Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

HIDETCHI's videos which exceeds 5000 views

The following HIDETCHI's shogi videos exceeds 5000 views as of now. Congratulation on the great achievement. At the same time, I'm curious why the viewcounts of Famous Mate Probblems, Shogi Exercises and Shogi Openings are relatively low. Is there anyone who has good clarification?

<< From How to Play Shogi Series>>

• How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#1- Introduction
• How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#2- How the pieces move
• How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#3- Promotion
• How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#4- Special Lesson
• How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#5- Chinese characters on the pieces
• How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#6- Capture and Drop
• How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#7- Check and Checkmate
• How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#8- Game notation
• How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#9- Illegal Pawn drop
• How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#10- Piece exchange and Values of
• How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#17- Castles for Double Static Rook
• How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#18- Castles for Ranging Rook against

<< From Famous Shogi Games Series>>

• Famous Shogi Games: HABU vs KATOU (Jan. 9th, 1989)
• Famous Shogi Games: HABU vs KIMURA (Sep. 1st, 2001)
• Famous Shogi Games: HABU vs TANIGAWA (Oct. 29th & 30th, 1996)
• Famous Shogi Games: SATOU vs HABU (Jul. 18th, 2008)
• Famous Shogi Games: MORIUCHI vs HABU (Apr. 25th & 26th, 2005)
• Famous Shogi Games: NAKAHARA vs YONENAGA (Apr. 26th & 27th,

<< From others >>

• Shogi Openings: Quick Ishida Attack 
• Top menu of HIDETCHI's Shogi(将棋) Videos

The price of "Let's Catch the Lion(Dobutsu Shogi)" in Essen Spiel

I found the price of "Let's Catch the Lion(Dobutsu Shogi)" in Essen Spiel in the following page.

Japon Brand in SPIEL '09

According to the page above, the boot of "Let's Catch the Lion" will be at 4-227. The special price for the exihibition will be at Euro12 pre unit.

In addition, looking at the lowest photo of the linked page, some shogi sets seems to be sold there at Euro50.

Bishop exchange up to the 10th move is increasing significantly

According to Katsumata Kiyokazu(6 dan) in latest Shogi Sekai which is a monthly magazine, the rate that Bishop exchange occurs up to the 10th move comparing between 1998 and 2008 is as below;

1998 --- 62/2238 games(2.7%)
2008 --- 545/2379games(22.9%)

As you see above, the openings with Bishop trade at the early stage increased significantly. I guess this has been caused by the increase of Gote's adoptation of Itteson Kakugawari(Bishop exchange losing a tempo) and Gokigen Nakabisha(Gokigen Central Rook)

As to Gokigen Nakabisha, HIDETCHI already started making several videos linked below;

YouTube - Shogi Openings: Gokigen Central Rook #1
YouTube - Shogi Openings: Gokigen Central Rook #2 (G(R)-5h variation)

And HIDETCHI is also started making videos of Bishop Exchange. I hope Itteson Kakugawari will be covered in his videos in the near future.

YouTube - Shogi Openings: Bishop Exchange #1
YouTube - Shogi Openings: Bishop Exchange #2

I highly recommend you to be a subscriber of HIDETCHI's Channel on YouTube if you are not yet. The number of the subscribers has already exceeded 1000. In order to do that, go to the link and click the Subscribe button you can find in the page like below.

Winning percentage of the combination of the first two moves

According to Suzuki Hirohiko in Shukan Shogi(Weekly Shogi) latest edition, the winning persentage of Sente and Gote of the combination of the first two moves are the following;

<Fiscal Year 2007>
P-7f P-3d --- Sente = 667 win and 601 loss, 52.6%
P-7f P-8d --- Sente = 276 win and 238 loss, 53.7%

<Fiscal Year 2008>
P-7f P-3d --- Sente = 612 win and 671 loss,  47.7%
P-7f P-8d --- Sente = 267 win and 107 loss,  56.3%

Many professional players say they still feel shogi is a game which Sente is more or less advantageous. However, The reason why the winning percentage of Sente with P-7f P-3d became under 50% is due to increase of the options of Gote's opening and Sente did not established countermeasure for all of them yet in the fiscal year 2008. In general, Sente can choose what opening strategy to be used with P-7f P-8d while Gote can do that with P-7f P-3d.

White pieces had better win-rate in last year's shogi events - The Mainichi Daily News

An interesting article was translated into English on The Mainichi Daily News.

White pieces had better win-rate in last year's shogi events - The Mainichi Daily News

Players using the white pieces -- which go second -- won more often than those using the black during the 2008 shogi season, the first time since stats were first kept by the Japan Shogi Association in fiscal 1967.

Of the 2,323 public matches in fiscal 2008, white players won 1,167 and lost 1,156, a win rate of 50.2 percent, it was discovered on Tuesday. The previous highest win rate was 49.5 percent in fiscal 1968, and the lowest 46.4 percent in fiscal 2004.

"With the Gokigen-Nakabisha, which doesn't impede the movement of the bishop, and other ploys, the breadth of strategies for white players has increased in recent years," said Meijin Yoshiharu Habu. "I believe the repeated use of these stratagems as openings has led to the increase in the win rate."

Click here for the original Japanese story

(Mainichi Japan) March 31, 2009

As you may already know, the draw rate in shogi is very low such as 1 or 2 %.

Xbox Live Arcade Shotest Sales(13/09/08 & 20/09/08)

Here are the links to Xbox Live Arcade Sales by By Benjamin Schlichter

Xbox Live Arcade Sales, 9/13/08 + First Day | VG Chartz.com

Shotest Shogi was in the 34th place, 1,171 units were sold in the week.

Xbox Live Arcade Sales, 9/20/08 - FF2 5.7k, DM 2.9k | VG Chartz.com

Shotest Shogi was in the 57th place, 504 units were sold in the week.

Top 5 winning percentage players fiscal year to January

According to latest Shukan Shogi(a weekly shogi magazine in Japan), the top 5 players with highest winning percentage in the fiscal year to January(Last April to January) are as below. The links connects with their recent games in one of the social bookmarks maintained by myself.

Class C2 and C1
1 - Murayama Yasuaki(5 dan) --- .795
2 - Toyoshima Masayuki(4 dan) --- .794
3 - Iijima Eiji(5 dan) --- .730
4 - Katagami Daisuke(5 dan) --- .703
5 - Kushida Yoichi(6 dan) --- .700

Class B2 though A
1 - Matsuo Ayumu(7 dan) --- .757
2 - Habu Yoshiharu(2 crowns) --- .720
3 - Kimura Kazuki(8 dan) --- .714
4 - Nakamura Osamu(9 dan) --- .700
5 - Goda Masataka(9 dan) --- .660

Take & Drop #27 - 3 move tsume practice

You can see the answer by clicking the arrow in the right direction under the board in order to replay the answer line. (Popup diagram to be saved as an image file for printing) Click the exclamation marks which appear below the diagram for further comments on the problem. If you click the marks again, the comment windows go away.

Access data of Kifu by Opening Strategy up to November 2007

The image below is the monthly pageviews and visitors of Kifu by Opening Strategy which is a llink collection to shogi games in Kifu Database with tags of opening strategy. Total pagevies increased 19.0% in November comparing with October.

Number of shogi players decreased to 127 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 decreased to 127 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 September, 2007, the number of shogi players increased by 4. Please refer to the definition of BKR(BrainKing Rating) if you like to know. .

The number of minishogi players who has provisional BKR is 83 at the end of November.