Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Results of Kurnik official shogi tournaments

On August 18, Kurnik official shogi tournament #1583474(10m +10sec) took place. There were seven participants. You can see the result here. The winner was gences57.

On August 18, Kurnik official shogi tournament #1595919(10m +10sec) took place. There were five participants. You can see the result here. The winner was yurysphilev.

On August 18, Kurnik official shogi tournament #1609197(7m) took place. There were four participants. You can see the result here. The winner was snow_shovel.

You can replay the games by clicking "1.0" or "0.0" in the tournament table through the result pages above.

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.

Number of shogi players decreased to 136 in Brainking.com at End of August

According to the ratings page of provisional BKR players in Brainking.com, the number of shogi players who has provisional BKR decreased to 136 at the end of August(JST). The site has added shogi to its wide variety of game line since August 12, 2005(JST). Comparing with the end of June, 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 106 at the end of August.

Ryuo-sen boardlive today(August 24)

The 20th Ryuo-sen game between Yoshiharu Habu(3 crowns) and Yasumitsu Sato(2 crowns) is now on boardlive. As a result of Furigoma, Habu becomes Sente player. You can watch it through this page. Click the following button in the page.

Then you can watch or replay the game. The browser which can allow Kifu for Java is required.

The left side of the picture  in the page is Habu while the right side is Sato.

You can replay other games by clicking the botton to begins with the image of Osho pieces in this page.

Final presentation of AISEP will be open to public on Aug. 21

From August 17 to 21, AISEP(Asian Intercultural Shogi Exchange Program) is being held in Tokyo. The students and researchers from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan gather together and share times concentrating on the intercultural shogi exchange program. 
Their presentation including a constructive proposal of "the Future of shogi" to the public is scheduled on August 21(Tue.). If you are in Japan and are interested, please visit it. The details of the time and place is as below;

Date: August 21(Tuesday)
Time:6:00-8:00(pm)
Place:Yayoi auditorium in Hongo Campus of Tokyo University
Entry free

For those who are not in Japan, the part of their deliverabls are and will be available at youtube.  They can be found under the tag of AISEP there.

For those who can read Japanese, you can read the Updates of the program under progress now in their staff blog.

Video of making DIY shogi sets

I found an interesting video of making DIY shogi sets. This seems to be posted by a Spanish shogi fan.

Ryuo-sen Boardlive today(August 10)

The 20th Ryuo-sen game between Koji Tanigawa(9 dan) and Kazuki Kimura(8 dan) is now on boardlive. As a result of Furigoma, Kimura becomes Sente player. You can watch it through this page. Click the following button in the page.

Then you can watch or replay the game. The browser which can allow Kifu for Java is required.

The left side of the picture  in the page is Tanigawa while the right side is Kimura.

You can replay other games by clicking the botton to begins with the image of Osho pieces in this page.

Study started how Shogi players judge the current situation and determine the next move

According to Press Releases of Riken, the following annoucement was made on August 3(Japan Time).

Brain Science Institute, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., and Fujitsu Japan, in collaboration with Japan Shogi Association, launched a joint research project in order to understand the intuitive thinking mechanism characteristic to human beings by elucidating the neural information processing network in the Shogi game through detailed analysis of how Shogi players judge the current situation and determine the next move.

Computer Weekly.com folows this news.

Chess computer to get inside players' minds