GNU Shogi

GNU Shogi is a computer program that plays the game of Shogi, also known as Japanese Chess.

Downloading GNU Shogi

GNU Shogi can be found on the main GNU ftp server: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnushogi/ (via HTTP) and ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnushogi/ (via FTP). It can also be found on the GNU mirrors; please use a mirror if possible.

Documentation

Documentation for GNU Shogi, including the rules of Shogi, is available online, as is documentation for most GNU software. You may also find more information about GNU Shogi by running info gnushogi or man gnushogi, or by looking at /usr/share/doc/gnushogi/, /usr/local/doc/gnushogi/, or similar directories on your system.

Other sources of information about Shogi

For more information on shogi, go to Pieter Stouten's shogi page, which has links to essentially all shogi-related material on the internet. Many thanks to Pieter for providing this service!

Wikipedia, also hosts useful information about the game, and versions of the rules in many languages.

Reporting problems

Problems with GNU Shogi can be reported through the project's bug tracker.

GUI frontends

GNU Shogi proper is only the AI engine, and you will likely want to use a GUI frontend to be more comfortable. The gnushogi program does include a text-based UI if you're into this sort of things, and the source distribution also includes the (very) old xshogi frontend for the X Window system. Suggested frontends include:

Tagua
A KDE-based GUI for Chess and Shogi. Developement stopped several years ago, and it is still somewhat maintained at Debian
Omaha
A generic board-game GUI, supporting Shogi and other games, with currently only a Gtk2-based UI.
Kaya
A small KDE-based GUI successor to Tagua, but developement of this still young program seem to have stalled.
XBoard
A GUI for much more than Shogi, part of the GNU Project - patches for GNU Shogi to support it are being integrated into the developement version, 1.4.0 cannot talk to it.

Mailing lists

GNU Shogi has the following mailing lists:

Announcements about GNU Shogi and most other GNU software are made on info-gnu (archive).

Security reports that should not be made immediately public can be sent directly to the maintainer. If there is no response to an urgent issue, you can escalate to the general security mailing list for advice.

Getting involved

Development of GNU Shogi, and GNU in general, is a volunteer effort, and you can contribute. For information, please read How to help GNU. If you'd like to get involved, it's a good idea to join the discussion mailing list (see above).

Test releases
Trying the latest test release (when available) is always appreciated. Test releases of GNU Shogi can be found at http://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gnushogi/ (via HTTP) and ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gnushogi/ (via FTP).
Development
For development sources, issue trackers, and other information, please see the GNU Shogi project page at savannah.gnu.org.
Maintainer
GNU Shogi is currently being maintained by Yann Dirson. Please use the mailing lists for contact.

Licensing

GNU Shogi is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.