From: Nick Geovanis <U54294%UICVM.BITNET <at> TECHNION <dot> TECHNION <dot> AC <dot> IL>
Date: 23 jan 1996
Subject: Re: Notation

Since I am a raw beginner at shogi, I thought I'd pass along my recent
experience with the notation.
Although I've been playing western chess (poorly) for many years, and
came into contact with shogi 20 years ago, I've only recently approached
it seriously. My source is the Fairbairn book, and an inexpensive wooden
Japanese set from a local Japanese merchandiser. Although Fairbairn presents
a Western-style descriptive piece alongside each Japanese piece, and
although I like the Western-style pieces on their own merits, I resolved
not to let the Japanese characters hinder me. I still have some difficulty
reading a printed board, but I've found that actually handling the pieces
and seeing them on the  board removes most difficulties.

I was frightened to watch my six-year-old son learn to recognize the
pieces as Japanese characters in about one-half an hour, and their moves
in about another half-hour (he plays chess but I wouldn't call him a
prodigy). I wish I could express to you how much the drop and more
developed promotion system seem to appeal to him as a child.
I will be presenting shogi to his school's chess club later this spring,
along with shatranj, Xiangqi and other variants.

This brings me to the last point: There are many chesses in the world,
not just Western, shogi and Chinese. My feeling is that in the future they
and their historical predecessors will be recognized as a family and
PLAYED and STUDIED as a family, if for no other reason than because no
software will be able to do so for some time yet. This will require
a common notation for piece coordinates, but not necessarily a similar or
common notation for the pieces, as long as they can be distinguished.
Why not look forward beyond ASCII? Why not a pictograph? Could it be
based on the Japanese character typographically, etymologically, or
historically? If not, then why not the Japanese character itself?
Keep in mind that with Unicode and internationalization efforts,
software production is moving towards a non-ASCII future (yes, slowly).
Finally, how could anyone think about shogi without also (and
simultaneously) thinking about Japan?
+------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
| Just another roller-bearing  | Nick Geovanis     U54294 <at> uicvm <dot> uic <dot> edu |
| ...in the Data Warehouse     |     Unix software and sysadmin         |
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