I have been looking in recent forums in the homepage. I think this is a question to match it. Which do you think is harder to play Chess or Shogi. Shogi is Japanese chess for those who don't know. If you automatically say shogi because i don't know Japanese it doesn't mean anything because there is western symbolic pieces.

For a fetus, both would be equally difficult.

Is Shogi a good time?   Maybe I'll check it out and get back to you a year from now when this thread is archived.

Since I learned chess first and been playing for years a game like it but different proved difficult for me. i sometimes make simple mistakes in chess think of shogi pawns and vice versa. i once in chess played my friend and move my rook in danger of a chess pawn thinking it wasn't in danger because of shogi pawns. learning to play without confusion is harder than learning the games.

One thing I thought was interesting about shogi in comparison to chess is that the opening of shogi consists of creating a "fortress", and rather than different opening lines, there are different types of fortresses. I'd love to learn shogi, but really don't have the time being busy with school and chess.

I like playing Shogi, I have one board that I bought in Japan.

My level is even worse than my poor level at chess. lol

The point with Shogi is that most players are in Japan and it's difficult to find serious players if you don't go to japan.

Actually there are lots of variants of shogi.

For those interested, there is (at least) a good computer programs for shogi and all its variants.

http://trout.customer.netspace.net.au/

For those who want to play humans, there is also a Shogi dojo on the internet:

http://internet2.shogidojo.net/dojo/edojo.htm

Have fun!

Alex

I've been playing shogi quite a bit recently, although I don't think I've got the hang of the openings. It's quite an interesting contrast to chess because a number of the pieces are better at moving forwards than backwards (or like pawns, don't move backwards at all) and there are no pawn chains (because pawns don't defend each other) so the game has a much different structure. The ability to reenter captured pieces is a whole lot of fun and is one of the main attractions of the game in my view.

the hardest one i can think of is taikyoku shogi. it's on a 36x36 board with a bunch of pieces.

I say Xianggi Chinese chess is the hardest.

rich wrote:

I say Xianggi Chinese chess is the hardest.

 I don't agree, drop rule in Shogi makes for many more combinations.

I think IM Larry Kaufman's article posted to Shogi-l in 1999 is still interesting to read when you think of this topic. He compares chess with not only shogi but also Chinese chess, Korean chess, Chu Shogi, and so forth. Here it is;

• http://www.shogi.net/shogi-l/Archive/1999/Nfeb07-06.txt
  

Xiangqi seems to be better than shogi.

I've never played shogi before but I have seen a little glimps os what it looks like, do you think it's more fun than chess?

it solely depends on what aspects. long range chess, promtions shogi, long term either, shogi u can use captured pieces. it depends. i like chess since i learnt it first.

For me, Shogi is the hardest to play because I don't know how.

i think shogi is fun though. it's hard because the pieces may never end. the captured pieces can be used as your own.

Due to the rules of re-using captured pieces, the complexity is increasing in the endgame of shogi. I mean the number of possible moves one can make are bigger in the endgame than in the middlegame in shogi. So reversal often occurs in the endgame. I think shogi is often like a baseball game with reversal in the 8th or 9th inning.

i play games because i'm competitive and i like to have fun at the same time. as long as i know how to play and i have fun i'll probaly play again.

Shogi is very fun and interesting. You can 'parachute' pieces that you have captured back onto the board and use them as your own.