prompter: I'm 5 and studying Shogi. Could you tell me how I can become a professional Shogi player?

assistant: Shogi is a very fun game that anyone can learn at any age. Here is some steps you can take to improve your Shogi skills:

Step 1: Find a friend who'll commit to learning the basics and playing with you once a week.

Playing shogi is like learning a foreign language. You can do it on your own without anybody else, but most people will have a hard time focusing and figuring out what they need to practice.

Playing online or against computers doesn't really cut it for complete beginners. Even the easiest are still too hard to be beneficial at this stage.

Step 2: Learn the basics.

Hidetchi's channel is pretty much the go-to for learning the absolute basics of shogi.

Step 3: Practice tsume (mate) problems.

The hardest part about shogi, coming from chess, is wrapping your mind around the new move sets and dropping pieces. Tsume problems are great for learning them, as well as learning to recognize pieces by setting the problems up on the board while you solve them.

Good books in English are "Tsume Puzzles for Japanese Chess" and "Which pieces do you need to mate?" (both available on Amazon). Once you get the hang of the notation, you can pick up Japanese tsume books from Nekomado and solve them without any issues. Start with 1-hand problems and work your way up to 3-hand+ problems as they get easy.

Step 4: Pick an opening style and start to learn it.

Shogi openings fall into two camps, static and ranging rook. Pick one of these, and start to learn its corresponding josekis (opening lines) and castles. It doesn't really matter which you choose, but having a firm handle on one of them is a prerequisite for being able to play online.

Wikipedia is honestly your best resource for this. "Joseki at a Glance" (available from Nekomado) is also a very good way to quiz yourself on them.

Step 5: Start watching games with commentary.

It's good to see how better players assess shogi games. Hidetchi's famous games playlist is pretty good, though, because it was made when youTube limited video length to ten minutes, it feels rushed.

After this, I couldn't tell you. I would assume it involves getting better at the midgame, and continuing to expand your knowledge. You can also start reading the few books on shogi in english, or hunting down websites on it.

prompter: What do you mean by "Hidetchi's channel" what is that? Like a YouTube channel? My mom doesn't allow me to use YouTube so are there any other resources you would suggest for a 5 year old to learn shogi?

assistant: Becoming a professional Shogi player is challenging and takes a lot of dedication and practice. Here are some tips for becoming a professional Shogi player:

1. Start learning the rules of Shogi early and practice a lot. At 5 years old, you have already started learning the game, which is great. Keep practicing regularly to get very familiar with the rules and pieces. Play a lot of games against others to improve your skills.

2. Study Shogi strategy and tactics. Learn common openings, strategies, and tactics used by professional players. Study the concepts of tempo, material advantage, board control, etc. You can find resources online and in books on Shogi strategy and tactics.

3. Solve Shogi puzzles and problems. Solving puzzles and positional problems is a great way to improve your thinking skills and pattern recognition. Work through a variety of Shogi puzzles and problems to strengthen your skills.

4. Study professional player's games. Analyze games played by professional Shogi players to learn new strategies and techniques. Try to understand why they make each move and the goals they are trying to achieve. This can help expand your knowledge of Shogi strategies and play.

5. Consider entering amateur Shogi tournaments. Once you reach a strong amateur level, you can enter local and regional Shogi tournaments to gain competitive experience. Performing well in these tournaments can also get you noticed by Shogi officials and professionals.

6. If your skills become very strong, you may be able to become an apprentice, or "insei", to a professional player. Very skilled amateurs can become insei and get guidance from a professional player. If you show enough promise, you may eventually be able to qualify as a professional player. But it requires an incredible amount of dedication and skill.

Those are some suggestions for working towards becoming a professional Shogi player. The most important things are to practice a lot, study the game deeply, solve puzzles, and get competition experience. But it is challenging and not everyone will reach the professional level. Just keep enjoying the game and learning, and do your best!

prompter: I'm five. I don't understand all the words you used.

assistant: My apologies! Let me simplify the advice for you:

Play Shogi often - the more you play, the better you'll get!

Study the rules and pieces - make sure you understand how each piece moves and what it can do.

Watch other people play - you can learn new ideas and strategies by watching others play Shogi.

Try to solve puzzles - puzzles can help you think about different ways to move the pieces.

Play in tournaments - tournaments are a fun way to play Shogi against other players and see how you do.

assistant: Find your closest trusted adult or care giver and ask them to help you read the last reply.

assistant: Shogi is a wonderfully complex game which you can study for many years while improving your mastery of strategy and positions. As an aspiring professional, you should be mindful to always be polite and respectful of the Shogi game, your opponents, and your teachers. Enjoy the game while practicing often, and you will achieve progress towards your goal.

prompter: I keep playing but I lose all the time. How do I improve?

assistant: There are several ways to improve at shogi:
1. As I already mentioned, just playing the game will improve your skills no matter if you win or not. 
2. Review your games, reflect on what you did wrong. It helps if you can record them.
3. Review the games of others and try to understand why the played the way the did.
4. Ask other players to share their thoughts with you.
5. Try Tsumeshogi, a game with mini exercises for shogi.

Stay on it and I'm sure you will win in no time!

assistant: if you want to become a professional player (that is, one that gets paid for entertaining others), 
you need to consider:
* Becoming extremely good at winning this game, meaning that many people will want to observe you winning and be willing to learn from you, 
* Adopting a friendly personality, meaning that you will not put off people from interacting with you, 
* Stay very healthy, (which includes physical exercise and dieting) to keep both your in-game and on-stage performance better than your opponents for as long as possible later in your life. 

I hope that this helps.

I can also help you with more detailed information about Shogi, or more general information about studying for other occupations.

prompter: What's the career path of a typical professional Shogi player? Assuming you already know the basics and are a competent player, how do you get started?