Some years ago the 81doju server was also offering Chu Shogi, and I spent many hours there watching games, as my Chu Shogi program played there as a bot. One of the things I learned is that people tended to play at blitz speeds. Considering the much larger number of moves in a Chu Shogi game than in a Chess game, games of 30 min already require blitz speeds, and people don't want to play real-time games that last more than an hour.
Another thing I learned was that they tend to blunder because they overlooked an enemy piece that had ventured amongst their own pieces. (And then apologized "oh sorry, I had not seen that was your piece".) So it is not just a matter of the speed with which you identify the intruder; this directly correlates with the reliability with which you spot intruders. A deviating color sticks out, and attracts attention whenever it gets in your field of vision. Opposit orientation is only noticed when you are looking for it.
I did only play a handful of regular Shogi games in my entire life, but in one of those I beat a dan-rated player. Not because I outplayed him, but because he forfeited the game by 'nifu' (= dropping a Pawn in a file that already contained one). The other Pawn was hidden between my pieces. I don't think any player would make such an error if his pieces would have had a different color, but in the Japanese Shogi competition is appears to be a very common error. So much that it is considered part of the game there, and that the people running the 81dojo server did their utmost to prevent people from using their own client to connect, out of fear that such a client would provide 'computer help' by highlighting legal moves, and thus prevent forfeit by an illegal one. It seems the Japanese Shogi Association does not endorse Shogi servers where you cannot lose by an illegal move.
And what you are saying is basically that under easy conditions anything flies, and the negative impact of crummy equipment or other adverse conditions has less impact than in a stress test, where every advantage counts. Well, I cannot argue against that, but to judge the value of things you should test them under conditions that are sensitive to this value. That I can drive through Harlem at night in a tank, without experiencing any problem does not imply it is a safe neighborhood...
Some years ago the 81doju server was also offering Chu Shogi, and I spent many hours there watching games, as my Chu Shogi program played there as a bot. One of the things I learned is that people tended to play at blitz speeds. Considering the much larger number of moves in a Chu Shogi game than in a Chess game, games of 30 min already require blitz speeds, and people don't want to play real-time games that last more than an hour.
Another thing I learned was that they tend to blunder because they overlooked an enemy piece that had ventured amongst their own pieces. (And then apologized "oh sorry, I had not seen that was your piece".) So it is not just a matter of the speed with which you identify the intruder; this directly correlates with the reliability with which you spot intruders. A deviating color sticks out, and attracts attention whenever it gets in your field of vision. Opposit orientation is only noticed when you are looking for it.
I did only play a handful of regular Shogi games in my entire life, but in one of those I beat a dan-rated player. Not because I outplayed him, but because he forfeited the game by 'nifu' (= dropping a Pawn in a file that already contained one). The other Pawn was hidden between my pieces. I don't think any player would make such an error if his pieces would have had a different color, but in the Japanese Shogi competition is appears to be a very common error. So much that it is considered part of the game there, and that the people running the 81dojo server did their utmost to prevent people from using their own client to connect, out of fear that such a client would provide 'computer help' by highlighting legal moves, and thus prevent forfeit by an illegal one. It seems the Japanese Shogi Association does not endorse Shogi servers where you cannot lose by an illegal move.
And what you are saying is basically that under easy conditions anything flies, and the negative impact of crummy equipment or other adverse conditions has less impact than in a stress test, where every advantage counts. Well, I cannot argue against that, but to judge the value of things you should test them under conditions that are sensitive to this value. That I can drive through Harlem at night in a tank, without experiencing any problem does not imply it is a safe neighborhood...