Recently while playing Shogi, I've noticed myself losing confidence in my play, even while recognizing that I've been improving. In the last week I've been challenging the lower ranked players on 81 Dojo because I feel anxious to play against the high ranking players. But my philosophy has always been that Losing is Learning and an opportunity to become a better player.
So I decided that from now on, I'm going to challenge the highest ranking players available anytime I'm on 81 Dojo. I expect a lot of losses, but I'm going to try my best. Also, I decided to make a new category. You may have noticed there's a new tab on the top of the page titled "Lessons I learned". It will be game posts similar to the Game Breakdowns, however it will focus on the mistakes made in the aforementioned games, why it succeeded against me, and what countermeasures could've been taken. (And, yes, the title is intended as a reference to Karolina San ^__^ ) This challenge has posed some difficulty for me so far, but I suppose that's why it's called a challenge. Usually I'm used to playing about 5 or 6 games a day, but moving that number to about 9 a day has proven somewhat difficult to sustain. I'm persevering and still driven to complete this challenge.
Though, an unexpected effect has resulted from the necessity for 8/9 games per day; I've found myself somewhat apathetic toward the result of the game sometimes, and thinking, "Well, whatever. Even if I lose it still adds one to the count." And this is bad, so it's a thought I've been fighting off and trying to maintain a desire to win. Without that desire, I'll learn much less from these games, and would probably, by the end of these 1,000 games, have been better off just playing for fun. So, I've been trying to push that thought away when it comes up, and really try to win, and to have fun. This post is titled "Difficulty" to be intentionally generic about what precisely is difficult. It isn't just maintaining the game count and desire to win, but continuing to make daily posts is proving to be too much. The already high volume of shogi games is time consuming enough. But in addition to this, I work a full time job and have other things I have to do. Thus, it is the purpose of this article to explain that I'll be changing it from "Best Game of the Day" to "Game Breakdowns", and will no longer be doing them every single night. It is too much work, and I don't have time for it every night. I still intend to recreate games and do the same extent of breakdowns, perhaps three times a week, maybe more, maybe less. The benefit of this, for the readers is that I won't be forced to pick a game from each day and try to break it down; Not every game has many noteworthy points to explain, and it's unnecessary work. With more time to do them, the quality of my analysis will go up while the volume goes down. And as usual, I'll post an update on Facebook every time a post is made. Thank you for reading. And stay tuned for more. -GinShoNinja Tomorrow, on September 1st, I'll begin the challenge to play 1,000 games before the last day of this year on December 31st. It averages out to just under 9 games per day. Typically I play about 5 or 6 a day anyway, so it won't be a huge increase, but the consistency and volume of it is slightly intimidating.
I know I can do it, and I'll be proud to have completed it and be a better player at the end. - A good way to start the new year! Wish me luck and stay tuned for the daily and weekly game posts! -GinShoNinja My dad taught me Chess when I was a kid, and I played it for a long time. This sort of game has always attracted me, so when I discovered Shogi and learned about it, the idea really grabbed me. Chess has its own type of complexity that is enjoyable, but since learning Shogi I've never been able to go back to it.
The idea of dropping captured pieces, and having so many of them be able to promote is just wonderful. It's not like in Chess where the goal is mainly to keep piece trades equal; In Shogi the position of your own pieces must be taken into account during a piece trade based on what piece can be dropped where to attack you, and the position of your opponent's pieces must be considered in trade. What can you do with the piece you're trading for? Sometimes sacrificing your Dragon for a Silver general will win you the game. Or less dramatically, dropping a pawn as a sacrifice to make a piece move into a less-ideal position for your opponent. The possibilities are quite literally endless. It's this quality in Shogi that attracts me so heavily. But not just for the actual play of it. Of course playing the game is the enjoyable part, but there's a further benefit to spending time playing Shogi because of its unique nuances, and that is the way it teaches you to think. You learn to consider the outcome of your actions, or other events going on, and what will be different after the fact. The latter point is the important part. You begin to see more clearly what will change as the result of an action, and what can be done from that point. Furthermore it teaches you, and reinforces the process of weighing decisions, choosing one over the other because of its practical effects, and not only the results of it, but the method by which one gets there. How is this beneficial? This is a wonderful thought process to develop because, at least for me, it makes it much harder to knowingly make a bad decision. Shogi makes habitual the process of weighing choices and considering their outcomes, recognizing the mistakes you made and learning from them. These are fundamental necessities for survival in real life. Of course these things can be learned otherwise, and Shogi isn't for everyone, but it is such a beautiful art form that teaches one these things. Shogi is not just a game. Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for more and like my page on Facebook for updates! |
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January 2019
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