Useful for both shogi and games. A slim gaming laptop that moves lightly

Changes in hundreds of millions of hands that can only be reached by high-performance gaming PCs.

If you want to fully enjoy video editing and games, a high-performance PC is indispensable. Did you know that such a high-performance PC is becoming the standard in the shogi world?

Manao Kagawa, who is active as a female shogi player, is active as a YouTuber while playing a game as a professional shogi player. According to Professor Kagawa, shogi AI is indispensable in modern shogi, and high-spec PCs for running AI are also important.

She also edits videos by herself, and is a teacher who masters PCs in multiple ways, such as playing PC games in private. This time, we asked them to use the high-performance gaming notebook PC "Alienware x15" equipped with "NVIDIA® GeForce RTX ™ 3070" and asked about its usability and the significance of the PC in shogi and YouTube activities.

Manao Kagawa

A female shogi player belonging to the Japan Shogi Association. She is a graduate of Ritsumeikan University Faculty of Letters. She made her professional debut at the age of 15, and she made her first title in her female general war while in college. Her awards include the most game award and the female shogi player award. She was promoted to the 4th dan of female style in January 2021. She is now widely active in TV programs, game planning, and writing, in addition to shogi. She started YouTuber activities in April 2019. She is the representative of AKALI Co., Ltd., a comprehensive planning and producing company.

Official Twitter: @MNO_shogi

Official YouTube Channel: Female Shogi Player, Manao Kagawa Channel

AKALI Co., Ltd. Twitter: @ AKALI0110

Her activities as a female shogi player and her activities as a YouTuber

──Please tell us the reason and the reason why you started activities other than female shogi player such as YouTuber while winning the title as her female shogi player.

Manao Kagawa 4th Dan (hereinafter referred to as 4th Dan Kagawa): I entered the world of shogi at the age of 15, but I have always thought that it is the role of professional shogi players not only to play games but also to popularize shogi. I was there. I thought it was important to find a method that suits the times and a method that suits me, so I decided to start YouTube.

──What are you doing as a female shogi player?

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: The game is the most important, but in popularization, there are a wide range of activities such as teaching shogi in a face-to-face place like a shogi class, appearing in an event and listening to the game. However, since offline events have become difficult due to the recent Korona-ka, we are actively sending out online. I also use YouTube and SNS, but I think it was good to be able to interact with fans in various places, including the online shogi salon that I run.

──Shogi has an old-fashioned and solid impression, but the fusion with YouTube, which is a culture originating from the Internet, feels fresh.

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: One of the reasons I started YouTube was to convey the appeal of shogi to the younger generation who are familiar with the latest pop culture.

──On the YouTube channel, you can enjoy various shogi contents such as playing with laughing entertainer Savannah Takahashi according to your own rules and collaborating with popular YouTuber. Actually, take a closer look.

Kagawa Women's School 4th Dan: Thank you! While disseminating the appeal of shogi as a professional, the power of popular YouTubers such as Yobinori Takumi (who is active in the explanation video channel of science and mathematics) and shogi fans has greatly helped.

── Personally, I'm talking about explanations and impressions while playing a game of reverse 19 pieces (a unique rule that starts from the state where there are no pieces other than the king on the board and there are 19 pieces). It was interesting. Even if it looks very advantageous at first glance, there are many things to think about.

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: It's a little special rule (laughs). I'm trying to find out how to make such a project interesting, perhaps because it's YouTube. Especially recently, the number of opportunities for top-class professional shogi players such as Souta Fujii to appear in the media has increased, so the number of young people who are interested in shogi is increasing. I hope that my videos and projects will be an option for the shogi content that those people see.

A high-spec PC is essential in the current shogi world !?

──I hear that shogi software (shogi AI) is often used for practicing and analyzing shogi these days. Is the PC important for playing shogi?

