Notice

I'm switching to the space for my writing about shogi to Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World. Thanks for reading this blog and I would be happy to meet you there again.

Interesting article - "Searching for Bobby Fischer, Japanese style"

Lauren Stokes wrote an article about Alan Baker, philosophy professor, who visited Japan to attend the 3rd International Shogi Forum hold by Japan Shogi Association in the Swarthmore College' online student newspaper called The Phoenix. According to the article, he started a shogi club before his trip to Japan and it is said the only college Shogi club in the U.S. The club meeting is held every Thursday at 4:00 PM at the Kohlberg coffee bar.

*Remark(added on Nov.12)
Alan Baker said in the shogi-l that there are a number of factual inaccuracies concerning the recent International Shogi Forum in the article. However, the shogi club in the colledge is flourishing.

Title Match Result - 2nd game, Ryuoh

On November 7 and 8, the second game of 18th Ryuoh title match between Ryuoh Watanabe and Challenger Kimura 7dan. Watanabe made a first move and won the game with 71 moves following to his win in the first game. Now Watanabe leads the score by 2-0. 4 wins in advance will decide the next Ryuoh title holder.

The left diagram shows the position when Kimura resigned seeing Watanabe's last move of S*4c. Here are the possible variation after Challenger's resignation.

P-7g+ N-5c=(mate)
G-5b N-5c+(!!) Gx5c Rx2b+ Bx2b S*4b(mate)
G-4b N-5c+(!!) Gx5c Rx2b+ Gx4c S*5b(mate)
G-4b N-5c+(!!) Gx4c +Nx4c R*8b P*3b Rx3b G*5a Kx5a +Nx3b(White is hopeless)

Kimura had no defence and no effective approach to Watanabe's King. This is why he resigned at the position in the resignation diagram.

The full gamerecord is available to see here(Java capable browser is required to see it). If you can read Japanese, Ryuoh-sen blog will be very amusing.

I hope Kimura will manage to show his strength in the coming 3rd game on November 17 & 18.

Number of shogi players exceeds 100 in Brainking.com

According to the ratings page of provisional BKR players in Brainking.com, the number of shogi players who has provisional BKR exceeds 100 today. The site has added shogi to its wide variety of game line since August 12, 2005(JST). The details by country are as follows;

Czech --- 28 players
USA --- 15
Netherlands --- 6
UK --- 5
Russia --- 4
Sweden --- 4
Bergium --- 3
Slovakia --- 3
Sweden --- 3
Australia --- 2
Germany --- 2
Portugal --- 2
Austria --- 1
Canada --- 1
England --- 1
Finland --- 1
France --- 1
Guatemala --- 1
Hungary --- 1
Italy --- 1
Korea --- 1
Latvia --- 1
New Zealand --- 1
Northern Ireland --- 1
Norway --- 1
Spain --- 1
Turkey --- 1
Unknown--- 9

101 players in total from at least 27 countries have provisional BKR as of today.

Online Shogi Forum for French Speaking People

Today there was an announcement distributed in the Shogi-l mailing list that an Online Shogi Forum for French Speaking People has opened. I hope a lot of French speaking shogi fans come together there.

To my knowledge, there are the simlar ones for Russian and German speaking people. If you know any other shogi forums in non-Japanese language, please let me know.

Title Match Result - Kurashki Tohka

According to the sources in Japanese, On November 1, the first game of the 13rd Ohyama Meijin's Cup - Kurashiki Tohka was played between Kurashiki Tohka Ichiyo Shimizu and Challenger Rieko Yauchi ladies 4dan in Kurashiki city in Okayama prefecture. Shimizu won it with 133 moves. Two victories in advance will decide the 13rd Kurashiki Tohka title holder. The second game is scheduled on November 27. If Yauchi brings the score tied, the final 3rd game will be held on November 28.

Kurashiki city is famous for the birthplace of the Great Meijin Ohyama among shogi fans. SHOGI MASTER OYAMA MEMORIAL MUSEUM was built after his death.

Good example how to approach opponent's King

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This is a position of the 2005 JT cup game between Morishita 9 dan(Sente) and Tanigawa 9 dan. In the diagram, Tanigawa dropped his Silver on 4h to threat to capture Sente's Rook on 5i and Gold on 4i. If Sente took it, he would lose the Rook by Gote's +Bx5i. What Sente should do?

Morishita's answer was splendid. He neglected the dropped Silver since it was not a threatmate. He knew he could win the game if he made a threatmate at that time. His next move was kNight drop of N*7c which was a clear threatmate aiming at Rook drop of R*8a or R*6a. Tanigawa had no defense. After N*7c, it went like this;K-8b R*8a K-9b R-6a+ Resign.

After resignation, if Gote moved the Silver from 6b to 7a to protect the Gold on 7b, then there would be a mate like this;+Rx7b Sx7b G*8b(mate). If Gote opened his King's escaping path by P-9d, then there would be a mate as well like this; +Rx7b K-9c +R-8b K-8d G*8e(mate). This is why Tanigawa could not help resigning the game.

Back to Morishita's decisive kNight drop on 7c, what would happen if Gote took it? It was impossible to save Gote's King anyway. One possible variation was like this; Sx7c Px7c+ Gx7c R*4b +Nx6b S*8b K*8b Rx6b+ S*7b N-8e B*8d Nx7c+ Bx7c N*7d K-8a G*7a K-9b +Rx7b L*8b +R-8a(mate).

You can replay the full game here. You need FlashPlayer to replay it.

Interesting article which may be applicable to shogi

I have read an interesting article titled "The End of the Affair" written by Clive Thompson in Wired News.

This is much like what Ralph Koster argues in his Theory of Fun: We humans seek constant novelty, so only gameplay that has nearly infinite permutations -- like chess -- can hold our attention forever.

I think shogi has more permutations than chess. Shogi can hold our attention forever theoritically.

After reading the 51 page PDF presentation of Theory of Fun in Ralph Kosters' Website I decided to purchase the abovementioned Ralph Koster's book. I'm looking forward to reading it. Here is the phrase about games like chess.

Most long-lasting games in the past have been competitive, because they lead to an endless supply of similar yet subtly varied puzzles.

4th game of 16th Ladies Oui Title Match

On October 27(JST), 4th game of 16th Ladies Oui Title Match was held. Ladies Oui Shimizu went first and defeated Challenger Nakai ladies 6dan with 125 moves. Shimizu defended the title by this victory with the score of 3-1.

After the resignation diagram of S*5b. the possible variations are as followings;

(1) K-6b S*7a K-7b B-8b+(mate)
(2) Rx5b Gx5b Kx5b R*4b K-6a S*6b K-7b S-7a= K-8c R-8b+(mate)

Congratulation on Shimizu. She defended the Ladies Oui title 7 terms in a row.