Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Atamakin Tsume Practice #8

"Atamakin" means Gold drop on the square ahead of the opponent's King supported by other piece of yours on the board. This gold drop is frequently used when checkmating the King in the endgame. It is necessary to be able to make an Atamakin for you to win a game. You can learn by solving Atamakin Tsume Practice problems to be posted here. Today is #8. It's a three move tsume.

You can see the answer by clicking the arrow in the right direction under the board in order to replay the answer line. (Popup diagram to be saved for printing) Click the exclamation marks which appear below the diagram for further comments on the problem. If you click the marks again, the comment windows go away.

Qualification tournament will be held in Canada on March 16 - International Shogi Festival

The qualification tournament will be held in Kingston, Ontario on March 16. If you are Canadian citizen and are interested in participating it, please read the shogi-l archived message here.

About the article titled "In the squares, not on the intersections, goddammit!"

It is an interesting article. But there is one point I don't think it's true.

In the squares, not on the intersections, goddammit!

Even in Japan, shogi plays second fiddle to Go.

In Japan, no Go professional player exist who is more famous than Shogi professional player Habu Yoshiharu.

According to Leisure White Paper published every year,  the population of  Go in Japan has never exceeded and tied with that of  Shogi  since it was published. Shogi population is larger in Japan.

In manga  world,  Go has only one major title - Hikaru no Go. On the contrary, shogi has more such as Gekka no Kishi, Shion no ou, 81 Diver, 3 gatsu no Lion and so forth.

I don't see any reason why it is true that shogi plays second fiddle to Go in Japan.

Atamakin Tsume Practice #7

"Atamakin" means Gold drop on the square ahead of the opponent's King supported by other piece of yours on the board. This gold drop is frequently used when checkmating the King in the endgame. It is necessary to be able to make an Atamakin for you to win a game. You can learn by solving Atamakin Tsume Practice problems to be posted here. Today is #7. It's a three move tsume.

You can see the answer by clicking the arrow in the right direction under the board in order to replay the answer line.  (Popup diagram to be saved for printing) Click the exclamation marks which appear below the diagram for further comments on the problem. If you click the marks again, the comment windows go away.

Kasparov's Premiere at Shogi - English version

Though the photos and articles were published at chessbase.de in German before, most of readers of this blog are happy to read English version of them available to read in chessvariants.org.

Good article to read - Shogi strategy: Castling

I found a good article written in English about the significance of castling in Shogi. It contains nice diagram images.

Shogi strategy: Castling

On the other hand, even by professional players, games without castling are sometimes played in the openings of Yokofutori, Gokigen Nakabisha, Haya-ishida, and so on.

Atamakin Tsume Practice #6

"Atamakin" means Gold drop on the square ahead of the opponent's King supported by other piece of yours on the board. This gold drop is frequently used when checkmating the King in the endgame. It is necessary to be able to make an Atamakin for you to win a game. You can learn by solving Atamakin Tsume Practice problems to be posted here. Today is #6. It's a three move tsume.

You can see the answer by clicking the arrow in the right direction under the board in order to replay the answer line. (Popup diagram to be saved for printing) Click the exclamation marks which appear below the diagram for further comments on the problem. If you click the marks again, the comment windows go away.

Kai beat Yamada to be a fianlist in 1st MyNavi Joshi Open

Yesterday Kai(Joryu 2 dan) beat Yamada(Joryu 3 dan) to be a finalist in the 1st MyNavi Joshi Open. The other finalist is Joryu Meijin Yauchi who beat Suzuki(Joryu sho dan) in the semifinal a few days ago. The final match will be in 3-win match. The first game will take place on April 3. The schedule of the rest games are not fixed yet. The winner of the final will earn 5 million yen as prize money.

Atamakin Tsume Practice #5

"Atamakin" means Gold drop on the square ahead of the opponent's King supported by other piece of yours on the board. This gold drop is frequently used when checkmating the King in the endgame. It is necessary to be able to make an Atamakin for you to win a game. You can learn by solving Atamakin Tsume Practice problems to be posted here. Today is #5. It's a three move tsume.   

You can see the answer by clicking the arrow in the right direction under the board in order to replay the answer line. (Popup diagram to be saved for printing) Click the exclamation marks which appear below the diagram for further comments on the problem. If you click the marks again, the comment windows go away.

Challenger Habu took the 1st game of 33rd Kio-sen 3-win match

Yesterday Challenger Habu beat Kio Sato in the 1st game of 33rd Kio-sen 3-win match. Habu led the score by 1-0 after the game. Habu became a Sente(Black) player as a result of Furigoma. It was a very thrilling game with the length of 187 moves which was longer than usual. Especially, either King did not go up to the 4th rank which was very rare in such a long game. I think it must be one of the best games in the year 2008.

The diagram above is the resignation one when Sente dropped a Gold on 3c. After the diagram, Gote's King were forced to be mated. The variations would be;

K-1b G*2b(mate)

Kx3c Px3d K-2b P-3c+ K-1a G*2b(mate)

Kx3c Px3d K-2b P-3c+ K-3a +Px3b(mate)

Kx3c Px3d K-4c G*5c(mate)

Kx3c Px3d K-4b P-3c+ K-5a G*5b Kx5b S*5c K-6a G*6b(mate, replayable by clicking the arrow in the right direction)

Kx3c Px3d K-4b P-3c+ K-4a G*4b(mate)

The schedule of the rest games are below;

2nd game --- February 23
3rd game --- March 8
4th game(If either does not win 3 games) --- March 19
5th game(If either does not win 3 games) --- March 28