Monday, July 27, 2009

Ultimate Board Game Collection for PSP

Hi everyone, this weekend I got my hands on Ultimate Board Games Collection for PSP, which is available in English. The version I got was released in 2007, though I heard there was one released on the Playstation Network a few days ago. When I'm able to, I will get a copy of it.

Ultimate Board Games Collection (2007) contains the following games: Backgammon, Checkers, Chess, Chinese Checkers, Reversi, Anagrams, Dice, Kakuro, Sudoku, Word Cubes, Concentration, Enigma, Jigsaws, Mahjong (Solitaire), Tic Tac Toe, Naval Battle, Parcheesi, Quattro, Snakes and Ladders, Dominoes, Igo, Mancala, Gomoku (Five in a Row), and Shogi. Being a shogi blog, I will focus on the shogi aspect of this game.

Shogi players of Clubhouse Games for the Nintendo DS will be happy to hear that you do not need to unlock any games. You can access shogi as soon as you load the game; it is under the Strategy Games category, with Dominoes, Igo, Mancala, and Gomoku.





Although it's nothing important, I don't like that Sente and Gote were translated as Attacker and Defender. This makes it sound like Gote isn't supposed to be attacking. I would much prefer if they had kept with the standard international names, Black and White.



The AI in Ultimate Board Games Collection is very weak. It seems to be primarily aimed at people who have never played the game before. As a person who has been playing shogi for only 3 months, I don't consider the hardest difficulty in Ultimate Board Games Collection to be a challenge at all. However, I do feel it would be good for beginners. In addition to being good practice for beginners, you can only play multiplayer with friends with only one copy of the game.

I have three major complaints about this game: 1) The pieces move too slow. When a ranging piece is moved, it feels like it takes forever to finish its movement. 2) You have to play using the analog nub. I think using the D-pad for a board game collection would be much better. 3) The pieces in hand are confusing. Not only do they put your pieces in hand on the LEFT side of the board, they retain the other player's orientation until they are dropped on the board. Pictured above you can see my playing Double Wing Attack with the AI, and he has just dropped his pawn. On the left is the pawn that I captured with Rx2d, still pointing in the direction it was on the board when it belonged to White.



The best feature of this game for beginners is that you can freely change between Japanese and Western pieces just by pressing Square at any moment in the game. Not only does it give the international notation style letter for the piece, it also displays its movements on the piece. Being able to change back and forth, I think, is a very good way to help someone get used to the Japanese pieces.

On the whole I'd recommend this game if you've either never played before or aren't confident enough to play against real people or a more advanced game like Saikyou Shogi Bonanza. In addition to shogi it also has the other great games in it, so it's nice to have on, for example, a long trip when you have nothing else to do.

You can buy the game here.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Mechacon Shogi Panel

Hey everyone. Mechacon ended tonight, and my panel was last night. It went much better than I was expecting, and everyone who came very much enjoyed the game.

My panel was at 5:00 pm, but we started a little early since the Igo panel ended about 20 minutes early. I passed out quick reference sheets that contained the basic rules and piece movements for shogi, as well as a page of online resources to find into about the game. (You can find a copy of that reference sheet here.) I made 11 copies, but to my surprise, that wasn't enough - there were almost 20 people at the panel! It was a much larger number than I was anticipating.

After explaining a quick history of the game, I explained the rules, and after answering everyone's questions, we got to playing. There were 3 games going at the same time, and those that weren't playing studied the rules and watched (and commented) on the games being played. If I had had more than an hour I think everyone could have gotten a chance to play, but to those who didn't, I gave them my PlayOK username so that I can play them online.

Overall, everyone who showed up loved the game, and I'm excited about possibly hosting another shogi panel at next year's Mechacon.

Here are some pictures from the panel:



Two of the players contemplating their moves.


One of the players pictured above writes notes on his reference sheet.


Two more players contemplating their moves, with one more commenting on the game.


This is me explaining to my opponent the basics of opening strategy.


My opponent finishing his move P-3d.

