@ -202,8 +202,16 @@ Some general tips and rules of thumb, mostly for beginners:
TODO
- Turn your knights to face backwards or in another weird way (always face the opponent's king etc.).
- Play the bongcloud or similar offensive opening, especially against a stronger player.
If you do this in a world championship match I will suck your dick.
- OTB (over the board) only:
- Turn your knights to face backwards or in another weird way (always face the opponent's king etc.). Also place the pieces unevenly on the squares to piss off opponents with OCD and autism.
- Behave weirdly, make weird faces, go away from the board and walk in circles, constantly sneeze, make extremely long eye contact with the opponent while smiling as if you know what he's thinking, call the referee constantly, pretend to fall asleep etc.
- online only:
- Be annoying and offensive in chat, if opponent blunders write `gg`, spam `ez` when you win.
- Constantly ask for takebacks, offer draws, report legit opponents for cheating etc.
- Play the bongcloud, fool's mate, 1. h3 or similar offensive opening, especially against a stronger player. Offer a draw after 1st move. Just play knight F3 and back constantly. Play the exact mirror of opponent's moves -- if he tries to break it then just always try to get back to mirrored position.
- When losing constantly offer draws, before the last move leave the game and let the clock run out.
Shogi, also called *Japanese chess*, is an old Asian board [game](game.md), very similar to [chess](chess.md), and is greatly popular in Japan, even a bit more than [go](go.md), the second biggest Japanese board game. Shogi is yet more complex (and [bloated](bloat.md)) than chess, has a bigger board, more pieces and more complex rules that besides others allow pieces to come back to play; for a chess player shogi is not that hard to get into as the basic rules are still very similar, and it may offer a new challenge and experience. Also similarly to chess, [go](go.md), [backgammon](backgammon.md) and similar board games, [LRS](lrs.md) sees shogi as one of the best games ever as it is legally not owned by anyone (it is [public domain](public_domain.md)), is relatively [simple](kiss.md), cheap and doesn't even require a computer to be played. The [culture](culture.md) of shogi is also different from that of chess, there are many rituals connected to how the game is conducted, there are multiple champion titles, it is not common to offer draws etc.
{ Lol apparently (seen in a YT video) when in the opening one exchanges bishops, it is considered [rude](unsportmanship.md) to promote the bishop that takes, as it makes no difference because he will be immediately taken anyway. So ALWAYS DO THIS to piss off your opponent and increase your change of winning :D ~drummyfish }
{ Lol apparently (seen in a YT video) when in the opening one exchanges bishops, it is considered [rude](unsportmanship.md) to promote the bishop that takes, as it makes no difference because he will be immediately taken anyway. So ALWAYS DO THIS to piss off your opponent and increase your chance of winning :D ~drummyfish }
**Quick sum up for chess players:** Games are longer. When you get back to chess from shogi your ELO will bump 100 points as it feels so much easier. Pawns are very different (simpler) from chess, they don't take sideways so forget all you know about pawn structure (prepare for bashing your head thinking a pawn guards something, then opponent takes it and you realize you can't retake :D just write gg and start a new game). The drop move will fuck up your thinking initially, you have to start considering that opponent can just smash his general literally in front of your king and mate you right there { still fucking happens to me all the time lol :D ~drummyfish }. Exchanges and sacrifices also aren't that simple as any piece you sacrifice YOU GIVE TO THE OPPONENT, so you better not fuck up the final attack on the king or else the opponent just collects a bunch of your pieces and starts his own attack right in your base by dropping those pieces on your king right from the sky. You have to kill swiftly and precisely, it can turn over in an instant. There is no castling (but king safety is still important so you castle manually). Stalemate is a loss (not a draw) but it basically never happens, Japanese hate draws, draws are rare in shogi.
**Quick sum up for chess players:** Games are longer. When you get back to chess from shogi your ELO will bump 100 points as it feels so much easier. Pawns are very different (simpler) from chess, they don't take sideways so forget all you know about pawn structure (prepare for bashing your head thinking a pawn guards something, then opponent takes it and you realize you can't retake :D just write gg and start a new game). The drop move will fuck up your brain initially, you have to start considering that opponent can just smash his general literally in front of your king and mate you right there { still fucking happens to me all the time lol :D ~drummyfish }. Exchanges and sacrifices also aren't that simple as any piece you sacrifice YOU GIVE TO THE OPPONENT, so you better not fuck up the final attack on the king or else the opponent just collects a bunch of your pieces and starts his own attack right in your base by dropping those pieces on your king right from the sky. You have to kill swiftly and precisely, it can turn over in an instant. There is no castling (but king safety is still important so you castle manually). Stalemate is a loss (not a draw) but it basically never happens, Japanese hate draws, draws are rare in shogi.
The game's disadvantage and a barrier for entry, especially for westeners, is that the **traditional design of the shogi pieces sucks big time**, for they are just same-colored pieces of wood with Chinese characters written on them which are unintelligible to anyone non-Chinese and even to Chinese this is greatly visually unclear -- all pieces just look the same on first sight and the pieces of both player are distinguished just by their rotation, not color (color is only used in amateur sets to distinguish normal and promoted pieces). But of course you may use different, visually better pieces, which is also an option in many shogi programs -- a popular choice nowadays are so called *international* pieces that show both the Chinese character along with a simple, easily distinguishable piece symbol. There are also sets for children/beginners that have on them visually indicated how the piece moves.
