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Tutorial for 81dojo.com

An essential tutorial for registering a personal account and understanding the operational mechanics. For further details, please refer to the instructions on 81dojo.com.

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After clicking on the preferred language, you are automatically directed to a choice page:

1. entrance to access the gaming platform directly with your pre-registered account or as a guest.
2. websystem to create a personal account.

To create your own account, click ‘websystem’.

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Proceed by clicking the ‘create new account’ button.

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Fill in the fields:

1. Name (nickname);
2. Email (real);
3. Country (your own nationality or country of residence);
4. Rank (your own skill level; for beginners, it’s assumed to be 9 kyu, but it’s adjustable and will be determined by the site after 5 games with players of established ranking);
5. Enter and confirm your password;
6. Confirm that you have read the terms and privacy policy;
7. Click ‘Sign up’ and follow the subsequent instructions.

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Once you have your own personal account, to access the gaming platform, you need to reach the page with the ‘entrance‘ button and click on it.

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After entering the main screen, you will notice four distinct areas (1-2-3-4) and a fifth menu bar (5):

• Player list – Area of online players.
• Waiting list – Area for players waiting for an opponent.
• Area for reading announcements and public chat (everyone can read what is written).
• Game list – Area for ongoing or recently finished games (some are restricted, but usually very few).
• Command buttons – Internal menu bar.

In the first area of online players, you can see the nicknames of registered users and ‘guest…‘ for unregistered guest users.

For each player, the following information is provided:

• Name – if it’s in blue, they are automatically declining game invitations.
• Rate – the player’s points, which are gained or lost based on game outcomes (you can still play in ‘non-rated’ mode).
• Country – nationality.
• Rank – the rank or level, in descending order from 7 dan to 1 dan and then from 1 kyu to 15 kyu.
• Stat – G (playing a game), M (watching a game), W (waiting to play and found in the ‘waiting list‘ [2]), P (postgame).

I personally recommend setting up automatic declining of game invitations. It’s not impolite because it’s often the case that you stay connected to watch some games and get interrupted in the physical world by frequent phone calls or other unexpected events. In such cases, you might not notice the invitations, and they expire after a preset time. Automatic decline allows you not to appear as a player who ignores invitations. Those who ignore the invitation do not do it out of impoliteness, but most likely because they had to step away from the computer.

The color of the ‘rank‘ divides the 22 levels into 7 colors:

• 7 dan – black
• 6 and 5 dan – red
• 4 and 3 dan – orange
• 2 and 1 dan – green
• 1, 2, and 3 kyu – blue
• 4, 5, and 6 kyu – purple
• From 7 to 15 kyu – gray

These colors are useful to recognize the value of waiting players, who are indicated with a colored square and the ‘rate.’

By clicking on a player’s name in the online area [1], you can view their information, chat privately, block, or challenge to play.

In the waiting area [2], the ‘rule‘ (rules) is also indicated. ‘Even‘ – practice for equal-level play. Tournament games are in red. Various other play modes follow. The options are many and require a separate exploration.

In the announcements and chat area [3], you are greeted with some ‘service announcements’ and your status, which changes as D-miles vary. These are a form of free points that can be used to access more services. Real money is not involved. They are not essential for beginners or spectators. The benefits and collection methods require further exploration. The status can be: regular, bronze, silver, gold, and diamond, but only by invitation. It’s essential to remember that the chat in area [3] is public, and everyone can read what is written, or the result of an inadvertent click.

The game list, the area of ongoing games [4], displays matches with:

• Rule – the rules of the game (tournament, duration, with rating R or training NR).
• Status – new game, number of moves, or finished game.
• Mon – the number of spectators.
• Opng – the type of ongoing game.
• Black and white – the sente and gote with their respective levels of play.

The menu bar allows, from left to right:

• Refresh.
• Wait for a game – search for an opponent.
• Search – searching for a player’s profile.
• Options to customize your interaction with the site and the game.
• Access to the websystem.
• Exit from 81Dojo.
• Observation of your own data (server, score, D-miles, and class).

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By clicking on ‘wait for game’ in the menu, a pop-up window opens, allowing you to choose the game parameters for which you make yourself available to play.
For example, ’15min – 60 sec’ means each player has 15 minutes, and when the time expires, the game continues with 60 seconds per move.

You can choose to play a practice game without a score (‘non-rated – practice’) and other options related to tournaments in the ‘tournament room’ (a feature that is enabled with registration) and ‘study room’.

The pop-up also includes the option for automatic pairing (auto-pairing).

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The gear-shaped icon leads to options for customizing your interface.

Piece… you can choose the shogiban size, piece graphics, piece interactions, etc.

Sound… you can customize sounds, voices, and volume.

Communication… you can customize interactions with other players. Traditionally, Shogi games should conclude with a post-game analysis between opponents. When interacting with players from around the world, at least basic knowledge of English would be useful. To accommodate those who don’t know English or don’t feel like engaging in dialogues, you can choose ‘level 0’ (I never do it online), followed by options with more availability for analysis. The following dropdown menu serves to indicate your level of English knowledge, from ‘level 0’ (I don’t speak English) to increasing levels. Subsequent options cover graphical interactions. The last three functions allow you to determine your response to a private message, email notifications for comments on your kifu, and automatic decline of direct invitations.

Theme… you can customize the aesthetics of the interface by choosing from available color combinations.

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You can access the shogiban as a player or a simple spectator. We are not alone, nor invisible. Other spectators can read the comments from everyone, and players, by their choice, can interact with the audience. Even graphical annotations are visible to other spectators. Flags obviously indicate the nationality of the players, but the most important aspect is the kifu move record. This is in interactive mode. The spectator can locally analyze all the played moves on their PC (replay/analyze locally). During local analysis, you can interact with the pieces to evaluate possible unplayed moves. In the background, you can still hear the sound of the game if it’s ongoing. ‘Follow latest position’ allows you to return to the live position.

The top menu bar, from left to right, offers several options: conceding victory to the opponent (if you are playing), calculating a draw, rotating the shogiban, clearing the arrows (study graphics), host options, another game, position (including social sharing), Kifu (to obtain or share the move record), options (previously seen), ‘glance’ at the main screen – lobby without leaving the game, and finally, exiting the game. If you are playing, it is customary to respect the greeting traditions. Any language difficulties can be overcome with ‘pre-packaged’ greetings that can be sent using the ‘greet’ button at the bottom right of the chat.

Regarding the shogiban, on the right, the sente (first move) is presented with a clock, a national flag, any custom image, a score, ‘rank,’ and captured pieces. Similarly, on the left, but in reverse order, the gote (second move) is displayed. However, the ‘flip board’ command allows the rotation of the shogiban and the presentation of the players.

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On 81Dojo, you play with real players. Due to commitments and frequent interruptions, players often resort to training with software. Important and obvious: game programs cannot be used as assistance in matches between real players.

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81Dojo confirms itself as an excellent platform for playing and learning, provided you have the patience and time, even just as a spectator.

It is very stable. As a spectator, I have only encountered two minor inconveniences (a frozen interface and the inability to access games), which can be easily resolved by logging out and back in with your account, most likely related to high network traffic at the moment.

The Italian community is growing. An Italian player can almost always be found, although not in numbers comparable to Japanese players or those from countries with a greater collective interest in Shogi.

Players can join or create clubs (a topic to be explored) and can participate in or organize tournaments (a topic to be explored).

As mentioned initially, consider this guide as limited and not exhaustive. To enhance your experience on the site, it is preferable and personally, I believe it is necessary to read the original instructions (in English) and navigate firsthand on this highly interesting site.

Enjoy your navigation on 81Dojo.