International Shogi Promotion Activities — Shogi topics presented by professional and amateur players
According to the Leisure White Paper 2020, There are 6.2 million Shogi players in the world.
Of course, the largest number of players is in Japan. But in fact, Shogi is widely played overseas as well. Since I created a Twitter account for Shogi in April 2021, I have learned that people of various nationalities enjoy playing Shogi.
USA, Italy, UK, France, Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, Mozambique, and so on.
In this story, I will introduce professional and amateur players who are contributing to the overseas promotion of Shogi.
・Karolina Styczyńska sensei
・Daisuke Katagami sensei
・Madoka Kitao sensei
・Shuji Muranaka sensei
・HIDETCHI-san
I’ll also include the English topics that each of these people has been sending out, so if you’re interested, take a look at the links!
Overseas Promotion Activities by Professional players
Karolina Styczyńska sensei
Speaking of the overseas promotion of Shogi, I can’t help but mention this person. She is from Poland and is the first foreign female Shogi player.
She became interested in Shogi because a character in the Japanese ninja manga “Naruto” played Shogi, and honed her skills on the Shogi game site “81dojo”.
She has a youtube channel where she teaches Shogi, especially a playlist video called “Road to Shodan,” which is easy for beginners to understand and valuable for English speakers who have just started playing Shogi.
Daisuke Katagami sensei
He is a master of Karolina sensei. Also, he published a Shogi book in English.
Furthermore, he teaches Shogi to English speakers. You can watch his coaching games with many players on the “Shogi Harbour” channel.
Madoka Kitao sensei
In addition to her activities as a female Shogi player, she has established Nekomado Co., Ltd. and as part of that, she is selling shogi products to overseas markets.
She is also very enthusiastic about promoting Shogi overseas and has been traveling abroad to promote Shogi. She also supported Karolina-sensei to become a professional female player.
Shuji Muranaka sensei
He has been posting videos with English subtitles on the “Mura Channel” on youtube.
Not all of what he says in Japanese is translated into English, but the English subtitles are clear and to the point, and are useful for intermediate to advanced players of Shogi.
Overseas Promotion Activities by amateur
HIDETCHI-san
He is the administrator of the famous 81dojo.
I have tried various Shogi playing sites and apps, but I find 81dojo’s English version is particularly good. In fact, 81dojo has a large number of players who participate from overseas.
Also, Hidetchi-san has a youtube channel where he teaches the basics of Shogi in English. The playlist “How to play Shogi” contains 40 lesson videos, which are also useful for beginners.
Conclusion
In my research, I found out that many professional players and amateurs are already working to promote the game overseas. I believe that it is because of their efforts that I see players from overseas on 81dojo and other sites.
In the introduction of amateur players, I introduced Hidetchi-san, who has contributed the most, but several amateurs are sending out Shogi topics in English on youtube and other media.
Now that it is easier for individuals to send out topics to the world, I hope that the spread of Shogi overseas will continue to progress. Of course, I would be happy if my activities would be of help.
