Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Boardlive now - Ishibashi Sachio vs Nakamura Marika, 3rd Mynavi Joshi Open

Today is the day for the game of 3rd Mynavi Joshi Open between Ishibashi Sachio(Joryu 4-dan) and Nakamura  Marika(Joryu 2 dan).  As a result of Furigoma, Ishibashi became Sente.  It started at 10:00 am in Japan. The allotted thinking time per player is 3 hours and each player will have to make every move within 60 seconds(Ippun Shogi) after consuming it. Here are the links to the live boards.

Kifu for Flash
Kifu for Java

The official blog of 3rd Mynavi Joshi Open(In Japanese) which is uploading many photos is here. And Ustreamlive is available for this game - Nakamura vs Ishibashi(right) | Board

Today is the day for the game of 3rd Mynavi Joshi Open between Ishibashi Sachio(Joryu 4-dan) and Nakamura  Marika(Joryu 2 dan).  As a result of Furigoma, Ishibashi became Sente.  It started at 10:00 am in Japan. The allotted thinking time per player is 3 hours and each player will have to make every move within 60 seconds(Ippun Shogi) after consuming it. Here are the links to the live boards.

Kifu for Flash
Kifu for Java

The official blog of 3rd Mynavi Joshi Open(In Japanese) which is uploading many photos is here. And Ustreamlive is available for this game - Nakamura vs Ishibashi(right) | Board

Result of 2nd One day Tournament in Ludwigshafen, Germany

Following up my previous blog entry, I would like to link the report page on www.orschiedt.name since I think it's good to read the report and see a lot of photos.  Here are the links;

• 2nd One Day(English translation by Google Language tool)
• 2nd One Day(Original German page)

Reports about 1st Ladies' SHOGI Championship of Germany / SHOGI-in-3D-Exhibition

I got emails from Dr. R. Gralla about the captioned event held on November 21 last weekend. I'm showing it here according to his request.

November 25th, 2009

- 1st LADIES' SHOGI Championship of Germany Ludwigshafen 2009
- SHOGI-in-3D-Exhibition

Dear Mr. Manabu Terao,

today I am very happy to inform you that for the first time in the history of German SHOGI, there has been staged a Ladies' Championship of Germany.

The "1st Ladies' SHOGI Championship of Germany 2009" has been battled out on the occasion of the "2nd LUDWIGSHAFEN ONE DAY OF SHOGI 2009" on Saturday, November 21st, 2009, at Ludwigshafen south of Frankfurt/Main. The tournament has been organized by the energetic promoter of SHOGI, Mr. Oliver Orschiedt. 24 enthusiasts of Japanese Chess competed at Ludwigshafen, and that has been an unparalleled record high of participants in Germany since the European Championship 2004 at Pullach (near Munich).

The cultural significance of the event at Ludwigshafen 2009 has been underlined by the visit of Dr. Michihiko Kasugai, Vice-President of the German-Japanese Society Frankfurt. Dr. Kasugai started the "1st Ladies' SHOGI Championship of Germany 2009" by executing the first move. The competition has been won by 23-years old student Kirstin Auburger from Ludwighafen; now the 23-years old student is the first Ladies' SHOGI Champion of Germany.

A second novelty has been a youth competition. Darling of the press has been 5-years-old Tristan Orschiedt, the youngest player of SHOGI in Europe. The youth tournament has been won by 13-years-old Samir Eghbali from Ludwigshafen.

Apart from the 1st Ladies' SHOGI Championship of Germany 2009 and the youth tournament there has been a third highlight: the first-time exhibition of a set of SHOGI in 3D. German journalist and SHOGI enthusiast Dr. René Gralla from Hamburg has transformed the classic design of Shogi into a FIGURINE VERSION, with REAL FIGURINE PIECES based on the well-known PLAYMOBIL-figurine sets that are very popular among kids.

