Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Boardlive today - 2nd game of 34th Joryu Meijini-sen

Joryu Meijin Yauchi vs Saida(Joryu 4 dan) is now on boardlive. You can watch and replay the game through the link below;

Yauchi(Sente) vs Saida

Before the game, Yauchi took the first game. This is a 3-win match. It will end in a few hours from now. Saida built Anaguma gakoi(castle) while Yauchi moved her Rook to her left edge file as if it moved like a subway which is called "Subway Rook".

Webcamera Live today - Semifinal and final of Asahi Trophy Shogi Open

Semifinals at 10:30 and the final at 14:30 today. You can watch webcamera live through the link below;

http://www2.shogidojo.net/asahi/webcamera.html

The pairing of semifinals are as followings,

Habu Yoshiharu vs  Maruyama Tadahisa
Namekata Hisashi vs Akutsu Chikara

Thinking time per player is 40 minutes and 1minute byoyomi after consuming it.
Have fun.

 

Kubo won the 3rd game - 57th Osho-sen title match

Yesterday Kubo won the third game of 57th Osho-sen 4-wins match with the defender Osho Habu in 111 moves. Kubo was Sente player. The game went to Sente's Fujii System against Gote's Ibisha Anaguma. Kubo's new idea in this game was to postpone taking a Pawn in the 2nd file until sacrificing a Pawn on 6d and trading Silvers on the 4th file and it seems to have worked well.

The diagram below is the resignation one. The possible variations after that position would be

G-4h +Rx2a Kx2a G*3a(!) Kx3a R*4a K-3b +B-4b(mate, replayable by clicking the arrow in the right direction below the board)

G*3a R*5c G-4h Rx2c+ Gx2c +Rx3a Gx3h +Rx2a Kx2a S*3b Kx3b +B4d-4c K-3a G*3b(mate)

G*3a R*5c G-4h Rx2c+ Gx3h +Rx2e S*3g +Rx3a P*2f K-1g Gx3a N*2c(mate)

G*3a R*5c G-4h Rx2c+ Gx3h +Rx2e S*3g +Rx3a S*2f +Rx2f Sx2f+ Kx3h R*5h K-4i Rx5b+ +Rx2b(!) Gx2b N*2c(mate)

S*3a  R*5c G-4h Rx2c+ Gx2c +Rx3a G*3c +B5b-4c Gx4c S*3b Gx3h +Rx2a(mate)

S*3a  R*5c G-4h Rx2c+ Gx2c +Rx3a G*3c +B5b-4c N*3b +B4dx3c Gx3c +Rx2a Kx2a G*3a(!) Kx3a N*2c(!) Px2c S*4b K-2a S*2b(!) Kx2b +Bx3c K-1c S*2b(mate)

There would be more variations, but Gote was hopeless in any cases.

Webcamera-and-Board-live today - Yauchi Rieko vs Suzuki Kanna, a semifinal of 1st Mynavi Joshi Open

Today is the day for the semifinal game of 1st Mynavi Joshi Open between Yauchi Rieko (Joryu Meijin) and Suzuki Kanna(Joryu shodan) . You can watch and replay the game through the linked page below(Java-capable browser required);

Yauchi Rieko vs Suzuki Kanna

As a result of Furigoma, Yauchi became Sente(black). The game started at 10:00am(Japan Time). The thinking time per player is 3 hours and 60 second byoyomi after consuming it, so I think it will end before evening in Japan today.

You can watch live pictures by the web cameras by the players and many photos related to this game to be uploaded frequently through the following page.

Live pictures by the webcameras (Left = Yauchi)

1st Mynavi Joshi Open Broadcasting Blog

Boardlive today and tomorrow - 3rd game of 57th Osho-sen

Today and tomorrow are the days for the 3rd game of 57th Osho-sen 4-wins match between Osho Habu(Upper Photo) and Kubo(8 dan). Kubo is Sente(black) player this game since Habu was so last game. You can watch and replay the game through the link below(Java capable window is needed).

3rd game of 57th Osho-sen 4-wins match

Here are the explanations about the four buttons above the board there.

1st button --- to be refreshed every 30 seconds
2nd button --- to be refreshed every 1 minute
3rd button --- to be refreshed every 3 minutes
4th button --- to be refreshed manually

The color of the buttons shows you which one you are choosing now(The example above is choosing the 1st button). I recommend you to choose the 4th button when you replay the game from the start to the current position and push the 2nd button to watch the live games in the endgame in Byoyomi.

The opening strategy of this game is Sente's Shikenbisha. Habu did not adopt ai-Furibisha(double ranging Rook) and the position as of now is Fujii-system opening.

Although the texts are written in Japanese, you can see many photos frequently uploaded related to this match through the official blog linked below;

57th Osho-sen broadcasting blog

A Korean Female Go Professional Player Mentioned to "Shion no ou "

Cho Hye Yeon, a Korean female professional  Go player,  watched the Anime "Shion no ou" recently and wrote her comments about it in her blog. She expressed sympathy with Yasuoka Shion, who is the main character and a mute girl professional player since she is also a female professional player and she is still young(University Student). She felt not so happy to see Hikaru no Go since female players were defeated by male players in that anime.  If you are interested, visit the entry by her linked below to read it through.

Full of Surprises - Shion No Oh (しおんの王)

In the actual shogi world, the first win for a female pro to beat a male pro officially occured in 1993. Shimizu Ichiyo won the game against Ikeda Shuichi. The winning percentage of female against male professional players has been approximately 20% since then. I think it will get higher in the future since the current Internet circumstances allow girls to enter into shogi without being conscious about whether a male or a female.

 

"Take & Drop - 3 move tsume practice " has been added to "Basic Shogi Information in English available on Internet(2)

Take & Drop - 3 move tsume practice which contains 40 tsume practice problems has been added to Basic shogi information in English available on Internet(2) in this blog. Also, it has been added to the entry titled Tsume problems to improve your endgame skill.

Result of Kurnik official shogi tournaments held last January

Kurnik is an online gamesite where you can play shogi in various time control. Here is the list of the captioned tournaments held there. First column is the tournament number, Second is the date. The third is the winner. You can go to the page of the tournament table by clicking each link of tournament number.

1826378 2008-01-02 (wed.) gusamana
1826411 2008-01-05 (sat.) mugen9x9
1841562 2008-01-09 (wed.) linwood408
1841595 2008-01-12 (sat.) takkin
1856349 2008-01-16 (wed.) linkuei
1856382 2008-01-19 (sat.) gbuglyo
1870319 2008-01-23 (wed.) linkuei
1870352 2008-01-26 (sat.) satoritokin
1884626 2008-01-30 (wed.) linkuei

Kurnik shogi official tournaments take place every Wednesday and Sunday. The more detailed 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.

Take & Drop #40 - 3 move tsume practice

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 as an image file 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.