Shogi

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The starting setup of a game of Shogi

Shogi (Japanese Chess),
a chess variant that evolved directly from Shatranj, just like the western chess. It is played on 9x9 board. Compared to chess, Shogi pieces have limited mobility, but this is compensated by the fact that captured enemy pieces can be dropped on the board as one's own. This leads to the wild, tactical game. Shogi has greater branching factor than chess. Development of Shogi programs has taken slightly different route than in chess programming. The stress is on pattern recognition and selective search techniques. However, with the advent of NNUE along with adaptations of Stockfish to Shogi such as YaneuraOu , and Kristallweizen , and the consequent Stockfish NNUE hype , both worlds seem to reunite again.

Pieces & Moves

Shogi pieces capture as they move. Promotion is possible with all pieces except King and Gold General - or already promoted pieces with changed move options. When such a piece moves to, from or inside (but no drops) the promotion zone, that is the three opponent's back-ranks, it has the option to promote. Promotion is mandatory for the forward only pieces of Knight, Lance or Pawn with no more moves after moving to the 9th or 8th (Knight) rank. Pieces indicate their promotion state by turning the piece over after the corresponding move, revealing the character of the promoted piece. A drop of a captured piece always appears with the unpromoted side up.

Shogi board and pieces, together with their starting position and moves

Shogi Engines

• Apery
• Bonanza
• CrazyWa
• Elmo
• Gekisashi
• GPS
• IS
• Kristallweizen
• ShogiNet
• Shokidoki
• Shotest
• Sjaak (Glebbeek)
• Spear
• Tacos
• YaneuraOu
• YSS
• Zillions of Games

World Computer Shogi Championship

organized by the CSA

1990 ...

• WCSC01 1990
• WCSC02 1991
• WCSC03 1992
• WCSC04 1993
• WCSC05 1994
• WCSC06 1996
• WCSC07 1997
• WCSC08 1998
• WCSC09 1999

2000 ...

• WCSC10 2000
• WCSC11 2001
• WCSC12 2002
• WCSC13 2003
• WCSC14 2004
• WCSC15 2005
• WCSC16 2006
• WCSC17 2007
• WCSC18 2008
• WCSC19 2009

2010 ...

• WCSC20 2010
• WCSC21 2011
• WCSC22 2012
• WCSC23 2013
• WCSC24 2014
• WCSC25 2015
• WCSC26 2016
• WCSC27 2017
• WCSC28 2018
• WCSC29 2019

Computer Olympiads

organized by the ICGA

2000 ...

• 5th Computer Olympiad, London 2000
• 6th Computer Olympiad, Maastricht 2001
• 7th Computer Olympiad, Maastricht 2002
• 8th Computer Olympiad, Graz 2003
• 10th Computer Olympiad, Taipei 2005
• 11th Computer Olympiad, Turin 2006
• 12th Computer Olympiad, Amsterdam 2007
• 13th Computer Olympiad, Beijing 2008
• 14th Computer Olympiad, Pamplona 2009

2010 ...

• 15th Computer Olympiad, Kanazawa 2010
• 16th Computer Olympiad, Tilburg 2011
• 17th Computer Olympiad, Yokohama 2013
• 18th Computer Olympiad, Leiden 2015
• 19th Computer Olympiad, Leiden 2016
• 20th Computer Olympiad, Leiden 2017

Photos

Taipei 2005

10th Computer Olympiad, Taipei 2005, Tacos by Tsuyoshi Hashimoto won vs. Spear by Reijer Grimbergen
Hiroyuki Iida (Tacos), Hitoshi Matsubara, and Shogo Takeuchi posing for the Gold medal winner

Turin 2006

Shogi Winners at the 11th Computer Olympiad, Turin 2006: Jun Nagashima on behalf of Bonanza (Silver),
Hiroshi Yamashita (Gold with YSS), and Hiroyuki Iida (Bronze for Tacos), Jaap van den Herik congrats

See also

• Game Programming Workshops
• Harm Geert Muller - Yokohama 2013
• Monte-Carlo Tree Search
• NNUE
• Stockfish NNUE
• USI - Universal Shogi Interface
• USI2WB

Publications

1990 ...