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: Today's shogi AI is very high-performance, and a few years ago, it even beat a master (a title that can be obtained by winning a "master battle"). It has become so indispensable that it is said that "there are few professional shogi players who do not study with shogi AI". It was mentioned on TV that Souta Fujii was familiar with PCs, but I think that mastering PCs and software is becoming a condition for top players. However, it is important not to take the point of AI as a swallow, but to refer to the evaluation value shown by the software (term in computer shogi that expresses the situation of shogi) and how to make it your own. I think.

── Shogi AI is no longer indispensable, review your game on software, discover tactics that you did not have in your own idea, such as "This might have happened here", and step up from there It's a form of doing.

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: I think that image is close. As the performance of software is improving day by day, I think that the difference between professional shogi players will be how quickly they can update both in terms of information and software.

──Is there a concern that shogi AI threatens real shogi players and shogi, just as there was a concern that robots would rob humans of their jobs?

Kagawa Women's School 4th Dan: There was a time like that. The game between computer shogi and humans has a long history, but it has been attracting more and more attention since the Den-O War (predecessor of the current Ei-O War) that started in 2010.

──It was also distributed on Nico Nico Douga.

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: I can't tell you everything because it has a very long history, but I think it was an era when there was a growing sense of tension as to whether humans or AI were stronger. However, I now feel that AI should not be considered as a threat, but should be utilized to aim for heights.

──I've heard that shogi AI can't exert high chess power unless it's equipped with a GPU because it requires a huge amount of calculation.

Kagawa Women's School 4th Dan: That's right. "Dlshogi" using deep learning uses NVIDIA's TensorRT (* software development kit for high-speed execution of deep learning inference provided by NVIDIA), and the performance of the PC directly shortens the inference time.

──It's a strange feeling that PC knowledge is related to the ability of shogi.

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: Speaking of professional shogi players, I think that they used to spend money on good shogi pieces and shogi boards, but nowadays it may be necessary to invest in PCs.

High specs are also advantageous for PC games

──When you hear that you have a high-spec, GPU-equipped PC, you might think of a gaming PC. Will Mr. Kagawa play games on a PC?

Kagawa Women's School 4th Dan: Yes! I was a game kid before I started playing shogi, and now I have a series of games in "Weekly Famitsu". I also make a game called "Shogi with Manao Kagawa", but there are many attractive works especially for PC games, and I enjoy both shogi and games on my PC.

──You're a pretty gamer! By the way, what kind of game do you like?

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: I like adventure games, and I especially like Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes series. It's a mystery-solving adventure, so I'm not the type that requires action, but I want to immerse myself in the beauty of graphics and the world view. Besides, I play MMO like "Dragon Quest X", and I play "Pokemon" by distribution. PC games are really immersive, so it takes a lot of time to play many laps ... (laughs).

──I understand. There are online games played on PCs, sitting for 8 hours, and so on.

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: You can't leave. Not only in games, but also in shogi research, you will be absorbed in hours when you enter the intensive mode.

──What exactly are you doing in shogi research? Do you look back at the game?

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: The most common thing is to reflect the assumed situation that is likely to be an actual game in the software, and then compare the candidate of the pointing method shown by AI with your own thoughts, and actually choose what kind of hand. It is a task to find out where to go. Other than that, I reproduced the development that I actually played, and I thought that this was the decisive factor, but it was a verification of how it was actually.

──It's kind of like a simulation game that recreates a real battle in-game.

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: I think that's exactly the image. Shogi is a game without elements of luck, so there is some reproducibility on the board. It is said that the average number of games played in shogi is about 110, so if you can study about half of them in advance, the games will proceed in the order you know, which is an advantage. I think that such a thing is becoming less rare in modern shogi.

──It seems so interesting that the way you see shogi on TV will change ...! I feel that I have found that games and science content are close to shogi.

