If can't you bet 'em.....ban 'em.

[Taro Toporific]

Japanese chess masters ordered not to play computer opponents
MSN-Mainichi Daily News: October 15, 2005---Masters belonging to the Japan Shogi Federation have been ordered not to play unauthorized games against computer opponents in public...It is believed the federation's directive came about because a computer made the quarterfinals of the shogi national amateur championship in June and went close to beating a go-dan master in a public match last month....more...

[Mulboyne]

The Shogi Federation wants to appeal to fans' more basic urges


MDN: Busty shogi queen helps pad Japanese chess fan base
Japan's fickle world of shogi, a local derivative of chess, has long been open to ridicule. But, thanks to some prominent knockers, women's shogi in particular is now undergoing something of a boom in popularity, according to Shukan Post. Prattling away on the taxpayer funded NHK network in the earthy but friendly Kansai dialect of Japanese, diminutive but busty 24-year-old Shinobu Iwane is keeping growing numbers of Japanese abreast of the happenings in the world of women's shogi, aided ably by her ample bosom...more...

[Taro Toporific]

"Cut it out," she tells ... angrily. "Keep the questions to shogi, buster." (By the FG's own MarvinConnell)