A first (tiny) step

Today, I played my very first shogi game on playok.com. I knew for sure I would lose, but even knowing this barely prepared me to such a disaster.

I might sound like I'm whining, but I'm not. It looks difficult for a Westerner such as I to learn to play shogi, since there's not much literature available on it. There is some information on the web, for sure, but it looks scattered all around. I know what I'm talking about : I learned to play go all by myself, without anyone to teach me. Right now, I'm on the verge of getting to 6 kyu KGS and I'm really proud to have come such a long way. The hard part, at the very beginning, was to find good sources of information. I regretted, later, not to have logged how I achieved my progress.

This is the whole point of this blog : to log my progress (or lack thereof) in the game of shogi so that a complete beginner could come here, some day, and get some guidance. I'm not going to give lessons or even advice ; I'd rather share my experiences and thoughts about the game with other beginners. For lessons, ask a skilled player ! :P

My very first step was watching HIDETCHI's excellent series of shogi lectures on Youtube. It gave me a solid understanding of the rules, and also helped me recognize the various pieces. If you choose to follow this series, I suggest you press Pause when you get problems proposed to you and actually try your best to solve them before being given the solution. I followed these videos up to #17, at which point I could barely understand what he was talking about. I'll certainly come back to it.

Another must-see for the aspiring shogi player is 81-Square Universe. The friendly people there seem very knowledgeable and eager to help new players. The quick links on the front page look very helpful, and make sure to stop by the forums to ask questions ! I know I will.

My next proposed step is reading the Shogi Shack website. The First moves section sound and look like it's exactly what I need.

So that's it for now. I'm leaving on vacation next week (honeymoon in London !), so don't hold your breaths ! Feel free to post other interesting links in the comments as well as, well, comments.

P.S. : If anybody actually reads this and knows how to embed a Java/Flash/whatever shogi viewer in a webpage, please contact me. I think it could liven up this dull blog a lot.