Learning shogi, finally managed a win. Though more a fluke then anything. Any advice is welcome
lishogi.org/O0Pl8RWs/sente#0
id advise you to build a castle more quickly, also maybe dont push pawns that much
still congrats
You seem to have a rather good tactical vision but most of the time picking up free pawns is not worth your activity and potential of threats especially when you are reusing heavy pieces. At least that is what i sense from my losses and from what i can observe.
Popular studies here show some very solid setups where we control most of our home squares, with different castles and openings. You may want to take a look.
Try solving problems and you will improve rapidly. Enjoy!
Your opponent had you by your balls after move 45. Your king wasn't fortified at that point and it was only thanks to your opponent's following mistake ('why not just capture the pawn and thereby promote your own?') you could squeeze out a win later on. For a beginner your play and the ideas you employed were still surprisingly refined, I believe you show plenty of potential! My advice to you is: Treat your king, right from the very start, as you would treat a very valuable gemstone, which everybody wants to snatch from you. What I mean by that is that it is of paramount importance to protect your king, with ideally three generals and a sturdy pawn wall, and only then try to launch a counterattack. No sense in starting any trouble if you can't efficiently protect yourself! Another good advice would be: Shogi is a beautiful game. If you learn to derive enjoyment also from your losses and also see value in games against better players, you will have an everlasting 'friend' in Shogi. It still amazes me every day that such an old, relatively easy-to-learn game as Shogi can produce so much beauty and sparks of wisdom which both players can appreciate, and it never ceases being really fun for me. Anyways, stick around, man! :)
I can't figure out how to quote or reply, so will just drop a regular comment. Castling seems to be the main consensus, which I understand is manual in shogi? My main issue is that I can't seem to figure out how to play if all my pieces are surrounding my king. Because I still need to defend all the empty squares in my position as opponents can just drop pieces there while also launch an attack somehow, pawns dont defend each other either so they need pieces too otherwise opponent will just bust through my position. It just seemed most pertinent to me to just leave the king in the centre to guard more free squares, as its the third strongest piece but I suppose that's not how it's done?
well... if the king dies you lose so it's best to keep it safe, golds and promoted everything elses are just as good
@elkress There are four long-range pieces in Shogi (rook, bishop, knight, lance, ordered by their usefulness). Especially as a beginner, you need to watch out for them when they are in your opponent's hand, until you're more accustomed to the game and you learn to more accurately gauge the danger or sharpness of any given position. It will become natural to you to quickly glance the board within a second to see if there are any weak points in your camp where your opponent might wanna drop this or that. So if you're so afraid of 'drop-able' pieces, why don't you just play defensively and avoid trades and open-ended clashes, at least for the beginning? You will lose most games anyways, so instead of playing to win, try out 'playing to survive for as long as you can'. When you're more confident and have developed a sense for the pieces and how they support each other, you will also find yourself able to seize the initiative yourself and recognize the right timing for doing so.
To summarize all of that: Attacks can lead to costly mistakes, but as long as your king is safe and the weapon chest of your enemy is under control (because, think about it, it's only your actions which make it fill up), you're still in play. And I've seen countless turnarounds in the middlegame, where the patient defender exploited a faulty attack and thereby gained enough momentum to rain fire upon their opponent.
Good advice but "instead of playing to win, try out 'playing to survive for as long as you can'" please just refrain from giving this advice specifically to beginners. Only makes shogi seems even more slow and boring
lol, but it's realistic. Every great game out there is 'easy to learn, hard to master', and the power ceiling is insanely high. That's what keeps the folks playing: There's always someone better out there and you never can make the claim: I've learned every trick in the book. As a former Chess player myself, I know that is all just too true. But on the other hand, if you think Shogi is slow and boring and you still don't enjoy it after some time, then it's just not your cup of tea. Nothing wrong with that (I actually used to think the same, years before I played my first real game).
You can't post in the forums yet. Play some games!