Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Ryuo-sen boardlive today and tomorrow(December 12 & 13)

The sixth game of the 20th Ryuo-sen match between Akira Watanabe(Ryuo) and Yasumitsu Sato(2 crowns)  is now on boardlive. Before the game, Watanabe leads the score by 3-2. Sato cannot lose any more game to take Ryuo-title since this is 4-wins match. Sente player is Watanabe for this game. Today is the first day so it will end in the evening tomorrow(Japan time). 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.

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

You can see the photos related to this game through my social bookmark page.

"81 diver" is one of Jury Recommended Works in 11th Japan Media Arts Festival

81 diver is a manga which illustrates shogi players for gambling. It's swinging this year in Japan and is selected one of the Jury Recommended Works of Manga Division/Sotry Manga in 11th Japan Media Arts Festival.

Boardlives Today - 7 round of 57th Osho league

There are three games of 57th Osho league today as below; (left=Sente)

Toshiaki Kubo(8 dan) vs Koichi Fukaura(Oui)

Koji Tanigawa(9 dan) vs Yasumitsu Sato(2 crowns)

Toshiyuki Moriuchi(Meijin) vs Takeshi Fujii(9 dan)

Before the game, here are the scores of the players;

Kubo（4-1), Sato,Moriuchi,Fukaura(3-2), Tanigawa(2-3), Fujii(0-5)

Since Osho league consists of 7 players in total. Every player does not have a game in a round. If Kubo win, he will be the challenger against Osho Habu. If he lost, there will be play-off match among the players with 4-2. Yes, Sato, Moriuchi and Fukaura seek for the possibility.The rest player is Maruyama(9 dan) who ended all the games with 3-3.

The games above are expected to end this evening(Japan time). I'm socially-bookimarking the photos of these games for your reference.

< added on December 11 >

Kubo beat Fukaura to be the challenger against Osho Habu. Sato and Moriuchi won the games.

Link addition to Basic shogi information in English available on Internet(2)

Today I added the link of "Site to help you get to the Kurnik rating of 1500 or more." to the page of Basic shogi information in English available on Internet(2)

"Kemuritsume" and "Kotobuki" - Classic Tsumeshogi masterpieces in Tsumeshogi Hakubutsukan

"Tsumeshogi Hakubutsukan" is Strategic Puzzles Museum on the Internet. It contains lots of classic tsumeshogi masterpieces created in 19 century or before. All the problems there are available to replay on Katsuda Shogiban.　I would like to introduce two masterpieces created by Kanju Ito(1719 - 1760) in that museum. The first one is #99 called "Kemuritsume" and the other is #100 called "Kotobuki" in Shogi Zukou published in 1755.

#99-Kemuritsume(left), #100-Kotobuki(right)

In #99, there are 39 pieces on the board at first. And almost all the pieces go away from the board as if the smoke goes away(Kemuri means smoke) and only three pieces will be left there in the end. In #100, the move length from the start to the end to solve it is in 611 moves which used to be the longest for two hundred years. I do not recommend you to try to solve them, Just enjoy replaying them. I'm sure you will be amazed at the talent of the creator.

A reviewer of "Shion no ou" played Hamshogi and found shogi hard.

I would like to introduce a blog which specializes in reviewing Anime programms and it mentions to each Episode of Shion no Ou below;

Star Crossed Anime Blog :: Shion no Ou

In the review of the Episode 8, the reviewer wrote he tried Hamshogi and found shogi is a harder game than it looked. Interesting!

Hamshogi is a webtop human-to-machine type computer shogi software which you do not need to download to play. I posted how to use Hamshogi in English to shogi-l this June. If you need it for the use of Hamushogi linked above, here is the link to my post.

Access data of Kifu by Opening Strategy up to November 2007

The image below is the monthly pageviews and visitors of Kifu by Opening Strategy which is a llink collection to shogi games in Kifu Database with tags of opening strategy. Total pagevies increased 19.0% in November comparing with October.

Result of 5th game of 20th Ryuo-sen

The 5th game of 20th Ryuo-sen seven-wins match between Ryuo Watanabe and Challenger Sato on November 28 & 29. The Sente player of this game is Sato. Sato won it in 177 moves. The score after the game is 3-2 led by Watanabe.

The diagram above is the resignation diagram. Why Watanabe resigned the game at this position is, I guess, he lost his fighting spirit since he could not trap Sente's King and let it go away to his camp safely. As a matter of fact, I cannot see how to approach Gote's King if Gote moved B-5e+ after the resignation diagram. I think Gote should have tried to enter his King to Sente's camp as well.

Result of 4th game of 20th Ryuo-sen

The 4th game of 20th Ryuo-sen seven-wins match between Ryuo Watanabe and Challenger Sato on November 21 & 22. The Sente player of this game is Watabane. Watanabe won it in 101 moves. The score after the game is 3-1 led by Watanabe.

The diagram above is the resignation diagram. After the diagram, Gote's King would be mated as below;

K-8b G*7c K-7a N*6c K-6a G*6b(mate)

K-7d G*6e K-8d G*7e(mate)

K-8d N*7f K-7e G*6e K-8f Sx8g Kx8g G-7h K-7f G*8g(mate)

K-8d N*7f K-7e G*6e Kx7f Sx8g Kx7g G-7h(mate)

K-8d N*7f K-7e G*6e Kx7f Sx8g K-6g G-6h(mate)

Result of 3rd game of 20th Ryuo-sen

The 3rd game of 20th Ryuo-sen seven-wins match between Ryuo Watanabe and Challenger Sato on November 13 & 14. The Sente player of this game is Sato. Watanabe won it in 134 moves. The score after the game is 2-1 led by Watanabe.

The diagram above is the resignation diagram. After the diagram, Sente's King would be mated as below;

Px1f B*3i K-1i Bx1g+ N*2i G*1h(mate)

Px1f B*3i K-1h G*1g K-1i Bx2h+(mate)

K-2g G*2h K-1f B*2g(mate)

K-2g G*2h Sx2h Nx2h+ Kx2h B*1i K-2g +Rx4g K-1f S*2g(mate)

K-2g G*2h Sx2h Nx2h+ K-3g B*5i K-4f G*4e(mate)

K-2g G*2h Sx2h Nx2h+ K-3g B*5i Kx2h G*3g K-1h S*2g (mate)