Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Number of shogi players increased to 134 in Brainking.com at End of May

According to the ratings page of provisional BKR players in Brainking.com, the number of shogi players who has provisional BKR decreased to 134 at the end of Mayl(JST). The site has added shogi to its wide variety of game line since August 12, 2005(JST). Comparing with the end of April, 2006, the number of shogi players increased by 4. Please refer to the definition of BKR(BrainKing Rating) if you like to know.

The details by country are as followings; .Saint Lucia shows up for the first time.

134 users(+4)

USA --- 30(+8)
Czech --- 19(-2)
France --- 7(+2)
Italy --- 5(+1)
Russia --- 6(0)
Netherland --- 5(-4)
Belgium --- 4(-1)
Germany --- 4(-1)
UK --- 4(-1)
Australia --- 3(0)
Finland --- 3(+1)
Slovakia --- 3(-1)
Spain --- 3(+1)
Switzerland --- 3(+1)
Austria --- 2(+1)
Canada --- 2(0)
England --- 2(0)
Japan --- 2(0)
Portugal --- 2(0)
Sami --- 2(0)
Sweden --- 2(0)
Estonia --- 1(0)
Guatemala --- 1(0)
India --- 1(0)
Israel --- 1(0)
Korea --- 1(+1)
Latvia --- 1(0)
Luxembourg --- 1(0)
Malaysia --- 1(0)
New Zealand --- 1(0)
Saint Lucia --- 1(+1)
Syria --- 1(0)
Thailand --- 1(0)
Wales --- 0(-1)
Unspecified --- 9(-6)

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How to care for your quality shogi pieces

Recently I had a question about how to care for quality shogi pieces from one of my friends during playing a turn-based shogi game in Brainking.com. The sets were gifted to him but the presenter did not tell him how to do every-day care for it. I think my answer to him will be useful as well for those who have quality shogi piece sets in their own. My reply excluding the personal part was as following;

Many piece sellers recommend users to wipe wooden quality pieces by a dry, soft cotton cloth each time you put them in the piece pond or box after playing in order to prevent a piece from getting dirty. If it gets dirty, then they recommend to wipe it in a soft cotton cloth with just a tiny drop of camellia oil.

I hope this will help if you have quality shogi piece sets.

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Result of 4th game of 64th Meijin-sen

On May 18 and 19, the 4th game of 64th Meijin-sen between Meijin Moriuchi and Tanigawa 9dan was held in Aichi prefecture. Moriuchi played Sente(Black, lower side of the diagram). Moriuchi won the game in 107 moves and led the score by 3-1. He needs one more win to defend the title,

The diagram in the left is the resignation one when Moriuchi drop a Gold on 6g. It is not a simple position why Tanigawa resigned the game since Tanigawa's castle seems still solid. Let's examine the position in details.

Neglecting pawns, Sente had material advantage such as gaining a Rook for Silver. And, Gote would not be able to save his kNight on 6d from next Sente's pawn advance from 6d to 6e. More loss of material would be inevitable. So I think Tanigawa lost his fighting spirit under the circumstances of the position.

The 5th game will occur on June 1 and

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2 in Gunma prefecture.

Habu gained Asahi championship by 3-1 against Fujii

On May 15, the 4th game of 24th Asahi Open Championship between Asahi Habu and Fujii 9 dan was held. Fujii got Sente and Habu won the game. By this victory, Habu gained the 24th Asahi championship with the score of 3-1 following to last two years.

Fujii took Shikenbisha(4th file Rook) in all the four games as expected. Habu did not use Ibisha Anaguma in this series. All his wins were made from quick attack against Shikenbisha. I think quick attack will be more popular in professional games this year.

The left diagram is the resignation one when Habu made the 126th move of K-7a. After the diagram, Sente(black, lower side) could still give several check move to Gote(White, upper side)'s King, but in vain..

L*7c K-8a N*9c K-9a N*8c K-9b(no mate)

N*8c K-8a N*7c K-8b(no mate)

N*8c K-8a N*9c K-9b(no mate)

On the other hand, Sente's King is in brinkmate. If it was Gote's turn, there would be an easy mate such as R*4i K-3h +B-4h(mate). If he prevent Gote from R*4i by L*4i, it would be in vain again as following.

