Computer shogi

Computer shogi

This paper describes the current state of the art in computer shogi. Shogi (Japanese chess) promises to be a good vehicle for future research into game-playing programs that are based on tree-searching paradigms. This paper shows where chess and shogi are similar, and details the important areas that make shogi programming of particular interest. A crucial difference is the game-tree complexity...

Selfish Search on Playing Shogi

An Evaluation Function for Shogi

Shogi and chess are similar games. The aim in both games is to mate the opponent's king. However, the main di erence between shogi and chess is that in shogi pieces taken from the opponent can be used again. This has important consequences for the evaluation function. In chess the material balance is vital for the evaluation of a position while in shogi the evaluation of a position is much more...

Using Bitboards for Move Generation in Shogi

In this paper it will be explained how to use bitboards for move generation in shogi. In chess, bitboards have been used in most strong programs because of the easy representation of a chess board by a single 64-bit integer. For shogi, a less efficient representation has to be used because a shogi board has 81 squares instead of 64. A representation with an array of three integers is proposed, ...

Dual Lambda Search and Shogi Endgames

We propose a new threat-base search algorithm which takes into account threats by both players. In full-board Semeais in Go or Shogi endgames, making naive attack moves often result in losing the game. The reason is that a player must first make a defense move if the opponent has a better attack move than his own. Some attack moves weaken the defense of the player who made the move. Thus, playe...