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. In 2013, the best programs seem at the level of the best human professional players .

Development of Shogi programs has taken slightly different route than in chess programming. The stress is on pattern recognition and selective search techniques.

Shogi Engines

• Apery
• Bonanza
• CrazyWa
• Gekisashi
• GPS Shogi
• ShogiNet
• Shokidoki
• Shotest
• Sjaak (Glebbeek)
• Spear
• Tacos
• YSS
• Zillions of Games

Computer Olympiads

• 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
• 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
• 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

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

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

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

• 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

Forum Posts

2007 ...

• Some thoughts on computer Shogi by Tord Romstad, January 15, 2007
• Shogi by Onno Garms, Winboard Forum, September 14, 2007

2010 ...

• USI2WB / UCI2WB release by Harm Geert Muller, CCC, October 01, 2010
• UCI2WB / USI2WB by Harm Geert Muller, Rybka Forum, October 01, 2010 » USI2WB
• 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
• Shogi plea by Harm Geert Muller, CCC, July 23, 2014
• Shogi by Evert Glebbeek, CCC, October 20, 2014 » Sjaak

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

• 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
• 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
• Shogi: Ponanza finishes 2-0 sweep of Sato (Meijin) by BB+, OpenChess Forum, May 23, 2017
• Shogi Perft numbers by Toni Helminen, CCC, August 14, 2019 » Perft

2020 ...

• The Stockfish of shogi by Larry Kaufman, CCC, January 07, 2020

External Links

Shogi

• Shogi from Wikipedia
• Computer shogi from Wikipedia
• Shogi strategy and tactics from Wikipedia
• Shogi at the Computer Olympiad
• The Universal Shogi Interface (USI)
• Shogi articles by Reijer Grimbergen
• 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

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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