Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Top 10 list based on 2008 earnings from tournaments

Japan Shogi Association unveiled the list of top 20 shogi professional player list regarding their annual earnings from professional shogi tournaments for 2008(in Japanese). I'm picking up the top 10 from that here. The amount of each player is obtained from tournament "fight money" and prize money only and does not include any other income such as royalty of shogi books, fee of shogi lessons, guarantee as a commentator of TV shogi show and so on.

1. Habu Yoshiharu(Meijin,Osho,Oza,Kisei) - 107.1 million Japanese yen
2. Watanabe Akira(Ryuo) - 62.5
3. Sato Yasumitsu(Kio) - 60.8
4. Moriuchi Toshiyuki(9 dan) - 37.8
5. Fukaura Koichi(Oui) - 35.0
6. Kimura Kazuki(8 dan) - 29.6
7. Maruyama Tadahisa(9 dan) - 25.4
8. Kubo Toshiaki(8 dan) - 24.0
9. Namekata Hisashi(8 dan) - 20.7
10. Goda Masataka(9 dan) - 19.9

Habu has occupied the 1st place for 11 consecutive years.

March 1 Update of "Professional Games with Comments"

An annotated article about the 4th game of 58th Osho-sen between Osho Habu Yoshiharu and Challenger Oui Fukaura Koichi was added to Reijer Grimbergen's page of "Professional Games with comments". You can replay the games with comments through the Java link on that page.

58th Osho Match 2009 (Habu vs Fukaura)

• Game 4: Habu-Fukaura 1-0 (Html or Java)

Interesting articles to read

Here is Ryou's challenge as a sho-dan player. I think his effort will bear fruits in the near future.

Ryou's Shogi World: As a 1-dan Shogi player...

Mikaus is the winner - PlayOK tournament #3006226

Mikaus is the winner of the captioned on-line shogi tournament held on February 28, 2009. Here is the link to the result. You can replay the games by clicking each point in the table on the linked page. Since the page will disappear in 6 months from the tournament date, I'm uploading the screenshot of the result below;

PlayOK.com - tournament #3006226 (shogi)

Kubo took 2nd game too - 34th Kio-sen

The 2nd game of 34th Kio-sen between Kio Sato Yasumitsu and Kubo Toshiaki(8 dan) was held at Hokkoku Shimbun Kaikan in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa prefecture on February 28, 2009. Kubo was Sente player. Kubo adopted Quick Ishida Attack and his R-7e at the 11th move made many people amazed if such a move exist effectively. I'm not sure whether the R-7e succeeded or not. But the result was Kubo's victory in 57 moves.

Here is the resignation diagram when Kubo dropped his Gold on 7d. Gote's King would be mated. Here are some possible lines after the diagram;

• K-5e G*4f K-5f R*5f(mate)
• K-5e G*4f K-4d +R-5c(mate)
• Kx7d +Rx5d K-7e R*7d K-6f G*5f(mate)
• Kx7d +Rx5d P-6d R*7c K-8d G*7d K-9e P-9f K-9d R-8c+(mate, Replayable clicking the arrow in the right direction under the diagram)
• Kx7d +Rx5d G*6d R*7c K-8d G*7d Gx7d +Rx7d K-9e P-9f(mate)
• Kx7d +Rx5d K-8c G*7c K-9b R:8b(mate)

In any case, Gote's King could not help avoiding forced mate.

Nakai took the First game of 1st Tenga-sen two-win match

Yesterday the first game of 1st Tenga-sen two-win match between Nakai Hiroe(Joru 6dan) and Narita Miho(Joshi Ama Oui). As a result of Furigoma, Nakai became Sente. Nakai won the game in 129 moves. It was really a seesaw game which to win during the game. Here is the link to the repalayable board.

Nakai Hiroe vs Narita Miho