• Hiroyuki Iida, Yoshiyuki Kotani (1991). Computer Shogi. The Proceedings of Game Playing System Workshop, pp. 42-48. ICOT, Tokyo, Japan.
• Hitoshi Matsubara, Barney Pell (1994). Applying metagamer to Shogi. 1st Game Programming Workshop in Kanagawa, Japan » Metagamer

1995 ...

• Yoshiyuki Kotani, Hiroyuki Iida (1995). Which moves should be pruned - classification of Shogi Moves and Ratio of Played Moves. 2nd Game Programming Workshop
• Hitoshi Matsubara, Hiroyuki Iida, Jos Uiterwijk (1996). A Shogi-Computer Test Set. ACM Conference on Computer Science
• M. Hirose, Hitoshi Matsubara, T. Itoh (1997). The Composition of Tsume-Shogi Problems. Advances in Computer Chess 8
• Yoshihisa Nakayama, Yoshiyuki Kotani (1997). Characteristic of extended moves by singular extension to Shogi. 4th Game Programming Workshop
• Don Beal, Martin C. Smith (1998). First Results from Using Temporal Difference Learning in Shogi. CG 1998
• Reijer Grimbergen (1998). A Survey of Tsume-Shogi Programs Using Variable-Depth Search. CG 1998
• Hiroyuki Iida, Jin Yoshimura, Kazuro Morita, Jos Uiterwijk (1998). Retrograde Analysis of the KGK Endgame in Shogi: Its Implications for Ancient Heian Shogi. CG 1998
• Yoshinori Kimura (1999). The History of Shogi. Japan Foundation Newsletter, XXVI/Nos. 5–6, pdf

2000 ...

• Tsuyoshi Hashimoto, Yoichiro Kajihara, Hiroyuki Iida (2000). Brinkmate Search in Computer Shogi. 5th Computer Olympiad Workshop
• Jeff Rollason (2000). SUPER-SOMA - Solving Tactical Exchanges in Shogi without Tree Searching. CG 2000, Word preprint
• Youhei Hori, Minenobu Seki, Tsutomu Maruyama, Reijer Grimbergen, Tsutomu Hoshino (2000). A Shogi Processor with a Field Programmable Gate Array. CG 2000
• Reijer Grimbergen (2000). Plausible Move Generation Using Move Merit Analysis with Cut-Off Thresholds in Shogi. CG 2000
• Takenobu Takizawa, Reijer Grimbergen (2000). Review: Computer Shogi through 2000. CG 2000

2001

• Yoshiyuki Kotani (2001). Example-based Piece Formation by Partial Matching in Shogi. Advances in Computer Games 9
• Jeff Rollason (2001). Shotest wins Shogi tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 24, No. 3 » 6th Computer Olympiad
• Reijer Grimbergen, Jeff Rollason (2001). Using castle and assault maps for guiding opening and middle game play in Shogi. 6th Game Programming Workshop, pdf
• Don Beal, Martin C. Smith (2001). Temporal difference learning applied to game playing and the results of application to Shogi. Theoretical Computer Science, Volume 252, Issues 1-2, pp. 105-119
• Masahiro Seo, Hiroyuki Iida, Jos Uiterwijk (2001). The PN*-Search Algorithm: Applications to Tsume-Shogi. Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 129, Nos. 1-2 » Proof-Number Search

2002

• Hiroyuki Iida, Makoto Sakuta, Jeff Rollason (2002). Computer Shogi. Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 134, Elsevier, CiteSeerX
• Jun Nagashima (2002). Realization-Probability Search: Its application to Shogi and LOA. 7th Computer Olympiad Workshop
• Jun Nagashima, Masahumi Taketoshi, Yoichiro Kajihara, Tsuyoshi Hashimoto, Hiroyuki Iida (2002). An Efficient Use of Piece-Square Tables in Computer Shogi.
• Kazutomo Shibahara, Nobuo Inui, Yoshiyuki Kotani (2002). Effect of ProbCut in Shogi - by changing parameters according to position category. 7th Game Programming Workshop
• Reijer Grimbergen, Jeff Rollason (2002). Board Maps and Hill-Climbing for Opening and Middle Game Play in Shogi. CG 2002
• Reijer Grimbergen (2002). Report on the 12th CSA World Computer-Shogi Championship. ICGA Journal, Vol. 25, No. 2
• Yoshimasa Tsuruoka, Daisaku Yokoyama, Takashi Chikayama (2002). Game-Tree Search Algorithm based on Realization Probability. ICGA Journal, Vol. 25, No. 3, pdf
• Yasushi Tanase (2002). ISshogi wins Shogi tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 25, No. 3 » 7th Computer Olympiad

