From: "'Ben Bednarz'" <BenFB <at> AOL <dot> COM>
Date: 18 jun 1999
Subject: Re: Promoting shogi

Here are two problems with attracting chess players to shogi:

1. Chess players view shogi as a "variant" on chess, much like Siamese,
Blitzkrieg, Blindfold, and so on.  As such, most chess players will take
shogi as a cute but inferior diversion from "real chess."
2. Human tendency is that once you work at something for a long time, it's
hard to accept being a begninner again in a new activity.  I've met any
number of adult skiers who won't take up snowboarding because they've been
"skiing for 30 years."  The same is true for long-time chess players.

I don't have a sure answer for these problems, but I do have some ideas:

a. Emphasize the history of shogi.  It's important to put shogi on an equal
footing with chess from a historical perspective.
b. Make clear the extent of shogi in Japan.  If you talk about shogi schools,
shogi professionals, 30 million players in Japan, etc., that will help make
clear that shogi is more than "fairy chess."
c. Emphasize the advantage of shogi relative to chess.  In my mind, these
are: less opening memorization (unless you're a pro), very infrequent draws,
less significant advantage for being the first player, an exciting finish to
every game, effective handicap system.
d. Look for players willing to learn something new.  This might mean mostly
younger players, but it doesn't need to be so.  I think you could find a good
audience in high schools, since that is when many chess players just start to
become serious about chess.
e. Provide playing opportunities that provoke a chess player's ego.  One
possibility is playing at very large odds, such as eight piece handicap,
possibly with a reward for winning chess players.
f. The possibility of a dual chess/shogi tournament, such as mentioned in my
earlier message, is enticing, although I've never tried it.

By the way, I think one problem we have is that the Japanese don't know how
to promote shogi in the US.  The cultural traditions are so different here
that I don't think they understand how to generate interest here.

Ben


In a message dated 6/17/99 9:42:43 PM Pacific Daylight Time, joshxles <at> ONE <dot> NET
writes:

<<        Ben, I'm really glad to read that on Shogi-L!  The members of the
         Ohio Shogi Club are, as a whole, deeply involved with three of the
         four major chess clubs in Cincinnati.  Since we're around chess
         players so often, we've put a lot of thought into getting them
         interested in learning shogi and becoming shogi players too.
         They're our primary market, and we try to familiarize them with
         shogi by continually having shogi boards out and enjoying our
         games.  We're by far the loudest bunch in any room full of chess
         players.

         We've also tried to make the game seem approachable and easy
         for a chess player to learn by using international sets and
         emphasizing the similarity between shogi and bughouse (four-
         player chess played on two boards with drops).  In addition, Doug
         Dysart made a shogi set with cylindrical pieces proportioned like
         chess pieces, and several of our members can testify that shogi
         has helped them play better chess.

         The truth is that getting chess players to learn shogi and play
         more than a few games has been a slow process.  All we can
         do is demonstrate how much we love it -- whether a new player
         likes it enough to stick with it is always a question of individual
         temperament.    We're not going anywhere, though, so since
         we're on the Cincinnati chess scene to stay, I'd like to hear
         other subscribers' positive or negative experiences with
         teaching shogi to chess players.  Maybe we can learn some
         other means of presentation that also work well at chess clubs.
         As far as the question of promoting shogi at clubs vs. on the
         internet, I believe that the more people learn about shogi by
         any means, the better.

         Josh Krekeler
         Ohio Shogi Club

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