Navigating Qinoa Shogi Site
Qinoa Shogi site (https://syougi.qinoa.com/ja) uses AI shogi engine to offer game plays and Tsume shogi problems. Lets explorer the site

Site comes with nominal amount of English so you can possibly learn the site structure by clicking away. However, I hope this guide will make that learning process a little easier.

In the home screen, where it says "game menu" is what you will click most often. When you do, the browser will jump to the game page and land on "Normal Menu" tab. This page shows the number of "play" buttons

At the time of this writing, the table is divided in 4 sections. "Beginner level" is for those who just started learning Shogi. "Low level" is for novice, "Medium level" is for advanced and 'High-minus level' for experts. As hinted in "High-minus" description, It appears the site owner is intending to add "High" or semi-professional level in the future.

There are several AI configuration made available in the table, each with different traits and avators

Player Traits
Plays unfocused. Mild attacker. For the first time learner.
Plays unfocused. Tend to swing rook. Mild deffender. For the first time learner.
A bit finicky beginner. For the first time learner.
A beginner ready to graduate from novice status. For the first time learner.
Specializes in so called 'Ahiru' tactics. Note that this Ahiru is special variance of 'Ahiru' and not likely the one you will encounter in the wild
Orthodocs Sitting Rook player
Specialized in Center Rook
Uses Flexible tactics. Can play either Swing Rook or Sitting Rook
Specialized in playing Right Fourth Swing Rook. Tend to be aggressive.
Swing Rook player. Plays Third or Fourth Swing Rook.
Deep learner

There are two rows of play buttons. the first row let you play First as 'Sente'(先手) and the second row buttons will let you play as 'Gote'(後手)

Now its time to start playing. Select your opponent, then decide your turn and click on appropriate "Play" button. You will be treated with game board, ready to play. If you are 'Sente' then you need to make a move first by clicking a piece and then select a position to play.

If you are 'Gote' then the computer will make a first move

Whenever you are about to make a move, a playable position will be highlighted for a selected piece. In the picture below, I picked up my Bishop and ready to play. It highlights the area where I can move the piece to.

Once the game starts, three buttons will become visible at the bottom of the game board. You can 'Undo' your just once. You can ask for 'hint' up to 7 times in "beginner" mode and one time in other modes. Afterwards, those buttons disappear.

At the end of the game, the dialog pops up and shows the result. There are a couple of area that is worth mentioning

  • "Again" link is for playing another game with same setup.
  • "OrderChange-Match" is for the same game but you will play other side.
  • "Output Kifu" will generate Kifu in CAS format
  • There are play buttons to review your game progress
  • Graph at the bottom shows the game analysis by the computer.

You will probably has less use of buttons on the top. Each is clearly identified with Japanese and English. Re-connect may become handy if your connection with internet is poor. The site will try to let you continue the game in case you lost your connection.
'Share' gives you a link that you can embed in your social media posting.

Back to Game's top page, if you click on "Exotic games" tab, then you will be presented not with a table, but with configurable dialog. This dialog is consists of 4 sections. Each are explained below

The first section let you select your turn. By default it is randomly set. Note that in Shogi, 'black' plays first (先手)

The next session let you chose variety of pre-configured games.

This is normal game(Default)
Pre-configured game. This selection let you play Yagura. Pieces are already arranged on the board and you are supposed to continue playing game.
Pre-configured game. With this selection, Sente(先手:Black) will play sitting Rook and Gote(後手:White) will play Swing Rook known as Fujii-system
Pre-congured game. With this selection, Sente(先手:Black) will play Side Pawn Picker and Gote(後手:White) will counter with 8五Rook
Pre-configured game. With this selection, Both will play Swing Rook
Pre-configured game. Sitting rook with rapid attack intention vs Swing rook.
Pre-configured game. Both side plays Bishop exchanged sitting Silver formation.
These selections let you play Shogi variant. Pieces you have on the shogi board will be variants of formal shogi play. You can take a peek at those if you are curious but they will not be covered as these forms are not formal shogi.

The next section select AI player. Currently there is only one and it is already selected.

Finally, the last section let you select the strenght of AI player. Default is set to 20.

Once you are happy with your selections, hit Play button and enjoy playing!

This page was originally created 3 years, 8 months ago and last updated 3 years, 6 months ago