2003

• Hiroshi Yamashita (2003). YSS wins Shogi tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 26, No. 4 » 8th Computer Olympiad

2005 ...

• Reijer Grimbergen (2005). The 15th CSA World Computer-Shogi Championship. ICGA Journal, Vol. 28, No. 2
• Tsuyoshi Hashimoto (2005). Tacos wins Shogi tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 28, No. 3 » 10th Computer Olympiad
• Shunsuke Soeda, Tomoyuki Kaneko, Tetsuro Tanaka (2005). Dual Lambda Search and Shogi Endgames. Advances in Computer Games 11
• Takeshi Ito, Hitoshi Matsubara, Reijer Grimbergen (2005). Chunking in Shogi: New Findings. Advances in Computer Games 11

2006

• Tsuyoshi Hashimoto (2006). YSS wins Shogi tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 29, No. 2 » 11th Computer Olympiad
• Keijirou Yanagi, Kazutomo Shibahara, Yasuhiro Tajima, Yoshiyuki Kotani (2006). Generation of Candidate Moves using Decision Tree in Shogi. 11th Game Programming Workshop

2007

• Reijer Grimbergen (2007). Using Bitboards for Move Generation in Shogi. ICGA Journal, Vol. 30, No. 1, pdf, 11th Game Programming Workshop
• Junichi Hashimoto, Tsuyoshi Hashimoto, Hiroyuki Iida (2007). Context Killer Heuristic and Its Application to Computer Shogi. CGW 2007
• Kosuke Tosaka, Asuka Takeuchi, Shunsuke Soeda, Hitoshi Matsubara (2007). Extracting Important Features by Analyzing Game Records in Shogi. CGW 2007
• Takeshi Ito (2007). Selfish Search in Shogi. CGW 2007
• Takeshi Ito (2007). Selfish Search on Playing Shogi. ICEC 2007
• Junichi Hashimoto (2007). Tacos wins Shogi tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3 » 12th Computer Olympiad
• Keijirou Yanagi, Kazutomo Shibahara, Yasuhiro Tajima, Yoshiyuki Kotani (2007). Multiple Parallel Search in Shogi. 12th Game Programming Workshop
• Jun Nagashima (2007). Towards master-level play of Shogi. Ph.D. thesis, Supervisor Hiroyuki Iida, JAIST, pdf

2008

• Tsuyoshi Hashimoto (2008). Tacos wins Shogi tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 31, No. 3 » 13th Computer Olympiad

2009

• Takuya Ugajin, Yoshiyuki Kotani (2009). The improvement of playout using transition probability of Monte Carlo Shogi. 14th Game Programming Workshop
• Junichi Hashimoto (2009). Tacos wins Shogi tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 32, No. 2 » 14th Computer Olympiad
• Reijer Grimbergen (2009). The 19th CSA World Computer-Shogi Championship. ICGA Journal, Vol. 32, No 2 » Shogi

2010 ...

• Yoshikuni Sato, Daisuke Takahashi, Reijer Grimbergen (2010). A Shogi Program based on Monte-Carlo Tree Search. ICGA Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2, pdf
• Takuya Obata, Takuya Sugiyama, Kunihito Hoki, Takeshi Ito (2010). Consultation Algorithm for Computer Shogi: Move Decisions by Majority. CG 2010
• Takuya Sugiyama, Takuya Obata, Kunihito Hoki, Takeshi Ito (2010). Optimistic Selection Rule Better Than Majority Voting System. CG 2010
• Yoshimasa Tsuruoka (2010). Gekisashi wins Shogi Tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 33, No. 4 » 15th Computer Olympiad

