Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Webcamera-and-Board-live today - Kai Tomomi vs Yauchi Rieko, 3rd game of Mynavi Joshi Open

Today is the day for the 3rd game of 1st Mynavi Joshi Open 3-win match between Kai Tomomi (Joryu 2 dan) and Yauchi Rieko(Joryu Meijin) . You can watch and replay the game through the linked page below(Java-capable browser required);

Kai Tomomi vs Yauchi Rieko

Kai is Sente(black) in this game. 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 webcameras beside the players and many photos related to this game to be uploaded frequently through the following pages.

Live pictures by the webcameras (Left = Yauchi)

1st Mynavi Joshi Open Broadcasting Blog

Nakai won LPSA's 1 Day Tournament on April 29

Yesterday LPSA's one day tournament took place. LPSA is short for The Ladies Professional Shogi-players' Association of Japan. It was a knock-out tournament with the 8 participants. Nakai(Lady 6 dan) beat Joryu Oui Ishibashi in the final match to become the winner. You can replay the final game. You can watch the videos of the game through the official page.

JSA's announcement - International Shogi Festival 2008

JSA(The Japan Shogi Association) announced in English that it will hold International Shogi Festival 2008 in Tendo from November 7 to 10. Please click the link below to visit JSA's page.

International Shogi Festival 2008 in Tendo

 

Interesting review to read in Boardgamegeek Forum

This review is very interesting to read to me.

Shogi for chess players

I love solving chess problems because they show all kinds of brilliant tactics (forks, pins, skewers, discovered check, double check, queen sacrifices, etc. etc.). However, when I actually play chess, somehow these tactics never seem to materialize. Part of this is undoubtedly because I suck at chess, but part of it is due (I think) to the nature of the game. In most chess games, one player makes a mistake and loses a pawn or two, or gets a lousy exchange (e.g. two pawns for a knight). The opponent then proceeds to exchange all the other pieces until he has a winning endgame, and then promotes a pawn and the game is over. If you make a big enough blunder (e.g. losing a minor or major piece) you might as well resign right away. You can play hundreds of games of chess without seeing the kind of brilliant tactics that are there in the problem books. When was the last time you saw a queen sacrifice in a chess game you played? Or a game that ended in a flurry of sacrifices by both players as both players rushed to mate each other before they were mated? But this kind of thing is routine in shogi (with the caveat that there are no queen sacrifices per se because there is no queen; however, major piece sacrifices as part of a mating attack are not at all unusual). When I play shogi, I feel like every game has ten times as many tactics as a typical chess game.

Although I do not have much experience in playing chess and thus I'm not in the position to mention what the writer says about chess in the linked article, I agree that you need to use many tactical moves to play shogi well. Learning Tesuji(tactical) will be never be useless to play shogi better.

Episode 276 of Naruto had shogi scene

Today Episode 276 of Naruto(Episode 56 of Naruto Shippuuden) aired in Japan today. There was a shogi scene between Asuma and Shikamaru which corresponded to Chapter 317 in Manga. I hope some of the Naruto fans will get interested in shogi through this scene.

Habu tied the score in 1-1, 2nd game of 66th Meijin-sen

On April 22 and 23, the 2nd game of 66th Meijin-sen 4-win match between Meijin Moriuchi and Challenger Habu took place. Habu was Sente player this game and he won it in 111 moves.

The diagram below is the resignation one when Sente dropped Bishop on 6a. Gote cannot take it by the Silver on 5b due to the horizontal line of the Rook on 8b. Furthermore, Gote's pieces in hand are not good for defense to save the Silver on 5b. So Moriuchi had to resigned the game here. The possible variations after that position would be as followings;

K-3b Bx5b+ K-2c Rx8a+ P*3a N*1e K-1b P*2c Gx2c Nx2c+ Sx2c +Rx3a N*2a  +B-4c P*3b +Bx3b Sx3b +Rx3b N*2b S*2c(mate, replayable by clicking the arrow in the direction under the diagram)

