I would like to begin with information for people who has not known and would like to know about shogi. In short, Shogi is a chesslike boardgame played by two players. The object is to checkmate your opponent's King. You have 20 pieces in 8 kinds on the board when you start a game. You can re-enter captured pieces on the board which makes the game more complex and fascinating.
Shogi in the Limelight(PDF file) was published by The Japan Foundation in The Japan Foundation Newsletter VOL.XXVI/NOS.5-6 in April 1999. It contains the following articles;
The History of Shogi(by Yoshinori Kimura, Director of Shogi Museum)
The beauty of Shogi(by Yoshio Osaki, former chief editor of 'Shogi Sekai'
The appeal of Shogi(by Haruo Matsumoto, Journalist)
I think this newsletter is a good start. Furthermore, Shogi Net has been a good resource for non-Japanese people. Especially, it has a long lasting mailing list called shgi-l where shogi fans and organizers come together from various countries. If you like to keep noted on shogi, I highly recommend to subscribe it. The discussion in the shogi-l has been archived since 1990 so that you can read lots of interesting posting. The mailing list moved to Shogi-l Google Group on July 21 2008.
A Rival of Chess Takes Wing Abroad : Mysteries of Shogi - International Herald Tribune (This link was added on September 3 2008.)
Shogi in Wikipedia in English.(added November 23, 2006) --- Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. The explanation of shogi updates from time to time. Wikipedia is not only written in English but also in various languages. The item of Shogi is written in more than 20 languages. If you are interested, please visit the link above and see the bottom of the side bar menu in the left there. You will find the language choice like the image in the left.
You can read this articles in Russian here: http://shogi.ru/lib/JFN.rar
Russian translator: Daniel Kulin
Posted by: Yury Shpilev | November 22, 2006 at 04:34 PM