Jose explains what shogi is and how he built a passion for the game.
During my time at university, I have become involved in a few societies through the Students’ Union and one of these is Shogi. I got involved with Shogi during Welcome Week when I discovered their stand. One of my friends was part of the committee, so he convinced me to join, and I have loved it ever since!
Shogi is an ancient game that was developed in Japan around the sixth century, it belongs to the same family as European chess or the Chinese xiangqi. It is a game that is played between two players that are in control of an army each, with the same number and types of pieces.
The ultimate objective of the game is to trap and checkmate the enemy king and the player that does this first will win the match. In competitions, there is normally a time limit, but there are matches that can last up to three days, when the grand masters play the game. This is because unlike in normal chess when a piece is taken, it is not killed but captured. Therefore, a captured piece can be deployed on any square of the board where there is not a piece already. Thanks to the cultural diversity here at UCLan, the game became popular enough to create a society around it.
We are now a well-established society that has a good track record of participation in cultural events that take place on campus throughout the academic year. This includes the most recent Bunkasai Festival and in attendance at this event was the Japanese ambassador to the UK, to promote Japanese culture and education. Before the pandemic, the society had organised social events such as visits to the cinema and bowling, alongside our weekly meet ups to play Shogi (which we cannot wait to get back to!).
As a society we dedicate a lot of time to two main activities, the study of tactics and the game but also the socials that anyone can attend to find out more about Shogi. We have many students join us from both Europe and Asia, they are from a wide range of courses in general too, some from related disciplines such as Asia Pacific Studies to people like me who study Aerospace Engineering.