K-3b Bx5b+ K-2c Rx8a+ P*3a N*1e K-1b P*2c Sx2c +Rx3a N*2a P*2b S-3b +B-3d(!) Gx3d S*2c(!) Sx2c +Rx2a(mate)

K-3b Bx5b+ K-2c Rx8a+ P*3a N*1e K-1b P*2c Sx2c +Rx3a N*2a P*2b S-3b +B-3d(!) N*2c Nx2c+ Gx2c +Bx2c Kx2c N*3e K-3c S*4b K-4d G*4e(mate)

K-3b Bx5b+ K-2c Rx8a+ P*3a N*1e K-1b P*2c Sx2c +Rx3a N*2a P*2b S-3b +B-3d(!) N*2c Nx2c+ Gx2c +Bx2c Kx2c N*3e K-3d G*4e K-3c S*4b(mate)

K-3b Bx5b+ K-2c Rx8a+ P*3a N*1e K-1b P*2c Sx2c +Rx3a N*2a P*2b S-3b +B-3d(!) N*2c Nx2c+ Gx2c +Bx2c Kx2c N*3e K-1b S*2c(!) Sx2c +Rx2a(mate)

K-3b Bx5b+ K-2c Rx8a+ P*3a N*1e K-1b P*2c Sx2c +Rx3a N*2a P*2b S-3b +B-3d(!) N*2c Nx2c+ Gx2c +Bx2c Kx2c N*3e K-1d S*1e Kx1e P-1f K-1d P-1e(mate)

In any case, Gote could not avoid losing the game.

 

Diagram Updates - 2nd day of 2nd game of 66th Meijin-sen

Habu won the game to tie the score in 1-1.

111th move --- B*6a(Source:asahi.com)

79th move --- B*7e(Source:asahi.com)

66th move --- S-4c(Source:asahi.com)

58th move --- S*5d(Source:mainichi.jp)

47th move --- S-4f(Source:asahi.com)

44th move --- P-9d(Source:asahi.com)

40th move --- P-6e(Source:mainichi.jp)

37th move(Sealed move) --- P*3d(Source:asahi.com)

Links to the Videos - Habu made the 37th move sealed, 2nd game of 66th Meijin-sen

This is the end of the 1st day. Habu was guided to enter a special room for writing a sealed move alone. Nobody except him is aware of the move until the start of the 2nd day. Habu put his signature on the envelopes containing the sealed move in the room.

Habu handed the envelopes to Tanigawa, the official watchman. Tanigawa handed them to Moriuchi to put his sigunature on them. After doing that, Moriuchi handed them to Habu. Habu confirmed Moriuchi's signature on the envelopes and handed them back to Tanigawa.  One envelope is to be kept by the host of the tournament place and the other is to be kept by the official watchman until the start of the 2nd day. Moriuchi took the pieces out of the board in the cloth bag(Komabukuro). Higher ranked player is to do so in shogi. This is the same as after the game. Regardless which to win, higher ranked player is to take the pieces out of board into Komabukuro.

Diagram Updates - 2nd game of 66th Meijin-sen

These are the links to the diagrams in mainichi.jp.(Sente=Challenger Habu, Gote=Meijin Moriuchi)

36th move (Habu sealed the 37th move on the 1st day.)
35th move
25th move
15th move

2nd game of 66th Meijinsen started

The second game of 66th Meijinsen between Meijin Moriuchi and Challenger Habu started at 9:00am at Sakai city in Osaka. Habu is Sente player. Moriuchi led the score in 1-0 before the game. The opening strategy is Itteson-Kakugawari(Bishop Exchange with Gote's one tempo delay). The position at the 18th move can be seen here. The video linked below is the start of the game. The left player is Meijin Moriuchi while the right player is Challneger Habu. The official Watchman is Tanigawa(9 dan, entitled to be 17th permanent Meijin) who sits over the table in Kimono. I think the game will continue until tomorrow evening,