"My prototype aims at the KIDS of the KAWAII GENERATION", says Dr. René Gralla. "The KAWAII GENERATION is heavily influenced by the modern aesthetics of MTV, the teenagers of the 3rd millennium prefer colourful optics to reading. Therefore I have created this set to make the kids interested in SHOGI again: The animated scenario in 3D demonstrates to the kids that SHOGI is an entertaining and thrilling game."

The press has covered the event at Ludwigshafen, in the annex I add the article that has been published by DIE RHEINPFALZ.

a. Dear Mr. Manabu Terao, I would appreciate it very much if you would like to publish my information in the blog TAKODORI's WORLD.

b. Moreover I would appreciate it very much if you would like to publish in your blog the screenshot of that article of the RHEINPFALZ - that has been attached to this mail here. (The big photo that has been published in the article shows the creator of figurine SHOGI in 3D, Dr. René Gralla, in the foreground left and the organizer of the tournament, Mr. Oliver Orschiedt, background right, trying out the new concept of SHOGI in 3D).

c. By follow-up mails 1- 4 there will be emailed to you four photos. I would be very thankful if you could publish those additional photos too.

aa. Follow-up mail no. 1 shows Dr. Michihiko Kasugai, Vice-President of the German-Japanese Society Frankfurt, starting the 1st Ladies' SHOGI Championship of Germany 2009. I would appreciate it very much if you would like to publish that photo too.

bb. Follow-up mails no. 2 - 4 show the innovative figurine SHOGI that has been created by me, that is to say: Dr. René Gralla. I would appreciate it very much if you would like to publish those photos too since it is the first time in the history of SHOGI that a concept like that has been tried out in SHOGI.

Last not least: I add the link to the publication about the event at Ludwigshafen at  - www.shoginet.de - , in the following the direct link:


http://www.orschiedt.name/shogi/Shogiclub_Rhein-Neckar/One_Day/2__One_Day/2__one_day.html

Rheinpfalz_25.11.2009_cut(PDF file)

Many thanks in advance.

Best regards
Dr. René Gralla

Further stories and photos can be found by clicking the link below:

• Follow-up emails from Dr. R. Gralla of November 25, 2009
  

Shogi is picked up in BEGIN Japanology by NHK world TV

NHK world TV is broadcasting the following shogi program today.  The schedules are at the end of the contents.

BEGIN Japanology

• Hosted by Peter Barakan
• Bilingual (English/Japanese)

Thu. 0:30 - 1:00 (UTC) etc.

BEGIN Japanology invites you into the world of Japanese culture, both traditional and modern, explaining how traditions evolved and the part they still play today in people's everyday lives.

Topics of the week:

Nov. 26, Thu. 0:30 - 1:00(UTC) etc.

"Shogi"

Shogi is one of the most popular board games in Japan. Like chess and other games of strategy with which it shares historical roots, shogi is based on the idea of an "army" attacking the opposition and capturing its king.

One unique feature of shogi is a rule that enables you to recycle captured pieces as members of your own force. It is said that this rule derives from the ancient military practice in Japan of recruiting defeated opponents.

Shogi has been played for over 1,000 years. It was popular with medieval warlords before eventually spreading to the population at large.

These days, the game is played professionally for big prizes, with the top pros engaging in engrossing psychological battles that may last hours. Even now, the best computers cannot beat the best professionals.

On this edition of BEGIN Japanology, we look at a game that tests a person's full potential as a human being.

Schedule:

	UTC
NHK WORLD TV	Thu.	00:30 - 01:00 04:30 - 05:00 08:30 - 09:00 12:30 - 13:00 16:30 - 17:00 20:30 - 21:00
General TV (in Japan)	Fri.	01:10 - 01:40 (JST)

*English on audio main-channel

Boardlive today and tomorrow - 4th game of 22nd Ryuo-sen best of seven match

Today and tomorrow are the days for the 4th game of 22nd Ryuo-sen best of seven match between Ryuo Watanabe Akira and 9-dan Moriuchi Toshiyuki. The game started at 9:00 am at Suimeikan in Gero Spa, Gifu Prefecture.  Watanabe is  Sente player.  Before the game, Watanabe leads the score in 3-0. You can replay and watch the game through the links below;

Official Page in Japanese
Official Blog in Japanese (full of photos and diagrams)
Kifu for Flash in Japanese
Kifu for Java in Japanese
Kifu for Flash in English(To be updated mainly for Day 2)

The allotted thinking time per player is 8 hours and less than 60 seconds per move after consuming it.

