If you only follow shogi in English, you’re seeing the game through a small window. English shogi websites are awesome, but most of the “main stage” is still in Japan. That means a lot of the biggest shogi pages are Japanese-only. They aren’t fully copied into English, and they don’t have a real English twin.
Here are five Japanese shogi sites that Japanese fans use all the time—and that English shogi sites can’t really replace. I’ll also show you what to click, even if your Japanese is close to zero.
A simple way to use Japanese shogi sites (even if you can’t read much)
This is my routine:
- Open the page and turn on browser translate.
- Ignore the paragraphs and hunt for the menu words. (棋譜, 中継, ブログ, etc.)
- Let the board do the talking. Even if you don’t understand the commentary, you can still follow the moves and the tension.
Now let’s jump in. (more…)