2011

• Takeshi Ito (2011). Clair 1/128 wins 5x5 Shogi Tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 34, No. 1 » 15th Computer Olympiad
• Kunihito Hoki, Tomoyuki Kaneko (2011). The Global Landscape of Objective Functions for the Optimization of Shogi Piece Values with a Game-Tree Search. Advances in Computer Games 13

2012

• Tomoyuki Kaneko, Tetsuro Tanaka (2012). GPSShogi and Assembly of Large Shogi Software with Text Protocol. Computer Software - JSSST Journal, Vol. 29, No. 1
• Kunihito Hoki, Masakazu Muramatsu (2012). Efficiency of three Forward-Pruning Techniques in Shogi: Futility Pruning, Null-move Pruning, and Late Move Reduction (LMR). Entertainment Computing, Vol. 3, No. 3

2013

• Akira Ura, Makoto Miwa, Yoshimasa Tsuruoka, Takashi Chikayama (2013). Comparison Training of Shogi Evaluation Functions with Self-Generated Training Positions and Moves. CG 2013, slides as pdf
• Kunihito Hoki, Tomoyuki Kaneko, Daisaku Yokoyama, Takuya Obata, Hiroshi Yamashita, Yoshimasa Tsuruoka, Takeshi Ito (2013). A System-Design Outline of the Distributed-Shogi-System Akara 2010. SNPD 2013

2014

• Kunihito Hoki, Tomoyuki Kaneko (2014). Large-Scale Optimization for Evaluation Functions with Minimax Search. JAIR Vol. 49, pdf » Automated Tuning
• Takenobu Takizawa (2014). Computer Shogi 2012 through 2014. The 19th Game Programming Workshop
• Kunihito Hoki, Seiya Omori, Takeshi Ito (2014). Analysis of Performance of Consultation Methods in Computer Chess. Journal of Information Science and Engineering, Vol. 30, pdf

2015 ...

• Shu Yokoyama, Tomoyuki Kaneko, Tetsuro Tanaka (2015). Parameter-Free Tree Style Pipeline in Asynchronous Parallel Game-Tree Search. Advances in Computer Games 14, pdf
• Takeshi Ito, Daisuke Takano (2015). Changes in Cognitive Processes and Brain Activity. ICGA Journal, Vol. 38, No. 4 » Cognition
• Harm Geert Muller (2015). SHOKIDOKI wins MiniShogi Tournament. ICGA Journal, Vol. 38, No. 4 » 18th Computer Olympiad | Mini-Shogi
• Shogo Takeuchi, Tomoyuki Kaneko (2015). Estimating Ratings of Computer Players by the Evaluation Scores and Principal Variations in Shogi. ACIT-CSI
• Akira Ura, Yoshimasa Tsuruoka, Takashi Chikayama (2015). Dynamic Prediction of Minimal Trees in Large-Scale Parallel Game Tree Search. Journal of Information Processing, Vol. 23, No. 1
• Takenobu Takizawa (2015). The History of the World Computer Shogi Championship (WCSC). The 20th Game Programming Workshop
• Takenobu Takizawa, Takeshi Ito, Takuya Hiraoka, Kunihito Hoki (2015). Contemporary Computer Shogi. Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games

2017

• David Silver, Thomas Hubert, Julian Schrittwieser, Ioannis Antonoglou, Matthew Lai, Arthur Guez, Marc Lanctot, Laurent Sifre, Dharshan Kumaran, Thore Graepel, Timothy Lillicrap, Karen Simonyan, Demis Hassabis (2017). Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. arXiv:1712.01815 » AlphaZero