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: In the old days, shogi was regarded as an unknown world created by players, but I think that the resolution of the unknown part has increased due to the development of AI. When you try AI, you may get completely different opinions about the Showa era games and legendary moves that have been passed down as famous stations. So I think the fun of modern shogi is that old tactics are often rewritten.

Design that raises tension by facing each other

──What was your impression and comfort of the Dell gaming notebook PC "Alienware x15" that you used this time?

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: As a gaming PC, I played the PC version of "FINAL FANTASY XIV: Jet Black Villas". I was excited to see how comfortable it would be, but I was surprised at the smoothness of the movement.

──Is the display performance at the high-speed refresh rate of 360Hz great?

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: It's surprisingly smooth. I was shocked to experience this potential in my notebook.

──By the way, what factors do you prioritize when choosing your own PC? Battery performance, clean display, portability, etc.

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: I use a PC for various purposes such as shogi research, video editing, and games, and there are few scenes in my daily life where I don't have a PC. In that case, I would like to seek comfort in every direction. Specifications are important, and portability is also important for use in any situation.

──This "Alienware x15" is equipped with "NVIDIA® GeForce RTX ™ 3070" on the GPU. Did you find any scenes that benefited from that?

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: I want to run deep learning shogi AI such as "dlshogi" that I mentioned earlier, so NVIDIA's GPU is indispensable. Also, I personally think that the waste heat performance is amazing, and even though it has such a high-performance GPU, it doesn't get hot at all.

──Since cooling technology is one of the features, such as quad fan technology where four fans dissipate heat and lower the surface temperature of the system, and the heat transfer material called element 31 is used for the thermal module, it is notable to pay attention to it. As expected.

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: When I run Shogi AI or games for a long time, the notebook PC gets quite hot, which is why I sometimes keep touching it for about 10 hours, but when the PC itself gets hot, after all I'm worried. So I'm grateful for the high cooling performance.

──The slim design is attractive even though it has a lot of specs.

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: I thought the main body would be heavy if it had such specifications (* Weight is up to 2.36 kg, which is lighter than the maximum 2.5 kg "Alienware m15 R4"), so it is lighter and thinner than expected. I was surprised (* The thickness is 15.9mm, which is up to about 22% thinner than "Alienware m15 R4"). I personally like the overall design, which has a gadget feel, so I'm attracted to it like a cockpit. I like the design because it faces the PC and raises the tension (laughs).

──Ports are gathered on the back to concentrate on the game.

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: I think it makes sense that the ports are grouped on the back so that you can't put extra things in your field of vision, and I'm not good at cleaning the wiring anyway, so I used a cable. I find it attractive to be able to hide it on the back.

High-spec gaming PC is like "Watson-kun"

──Finally, what kind of high-spec gaming notebook PC does Mr. Kagawa have?

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: It's a must-have. I can't do anything if my PC is picked up (laughs). In shogi games, running on a high-performance gaming PC has faster processing power and allows you to fight strong opponents. I installed "Manao Kagawa and Futari Shogi" on the borrowed "Alienware x15" and played it, but the speed of the CPU move was fast and I felt comfortable.

──It's very interesting that the specifications of the PC are directly linked to the strength of the NPC and the comfort of playing.

Kagawa Onna-ryu 4th Dan: With a high-spec gaming PC, you can comfortably operate shogi, YouTube video editing, and of course games. Watson for Sherlock Holmes is no longer indispensable to me.

To be strong in shogi, you need a high-spec PC. It's a surprisingly interesting story, but AI, that is, computational performance, was involved in that. The relationship between shogi and PC may be extremely close to the fact that there may be a difference in preparation depending on the specifications of the PC. And if it is a high-spec gaming PC, it will be fully useful in games and video editing.

For Dr. Kagawa, who handles multiple tasks, the performance of "Alienware x15" was one that responded to the demands in every direction. Gaming PCs with uncompromising performance create hints for the best move from hundreds of millions of changes. Do you have any romance?

Photo: Hiroki Ohara

Source: Dell