From: "Rogalski, Timothy" <Timothy.Rogalski <at> CWI <dot> CABLEW <dot> COM>
Date: 26 may 1998
Subject: Re: Gold is better than silver.

Larry,

I really loved your article!  It's true, a Bokin (climbing gold), as
opposed to a Bogin (climbing silver) makes all published material on
4-piece handicap rubbish, just like Nada said.  Like you, I have a
fondness for the 4-piece handicap, and I'm still kicking myself for
losing against you at 4-piece last year, when years before I beat you at
2-piece.  Go figure!?  If we were to play a handicap match, I'd rather
that it be 2-piece instead of 4-piece.  I don't fear 2-piece, but I do
fear 4-piece, especially against you.  So please, show me how to beat
you at 4-piece by climbing my gold.  This I really want to see!

But, wasn't there a fourth main strategy (P-9f and B-9g) where the
bishop is threatening to exchange itself for the silver on 5c, bypassing
the traditional Nada setup (K on 3b, S on 2b, G on 3c)?  Or was this
just a variant of one of the three main strategies?  I thought that you
said at one time that this was a bust of the Nada, and that Nada himself
considered white's 4-piece play to be smoke-and-mirrors because no one
knew the best josecki for black, including the professionals?

        >     For some fifteen years now, my pet topic under the
umbrella of shogi
        >has been how to play four piece handicap (white removes rook,
bishop, and
        >both lances, and moves first) shogi for both sides.

        >      the
        >late Nada Rensho, professional 9 dan, who devoted much of the
last decade of
        >his life to four piece handicap shogi.  He stated that 1: All
the literature
        >on this handicap was rubbish

        >     This never made sense to me.  In general, if a pro is
playing a
        >serious, head-to-head game with an amateur at two piece, the
amateur needs
        >to be about 3 dan to be favored to win.  Surely four piece
handicap should
        >be much easier to win than two piece, yet Nada's results (and
also those of
        >a few other handicap specialists) contradict this.

        >     The three main strategies are the Knight attack (featuring
N-1g-2e),
        >the retreating bishop (featuring P-5f, S-7h, and B-7i), and the
climbing
        >silver (featuring exchanging off the 2 pawn, then climbing the
silver from
        >3i-3h-2g-3f-2e).