Shogishack's Blog

Shogi-shack.net moving to shogishack.net

shogishack — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 03:52:35 +0000

What? what is going on? OK, let me explain. I have been using a service called microsoft office live web service. When this service started, the starter package was free. So I was able to quickly set up this site and start posting shogi information. There has been always a limitation to this site. For instance, I could not install active components such as flash or Java applet. I curcumbented this by embedding a page from my provider (comcast.net) provited web site, which was also free but had no scripting capability. So for about two years ago, I signed up for yet another site with all bells and whistle, and was experimenting with a cms called modx and slowly converting all pages to modx pages.

Now it turns out, MS office live have decided to stop supporting free service. So I figure this is the time I say goodbye to Microsoft and start a new site. New site is called Shogishack.net (no hyphen between shogi and shack) I am still debating if I should keep shogi-shack.net domain. If I do, then it will be pointing to the Shogishack.net. After April 2012, any bookmark you created inside shogi-shack.net will not work anymore. please update your booksmarks. Shogishack.net officially goes live with this post.

Getting Shobiboard in the States

shogishack — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 01:12:01 +0000

I was at Chicago last week and had visited Mitsuwa market. If you google the store name, you will find this is a franchise of Japanese Supermarket throughout the United States. (They used to be called as Yaohan-USA.) Inside Mitsuwa complex, there is a Japanese book store called Sanseido. When I was browsing for Shogi books (they had a handful of shogi books) I noticed they also sells sets of Shogi pieces and Shogi board. The Shogi set they sell is nothing fancy, but perfect for everyday casual playing. These are very typical set that you find in Japanese household. Set of pieces were $25 and the board was selling for $20. So if you live near one of those Mitsuwa market, (Cost Mesa CA., Edgewater, NJ.,San Diego, CA.,Arlington Hts., IL. or Torrance,CA) It maybe worthwhile to pay a visit to the store and look for Shogi pieces.

Site Slogan changed

shogishack — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:44:45 +0000

well, since many japanese players started to play at PlayOK.com, the rating of 1500 at playOK is no longer an easy target for novice players. If you can get to 1300 at Playok, it means you are already quite good at Shogi play. Also the PlayOK site is not as friendly as it used to be. Many players started to take advantage of no ID verification policy of the site and showing inappropriate behavior. In the meantime, we do have more choice on online shogi play for non-Japanese players. 81Dojo.com sports very nice playing environment and I prefer the site to PlayOK. So I have dropped the reference to the PlayOK site in my site title and made it more universal. In any event, enjoy playing!

Update on Study Shogi

shogishack — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 03:10:12 +0000

Another board describing Fourth ranging rook vs. Right fourth ranging rook (or migi-shiken) added in the study room

Play at 81dojo. You will like it!

shogishack — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 02:45:29 +0000

When I play Shogi online, I usually play at PlayOK. This site is based on the experience I gained at PlayOK (At the time, the site used to be called Kurnick) Recently I was introduced to another site, 81Dojo. The site is a spinoff of the 81SquareUniverse, one of the busiest English based Shogi site. 81Dojo is architected by Hidetch, the Youtube shogi video fame, so this could not be bad but I was pleasantly surprised at few of the features this site provides. What I like about the site board’s UI. (in no particular order) Rich graphic representation of shogi board and pieces Pieces on hand is graphically displayed. This is much closer to real board experience, compared to the way PlayOK shows those pieces (symbol with numbers in a table). You can play komaochi, or handycap game in non-rated games. The best feature is the ability to be able to replay and evaluate your moves and then play “what if I/you made this move” movements. Observers can also suggests other moves graphically. I believe this is a very good way to improve your shogi skill set. A Big shortcoming of the 81dojo currently is participation. They need more people playing on this site so the player can find a partner with similar skill level. Once the site gets its popularity though, This site could be easily the best online shogi experience.

39? 4649? What are they?

shogishack — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 03:30:30 +0000

In recent weeks, we have seen a surge of new Shogi players in PlayOK. As it turned out, Yahoo.co.jp has ceased its service of Shogi game site. So there are many Japanese players now playing at PlayOK. That is a good thing. However, I have seen some of those players uses the abbrebiation such as "39" and "4649" I am sure that non-japanese speakers can not understand. So here, I am going to decypher those two numbers for you.

39 is a short for ‘Thank you’. You see, 3 is pronounced as "Sun" and 9 is pronounced as "kyuu" Since Japanese do not have ‘th’ sound in their language, ‘Thank you’ is open pronounced as "sunk-yuu"

4649 is a short for "yoroshiku" This word has many meaning but in this case, it simply means "nice to meet you" or "treat me good"
So some people start his game with "4649" and end with "39"

Oh, by the way, some Japanese players were also asking what "gg" means.
Start your chat and you will learn other cultures, indeed.

Ham-Shogi change’s its home

shogishack — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 03:19:52 +0000

Ham-Shogi has it’s new url. Link has been updated accordingly.
Thanks Takodori-san for letting me know!

Tsume Shogi Paradise adds English!

shogishack — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:35:56 +0000

The admin of the Tsume Shogi paradise was working on adding English form to his site. Now the "phase 1" is complete. There is an English form to submit their monthly Quiz, as well as "about this site " page which explains about their site. Be sure to check it out at the link below and try out their Tsume-shogi problems!

http://www005.upp.so-net.ne.jp/tsumepara/index.htm

How Strong are you?

shogishack — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 05:21:19 +0000

Ever wonder how strong you became of Shogi play?
If you believe you might be already at a strength of Dan player,　There
is a way to find out.

I have added a couple of pages to explain how to take assessment test for shogi online.

Detail is here

Nice Shogi Database

shogishack — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:52:51 +0000

One of the readers of this site told me of the nice shogi database site. This is in French shogi fedration site.

http://www.shogi.fr/web/shogi/shogi_fr.nsf/vwTemplate1/97DDCCD6F60EF29BC125769700660CE4

You can also get to English version of the same database

http://shogimaze.free.fr

Shogi record is drawn from Japanese shogi database but this is still an amazing accomplishment. You can search and follow all kinds of book openings by simply clicking on color coded shogi board for established moves. Perfect for studying book openings and Professional players nuance.

I will be adding this to the list of my internet links.

Thanks Gilles for your tip!