And gpsshogi_en and  bonanza_shogi which are computer shogi program may be following this game to output their evaluation values and readings per every move.

Further updates of Worldshogi.com on November 23

Two more articles have been uploaded regarding the 3rd Shogi World Championship on Worldshogi.com in addition to the articles mentioned in my blog entry of  Updates of Worldshogi.com. The former contains some replayable gamerecords and  the latter contains the photos of the tournament.

1. Kife of some selected games | worldshogi.com

2. The Third Shogi World Championship Highlight | worldshogi.com

A video of Introduction to Shogi in Spanish appeared on YouTube

Today I got to know through twitter that a video of Introduction to Shogi in Spanish appeared on YouTube.  You can watch it by clicking the video link below. This is a great step to promote shogi to Spanish speaking countries;

The viewcounts of Top Menu of HIDETCHI's Shogi Videos exceeded 10,000 views

The viewcounds of Top Menu of HIDETCHI's Shogi Videos exceeded 10,000 views.  Congratulation, HIDECHI!. You can watch it clicking the below;

The following videos uploaded by HIDETCHI already exceeded 10,000 views as well.

• How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#1- Introduction
• How to play Shogi(将棋) -Lesson#2- How the pieces move
• Famous Shogi Games: HABU vs KATOU (Jan. 9th, 1989)
• Famous Shogi Games: HABU vs KIMURA (Sep. 1st, 2001)

Translation of Chapter 1 of Lectures on the Latest Strategies is over

The translation project of Lectures on the Latest Strategies into English is ongoing at Shogipedia. The chapter one has been already available to read linked below. It is the book written by 6-dan Katsumata Kiyokazu and published in 2007.

• Lectures on the Latest Strategies, Chapter 1 - Shogipedia

  I will be talking about the latest strategies played by the professional players. However, I won't be focusing on any kind of very difficult matters such as what the best move at a certain position is. What I'd like to convey to the readers are rather rough stories such as, for example, why a strategy is so popular in professional world now, and what kind of background theory it has behind. If you come to understand these theories, you'll be able to imagine what the professional players are thinking, and will be able to enjoy watching title matches and commentaries better than before.

1. Why lose a turn?

Diag. 1 The beginning of one-turn loss bishop exchange. Unexpectedly new worlds will be explored from this position.

  In Lecture 1, let's talk about 'one-turn loss bishop exchange'. "What is a 'one-turn loss bishop exchange' in the first place?" "Why should someone like a professional player even want to lose a turn?" I believe that's what most of you are curious about, of course.
  But if we take a look at the title matches in the latest couple of years, this strategy is often played in critical games. Therefore, so to speak, one-turn loss bishop exchange is a very important strategy, which professional players have been putting their lives on. But it must be hard for you to think of this strategy positively, as it makes a turn loss in the early opening.
  So, the theme of this lecture is to unveil the new world that is explored by this strategy, and to discuss whether the turn loss is a real loss or not.

Please click the link above if you would like to read the full article. And your brushing-up the article on Shogipecia will be appreciated.

Boardlive today - Second game of 17th Oyama trophy Kurashiki Tohka-sen

Today is the day for the second game of 17th Oyama Trophy Kurashiki Tohka-sen between Kurashiki Tohka Satomi Kana and joryu 2-dan Nakamura Marika. The venue is at Geibunkan of Kurashiki City, Okayama prefecture. It started at 10:00am. Nakamura is a Sente player and the opening strategy of this game is ai-Furibisha(double ranging Rook). The allotted thinking time per player is 2 hours and each player will have to make a move less than 60 seconds per move after consuming it. Here is a virtual board you can replay.

• Nakamura(Sente) vs Satomi