L*4i G*4h Lx4h R*4i K-3h +Bx4h(mate)

Congratulation on Habu. He made a good start of the fiscal year 2006 with this victory.

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Result of 3rd game of 64th Meijin-sen

On May 11 and 12, the 3rd game of the 64th Meijin-sen between Meijin Moriuchi and Challenger Tanigawa 9dan was held in Kagawa prefecture. Before the game, the score was 2-0 led by Moriuchi. Tanigawa played Sente(Black, lower side) and won the game with 107 moves. I think it was another masterpiece of Tanigawa's lightning speed endgame.

The diagram in the left is the resignation diagram when Tanigawa dropped his Bishop on 6h to intervene between his King and Moriuchi's promoted Rook.

At the diagram, Meijin Moriuchi had a kNight, a Lance and 4 pawns in hand but had no quicker approach than Tanigawa did. The quickest approach to Sente's King would be N*7e to threat to capture the Gold on 6g. But it would be neglected and Sente would make a decisive kNight drop on 3e. Let's see the details after the resignation diagram.

N*7e N*3e Nx6g+ N1e-2c+ Gx2c Nx2c+ Kx2c +Rx2a L*2b S*2d Kx2d +Rx2b N*2c G*3e +Rx3e Sx3e K-2e(if K4e then R*4f mate) R*2f K-1d +Rx2c(mate)

N*7e N*3e Gx4c-3d B*2c K-2b Bx3d+ Gx3d N-2c+(mate)

N*7e N*3e Gx3e Sx3e L-2b B*2c Lx2c Nx2c+ Kx2c +Rx2a L*2b G*2d(mate)

N*7e N*3e L*4a B*2c B-2b Bx4a+ Gx4a +Rx4a S-3b L*2c Sx2c Nx1e-2c+ Gx2c Nx2c+ Kx2c +Rx2a N*2b S*3b K-3d G*2d Kx2d +Rx2b K-3(1)d +R-2c(mate)

What would happen if Gote(White, upper side) made a defencive Lance drop on 4a? Then Sente would drop his kNight on 3e again. the possible variiation in details would be as following;

L*4a N*3e +R-5h Nx4c+ +Rx6g B*2c Gx2c Nx2c+ Kx2c G*3c K-2d S-3e K-2e G*2f K-1d G-1e(mate)

L*4a N*3e Gx3e Sx3e S-3b B*3a N*2b S-2d +Rx3d Sx1c+ K-2a Bx2b+(mate)

L*4a N*3e Gx3e Sx3e S-3b B*3a N*2b S-2d N*2a G*2c S*2c Nx2c;(mate)

The 4th game will be held on May 18 and 19.

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How luckily Bonanza won the 16th World Computer Shogi Championship

On May 3 through 5, the 16th WCSC(World Computer Shogi Championship) was held in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. WCSC is a championship of shogi software programs. Both commercial program and non-commercial program can participate the tournament.

Bonanza, a shogi freeware created by Kunihito Hoki, won the tournament. You can find the result of the tournament in the post to shogi-l by Takizawa-san who is the chairman of Computer Shogi Association. Since it was first time for Bonanza to take part in the tournament, it had not seeded and had to compete others in the preliminary leagues in the first and second day to go to the final league in the third day.

Bonanza passed the preliminary tournament on the first day with the score of 7-0 and did the preliminary tournament on the second day with the score of 7-2. It was defeated by Bingo-shogi in the round 2 and by TACOS in the round 9. The five top program could go into the final league on the third day. Bonanza occupied 2nd place in the preliminary tournament, while Ohtsuki Shogi took 1st place.

