Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Number of shogi players decreased to 155 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 155 at the end of May(JST). The site has added shogi to its wide variety of game line since August 12, 2005(JST). Comparing with the end of April, 2007, the number of shogi players decreased by 2. Please refer to the definition of BKR(BrainKing Rating) if you like to know.

Country breakdown is omitted from this month onwards.

The number of minishogi players who has provisional BKR is 115 at the end of May.

Forum discussions about shogi

It might be interesting for you to read and/or participate in the following discussions recently generated at BoardGameGeek.com.

Which is better?

Chess, Shogi, or Go?

Result of Kurnik official shogi tournament of 2007-05-26

On May 26, Kurnik official shogi tournament #1434935(10m, +10s) took place. There were six participants. You can see the result here. The winner was satoritokin. You can replay the games by clicking "1.0" or "0.0" in the tournament table there.

The schedule of the coming tournaments can be found in the lower part of Kurnik shogi login page. For more general information about Kurnik official tournament, please read the page about tournaments.

A quality shogi board was delivered from Japan!

I can easily imagine how the author felt when the goods were delivered. Congratulation!

The New Japanese Chess Board Is Here! (Let the Finder Beware)

Shion no Ou is announced to be in Anime.

Here are the links to the contents which appeared in Anime News Network(ANN) regarding Shion no Ou. It is a manga written by Masaru Katori(Naoko Hayashiba who used be a lady shogi proffesional player) and drawn by Jiro Ando

Shion no O Anime Announced

Shion no O (manga)

I think this will be fan-dubbed into English and some other language somewhere when it start to be on air in Japan.

Result of Kurnik official shogi tournament of 2007-05-19

On May 19, Kurnik official shogi tournament #1422872(10m, +10s) took place. There were four participants. You can see the result here. The winner was womy. You can replay the games by clicking "1.0" or "0.0" in the tournament table there.

The schedule of the coming tournaments can be found in the lower part of Kurnik shogi login page. For more general information about Kurnik official tournament, please read the page of about tournaments.

Result of 4th game of 25th Asahi Open, Habu won.

On May 17, the fourth game of 25th Asahi Open between Asahi Habu and challenger Akutsu 5 dan was held in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan. Akutsu was Sente(black, or the first mover). Habu won the game in 96 moves. He defended Asahi with the score of 3-1. For those who can read Japanese, here is the link to the  page of Asahi Open of Asahi.com. You can enjoy lots of photos regarding the tournament here.

The diagram bellow is the resignation diagram when Habu escaped his King to 7a.

After the diagram, I think the possible variations would be the followings. There is no mate for Gote's King while Sente's King is in Hisshi(brinkmate).

S*7b K-8b B*7a K-9b G-7c R*7h K-9g N*8e K-8f R-7e+(mate)

S*7b K-8b G-7c(!) Kx7c R-4c+ Kx7b B*8c K-8b Bx7d+ B*7i(!) Kx7i G*7h(mate, replayable clicking the arrow in the right direction)

S*7b K-8b G-7c(!) Kx7c R-4c+ Kx7b B*8c K-8b Bx7d+ B*7i(!) K-9h R*7h(mate)

P*7g R*7h K-9g B*8h K-8f Bx7g+ Nx7g+ Rx7g+ K-8e +R-7e(mate)

P*7g R*7h K-9g B*8h K-8f Bx7g+ K-8e +B-9e(!) Px9e +R-7e K-9f +Rx9e(mate)

S*7g Nx7g+ Nx7g R*7h K-9g B*7e N*8f S*8h K-9h S*9g(mate)

P*7h N*7f  K-9h  S*9g  Kx9g N*8e  K-8f  S*7e  Kx8e  R*8d(mate)

There may be more variation. But in any case, Gote(White, upper side of the diagram) should win the game.

US Chapmionship Prize winners

The names of US chapmionship Prize winners are posted to shogi-l. You can find it here. It was held in Los Angels last month.

European Shogi Championship will take place in Czech

Here is the information about shogi tournaments in Czech Open 2007. The term of shogi will be from July 12 to 15. If you would like to participate, please download SPECIFICATION in the menu in the left of the linked page above for more details.

I've started a new blog for you to reach game-records with specific openings

棋譜でーたべーす(Kifu database) is a useful website for shogi intermediate or dan players. However, the problem is that it is written in Japanese for Japanese readers. So I have started to a new blog to help you utilize it for the purpose of learning and/or appreciating the art of shogi. If you are interested, please visit the blog as below;

Kifu by Opening Strategy

If you have some specific openings that I should pick up, please let me know through comment field of this entry, though I'll be concentrate on Gokigen Nakabisha(Central Rook) for a while except for newly added kifu updates.