2018

• Yu Nasu (2018). ƎUИИ Efficiently Updatable Neural-Network based Evaluation Functions for Computer Shogi. Ziosoft Computer Shogi Club, pdf, pdf (Japanese with English abstract) GitHub - asdfjkl/nnue translation
• Takafumi Nakamichi, Takeshi Ito (2018). Adjusting the evaluation function for weakening the competency level of a computer shogi program. ICGA Journal, Vol. 40, No. 1
• David Silver, Thomas Hubert, Julian Schrittwieser, Ioannis Antonoglou, Matthew Lai, Arthur Guez, Marc Lanctot, Laurent Sifre, Dharshan Kumaran, Thore Graepel, Timothy Lillicrap, Karen Simonyan, Demis Hassabis (2018). A general reinforcement learning algorithm that masters chess, shogi, and Go through self-play. Science, Vol. 362, No. 6419
• Hanhua Zhu, Tomoyuki Kaneko (2018). Comparison of Loss Functions for Training of Deep Neural Networks in Shogi. TAAI 2018
• Taichi Nakayashiki, Tomoyuki Kaneko (2018). Learning of Evaluation Functions via Self-Play Enhanced by Checkmate Search. TAAI 2018
• Shogo Takeuchi (2018). Weighted Majority Voting with a Heterogeneous System in the Game of Shogi. TAAI 2018
• Takeshi Ito (2018). Game learning support system based on future position. CG 2018, ICGA Journal, Vol. 40, No. 4

2019

• Julian Schrittwieser, Ioannis Antonoglou, Thomas Hubert, Karen Simonyan, Laurent Sifre, Simon Schmitt, Arthur Guez, Edward Lockhart, Demis Hassabis, Thore Graepel, Timothy Lillicrap, David Silver (2019). Mastering Atari, Go, Chess and Shogi by Planning with a Learned Model. arXiv:1911.08265
• Tomoyuki Kaneko, Takenobu Takizawa (2019). Computer Shogi Tournaments and Techniques. IEEE Transactions on Games, Vol. 11
• Shogo Takeuchi (2019). Advice is Useful for Game AI: Experiments with Alpha-Beta Search Players in Shogi. Advances in Computer Games 16

2020 ...

• Jr-Chang Chen, Hsuan-Yu Wang, Po-Hsun Chen (2020). Nyanpass wins Minishogi and Diceshogi tournaments. ICGA Journal, Vol. 42, No. 1 » 22nd Computer Olympiad
• Julian Schrittwieser, Ioannis Antonoglou, Thomas Hubert, Karen Simonyan, Laurent Sifre, Simon Schmitt, Arthur Guez, Edward Lockhart, Demis Hassabis, Thore Graepel, Timothy Lillicrap, David Silver (2020). Mastering Atari, Go, chess and shogi by planning with a learned model. Nature, Vol. 588

Forum Posts

2007 ...

• Some thoughts on computer Shogi by Tord Romstad, SHOGI-L, January 15, 2007
• First draft of the Universal Shogi Interface (USI) by Tord Romstad, SHOGI-L, January 24, 2007
• Shogi by Onno Garms, Winboard Forum, September 14, 2007
• test by Nobu, SHOGI-L, July 22, 2008
• Announcement of the 19th World Computer Shogi Championship by Nobu, SHOGI-L, January 16, 2009
• WCSC19 Participant List by Nobu, SHOGI-L, February 03, 2009
• WCSC19 - current state by Nobu, SHOGI-L, May 04, 2009

2010 ...

• WCSC20 Participant List by Nobu, SHOGI-L, February 02, 2010
• USI2WB / UCI2WB release by Harm Geert Muller, CCC, October 01, 2010
• UCI2WB / USI2WB by Harm Geert Muller, Rybka Forum, October 01, 2010 » USI2WB

2011

• Announcement of the 21st World Computer Shogi Championship by Nobu, SHOGI-L, January 05, 2011

2012

• The 22nd World Computer Shogi Championship Applicant List by Reijer Grimbergen on behalf of Takenobu Takizawa, SHOGI-L, February 08, 2012
• Results of the 22nd World Computer Shogi Championships by Reijer Grimbergen on behalf of Takenobu Takizawa, SHOGI-L, May 10, 2012

2013

• computer beats pro by Larry Kaufman, SHOGI-L, April 21, 2013
• The 23rd World Computer Shogi Championship Applicant List by Reijer Grimbergen on behalf of Takenobu Takizawa, SHOGI-L, April 29, 2013
• Bonanza wins Computer Shogi Championship by Hiroshi Yamashita, SHOGI-L, May 06, 2013
• New version of HaChu released by Harm Geert Muller, CCC, June 16, 2013
• Table-less bitboards (bitrays?) by Harm Geert Muller, CCC, June 18, 2013 » Board Representation
• Shogi in Unix/Linux? by Joshua Pettus, Winboard Forum, October 19, 2013 » Linux

2014

• The 24th World Computer Shogi Championship Applicant List by Reijer Grimbergen on behalf of Takenobu Takizawa, SHOGI-L, February 10, 2014
• Shogi plea by Harm Geert Muller, CCC, July 23, 2014
• Shogi by Evert Glebbeek, CCC, October 20, 2014 » Sjaak

2015 ...

