Just an informal survey, but which do you prefer to play? I'm rather partial to ranging rook. I played shogi in a local club (years ago before I had kids and had time to commute to the club) and had a match against a strong player. Yet, I played ranging rook almost beat him. Why? Because he rarely had an opponent who did so and wasn't familiar with the Ishida shape I employed. I tried that opening on tookArook in a game we're playing currently, but I messed up and he punished me for my mistakes. Ouch, but what a great way to get back into shogi! Anyway, I feel that static rook vs. static rook is tedious and boring...especially when each player goes for an anaguma castle. Ugh!

well I am still new to shogi and still do not know all the names and castles and tactics....I just play based on my principles and tactics of western chess and I have learned about drops ...shogi is fun and I hope to get stronger soon and maybe learn all these names and castles and rook tactics and openings :)

The best english book on shogi is "The Art of Shogi" by Tony Hosking. It is packed with info about castles, openings, tactics, and all kinds of good stuff. While I have a couple others, Hosking's book covers all the bases.

http://www.thetradingcentre.co.uk/products.asp?recnumber=506

One can play shogi live at this site:
http://www.shogidojo.com/eng/engindex.htm

static rook vs static rook can have any number of potentially exiciting developements (imo). while i don't prefer the double fortress scenerios with all the intracacies involved, this is NOT the only possible course of the game. dbl wing is a s.r. vs s.r. , so is the sidepawn. and before the bishops are exchanged in Bxchg openings, you may have a type of "static rook".

I usually prefer static rook , though I'm trying ranging more often now.

I think with ranging rook , you need to be able to hold off and let you opponenent do early attacking. (Not easy !) :)

I started out doing a ranging rook and transitioning into a mino castle but nowadays i find myself employing static rook with anaguma.

I am a Static Rook player.