shogi, chess
I like how my chess ability has transferred to shogi just enough to usually be able to play the first few moves correctly. Also finding sacs and calculating long variations.
OTOH I totally don't understand castles (I mean I get the defensive idea but like, why are certain castles better than others? What makes a castle good? etc), and I don't understand pawns *at all* (in chess, the pawn structure is the skeleton of the position and changes are much more permanent).
re: shogi, chess
Also in chess, on a basic level defending the king means: castle the king, avoid moving pawns in front of wherever the king castles, and have a knight around (and ideally a bishop to compensate for any pawn move made). Castling is a single move that also brings a rook into the game. It doesn't require separate preparation and it's part of developing pieces.
In shogi, you need to spend several moves castling. It seems that those individual moves are also less multi-purpose.
re: shogi, chess
OTOH when I was new to tournament chess play I was struggling to figure out when to castle because it felt like a "waste" move and like I had much more to do elsewhere. I'd basically castle because that's what I was told to do.
So I'm guessing if I get better at shogi I'll get the intuition for those things. But it's very weird to be a beginner at a game and already have such an uneven skill/understanding profile.
