Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Habu led the score in 3-1 - 4th game of 66th Meijin-sen

On May 20 and 21, the 4th 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 95 moves. After the long opening until the supper break of the second day, the middlegame started and it proceeded quickly then. It seems Meijin Moriuchi should have chosen Sennichite instead of entering into hostilities.

The diagram below is the resignation one when Sente dropped his Gold on 7c. Gote's King would be mated anyway. The possible variations after that position would be as followings;

K-7a P*7b Sx7b Gx7b Kx7b S*7c K-8a R*8b K-7a R-7b+(mate, replayable by clicking the arrow in the direction under the diagram)

K-7a P*7b Sx7b Kx7b S*7c K-6a R*5a(mate)

K-7a P*7b Sx7b Kx7b S*7c K-7a R*7b K-8a R-8b+(mate)

K-7a P*7b Sx7b Kx7b S*7c K-6c R*6b(mate)

K-7a P*7b K-8a R*8b(mate)

K-7a P*7b K-6a R*5a(mate)

Diagram Updates - Day 2 of 4th game of 66th Meijin-sen

Today is the 2nd day of the game. Habu is a Sente player. The sealed move(32nd move) was P-6d.

Position at 32nd move of P-6d
Position at 35th move of S-5g
Position at 38th move of B*8b
Position at 42nd move of B-7c
Position at 55th move of R-2i
Position at 61st move of P-2d
Position at 95th move of G*7c（resignation diagram)　Source:asahi.com

Habu won the game and now leads the score in 3-1.

Diagram Updates - Day 1 of 4th game of 66th Meijin-sen

Today is the 1st day of the game. Habu is a Sente player. The opening strategy is Gote's Itte-son-Kakugawari(Bishop exchange with one tempo delay) and Mukaibisha(opposing Rook).

Position at 8th move
Position at 15th move
Position at 24th move
Position at 29th move
Position at 31st move Source:asahi.com

4th game of 66th Meijin-sen started

The 4th game of 66th Meijin-sen between Meijin Moriuchi and Challenger Habu started at 9:00am today. It is a two-day game so I think it will end tomorrow evening. Before the game, the score is in 2-1 led by Habu. Habu is Sente player in this game. The video below is the start of the game. Official watchman is Kiriyama Kiyozumi(9 dan). Habu's first move was P-7f while Moriuchi's was P-3d.

Link to Reijer Grimbergen's Report of 18th CSA Computer Shogi Championship

Reijer Grimbergen is the developer of the shogi program called SPEAR. His report of the captioned tournament is available to read at;

18th CSA Computer Shogi Championships

 

Link to an article titled "Shogi and Me"

Here is a link to an article titiled "Shogi and Me" which is written by Alan Baker, who is to be a US representative for Internationasl Shogi Festival to be hold this November in Tendo City, Japan and the founder of the shogi club in Swarthmore College

.Swarthmore College | Shogi and Me

 

Link collection of responses to J-Drama "81diver"

Here is my link collection of responses to J-Drama titled "81diver"(ハチワンダイバー、Hachi-one diver. The main characters are strong shogi players but not profissional based on the manga of the same title wrote by Shibata Yokusaru. It currently airs in Japan every Saturday. I hear English subtitle versions are avaialble somewhere.

gin (the japanese word for gold and a shougi piece) for the win « The Sky Before Dawn

"Anyway the live action version is alright but you just can’t capture the ridiculous art of Shibata in live action."

calixa: 81 Diver: episode 1 recap (contains lots of screencaps)

"This season's unchallenged winner for "stupidest crack jdrama"."

 

 

Webcamera-and-Board-live today - Kai Tomomi vs Yauchi Rieko, 4th game of Mynavi Joshi Open

Today is the day for the 4th 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

From this game, live-video is available to watch.

Live video(Youchi wears Kimono)

Yauchi 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.

Frequently updated Live pictures by the webcameras (Left = Yauchi)

1st Mynavi Joshi Open Broadcasting Blog

A famous anecdote including the word "shogi" among Japanese is available to read in English

Daily Yomiuri Online introduced an famous anecdote including the word "shogi" among Japanese in English.

ECONOMIC FORUM / Promises are made to be kept / Modern-day politicians could learn much from Hideyoshi anecdote : Business : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)

Hideyoshi (1536-1598) liked one of Shinzaemon's scabbards so much that he decided to reward the retainer.

"I want to give you a reward. You can have anything you want," Hideyoshi said. In reply Shinzaemon said: "In that case, please give me one grain of rice today, then two grains tomorrow, and four on the day after that. Please continue to double the grains of rice for the same number of days as there are squares on a shogi board." (A shogi board has 81 squares.)

You can follow the link above to read the end of the story. Toyotomi Hideyoshi is a Sengoku Period Daimyo who unified Japan in the 16th century. I think this anecdote suggests that shogi was already popular in Japan in that century.

 

A new shogi blog has been created

According to an article in the shogi forum of boardgamegeek, a new shogi blog has been created. The name of it is Between Chess and Shogi. You can read it through the link below.

Between Chess and Shogi

There are two articles so far now. I hope it will updates frequently.