In the round 1 of the third game, Bonanza was lost by YSS. And in round 3, its opponent was Gekisashi. Unbelievably, Gekisashi overlooked the mating line of Bonanza's King and Bonanza saved the valuable victory against Gekisashi. The diagram in the left was the position in question. Sente(lower side) is Gekisashi while Gote(upper side) is Bonanza. Gekisashi made a move of S*7a from the diagram, however, there should have been a mate to begin with Rx7b+ like the followings;

Rx7b+ Kx7b S*6c Kx6c S*5d K-7b G*6c K-8b G*7b K-9a B*8b(mate)

Rx7b+ Kx7b S*6c Kx6c S*5d K-5b G*5c K-4a G*4b(mate)

Rx7b+ Kx7b S*6c Kx6c S*5d Kx5d  Gx4e K-6c(4c) B*5d K-5b P*5c Kx5c G*6c K-4b G*4c K-4a G6c-5b K-3a G-3b(mate)

Rx7b+ Kx7b S*6c Kx6c S*5d Kx5d Gx4e K-5c B*4d K-4b G*5c K-3a(b) G*4b(mate)

Rx7b+ Kx7b S*6c Kx6c S*5d Kx5d Gx4e K-5c B*4d K-6b G*6b K-7c G*7b(mate)

Rx7b+ Kx7b S*6c Kx6c S*5d Kx5d Gx4e K-6e B*4c K*6f G*5g Kx5g G*5h K-5f G-4f K-6f P*6g +Lx6g B-7f+(mate)

If Gekisashi found the mating line, Bonanza should have had two defeats and could not have won the final league.

Here was another luckiness to Bonanza in the round 6. The game between YSS and KCC ended with Sennichite and neither of them gained a point and their scores were 4 wins, 1 defeats and 1 draw after the round 6. Bonanza's score at the same time was 5 wins and 1 defeats. If YSS beat KCC, then YSS might have won the tournament if the scores of YSS and Bonanza were the same(6-1) after the final round since YSS beat Bonanza in the round 1.

Anyway, it was great accomplishment for a shogi freeware to become the winner of the tournament in computer shogi history.

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Animation Movie:SHOGI HOUR

On May 3, the 18th Computer Graphics Animation Contest(in Japanese) was held in Tokyo Osaka and SHOGI HOUR created by Jun Aoki was awarded. The movie is funny and amusing. It is one of the hottest topic among the shogi fans who acquire shogi news and information through the Net in Japan.

The movie is a parody of NHK shogi tournament TV program. You can see it as the followings if you have Media Player or Quick Time installed on your PC;

Go to MOVIE in aokijun.net

Click either button of Windows Media Player or Macintosh Quick Time of the 8th movie from the top(3 ones from the bottom). It may take considerable time since the length of it is approx. 8 minutes.

I think you will feel funny and amusing in spite that the narration is in Japanese. It's easy for a shogi fan to imagine what's going on to the characters' minds during their play.

Jun Aoki is an animation creator born in 1981 in Okinawa prefecture. He wrote. "I never intended to make fool of the TV program and shogi. I created the movie to express my devotion to shogi. Shogi is splendid! I love shogi!(translation done by takodori)".

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Result of 3rd game of 24th Asahi Open Shogi Championship

On May 4, the 3rd game of 24th Asahi Open Championship between Asahi Habu and Challenger Fujii 9dan was held in Osaka-fu, Japan. Habu played Sente(made a first move, lower side of the diagram) and won the game with 63 moves. The score after the game is 2-1 lead by Habu. Since this is a 3 wins match, Habu needs to gain one more win to defend the title.

Here is the resignation diagram in the left. I'm sure many people is curious why Fujii resigned in this early stage when there seemed to be no immediate mate. Let me try to explain.

It is a position when Habu dropped his Lance on 4d to threat to take Gote's rook. It's a still in the middlegame. It's a good idea to see which side had material profit and loss in the middlegame to judge which side is in advantage. Sente had 3 lances while Gote had 3 silvers(one on board and two in hand). That showed Gote had material advantage by trading a lance for a silver. Then why Gote resigned?

After the diagram, Gote's rook would be trapped. For example;

P*4c +Rx2a Px4d N-3c+.

P*4c +Rx2a P*3b N*3d

P*4c +Rx2a G5b-5a N-3c+ R-4a +Rx1b Px4d L*4c R-3a +R-2b

In addition, Sente can attack Gote's king directly by B*9a and L-9b+ in the diagram. So it is the hopeless position to Gote since Gote's King would be attacked easily by B*9a and loss of Rook would be highly expected. I think that's why Fujii resigned this ealry.

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