Shogi for Beginners [Mass Market Paperback]

John Fairbairn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1984

Shogi, the Japanese version of Chess, with more that 15,000,000 adherents, is one of the most popular variants of chess in the world. It is true that shogi is played mainly in Japan but for a game to have attracted such a large and devoted following, with extensive newspaper and television coverage, it must have an appeal that transcends ordinary games. Without doubt, it ranks alongside chess and go as one of the three great classic board gaes.

Shogi for Beginners explains the rules and strategies of shogi clearly and in detail. It covers everything you need to know, from the opening through the endgame, so that you can start playing right away.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 170 pages
• Publisher: Kiseido Publishing Company (1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4906574971
• ISBN-13: 978-4906574971
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #690,615 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Fairbairn, born in 1947, lives in London. Now mostly retired, he has worked as a political journalist and technical translator. His main hobby, outside of taking his grandchildren to "follow their noses", is the Japanese board game go. As a specialist in Oriental Languages, he has translated and written many books about go and shogi (Japanese chess). He has also developed go and shogi software. With long-standing friend T Mark Hall, he runs the GoGoD (Games of Go on Disc) database of professional go games. He spent 11 years writing for The Shogi Association's magazine, providing translations and original research on the shogi variants for founder George Hodges. During this period he also worked on developing a shogi computer program, and also a xiangqi (Chinese chess) program, for a team led by David Levy. He has been a go player since 1965. Although he holds the rank of amateur 3rd dan in the British Go Association, his main go interest is the game's history. He has written many original features in Go World, including the first substantial expositions of ancient Chinese, ancient Korean and Tibetan go in English. Prior to moving to London, he taught a technical Japanese reading course for the University of Newcastle (his home town), and in retirement he has resumed his interest in machine translation. Retirement holidays have focused on visiting Major League baseball parks in the USA (11 as of 2011) and also baseball parks in Japan.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Incredible Starting Point..., October 31, 2000

By 

Eddie Landsberg "My 10th year as a reviewer !... (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Shogi for Beginners (Mass Market Paperback)

Just the other day I came across the copy of this book I bought 4 years ago. It brought back so many memories. A Japanese friend bought be a shogi set as a gift, and out of codependent tendencies I felt obligated to learn how to play the game. Its a fascinating game because unlike chess, when you capture the pieces you can reverse it and use it against your opponent, so you not only have to think about "position" (also envisioning drops) but exchanges in the *literal*

sense of the world.

Anyway, at the time it was the only book I could find... I read it, I played it, I beat him... he stopped returning my phone calls. Within a year I wound up going to Japan, playing at the local Shogi dojos... I even became friends with some famous shogi players... reached sho-dan level. The definitely set me on a journey... Thinking about it, I'm almost depressed to think I haven't played in about a year or so. Still, looking back I can say that this book set me on the right path. Your next step is to learn how to read Japanese numbers, then go to your local Japanese book store. You can buy books that show shogi matches move by move or have problems. Though you won't be able to read the explanations, you definitely won't be in the dark.

Anyway, when you finish this book, if you're thinking of becoming an English teacher in Japan, the good news is you *will* be able to wip most your students. Its not as popular as young people as it used to be, and if you play with an adult, they'll think you're a "henna gaijin" and buy you a drink !

P.S. No, this isn't the same thing as GO ! ! !

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Introduction to a Challenging Game, July 10, 2000

By 

George R Dekle "Bob Dekle" (Lake City, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Shogi for Beginners (Mass Market Paperback)

Shogi and Chess share a common ancestor and have as their objective the capture of the enemy king. They are alike in many other ways, but someone seeing both games for the first time might never suspect that they are so closely related.

Shogi is a challenging and satisfying game. It is visually a little off-putting to the Western tyro, but Westernized sets are available. I'd recommend switching to Japanese sets as soon as you can decipher the hieroglyphics. Play with authentic Japanese pieces enhances the pleasure of the game tremendously.

Fairbairn's book is the better of the two introductory books on Shogi that come from Western authors. (Trevor Leggett's "Shogi: Japan's Game of Strategy" is the other). The book is well organized. Fairbairn begins with six chapters on the basics of the game. Chapter 7 is a collection of mating problems, and then Chapter 8 introduces the reader to a complete game. Fairbairn then gives a chapter on castles. (In Chess there are two castles, in Shogi there are dozens). Then he gives chapters on the opening, the middle game, and the endgame. The endgame to Shogi is much more exciting than the endgame in Chess. In Shogi the board is just as cluttered with pieces as in the beginning, and frequently both kings simultaneously totter on the brink of checkmate. The penultimate chapter deals with certain of the finer points of Shogi, and the final chapter gives a collection of games. As the old TV commercial says, "Try it, you'll like it!"

After reading this book and playing a few games, if you'd like to learn the game in greater depth, try to find "Better Moves for Better Shogi," a bilingual book written by Aono Teriuchi, a Japanese Shogi champion, with an English translation by John Fairbairn.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I was looking for!, May 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Shogi for Beginners (Mass Market Paperback)

I am a B USCF chess player, but have been interested in shogi(and other chess variants). I knew how to play shogi before, but this book gives good guidelines on proper play. I like the 3-move-mate problems (mate in 2 for yall westerners) because by the time i went though them, I was more comfortable with the movement of the pieces and had memorized the japanese symbols. This book also has a full game taken apart and analyzed so that you can "see" what's going on. This book also has whole chapters on strategy and tactics. If you're interested in this game, and are still at the learning stages, and I assume you are because good shogi books in english are hard to find, this this the book to show you the way.