I have just made a new page under the Shogi tab on this website and added two shogi training sets to the listings. Shogi training sets are popular with children here in Japan, and would also suit non-Japanese beginners who want to learn shogi as quickly as possible and master the moves as they play.
Part of the process of learning how to play shogi involves remembering the kanji characters for each piece. That’s because shogi pieces have the piece-name on their face to distinguish them from each other. If you want to play shogi well you have to learn to read the kanji at a glance and know immediately which piece is which.
That can be a difficult job for foreign players who have not studied kanji, but it can be almost as difficult for Japanese children who may only know hiragana and a few basic kanji when they first begin to play shogi.
Kumon Shogi Training Pieces
Some years ago, the Japanese private education company, Kumon, brought out a wooden “Study Shogi” set to help Japanese children learn shogi.
The shogi pieces in the Kumon set have little grids on them representing the squares immediately surrounding the shogi piece, with red arrows to show where the piece can move. If the arrow finishes inside the square, then piece can only move as far as that square. If the arrow breaks through the outer boundary of the square, then the shogi piece in question can move several squares in that direction, like the rook, bishop or queen in chess.
The name of the piece is also given in hiragana underneath the traditional kanji character.
The Kumon set is made to their typically high production standards, and everything is made of wood.
Another nice feature of the set is that the wooden box that stores the pieces, and the wooden lid, double as trays for the shogi pieces during play. Because captured pieces can be reintroduced to the game as your own pieces, it is important to keep all the pieces you capture on display so that both your opponent and you can see what has been captured.
The "Master Shogi" Training Set
More recently, another shogi training set, called “Master Shogi” was released by Japanese game company, Beverly Enterprises Inc. It is a slickly packaged set designed more like a board game, with a cardboard board overlaid with a plastic grid into which the plastic pieces sit very snugly. The squares where the pieces go at the set up stage are marked with the kanji character of the respective pieces.
As you get better at reading the pieces and understanding how they move, you can replace the stickers that cover the plastic pieces with new ones with standard shogi kanji designs on them and no movement styles.
The Master Shogi set includes a couple of illustrated Japanese instruction pamphlets. One of the pamphlets is a in “manga” format, with the instructions explained in popular comic strip style.
If you have some knowledge of Japanese and can read hiragana you will be able to read the Japanese version of the rules that come with the set. If you can’t read Japanese, the diagrams show you clearly how the pieces move.
Both shogi training sets offer the learner a good way to get to know how the pieces move. The Kumon set is better quality, being made of wood, but the Master set is cheaper and has some nice features that youngsters will enjoy such as the option to “upgrade” pieces with new stickers as they master their movements.
Both shogi training sets are now available on this website via this link or under the Shogi tab in the horizontal menu.
David Hurley
The first English langauge shogi book of “Tsume“, or shogi puzzles, was published earlier this year. Tsume Puzzles for Japanese Chess
Tsume are shogi mating problems. The key feature of a tsume puzzle, unlike a western chess problem, is that you have to check the opponent’s king in every move you make to complete the puzzle.
Here in Japan, some tsume puzzle books date back several centuries and tsume puzzles are generally recognized as a good way to improve your skill in playing shogi. Of course, you don’t actually have to play shogi in order to enjoy the puzzles.
T. Gene Davis’ shogi book, Tsume Puzzles for Japanese Chess
There is also a very useful “quick reference” section which gives you the kanji notation for shogi pieces. One interesting point about tsume puzzles is that they show your opponent’s pieces by printing the kanji upside down, and the quick reference guide shows you the kanji both ways up, which is very helpful for beginners.
| T. Gene Davis runs a Daily Tsume Puzzle at Japanesechess.net . He also provides shogi information at Japanesechess.org. You can download shogi board PDFs and a shogi applet from this site. See also Genedavissoftware.com, a website where T. Gene Davis writes and maintains the Shogi: Samurai Chess computer program. |
David Hurley
Last week I came across a supply of budget priced soroban or “Japanese abacus”. They are well designed and robustly constructed, so I decided to list them as “Basic Sorban” on the soroban sales page of this website.
Actually, their design resembles that of high quality modern soroban such as the Tomoe soroban – also available on this website.
A typical modern soroban is housed in a plastic “tray”. The tray serves to strengthen the frame, protect the rods and make the soroban easy to use whether you are holding it in your hand or working with it flat on the table.
All the parts of the basic soroban, the tray, the rods and the beads, are made of plastic. It is a bit “chunkier” than the Tomoe model, and not quite as smooth, but it is excellent value for the price, whether you opt for the basic 11 rod soroban or the basic 13 rod version.
The Basic Soroban
Please note that whereas the Tomoe soroban will be shipped by Express Mail Service, the basic version is shipped by air mail – unless you request, and pay for, a shipping upgrade.
Here is the link to the soroban page: http://www.japanese-games-shop.com/other-goods/soroban/
David Hurley