• The 25th World Computer Shogi Championships by Reijer Grimbergen on behalf of Takenobu Takizawa, SHOGI-L, February 11, 2015
• Large Shogi variants in XBoard by Harm Geert Muller, CCC, August 07, 2015 » XBoard
• Lima a mini shogi engine by Ferdinand Mosca, CCC, November 10, 2015
• Shokidoki wins UEC Cup! by Harm Geert Muller, CCC, November 22, 2015
• Siyam, a shogi 9x9 engine by Ferdinand Mosca, CCC, November 26, 2015

2016

• WCSC26 participation list by Reijer Grimbergen, SHOGI-L, April 08, 2016
• Sjaak II, Wa Shogi and XBoard 4.9 by Harm Geert Muller, CCC, April 25, 2016 » Sjaak II, XBoard
• Perft for Xiangqi & Shogi by Patrice Duhamel, CCC, June 12, 2016 » Xiangqi, Perft
• Japanese Chess (Shogi) Engines USI - Shogidokoro-GUI 3.7.2 by Norbert Raimund Leisner, CCC, September 12, 2016
• WinBoard 4.8.0 for Shogi - Tanuki USI Engine by Norbert Raimund Leisner, CCC, September 16, 2016
• Mini shogi engines and rating list by Ferdinand Mosca, CCC, December 09, 2016
• Sjaak II 1.4.1 and Shogi by Harm Geert Muller, CCC, December 14, 2016 » Sjaak II

2017 ...

• I hate this hobby... by Evert Glebbeek, CCC, January 20, 2017 » Sjaak II
• The Inferno thread by Harm Geert Muller, CCC, March 06, 2017 » Tenjiku Shogi, Incremental Updates
• The 27th World Computer Shogi Championship: participant list by Takenobu Takizawa, SHOGI-L, April 17, 2017
• Shogi: Ponanza finishes 2-0 sweep of Sato (Meijin) by BB+, OpenChess Forum, May 23, 2017

2019

• The 29th World Computer Shogi Championship Applicant List by Reijer Grimbergen on behalf of Takenobu Takizawa, SHOGI-L, February 03, 2019
• Shogi Perft numbers by Toni Helminen, CCC, August 14, 2019 » Perft

2020 ...

• The Stockfish of shogi by Larry Kaufman, CCC, January 07, 2020 » NNUE
• The Inferno Thread, part II by Harm Geert Muller, CCC, March 07, 2020 » Tenjiku Shogi
• Zero? by BCM, SHOGI-L, June 04, 2020

Re: Zero? by Harm Geert Muller, SHOGI-L, June 05, 2020

External Links

Shogi

• Shogi from Wikipedia
• Castle (shogi) from Wikipedia
• Shogi strategy and tactics from Wikipedia
• Handicap Series by Larry Kaufman, from Eric Cheymol's Shogi Page
• The Knight that Jumps High Falls Prey to a Pawn (1) by Diana Mihajlova, ChessBase News, January 03, 2015
• The Knight that Jumps High Falls Prey to a Pawn (2) by Diana Mihajlova, ChessBase News, January 04, 2015

Computer Shogi

• Computer Shogi Association Web Site
• How to start computer Shogi, shogiwiki
• Computer shogi from Wikipedia
• Shogi at the Computer Olympiad
• The Universal Shogi Interface (USI) » USI
• Shogi articles by Reijer Grimbergen

Variants

• Minishogi from Wikipedia
• Dai shogi from Wikipedia
• Chu shogi from Wikipedia
• Chu Shogi, the ancient super Chess game by Harm Geert Muller
• Tenjiku shogi from Wikipedia

References

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