I've recently being learning the Japanese game of Shogi, along with my wife. We were given a set as a Christmas present and both found it fascinating. Some of the pieces move similarly to Western chess, but there are also huge differences. I am struggling with fluently recognizing the pieces, but I guess this is a question of time.
One interesting question is whether playing Shogi can help chess players improve? Alexander Nikitin also played Go with the young Garry Kasparov and claimed it played an important role in his understanding of strategy. An interesting analogy is that there are reported benefits to learning a second language, in that it can help improve someone's first language. A second language particularly targets areas such as reading, speaking and expressing ideas, as well as having more general benefits on memory, concentration and problem solving. This would make an interesting case for secondary board games helping your chess, there will be more general benefits as well as some that are specific to board game thinking.
Have I experience any benefit from Shogi as yet? It's too early to say, and learning Shogi has coincided with other measures I've been taking. My concentration seems have improved lately after having had it waver over recent years. It's a work in progress and I'm a self-reporting sample of one, but I think Shogi worth trying.
If you're interested in learning Shogi I suggest joining Lishogi.org, a Shogi version of Lichess.org. I've been diving into the tsume section with unspectacular results, but like everything it's a question of practice.
Training Tournaments
This week's training tournaments feature the Dutch Defence with 3.e3 and then 3...e6 or 3...g6:
Sunday January 26th at 5pm UK Time: Dutch with 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6
Sunday January 26th at 6.15pm UK Time: Dutch with 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 g6
My Upcoming Events
Here's my schedule over the coming months, though it is subject to change. I often don't know until fairly late in the day:
January 26th: Stockport Rapidplay
I've played in this event with some regularity, so probably I'll go for it again. You can find details here.
February 16-27, 2025: World Senior Team Championship
I've accepted a place in the 50+ second team which means I'll play a much stronger field than on bottom board of the first team. Although this diminishes my chances of winning a medal I'm looking forward to the challenge.
July/August 2025: British Championships
Will these be held in Liverpool next year or maybe Torquay? I've heard rumours about both venues, if they're held in Liverpool I'd probably go for the 50+ event.
I'm still waiting to get a firm offer to play in the European Senior Team Championships (Poland, April 4-14). I've heard that I'll be offered a place in the 50+ first time, which I'll take if it happens in the next day or two.
Meanwhile I missed out on these two events, both of which I'd have liked to play in if there was time:
January 24-31, 2025: HIT Open in Nova Gorica: Details can be found here.
February 5-10, 2025: Senta, Hotel Fantastico: Details can be found here.
Twitch Channel
My new Twitch channel has new shows every Monday ('Chess Questions Answered) and other weekly coming soon. Please follow it if you'd like to get updates etc, all the shows will be available to Premium members in the Tiger Chess members area, even when they are no longer available on Twitch.
Have a good weekend.
Nigel
