Japanese Chess – Shogi – 将棋
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Category: Shogi History

  • Shogi Links

    NOTE: This post is a snapshot of resources as they were in 2014. I expect many of the links no longer work. However, I chose to keep even the dead links for historical purposes.

    Play Shogi Online

    For a while it was hard to find sites to play shogi. There’s been an upswing in the number of sites for playing shogi and shogi variants in the last few years. Here is a list of some of the more popular shogi and shogi variant sites.

    PlayOK – Shogi
    Human vs Human play. The graphics aren’t great, but there’s usually a good crowd to play games against.

    81 Dojo
    Human vs Human play. Includes standard shogi, handicaps, and several variants. Also, game analysis tools are included. This is a very nice site for serious students of shogi. I highly recommend this site.

    Internet Shogi Dojo
    Many will argue this is the best shogi site on the web. Plan on learning some Japanese if you want to take full advantage of this site. (more…)

  • Shogi Arrives in America

    The first known game of shogi in America took place in June of 1860 at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Japan had recently ended its 250 years of isolation, and sent a mission to the USA to ratify the Treaty of Friendship.

    Japanese Delegation 1860
    The attire worn to the Athenaeum by the Japanese delegation likely looked similar to what is worn by these 1860 delegates. It is not known if any of these delegates where among those visiting the Athenaeum.

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  • Hidetchi’s Shogi Dictionary

    Any English speaker attempting serious study of shogi knows the biggest issue involved. It’s language. Most of the primary source material that shogi masters study is still only published in Japanese.

    Those of us that take up the study of Japanese in an effort to overcome the language barrier learn very quickly, shogi has a unique vocabulary. Shogi specific phrases don’t translate well with online translation engines, and Japanese-English dictionaries don’t have many of the shogi specific terms needed for reading Japanese shogi texts. Not only do we have to overcome the barrier of learning Japanese, but we also have to learn a specific niche of Japanese vocabulary that isn’t found in standard textbooks and dictionaries.

    Shogi Dictionary Cover
    Shogi Dictionary by Hidetchi

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  • Shogi, shogi, shogi !!!

    NOTE: This announcement was from a previous move, but interesting, so I kept the post.

    I’m moving most of my Japanese Chess site over here while I’m migrating to a new server. I used to actually have a large shogi presence here on Gene Davis Software, but let it lapse. I’m working to bring back all the shogi fun to this site.

    I’ve been seeing a lot more references to shogi in pop culture and books about chess these last few years. Also, lots of the latest generation reaching adulthood in the United States are familiar with Shogi, even if they don’t know the rules.

    Recently, I found a whole section on shogi in pop culture on Wikipedia, which I was surprised was actually incomplete. (more…)

  • In remembrance of George Hodges (1934-2010)

    George Hodges first learned shogi from Trevor Leggett’s book, Shogi: Japan’s Game of Strategy (1966). He felt Westerners would love shogi, so arranged the creation of westernized shogi sets, and imported traditional shogi sets from Japan. With the help of Glyndon Townhill, he devised the common English shogi game notation still used globally.

    In 1975 George Hodges founded The Shogi Association (TSA), and in January of 1976, he presented the world Shogi, a magazine. In Hodges’ own words, it was “the first magazine printed in English and devoted entirely to the great chess game of Japan.” He put together 70 professional quality issues, filled with news and translated professional articles from Japan, though the subscriber base never rose much above 150.

    Not only did George run the magazine, but he also financed tournaments and The Shogi Association. He lent a great deal of money without receiving anything but a small financial return. Hodges’ efforts can only be described as philanthropic.

    George wrote in issue 70 at the end of 1987, “I think I have shown the way in which shogi should be propagated. It is now up to others to take up this mammoth task if they have the will so to do.”

    I dedicate this set of shogi articles to George Hodges. He was a driving force behind shogi popularization in the English speaking world for an entire generation. George’s efforts with The Shogi Association and Shogi magazine brought shogi news, strategy, history, and variants to those not privileged enough to understand Japanese in a pre-internet world. In the few correspondences that we had, I found him friendly, helpful, and dedicated to spreading knowledge about this beautiful game.

    Thank you George Hodges (1934-2010).