Virtual and real pieces with indication of how to move

An Shotest Shogi user commented about the necessity of real shogi pieces with indication of how to move.

Shogi on the XBox 360! | Shogi | BoardGameGeek

I wish I could find a real board and pieces like the ones they use for this. One look at the piece and you know how it moves. Makes it lots more fun to play when I know what each piece is.

Here is the link to an image of pieces with indication of how to move. One character such as K, R, B or so represents what the piece is and the move is indicated by using arrows.

Xbox.com | Media Viewer - Shotest Shogi ScreenShot

In Japan, Kumon sells shogi pieces with the indication of how to move together with a board. The big difference comparing with the pieces of Shotest is that one Kanji character is used to represents what the piece is. The idea of using arronws on each piece is very similar, though. The page below includes some images of pieces Kumon sells.

【楽天市場】NEWスタディ将棋：日本将棋連盟

Comments

[trick77]

George Hodges ([email protected]) sells pieces that look exactly like the ones used for Shotest.
By the way, F.X. Schmid made an international Shogi version back in the 1970s (!) which was sold under the name of "Samurai". Additionally the promotion zone had a different colour than the rest of the board, which might be helpful for beginners. You can find 2nd hand copies on ebay regularly. Unfortunately, pieces are a bit larger than standard pieces, so you cannot use them together with a regular Shogi board.
Here is a picture:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/148017

[Ryou Takehito]

I don't really understand why people need those indications in Shogi pieces and board. I have a friend who can't read or differentiate the words of Chinese and Japanese and yet he can memorized all the moves and rules of Shogi in a day when I taught him. Although it does took him some time to differentiate between Gold, Silver, Dragon and Horse.

[takodori]

> trick77

Thanks for information.

> Ryou Takehito

Even some Japanse children need Kumon's pieces. So why not non-Japanese? I thinks these pieces does exist since someone need such ones.