Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Number of shogi players decreased to 149 in Brainking.com at End of September

According to the ratings page of provisional BKR players in Brainking.com, the number of shogi players who has provisional BKR decreased to 149 at the end of September(JST). The site has added shogi to its wide variety of game line since August 12, 2005(JST). Comparing with the end of July, 2006, the number of shogi players decreased by 10. Please refer to the definition of BKR(BrainKing Rating) if you like to know.

The details by country are as followings; .

Provisional BKR: 149 users(-10)

USA --- 30(-2)
Czech --- 18(+1)
France --- 10(+2)
Italy --- 6(0)
Slovakia --- 6(-1)
UK --- 6(-1)
England --- 5(+1)
Australia --- 4(+1)
Germany --- 4(0)
Netherland --- 4(-4)
Switzerland --- 4(-1)
Belgium --- 3(-1)
Finland --- 3(+1)
Japan --- 3(0)
Russia --- 3(-2)
Spain --- 3(+1)
Sweden --- 3(0)
Austria --- 2(-1)
Basque --- 2(0)
Canada --- 2(-2)
Israel --- 2(+1)
Portugal --- 2(-1)
Thailand --- 2(+1)
Argentina --- 1(0)
Estonia --- 1(0)
Gabon --- 1(+1)
India --- 1(0)
Korea --- 1(0)
Latvia --- 1(0)
Luxembourg --- 1(0)
Malaysia --- 1(0)
New Zealand --- 1(0)
Norway --- 1(0)
Poland --- 1(0)
Saint Lucia --- 1(0)
Ukraine --- 1(+1)
Guatemala --- 0 1 (-1)
Slovenia --- 0(-1)
Unspecified --- 9 11(-2)

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Habu defended Ouza title in 14 terms in a row.

On September 27, the third game of 54th Ouza title match between Ouza Habu and Challenger Kisei Sato in Hyogo prefecture, Japan. Habu won the third game with 130 moves following to last two games. He defended the Ouza title by this victory. After he took the title from the former Ouza Fukuzaki with the score of 3-0 in 1992, he defended it in 14 terms in a row. Here is the list of his defending score of the 14 years;

1993 3-1 Koji Tanigawa

1994 3-0 Koji Tanigawa

1995 3-0 Keiji Mori

1996 3-0 Akira Shima

1997 3-0 Akira Shima

1998 3-2 Koji Tanigawa

1999 3-1 Tadahisha Maruyama

2000 3-2 Takeshi Fujii

2001 3-1 Toshiaki Kubo

2002 3-0 Yasumitsu Sato

2003 3-2 Akira Watanabe

2004 3-1 Toshiyuki Moriuchi

2005 3-0 Yasumitsu Sato

2006 3-0 Yasumitsu Sato

Congratulation on Habu's great achievement.

The diagram above is the position when Sato resigned. He was a Black player(Sente, lower side of the diagram). At the diagram, there was no mate for Gote's King while mate existed for Sente's King. The estimated variations after the diagram are as followings;

Px6g S*7g(!) Gx7g S*7i K-7h B-6h+ K-8i G*8h(mate)

Px6g S*7g(!) Kx7g N*6e K-8f S*7e Px7e Bx7e*(mate)

Px6g S*7g(!) Kx7g N*6e K-8h S*7i Gx7i Bx7i+ Kx7i R*7h Kx7h S*7g K-6i G*6h(mate)

Px6g S*7g(!) Kx7g N*6e K-8h S*7i K-9h R*8h Gx8h Sx8h+ Kx8h S*7g K-9h G*8h(mate)

Gx6g G*7h(!) Kx7h N*6f K-7g R*7h K-8f S*7e Px7e Rx7e+(mate)

Gx6g G*7h(!) Kx7h N*6f G*6f S*7g Kx7g Bx6f+ K-7h S*7g K-6i R*7i Kx7i G*7h(mate)

S*7e Bx7e+ Px7e N*7f K-9h R*8h Gx8h Nx8h+ Kx8h G*7h K-9h G*8h(mate)

S*7e Bx7e+ Px7e N*7f K-7i G*8h Gx8h R*6i Kx6i +Px6h(mate)

In any case, Sente had no defense.

You may replay the full game here.(a Java-capable browser will be requiered).

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Five shogi images were added to Boardgamegeek.com

Five shogi images were added to Boardgamegeek.com. Through that page, you can see the enlarged image if you click any of the various images there.

I found an interesting photo. Here is the link to it captioned German FX Schmid Edition:"tranlated" tiles, front.

I think making shogi pieces in ones own design is one of the good ways to enjoy shogi.

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Result of 2nd game of 54th Ouza-sen

On September 16, the second game of 54th Ouza-sen between Ouza Habu and Challenger Kisei Sato sponsored by Nihon Keizai Shimbun was held in Tokyo. Habu was a first mover(Sente, lower side of the diagram) and won the game. The score is now 2-0 led by Habu. Since Ouza-sen is a 3-wins match, Habu needs one more victory to defend the title. You may replay the full game here in Nikkei.com(Java-capable browser needed).