In addition to this, yesterday I got my hands on Ultimate Board Game Collection for PSP, and I will make a post about its shogi game tomorrow.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Mechacon starts tomorrow

I just want to remind anyone who's planning to come to Mechacon that there will be a How to Play Shogi panel at 5 pm on Saturday night. I will be discussing a brief history of the game, and I will also of course be giving quick lessons on how to play. I will have 3 shogi sets (I got 2 new sets from Takodori-san the other day, big thanks to him) so that more than two people can play the game at the same time when the lessons are done.

In addition to the panel, I also plan on occasionally hanging out in the Tabletop Gaming rooms when there are no events going so that I can play with anyone who's interested.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Shogi tips for beginners

Hello everyone. As I've said before, I'm certainly not a great shogi player; I've only been playing since April. However, in these 3 months I've been playing, I've certainly come to grasp some important concepts and tactics when playing shogi, many of which can be found in shogi proverbs. These are tips that any shogi player who wants to get better should memorize and learn to recognize and immediately implement as soon as the situation arises in a game. Today I'll only be discussing two major points.

1. Avoid a sitting King.

This is the biggest piece of advice that I feel should be given to any beginning shogi player, and whether they follow this principle is a good way to tell whether someone has a basic grasp of shogi or not. Keeping your king on its initial square is extremely dangerous because it can be attacked from the front and both sides. If you're not careful, this can lead to an easy checkmate. Consider the following situation:

White has been playing very aggressively and attacking black from all sides, and white has felt like he hasn't had time to castle. Black has broken through white's Yagura Castle, but it seems as though white's hanging in there. The last move was B*7e, and, in order to add a defender to the 8th file, black has played G-8h. In response, black plays Bx5g+. White is now in brinkmate; there's nothing he can do to stop the incoming checkmate. No matter which pieces move where, dropping the gold general on 5h (or 4h if the king runs to 4i) will result in checkmate for black. Had black taken the time to strengthen his defense, he wouldn't have had to worry about this situation.


2. Against a King on the edge, push the edge Pawn.

This proverb is pretty self-explanatory. In the endgame, when you've forced your opponent onto the edge (files 1 or 2), you should attack the king by pushing the edge pawn, especially if that file's lance hasn't moved yet. Take the following example:

This example comes from a professional game between Yasuharu Oyama and Hiroshi Kamiya in 1987. (Go here to watch Hidetchi's commentary on this game.) Oyama is playing Black and Kamiya is playing White. Oyama has just forced Kamiya's king to move to 1c by playing G*2a. Following the proverb "For a King on the edge, push an edge Pawn," Oyama played P-1e. Oyama won the game by playing this move, giving a great professional example of this proverb.



Of course, this proverb doesn't have to only apply to the king. It can work with any piece that can't guard from the front. For example:


When black moved his king to 6h while developing his boat castle, white moved B-1c to make a quick check and try to secure the 2d square at the same time. This is an amateur move, but it's occurred against me while playing on PlayOK. In this situation, you should always follow by playing P-1e, putting pressure on the bishop's head. If white follows with Px1e, then Lx1e attacking the bishop's head. White can't drop anything to defend, so he has to play B-2b (in order to defend the lance and be able to move to 3c to defend 2d). At that point, black should play P*1b. If white responds with Lx1b, then Lx1b+ and you can capture his knight as well. If he responds with P*1c, then the following move line can occur:

1. Px1a+ 2. Bx1a
3. Lx1c+ 4. Nx1c
5. P*1d

This way, white's knight is captured and black is now up in material. This was a very amateur example but I hope it will help any beginners who might be reading.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

How to Play Shogi panel at Mechacon!

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated in a while, I haven't been feeling well. But I do have some good news.

Next week at the anime convention Mechacon, I'll be hosting a How to Play Shogi panel where I will be discussing how to play the game and the history behind it. You can check the schedule here, my shogi panel will be on Saturday, July 25, at 5:00 pm.

I hope to see plenty of people there.