Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

New Shogi Book in English is now on sale

Tony Hosking, a British writer and publisher at The Shogi Foundation who already released excellent shogi books such as "The Art of Shogi" and "Habu's Words", newly published another shogi book in English. The title is "Classic Shogi" The book contains the 80 gamerecords of the past Meijins(Champions) for these 400 years with commentaries. You can touch the profoundness of shogi played by the top players in the world through reading it.

It is available to order online at the website of The Shogi Foundation. The ordering information page is here. In addition, you can order it at Amazon.co.uk.

User comments playing shogi of Clubhouse Games for DS which might be worth reading

These two entries are very interesting to me.

chrisglass: Clubhouse Games  --- This entry includes the photo of shogi screen in Clubhouse Games for Nintendo DS. According to the photo, the pieces used in the software is a piece with one Kanji character on.

Re: Clubhouse Games -- Shogi - Other Nintendo WFC Games - Nintendo NSider Forums  --- I think Clubhouse Games is playing a part of increasing shogi population in the Western world.

I've started social-bookmarking pages for shogi fans.

I've started social-bookmarking pages for shogi fans who can read English. It is titled

Entries incl. 'shogi' or 'Japanese chess' bookmarked by ShogiUpdates

Didn't you heard about Social-bookmarking? It's a a web based service, where shared lists of user-created Internet bookmarks are displayed. For further explanation about Social-bookmarking, please refer to the relevant Wikipedia page.

The purpose of the social-bookmarking pages is to provide a contemporary share about what contents are coming related shogi on Internet among shogi fans who can read English worldwide..

I would like to briefly explain how the social-bookmark runs. Almost every day, I collect a lots of Internet contents which includes the words 'shogi' or 'Japanese chess' by using Google Alert, Technorati, some aggregator applications and so on. Some of the collected contents are written in Japanese or other languages. So I'm picking up the contents written in English only and putting them on the social-bookmark pages. It's a manual process and some trifle contents are not to be bookmarked even if they are written in English. Yes, I'm playing an editorial role.

The social-bookmark generates RSS feed so you can get an update notification timely if you use a RSS reader to register the bookmark to receive its RSS feed. For more information about RSS feed and RSS reader, please refer to the page of aggregator in Wikipedia. I think it is a very useful tool which is worth giving it a try.

I hope this small trial will work successfully and the similar endeavor will take place in your local language in the near future.

Game Evening in London on November 29

According to ASIA HOUSE which is a non-profit organization to promote appreciation and understanding of Aian countries, it will hold an event called Game Evening on November 29 in London. Segawa 4 dan and three female professional players will be there to give workshop and matches. Sake and Sushi will be served in the reception. I'm not sure if the ticket is still available, but if you are interested in the event, please visit the following page for further information,

Game Evening - The art of shogi

Event of Cosplay Shogi in Youmacon 2006

This weekend, Cosplay Shogi will be held in YOUMACON 2006, a conference of Anime, Manga, Video games, J-Music or so in Detroit, USA. If you are interested in the event, please refer to the page of featured events the conference.

There was alredy a cosplay shogi event last year in YOUMACON 2005. You can see a lot of funny photo about the event from this page of YOUMACON 2005.

Result of 2nd game of Ryuoh-sen

On October 31 and November 1, the 2nd game of Ryuoh-sen between Ryuoh Watanabe and Challenger Kisei Sato was held in Ishikawa prefecture, Japan. Watanabe made a first move and Sato won the game with 162 moves. Sato led the score by 2-0 after the game. Since Ryuoh title match is 4-wins match. Sato needs two more win to take the title from the young title holder.

The diagram in the left is the resignation diagram. The piece on the 6g square is Gote(White)'s promoted kNight. At the diagram, Sato dropped his silver on 5g which forked Sente(Black)'s King on 7e and Dragon(promoted Rook) on 3e. Sente's king would be mated after the bishop drop as followings;

K-8f S*7e K-9g P-9f K-9h P-9g+(mate)

K-8f S*7e K-8e S-8d K-8f B-7e+(mate)

K-8f S*7e K-8e S-8d K-7d B-7e+(mate)

K-8e S*8d K-7d B-7e+(mate)

K-7d S*8c K-8e S-8d K-7d B-7e+(mate)

K-7d S*8c K-8e S-8d K-8(7)f B-7e+(mate)

In any case, Gote's King would be trapped.

You may replay full game here if you use Java-capable browser.

The third game will be held on November 14 and 15 in Nagasaki prefecture, Japan.

Blog entries by others incl. the words "Shogi" or "Japanese chess".

Picked up based on Google Blog Alert(Oct 29)

DS/Wii Game - Friends Code Exchange!　--- This is an entry by a person who seems to live in UK and bought DS Clubhouse Games(42 All-Time Classics) recently. He is asking the public for DS's Friend Code Exchange in order to play shogi or other games over Wi-Fi.

Trading Spouses, Orthodox Style (Ahem, Not Really)　--- A blogger who seems to live in Israel responded to the recent article titled "Elementary school girls shake up 'shogi' world" by Japan Times.

Picked up based on Google Blog Alert(Oct 30)

Off I Went　--- A blogger who seems a tourist in Shimane prefecture in Japan wrote an diary when he played a shogi game there.

cultural borders and chess --- A blogger who seems to be an international businessperson wrote about the Xiangqi and Shogi. According to the entry, learning these two games pays at least 3 dividends such as enjoying fun time, culture learning experience, and obtaining a good social tool.

Picked up based on Google Blog Alert(Oct. 31)

Pick Up Lines (A Temari/Shikamaru story)　--- This is an entry of FanFiction in NARUTOFORUMS.

[Fic] [Crush Gear Turbo] Unexpected Circumstances (Ch 1-3/3)　--- Crush Gear Turbo is the English title of Japanese animation "激闘！クラッシュギアTURBO"(Link to Wikipedia page of Crush Gear Turbo). According to the sources, the evil character Ohkawa's ancestor seems to be the shogi master in the Edo era in the story.

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