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Post by Uzumaki Ijoufu on Oct 18, 2006 0:31:22 GMT -5
The hardest part of Ijoufu’s FAN-aticism for sports was keeping in touch with the ever changing sports-verse. In Konoha what seemed to be the only sport played was the childish “Ninja.” Nobody wanted to play basketball, there were no hoops, no goalposts for football, no fences for Baseball. Ijoufu’s equipment was special ordered; Konoha was the Sahara of the sports world, barren and ultimately dull.
To keep touch with the sports world Ijoufu spent every Sunday during this time of year in the library. Ever heard the term “Monday Morning Quarterback”….. Ijoufu took it through to Thursday. He would analyze every play what worked what might have worked better, and without that demonic librarian the library had become quite peaceful. Ijoufu always had the same problem though…. HE WAS THE ONLY SPORTS FAN IN KONOHA!
He had to find some way to even indirectly discuss sports or strategy with someone, preferably someone intelligent. Ijoufu had a flash of brilliance; he wanted to talk strategy… The most strategic game in Konoha was always ready to be played by the best and brightest. If Ijoufu started hustling Shogi a “sport” he enjoyed he could talk to someone intelligent besides…. ya know, his bunshin.
So there he sat, a table at a picnic table in Konoha park playing Shogi against himself…He was intentionally making poor moves hoping at least some person with enough intelligence to play a game of kings (pun fully intended) would step in to correct him. If anything this could be the first part of Ijoufu’s strategy discussion.
Lesson 1: Set the bait, wait for a hook, line, and sinker.
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Uchiha Saya
Academy Student
"It's not a matter of whether we need it or not..."
Posts: 19
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Post by Uchiha Saya on Oct 18, 2006 21:40:47 GMT -5
It was beautiful day, really. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and Saya's hair, plastered wet against her head from her mid-day dip in the lake, was glistening in the sunlight. Her morning training had gone excellently, and after snacking on some nutritious food, she had taken a few minutes to refresh herself in the clean and cool lake.
From there, however, she had to take a break. As much as she wanted to keep training, her body couldn't take constant stress like that. It'd just have to wait until later in the afternoon. And so she found herself strolling aimlessly through the park, a slight smile on her face, not really looking for anything in particular, just something to pass the time.
Wouldn't you know, she found it! It was, perhaps, destined. Yeah, right. The thought that of all the choices she could have made, they all would have ended up here, was a stupid idea. Wasn't that what destiny was? Or was she thinking of something else? In the end, it didn't matter, and she highly doubted that her destiny was to stumble across the sports-baka playing some kind of board game against himself. I mean, what kind of destiny is that?
Ifouji--er, Ijoufu, the class clown and sports fanatic, was sitting at a table in the park, playing the strange tiled game against himself. At least, she was pretty sure that strange game was a two-person game. She didn't actually know how to play it, or even what it was-- her experience with strategic board games being limited, but if it was anything like Go, it should have two people playing it for it to be any fun.
That he had no opponent wasn't really too surprising, there were few people who spent time with him unless absolutely necessary, after all. It was some taboo that she didn't understand. Her own parents had not, to her recollection, ever said anything about the loud-mouthed boy, but she had heard various stories and reports of other parents informing their children to never, ever play with Ijoufu.
"Oi, yuugi-baka!" Saya called out with a laugh as she closed in on him, "Can't find anyone to play with you?"
"Not that it surprises me," She added with a smirk, sliding into the seat across from him, "Your interests in strange games like this is as weird as your face."
It was easy to mistake Shogi as a strange game. It was pretty much undeniable truth that any game the Uzumaki kid was interested in was strange. Like that 'football' and 'baseball' games he went on about. The thought that he was playing a real game never crossed her mind in the slightest.
