Shogi

Does anybody play this?

I've never been much of a fan - I always found it difficult to get the characters right - but little golem added mini shogi (5x5 board!) last week and IT IS SO GOOD. It's so aggressive! And tactical! And crazy! It's like my perfect game.

Play shogi with me! Also, talk about shogi!

I have no idea how to play shogi. Is it difficult to learn?

Well - the main difficulty is that the pieces have japanese characters on them, which I find hard to tell apart. But the LG version doesn't have that - that's why it's been such a revelation to me!

Shogi is pretty chesslike, but it has two really cool features:

1. everything can promote, not just pawns! Get your bishop to the back row, and it becomes... a superbishop!
2. everything you capture, you can put back on the board, on your own side! wherever you want!

are you Casuistry?

That is an unexpected question! No :(

OK, give me a bit to learn this and I will play with you some day.

i thought this was gonna be a thread about multiple shoggoths

http://jrients.tripod.com/otus/otusddg_files/image023.jpg

I've tried it. There's something about the calculations required (if I move here, he'll move here etc) that makes me feel mentally uncomfortable and uptight, like being required to do a maths for an hour against my will.

Shogi is pretty chesslike

Shogi is chess. It was one of the first variants to develop after chess emerged from India.

xpost does that not happen with chess also? or in fact most/any games that involve a shared gamespace? (pool?)

i like to learn this game at some point.

i learned from naruto shippuuden that there is an exciting move called the 'climbing silver' which is an ultra aggressive move that involve sacrificing an important piece in order to get a win. sounded fun!

but that's about as much as i know about this game. unless it's similar to chinese chess but it doesn't seem to be at all.

Ok! So - if you want to be ON THIS:

1) Create a (free) account at littlegolem.net.
2) Send me a mini-shogi invitation (I'm 'gpallis' there)
3) Post your username on this thread, so we can all challenge each other.

It's turn based, not real time, so you totally can & should play while still at work.

but that's about as much as i know about this game. unless it's similar to chinese chess but it doesn't seem to be at all.

Shogi developed from Chinese chess.

yes but heavy metal developed from blues!

Yeah - it's got a few rules in common with Chinese Chess (king can't leave the palace etc) but the ridiculous dropping-pieces stuff is new.

KEN LETS PLAY

invited you i'm kenjuggle

here's a summary of the rules: http://www.ricoh.co.jp/SHOGI/rules/erules.html

i'm ready to lose

Well, it's your move then!

kenuflake

KENCHAMPION more like

is there an option on that site to change the pieces to the characters? i can read those and it'd feel more authentic that way!

Ken beat me in his FIRST GAME :(

Anyone else fancy joining this thing?

I can't see one Ken but they have alternate board for other games under 'edit user properties', so it might be worth e-mailing richard (the site creator) - he'd probably like the idea.

aha

http://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/forum/topic2.jsp?forum=10&topic=134

there is somebody called Casuistry on the mini-shogi waiting room - i wonder if that's Casuistry ??

It is!

He beats me too :(

i remember him regularly killing me at chess.

getting quite good at this mini shogi now... wonder if it's time to move to the BIG BOARD

i'm shit now. i think the big board ruined my small board game

greg - what is this 'SON' thing that's on the leaderboard? and how can one obtain SON? SON O)))) ????

chris casuistry is destroying me.

son bergson is a tournament ranking system to break ties, basically ties are broken by whoever has beaten the better opponents.

i see! sorry i may have handed thomas (tuomas????) victory in the group now :\

oh actually no takodori..

sonned by a japanese kid over a shogi beef

Yeah, takodori is mashing everyone, I think he's played before or something.

that's just cheating really

love that there's a natural order to that tournament based on ability... like a food chain

ok beat 2 players! so at least i'll have some SON O)))

when there's nowhere else to run, is there room for one more SON?

FINALLY FIGURED OUT WHAT THAT LINE MEANT

it's annoying on that site, people seem to be either way too shit hot to play against, or complete retards. can't seem to find a happy medium

fuck yes
http://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/message/message.jsp?msgid=1934269