649 so this is often seen on the internet.

In dice chess I've never heard of a player getting extra throws when they're in check, normally they hope to get a thow that'll remove the check before the opponent gets the throw to capture the king, I've played games in which the king has been in check from three pieces at once and still escaped.

http://www.zexia.co.uk/shogi/assoc.html

George Hodges used to sell all the classical variants up to tai. Plastic pieces with roll-up vinyl boards. If that appeals, I imagine he still has some. He also produces sets of Kyoto, poppi, renge, etc, to order.

Shogi of the seven kingdoms: http://www.vector.co.jp/games/soft/dl/win95/game/se165239.html

There's a four player shogi variant highly recommended by it's enthusiasts. I thought it was played in teams of two but maybe not. Anyway, here's another stunningly waek computer opponent(s) to give you a feel for it: http://www.vector.co.jp/games/soft/dl/win95/game/se163968.html

If you're tinkering with things it would be nice to have the captured pieces in a more familiar, consistent and readable arrangement.

Here's one for Kyoto shogi http://www.vector.co.jp/games/soft/dl/win95/game/se105554.html the computer plays pretty abyssmally.

There's a blue arrow pointing at "FM", further to the right of that is a little box which you click to download. After a while, when you make a move a box comes up saying you haven't paid, just click "ok" and it'll carry on. The program seems to have some extra pieces generated from who knows where.

For an idea of how kingyonofun shogi works there's a free download at http://www.vector.co.jp/games/soft/dl/win95/game/se170735.html

Okay, I clicked your link. There is a bigger variant taikyoku shogi on a 36x36 board. I dont know if anyone plays these. Chuu shogi on a 12x12 board is quite popular in Europe.

By tai shogi do you mean on a 25x25 board?

Kyoto shogi is an excellent game, a weirder variant is renge shogi, a kind of 7x7 version of Kyoto shogi but all the captured pieces are available to both players except that a player can only checkmate with a drop if using a piece captured by him/herself. Tori shogi is an interesting 7x7 variant from the 18th century but requires different pieces. Using the normal board and pieces, annan shogi in which pieces take on the movements of any piece on the adjoining square behind them and kingyounofun shogi in which pieces drag adjoining pieces behind them, are both fun and interesting.
Fencer: if you want detailed rules for any of these please message me.