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Post by Uzumaki Ijoufu on Oct 18, 2006 23:06:21 GMT -5
If I play my Lance here I can begin Tsumeshogi from Nakahara Makoto’s and Kato Hifumi’s jishog…[/i] Ijoufu’s vault of history was brutally interrupted. In his head across the board from him was Kato Hifumi, defending champion of Shogi’s Meijin title. He was playing a strange variety of Makoto’s game inserting moves he felt to be stronger (though most likely they weren’t) and occasionally throwing in a horrible move on both sides to make it seem atrocious. However his concentration was broken when a shrill screech echoed in his ears.
"Oi, yuugi-baka! Can't find anyone to play with you?"
"Not that it surprises me, your interests in strange games like this is as weird as your face."
Oh, no she didn’t! This was gonna get Jerry Springer if she continued dissing sports. The second line almost shocked Ijoufu though… The smartest student in his class didn’t know Shogi?! You gotta be kidding me. Brains and arrogance, this has to be the best hanging curve EVER!
“You're calling me stupid?! Learn some history! This game dates earlier than this village, hell this country as is. This is the game for true geniuses, geniuses of war. Shogi is the pinnacle of intelligent gaming. In fact generals had been promoted simply due to their Shogi knowledge and strategy. This is a game for those who can see beyond the pages of a book. This is a game of inherent knowledge.
But hey, I’m sure someone like you has much better things to do. You probably have some sort of book to read at the library or something. So uh, have a good time learning about the circumference of a cow or whatever useless info those books will teach you.”
The bait probably looked too damned good to resist.
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Uchiha Saya
Academy Student
"It's not a matter of whether we need it or not..."
Posts: 19
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Post by Uchiha Saya on Oct 20, 2006 21:54:40 GMT -5
First came the anger. Game of inherent knowledge? Geniuses of war? Who the hell did he think he was, trying to insult her like that?! Talking out of his ass, most likely, but the name 'shogi' did sound somewhat familiar. Though the idea that a guy could be promoted to general(general, general of what? Ninja didn't have generals...) just from skill at playing a game was ludicrous.
Her face twitched, and her hands tightened into fists. Of course, this was when a painful soreness crept up her arms, and she was brought back to a somewhat calmer state as her body informed her of just how much she would not like fighting at the moment. So, she instead took a deep breath and opened her hands, bringing her right up to become a resting place for her chin as she look tiredly at the board.
"Nevermind. I guess you're just hoping someone would stop by to play with you, huh? Right out here in the middle of the park and all." She picked up a random piece off the board with her left hand, examining it with a rather bored interest.
It had writing on both sides, on the one side, ginshou, on the other, narigin. Promoted silver, ne? Not simply a reversible piece, then? Like some kind of video game class change, maybe. It was foreign, but Saya had confidence in her ability to pick it up. After all, she was pretty smart.
Okay, okay, she was a genius.
She fully expected to be able to beat the yuugi-baka within a few games, if she took the time to learn. And why not? If it was really a game for strategic geniuses, wouldn't it be helpful? She had just spent the morning training her body, she should spend this time recovering training her mind.
She tossed the piece back onto the board and leaned back a bit, stretching her arms out behind her head, "So, how do you play this game?"
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Post by Uzumaki Ijoufu on Oct 21, 2006 10:03:35 GMT -5
"So, how do you play this game?"Oh, this really is too easy. From this point it was too easy. Ijoufu could partially explain the rules to gain an advantage…. But that would be unsportsmanlike, and Ijoufu would have none of that. He would explain the game best as possible. “Shogi is a variation of the more commonly known game of Chess. As you can see this is a 9x9 board, the starting formation assembled like so.” The game plays much like traditional chess with a few added circumstances:” Ijoufu pulled a small book out of his bag on it was written a several blindfold games as well as a standard rule set. ________________________________________________ Standard Rules [/u][/center] 1.) Perpetual check is forbidden. The player initiating the check must break it off.
2.) Promotions are granted as follows...
A starting piece moving to a square in the promotion zone (the last 3 ranks) earns a promotion. A promotion is indicated by flipping the piece over to display the symbol on its bottom side.
