Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Now the replayable board can be seen through Mozilla Firefox

I've got a remedy. Now the replayable board using kif2swf can be seen through Mozilla Firefox as well as IE. The problem Nicola pointed out a few days ago was caused by WYSIWYG-tag correcting function of Internet Explorer. Using Mozilla Firefox when uploading a blog content prevents it from unnecessary HTML correction.

In addition,  Oujiminami, the creator of kif2swf,  has kindly accepted my suggestion that both Kings on the replayable board should be Gyoku(玉）.

Anyway, here is the replayable board again. I hope everyone including Mozilla Firefox users can enjoy replaying the game on it.

Number of shogi players increased to 158 in Brainking.com at End of November

According to the ratings page of provisional BKR players in Brainking.com, the number of shogi players who has provisional BKR increased to 148 158 at the end of November(JST). The site has added shogi to its wide variety of game line since August 12, 2005(JST). Comparing with the end of October, 2006, the number of shogi players increased by 10. Please refer to the definition of BKR(BrainKing Rating) if you like to know.

The details by country are as followings; .

USA --- 29(+2)
Czech --- 18(-1)
Netherland --- 10(+4)
France --- 8(-1)
England --- 7(+3)
Germany --- 6(+1)
Italy --- 6(0)
Slovakia --- 6(0)
Russia --- 5(0)
Sweden --- 4(0)
UK --- 4(0)
Australia --- 3(0)
Austria --- 3(+1)
Belgium --- 3(-1)
Japan --- 3(-1)
Portugal --- 3(0)
Spain --- 3(+1)
Switzerland --- 3(+1)
Canada --- 2(0)
Norway --- 2(+1)
Argentina --- 1(0)
Denmark --- 1(+1)
Estonia --- 1(0)
Finland --- 1(0)
Gabon --- 0(-1)
Guatemala --- 1 (0)
Hong Kong --- 1(0)
Hungary --- 0(-1)
Israel --- 1(0)
Korea --- 1(0)
Latvia --- 1(0)
Luxembourg --- 1(0)
Malaysia --- 1(-1)
New Zealand --- 1(0)
Saint Lucia --- 1(0)
Slovenia --- 1(+1)
Thailand --- 1(0)
Ukraine --- 1(0)
Unspecified ---14 (+3)
Basque --- 0(-1)
South Africa --- 0(-1)

Test Entry of a replayable board

This is a test entry of the replayable board in flash file format using KIF2SWF. The game is a classic joking Joseki which ends with only 11 moves.

I hope everyone can enjoy the game using the board above without problem. If you have a problem using the board, please let me know in the comment field. Thanks.

Good Links to shogi information for you to visit

• Basic shogi information in English available on Internet(1)
• Basic shogi information in English available on Internet(2)

Bonanza was defeated by the top two amateurs

According to the article of IMPRESS PC Watch (in Japanese), the special matches between Bonanza, shogi computer program, and the two top amateurs were held as the event of releasing Bonanza 2.1 commercial edition on November 18. Bonanza has been a shogi freeware. Due to its winning the World Computer Shogi Championship 2006, the commercial edition was released by MAGNOLIA on November 17, Shogi Day. The release of the commercial version will not quit the freeware version reportedly.

There were two games - Bonanza vs Toru Shimizugami(Ama Ryuoh 2005) and Yukio Kato(Asahi Ama Meijin 2006) vs Bonanza. Both games ended with human victory.

You may replay the 1st game and 2nd game if your browser supports Java runtime.

There are many photos in the article. I am hyper-linking to some of them.

Mr. Kunihito Hoki, the developer of Bonanza

Mr. Toru Shimizugami, Ama Ryuoh 2005

Mr. Yukio Kato, Asahi Ama Meijin 2005

During play between Mr. Shimizugami(left side) and Bonanza(Mr. Hoki)

Commentary show using a big board by Katsumata 5dan(right side) and Fujita Lady 1dan

"Professional Games with comments" have been updated up to 54th Oza Match

The commentary about the 5th and 6th games of Oui Title Match between Oui Habu and Challenger Kisei Sato and the 1st to 3rd games of 54th Oza Title Match between Oza Habu and Challenger Kisei Sato was added today to Reijer Grimbergen's page of "Professional Games with comments". You can replay the games with comments through the page.

In addition, there are indexes of the games on the page above by opening strategy. You can refer them through the ISPS's what's new entry.

"Switching Plans" of "Lightning Speed Endgame Technique" has been translated into English

According to the Shogi-l posting,, The chapter 4 of "Turning Points in the Endgame" has been translated into English and added to the very good page of Tanigawa's "Lightning Speed Endgame Technique".

Whether you are a beginner or more experienced player, you need to be better at endgame in order to win games in shogi. The page above is a must see text for improving your endgame skill.

Reports of World Computer Shogi Championship 2005 & 2006

During netsurfing today I found good reports about Shogi Championship 2005 and 2006 with nice photos in the website of AI Factory located in United Kingdom. The company is AI production for games. It publishes quarterly newsletters with interesting articles. The reports were found there.

The World Computer Shogi Championship 2005

The World Computer Shogi Championship 2006

Both reports has been written by Reijer Grimbergen, who took part in the contests as the developer of the Spear shogi program.

There are another interesting article in AI Factory newsletter written by Jeff Rollason, the CEO and developer of Shotest. The article is titled "Fuzzy books - Approximate Opening Knowledge".

Watanabe won a come-from-behind victory in the endgame - 3rd game of 19th Ryuoh-sen

On November 14 and 15, the third game of 19th Ryuoh-sen between Ryuoh Watanabe(link to Photos) and Challenger Kisei Sato(link to Photos) was held in Nagasaki prefecture, Japan. Watanabe won a come-from-behind victory in the endgame in 142 moves. The score is 2-1 still led by Sato after the game.

If your browser is Java-capable, you may replay the game on the virtual board here. It was a very interesting game especially after the move 73. The hard-hitting battle in the endgame is must-see. Watanabe's King was in the square of 2b on the right side of the board at that time. It ran a long way into 9d on the left side.

The diagram is the resignation diagram when Watanabe(Gote, Upper side) dropped his Gold on 7h. After the diagram, Sato(Sente, Lower side)'s King would be forced to be mated. The possible variations after the diagram are as followings;

Kx7h +Rx5h G*6h S*6g K-7i +Rx6h(mate)

Kx7h +Rx5h G*6h S*6g K-8h +Rx6h(mate)

Kx7h +Rx5h K-7i G*7hS*8h(mate)　

If it was Sente's turn in the resignation diagram, Gote's King would be mated instantly by Sente's kNight drop on 8f.

The forth game will be held on November 29 and 30 in Aichi prefecture, Japan.

The commentary about 4th game of Oui-sen was added to Reijer's page.

The commentary about the 4th game of Oui Title Match between Oui Habu and Challenger Kisei Sato held on August 22 & 23, 2006 was added today to Reijer Grimbergen's page of "Professhonal Games with comments". You can replay the game with comment through the page. The opening strategy of the game was Sente(Black)'s static rook and Gote(White)'s Gokigen Nakabisha(Gokigen Central Rook).