From: Stephen J Lamb <SJL <at> DEV <dot> ALS <dot> CO <dot> UK>
Date: 27 sep 1996
Subject: Re: SHOGI: How to play live on the Internet

> I am a member of the Internet Chess Club, which has an excellent
> graphical interface, and a server capable of storing player
> histories, Elo ratings, and connecting players.  Is there such a
> service for Shogi?  The Internet Chess Club membership is $49 U.S.
> per year, worthwhile if you play more than an hour or two each
> week.  The electronic chess clocks are automatic, and can be
> set to any time (including time added on for each move, a definite
> Shogi feature, as there is no elimination of material as time goes
> on.  I would gladly pay for such a service.


I too wish there is a shogi server of this calibre, but unfortunately
one does not exist at this time.  There are ways of playing shogi
over the internet in real time though.  These are:

    (1) http://dora.olu.info.waseda.ac.jp:8080/shogi/index.html

    You need a java-enabled browser (i.e. Netscape) to use this site.
    It has a nice graphical user interface with english
    documentation, and most importantly quite a few people actually
    use the site so you can more or less always find an opponent.  It
    has disadvantages though... it is nowhere near as feature-rich as
    the chess servers currently available.
    Overall though, I recommend this site if have the needed software
    and you want to play shogi online.

    (2) http://emerald.slim.imnet.ad.jp/~takumi/

    This is an NTT maintained site in Japanese only.  Again you need
    java to access it - in fact, it uses the same java code as the
    site above (although it's an older version of the code which does
    not have as many features).

    (3) http://www.mki.co.jp/VerTex/SHOUGI/shougi.html

    Once again you need java to access this Japanese-only site.  I
    have not used this site much so I can't really comment on it,
    though it doesn't seem as good as (1).

    (4) telnet://202.241.3.12:5091

    This is a telnet site maintained by NTT.  It seems to be very
    basic though.  Also, you need a Japanese-supporting telnet program
    to make full use of the site.  You can play against a computer
    opponent there, though I don't know how strong it is (I haven't
    played it myself).

    (5) telnet://igs.nuri.net:6969 (or 7777)

    This is actually a telnet Go site, though you can also play shogi
    here.  If you can ever find any opponents here then I'd recommend
    this site (if you can't use (1) that is).  (Incidentally, there
    used to be a shogi-only telnet site at igs.nuri.net:4444 which
    used the same server software as the other ports but had Go
    disabled.  However, the site had a disk crash a number of months
    ago and it hasn't come back online since.  My guess is it isn't
    going to now...)


So, I hope all this information helps you find opponents to play
online.  At the moment though, shogi servers need to improve
radically to compare with similar chess servers.


Best wishes,
    Steve.