Myfirst game of Shogi

[JuLieN]

Well, considering your performance so far, it seems SPEAR is the last thing you need.

H.G. Trained with Jean Dujardin!

[pichy]

Well, considering your performance so far, it seems SPEAR is the last thing you need. Better first try to beat Leserkai, and then Shokidoki... And if you want the strongest engine, I would not recommend SPEAR either.

It is NOT for me but last night I invited an exchange student neighbor of mine who came from Japan 19 years old who told me that he play occasional Shogi with friends at a Japanese Shogi Club. I invited him to play one game at 10 Minutes per game versus Shokidoki and he chekmated it in 29 moves, I invited him back to play in his free time another match, and I am trying to get the strongest commercial Shogi program before this Friday that he agreed to play again and I am going to get an Intel six-core i7-990X System. He told me that he is an amateur close to 3 or 4 dan in shogi.

[hgm]

Well, if you really want to have a top engine, I would recommend GPS Shogi or Bonanza. SPEAR is much better than Shokidoki, for sure, but it is still like having Fruit in stead of Houdini or Rybka.

[pichy]

Well, if you really want to have a top engine, I would recommend GPS Shogi or Bonanza. SPEAR is much better than Shokidoki, for sure, but it is still like having Fruit in stead of Houdini or Rybka.

Thanks, in that case since I could not find a commercial GPS Shogi for PC, I might purchase this one for my new Ipad and hope that it is strong enough for this Kid when he visit me this Friday:

http://www.dreamonline.co.jp/iphone/ish ... ex_en.html

[hgm]

GPS Shogi is free, and open source...

[pichy]

GPS Shogi is free, and open source...

Where can I find it, is it an USI engine?

[hgm]

Yes, it is a USI engine.

First link Google gives when you type "GPS Shogi": http://gps.tanaka.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/gpsshogi/

[pichy]

Yes, it is a USI engine.

First link Google gives when you type "GPS Shogi": http://gps.tanaka.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/gpsshogi/

This is very interesting it could be used with Stockfish-Shogi
http://gps.tanaka.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/cgi ... threv=4462

[lkaufman]

Although the situation in computer Shogi is not at all like in Chess, and you need a top engine and a few thousand cores to beat an amateur champion,

I don't think this is accurate. I believe the top engine now running on a normal 6 core pc is stronger than the amateur champion and is about even with mid-level pros, though this depends on the time limit. Maybe the pros might still be favored in very long games like 6 hours per side.

[pichy]

Well, considering your performance so far, it seems SPEAR is the last thing you need. Better first try to beat Lesserkai, and then Shokidoki... And if you want the strongest engine, I would not recommend SPEAR either.

I followed your suggestion to first play versus the weaker opponent Lesserkai which took me 23 games using the same opening until I figured out how to beat it. Here is my 23th game versus a very weak Shogi program which I think in term of standard chess it plays like a 1200 rated player. Finally I got my first win.

[Event "Computer Chess Game"]
[Site "Pichy-PC"]
[Date "2012.05.02"]
[Round ""]
[White "Pichy"]
[Black "Lesserkai (USI2WB)"]
[Result "1-0"]
[TimeControl "40/1200"]
[Variant "shogi"]

1. h4 Gg8 2. h5 Ge8 3. Kd2 Kf8 4. h6 hxh6 5. Rxh6 a6 6. P@h7 a5 7. Sf2 i6
8. hxh8+ Sxh8 9. Sc2 Ra8 10. Gfe2 Sc8 11. g4 i5 12. Ng3 Kg9 13. g5 Sh7 14.
Rh4 Kh8 15. i4 P@h5 16. Rxh5 P@h6 17. Rh4 ixi4 18. Lxi4 P@i5 19. Lxi5 Lxi5
20. P@i4 L@h5 21. Nxh5 hxh5 22. Rc4 N@b6 23. Rg4 Lxi4 24. Rxi4 Sh6 25. g6
gxg6 26. B@i9 Kh7 27. Bd4+ P@i5 28. Ri1 Ng7 29. Rg1 h4 30. +Be4 h3+ 31. b4
Sg5 32. Rxg5 Ki7 33. +Bxg6 Gh7 34. +Bxg7 Gxg7 35. Rxg7+ P@h7 36. G@h6 Ki8
37. S@i7 Ki9 38. Sh8+#
{Xboard adjudication: Checkmate} 1-0


That pretty much illustrates the problem of those not prepared to install their own engines, making them fully dependent on pre-packaged pre-installed bundles. The best will always remain unavailably for them, both in terms of engine and terms of GUI...

PS: I was able to install Spear which is pretty simple for me to do, even if I was only using Winboard for the first time.

Here is my first game versus Spear using the ShogidokoroGUI. I resigned knowing that I was not prepared yet to beat Spear, but I will play versus shokidoki at least 80 games until I draw.

[Sente "SpearCSA2009v1.5"]
[Gote "Pichy"]
[SFEN "lnsgkgsnl/1r5b1/ppppppppp/9/9/9/PPPPPPPPP/1B5R1/LNSGKGSNL b - 1"]
1.P7g-7f (00:01 / 00:00:01)
2.P8c-8d (00:07 / 00:00:07)
3.P6g-6f (00:01 / 00:00:02)
4.K5a-4b (00:07 / 00:00:14)
5.P2g-2f (00:05 / 00:00:07)
6.G6a-5b (00:01 / 00:00:15)
7.P2f-2e (00:06 / 00:00:13)
8.S3a-3b (00:02 / 00:00:17)
9.S7i-6h (00:06 / 00:00:19)
10.S7a-6b (00:02 / 00:00:19)
11.S6h-6g (00:06 / 00:00:25)
12.Resigns (00:54 / 00:01:13)