Opening guidlines?

Hello me again since a cannot beat the level 2 bot at the standart board should i
learn some castles or is there i posible way to play without one and relying on opening principles

Chess for example has development, center control, space, pawn structure, king safety as prinicples

And if I need to learn castles how many types should I learn

Thanks in advance

1

level 2 is powered by the YaneuraOu bot which is ridiculously powerful, it's normal if you can't win against it (i can't either)
prior to the recent update level 1 was by the same bot and massacred beginners, they changed it to FairyStockfish which is way easier
so don't expect to move up the levels regularly just because you beat level 1

learning castles is a good idea since it gives you a template of what a good structure is. i'd start with one castle and practice it for a few hundred games, but it's okay if you pick up another one or two to take a break from the first one

21

I suck so I shouoldn't give advice, but if you learn the shape of mino castle with 4th file rook that's probably enough memorization for a long time.

As for general principles it's a little different from chess. Ideally you want to have your king at least as protected as your opponent. You want to control your camp so that your opponent doesn't have good spots to drop their pieces unless you can do the same. Developing pieces is different. Generals are active when they are either protecting the king or have been moved up where they can be used for attack. Bishop and rook become most active when dropped in the enemy camp.

5

@hakuwi So the bot at level 2 is stronger than 1500?

yeah

And level 1 is 800 I asume which would make this a 700 or 80 gap beween the levels

Since i think that making a 1200 bot would be dificult too programm tought of making a Quasi-handycape help for players beween 1100 to 1400
Like for example one takeback for each 10 moves made. Would that make a good balance or not?

1

@loliconchess One thing you could do is play the computer with a traditional piece handicap. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_(shogi)
Force the computer to play with less pieces, or if there's a level of the computer you can easily beat, give yourself the handicap.
Being up a piece in the opening is not as large of an advantage as in Western Chess, and it's good for learning and studying the efficient use of pieces. It's the reason even professional shogi players regularly play handicap games, even creating opening books for various handicaps.

11

Could be a good idea, but i have somehow a natural distaste for game with beginning handycape. In Go for example I hate plaing with handycape i prefere given bonus points since then i can exercise openings
Like i would like to train at least to some beginning moves for example i can reach now the basic formation on 4th file rook but i have no idea how to create an atack on the file witout complely mess my defence

Bit either way i wil try so thanks for the tip

1

Check Hidetchi's youtube channel, specially his playlist on how to play shogi. He explains everything very well. Enjoy!

1