Translated material
Game of samurai and students
When spring comes to Japan, men with fans in their hands appear on city streets and parks, passionate about an unusual game. In appearance, the European is unlikely to recognize chess in this logical game, a board, figures and players' moves look too unusual. Having originated in India, which has become popular in the Arab world, the game penetrated the east, in particular, into the Japanese islands, where it turned into a shog (Jap.将棋), or a “game of generals”.
Modern rules have been known since the 16th century. In Japan, this game is widespread everywhere, about twenty million play it, it has state support. Children who showed appropriate abilities go to the Sereikai school , having graduated from which they receive the status of professionals and subsequently earn a living by participating in tournaments. I must admit that this game quite accurately reflects the character and mentality of the Japanese. Having originated in the military environment in the era of countless internecine wars, the shoes served as a great way of tactical training of commanders of all levels. The samurai was charged with the duty to play with the shogun , and failures behind the board could well cost them titles, positions, or even threatened with a real disgrace with all the ensuing consequences.
The rules of the moves also comply with the warlike spirit. The figures go mainly forward, and their retreats, with the exception of long -range ones, are very difficult. How can it be otherwise? The samurai stood if you run, then only forward, on the attack on the enemy. An interesting distinctive feature of the shogi is to return to the board of the enemy’s taken figures, which, apparently, reflects the real practice of waging wars when the prisoners became under the banners of those against whom they recently fought. It was this innovation that radically changed the game itself, expanding tactics and strategy, making it more interesting and, accordingly, more complex than, for example, chess.
As a result of all this, ordinary chess in Japan is completely unpopular. But few people knew little to the borders of Japan until the mid-1980s. The Federation of European Associations of Sogi (Fes) has existed only since 1985, and in Russia championships have been regularly held since 2003. Only in our time there was a real interpenetration of two separate, at first glance, games and cultures. European chess players discovered Japanese chess, and the Japanese segists met our European ones. It should be noted that the chess familiar to us is generally commonly widespread. In China, they are often replaced by Syantsi (very entertaining, by the way), in Korea-Changi, in Thailand-Macrucru, etc. The famous Soviet grandmaster Yuri Averbach totaled about 600 varieties of chess around the world.
Since 2014, thanks to the joint efforts of the Russian Union of Japanese Shogi, the Sogi Japanese Chess and the International Sogo Sogue (ISPS) society, a chess biathlon (shogi+chess) has been held on a regular basis between Russian and Japanese students. This year (in March), such an event took place in Moscow - the delegation of the Segists from Japan was accepted by chess players of Moscow State University. In the overall standings, the team from Japan won with a score of 34:30. During the biathlon, Japanese students were supported by the strongest professional player Yoshiharu Haba, the nineteenth life -long Meijin , the owner of the ninth Dana.
During the tournament, Habu-san held a session of simultaneous playing on twenty boards against Russian fans of the shogue, among whom were many children. And, presumably, the young generals will now make additional efforts to learn how to play “like a hub”.
Next year, our students should go to Japan.
Shogi is a game of chess type. The goal is the capture of the enemy king. The game takes place on the board ( Sogiban ) of the size of 9x9 fields. 20 figures are involved on both sides (king, boat, elephant, two gold and two silver generals, two horses, two arrows and nine pairs), most of which can turn, thereby strengthening their properties. The enemy’s figures can be returned to your course on the board as your own. In April 2013, the computer program first beat the current professional in an official match.
The website of the Union of Japanese Chess players "Sogi" - www.shogifdr.ru
Sogi in Belarus - http://shogi.by
In Wikipedia - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/