An earned promotion (see above) may be deferred to a later move, as long as this move begins inside the promotion zone (the last 3 ranks). Where the move ends is of no relevance.
Pieces arriving at a rank whereon they can move no further must promote. [e.g., a Pawn or Lance arriving on the 9th rank; a Knight arriving on the 8th or 9th rank.]
Promoted pieces lose their promotion upon capture.
Pieces 'dropped' into the promotion zone (the last 3 ranks) may not promote until making at least one move. (See below).
3.) As well as any enemy piece captured may be placed on your side of the board as your piece.
4.) Captive drops are performed as follows... A captured piece may be dropped onto the board (placed on a vacant square) to subsequently be used as one's own. This is done in lieu of a regular move.
A Pawn may not be dropped onto a file containing a non-promoted Pawn.
No piece may be dropped to a square from which it is impossible to move. [e.g., a Pawn or Lance to the 9th rank; a Knight to the 8th or 9th rank.]
A checkmate may not be performed by the drop of a Pawn. A King may be checked by dropping a Pawn, but only if the drop does not result in an immediate checkmate.” Piece Movements The King (actually 'jeweled general') moves as an Orthodox King.
The Gold General may move one square vertically, horizontally, or diagonally forward. (In all directions except diagonally rearward).
The Silver General may move one square diagonally, or straight forward. (In all directions except horizontally or straight rearward.)
The Knight (actually 'honorable horse') has the two forward-most moves of the Orthodox Knight. For example, a white Knight on d5 may go to c7 or to e7. It may leap over occupied squares.
The Lance has the forward-most move of the Orthodox Rook, keeping always in the same file. (Without promotion the Lance cannot leave its home file.)
The Bishop (actually 'angle goer') moves as an Orthodox Bishop.
The Rook (actually 'flying chariot') moves as an Orthodox Rook.
The Pawn (actually 'soldier') moves one square straight forward. Shogi Pawns capture in the same manner as they move -- as do all Shogi pieces. Promotions [/center][/b] The Silver General promotes to a Gold General.
The Knight promotes to a Gold General.
The Lance promotes to a Gold General.
The Pawn promotes to a Gold General.
The Rook promotes to Dragon King which has the combined moves of King and a Rook.
The Bishop promotes to Dragon Horse which has the combined moves of King and a Bishop.
________________________________________________ Ijoufu stared back at the Uchiha prodigy, “You think you can handle it? Take all the time you need.” This was a game Ijoufu was not going to lose.
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Uchiha Saya
Academy Student
"It's not a matter of whether we need it or not..."
Posts: 19
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Post by Uchiha Saya on Oct 25, 2006 22:18:19 GMT -5
Listening to the idiot go over all the rules increased Saya's respect for him a tiny bit. Why didn't he put this much effort into memorizing stuff in class? Despite the boring-ness and confusing-ness of listening to rules and watching the demonstrations, Saya's genius mind naturally memorized the rules as he went through. It's what she did in class, what helped her get the grades she did.
"Hnn, okay! I got it now. That piece, and that piece... Hmm." She tapped her lips with two fingers as she thought, playing through normal moves in her head.
It was a strategic game, no doubt. Each kind of piece had a different way to move at first, some more mobile than others. It couldn't be compared to a real situation, but the understanding of utilizing certain pieces to their strengths was something a leader would have to do in a real battle. They could even 'level up', like real people, even if the way they did it was nonsensical. Certain other things really detracted from the real-world applications as well, like the using enemy pieces as your own, and the no retreating, even strategically, which still brought a few doubts about the whole 'promoted because of gaming skill', that Ijoufu had brought up.
Video games could do this better. More options, more individuality, some even in real time! Well, you couldn't have everything, huh? This game was probably pretty well balanced, after all.
"That reminds me," Ignoring the fact that the baka would have no way to tell what, exactly, had reminded her, she pressed on, "how do we decide who goes first? Coin flip.. I know, Janken!"
Automatically assuming he would agree with her, she brought back her hands into a classic Janken position, "Alright, here goes, ready~?"
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