The diagram in the left is the resignation one when Habu dropped his Rook on 6c. Gote's King would be mated easily in the following variations;

K-5d S-6e(mate)

K-5b R-6b+ Kx4a S-3b+(mate)

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Habu defended Oui title by 4-2

On September 12 and 13, the 6th game of 47th Oui titile match between Oui Habu and Challenger Kisei Sato was held in Kanagawa prefecture and Habu beat Sato with 129 moves. He defended Oui title by this victory with the score of 4-2. Congratulation to Habu.

The diagram in the left is the resignation one. Habu  was Sente(Black, Lower side of the diagram).Sente's King escaped from 8h to 9h responding to Gote's check move of S*7i. Sato resigned when he saw the 129th move.

At the diagram, Sato's rash in the endgame ran out. He did not have sufficient pieces in hand to mate Sente's King. If he dropped a Gold on 8h, then Sente's King go up one square to 9g and it could not be trapped.

On the other hand, there were no defense for Gote's King. After the diagram, the following variations would be considered. In any case, Sente should win.

P-9f B-6a+ G-7b R*9c Kx9c L*9d K-8b G*9c K-8a P-9a+ Kx9a G-9b(mate)

P-9f B-6a+ G-7b R*9c K-8b G*8c Gx8c Rx8c+(mate)

P-9f B-6a+ G*7b G*9d K-9b L*9c Gx9c Gx9c Kx9c R*9d K-8b G*9b K-8c R-9c+(mate)

G*7a Bx7d+ K-7b +Bx6d P-9f S*6c Sx6c R*4b S*6b +Bx6c Kx6c L*6d Kx6d Bx5e Kx5e R-4d+ K-6f S*7g K-6e +R-5d(mate)

G*7a Bx7d+ K-7b +Bx6d P-9f S*6c Sx6c R*4b S*6b +Bx6c Kx6c L*6d Kx6d Bx5e K-6c N*7e K-7b S*6c K-8a G*9b(mate)

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"Shogi" in verious WIkipedia Languages

I just tried to input "shogi" in the search field of various Wikipedia Languages with more than 25,000 articles which is found in the Mainpage of Wikipedia(English) and hit the Return key. Here is the result. "Shogi" can be found in many languages as below;

・ Deutsch ・ Espanol ・  Francais ・ Italiano ・ Nederlands ・ Norsk bokmal ・ Polski ・ Portugues ・ Suomi ・ Svenska ・ Česky ・ Dansk ・ Magyar ・ Română

Since the result above comes from the alphabetical keyword, it's not applicable well for Wikipedia non-alphabetical languages. If you know the existence of the shogi article in any Wikipedia non-alphabetical languages other than 中文 and 日本語, please let me know by writing in the comment field of this entry.

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Result of 1st game of 54th Ouza-sen

The first game of 54th Ouza-sen between Ouza Habu and Challenger Kisei Sato was held in Kanagawa prefecture on September 7. As a result of Furigoma, Sato played Sente(Black, Lower side of the diagram). Habu won it and he leads the score by 1-0. Ouza title match is 3-wins one. Both players had 5 hours of thinking time and consumed 4 hours and 59 minutes.

Many professional players got excited about the game since the positions were reversed several times. You may replay the full game here in Shogi Kingdom(Japanese) in Nikkei Net.

The diagram in the left is when Sato resigned to see Habu's 144th move of N*7a. It's not easy to explain why Sato resigned here since both Kings will not likely to be mated and they could play longer. But here is my guess.

Sente(Black, Lower side) would not be able to prevent Gote's King from escaping to Sente's camp. For example, the following variation would be considered after the diagram;

P-6b+ K-7c +Px5b K-8d

S*6b Gx6b Px6b+ K-7c +Px7a K-8d

Since the promoted Horse on 8f, the promoted silver on 8g and the promoted Rook on 6i overwhelmed the left side of the board very well, Gote's King could not be trapped. On the other hand, Sente's King were in danger since the Silver on 3i was floating and threatened to be taken by Gote's promoted Rook on 6i. Sente might manage to enter his King to Gote's camp as well as Sente would. But Gote had 3 major pieces in total, two on the board and one in hand. Gote would not be able to score enough points of piece values to form Jishogi(Impasse). Here is the link to Winning the game in Shogi - Wikipedia to refer to how to decide the game when both King entered into their opponents' camp.

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Result of 5th game of 47th Oui-sen - Habu led the score again by 3-2

On August 30 and 31, the fifth game of 47th Oui-title match between Oui Habu and Challenger Kisei Sato was held in Tokushima prefecture in Japan. Sato made a first move(lower side of the diagram). Habu won it with 146 moves and he led the score again by 3-2. Since Oui-sen is 4-wins match, Habu needs one more victory to defend the title. The sixth game will be held on September 12 and 13. The full gamerecord is available at here in Tokushima Shimbun(Japanese site).

The left diagram is the resignation diagram when Habu dropped his Silver on 2g to give a check to Sato's King. To my pleasure, it is an easy position to explain how Sente(Black, Lower side of the diagram)'s King will be mated. Here are the possible variations after Gote's S*2g;

Kx2e N*3c K*3e R*2e(mate)

Kx2e N*3c K-2f R*3f K-1g N-2e(mate)

Kx2e N*3c K-2f R*3f Sx3f +NLx3f K-1g N-2e(mate)

K-2f R*3f Kx2e N*3c(mate)

K-2f R*3f Sx3f +NLx3f Kx2e N*3c(mate)

In any case, Sente's King cannot help but be mated.

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