Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Boarldives today - 1st game of Joryu Oui-sen and 83rd Kisei-sen Challenger deciding game

The following two boardlives are available to watch today. The first one is the first game of the 23rd Joryu Oui-sen between Joryu Oui Kai Tomomi and challenger three crown Satomi Kana. As a result of Furigoma, Kai became Sente in this game and third game while Satomi will play as Sente in the second and forth games. The game started at 9:00am(JST) at Yumenoi in Himeji City, Hyogo prefecture. The allotted thinking time per player is four hours, so I think this game will end after 5:00pm. You can watch and replay the game through the link below;

• Kai vs Satomi
  

Here is the official site of the 23rd Joryu Oui-sen and official blog(both in Japanese). Though written in Japanese, lots of photos of both players have been and will be uploaded in the blog.

The other game is a challenger-deciding game between 9-dan Fukaura Koichi and 5-dan Nakamura Taichi. 5-dan Nakamura is the highest winning percentage player last business year and he beat nine contenders in a row in the Kisei-sen first and second preliminary knock-down tournament and final knock-down tourney including many strong players like Meijin Moriuchi, 9-dan Sato Yasumitsu. Fukaura took part in from the final knock-down due to, I guess, his last term's performance in this series. So he needed to defeat only three but ex-or-current title holder opponents such as 8-dan Miura Hiroyuki, Ryuo &  Ouza Watanabe Akira and Kio Goda Masataka to come to today's stage. If Nakamura wins, he will be a challenger for one of major titles for the first time in his career. The game started at 10:00am at JSA building in Sendagaya, Tokyo. Furigoma made Nakamura Sente. The allotted thinking time per player is four hours. So I think this game will end after 6:00pm(JST).

• Nakamura vs Fukaura

Here is the official site of the 83rd Kisei-sen and the official blog(both in Japanese). Lots of photos related to this game have been and will be uploaded in the blog as well.

You can have a chat about one of these games and other stuff with watchin it at 81dojo.

Replayable web-boards of 1st & 2nd game of Meijin-sen

You can replay the 1st and the second game of 70th Meijin-sen through the following links;

• 1st game, Sente = Moriuchi, Gote = Habu, won by Moriuchi, played on April 10 & 11
  
• 2nd game, Sente = Habu, Gote = Moriuchi, won by Habu, played on April 24 & 25

Nico Nico Live Day 2 of 2nd game of 70th Meijin-sen

Here is the link. Click the image below. When it's too crowded, paid members of Nico Nico Douga will be prioritized to watch the live. Mirror broadcasting may take place today. I will try to keep you posted about the mirrors as much as possible.

< additional info about mirrors>

This is the results of searching Meijin + Mirror in Japanese. Please try any of the upper links of the results with an icon on the left side to watch a mirror broadcast.

• Search results

< end of additional info >

Nico Nico Live Day 1 of 2nd game of 70th Meijin-sen

Today is Day 1 for the second game of 70th Meijin-sen best of seven match between Meijin Moriuchi and Challenger two crown Habu. Moriuchi took the first game and led the score in 1-0 before the game. Habu is Sente for this game. Day 1 will finish around 6:00pm and the player who has turn to play then will make a sealed move. The Day 2 will start at 9:00am(JST) tomorrow.

This game is being broadcasted by Nico Nico Live. 9-san Sato Yasumitsu plays a part of commentator and Joryu shodan  Yamaguchi Eriko plays a role of MC. You  may watch the live through the following link.

 

Hasegaya vs Ueda - Boardlive today, 2nd game of 5th Mynavi Joshi Open

Today is the day for the second game of the 5th Mynavi Joshi Open best of five match between Hasegawa Yuuki(Photo link) and Ueda Hatsumi(Photo link). The game started at 10:00am(JST) today at Takinoyu in Tendo, where the reception party of the 4th International Shogi Festival was held in 2008. Hasegawa is Sente for this game. As a result of the Furigoma in the first game, Hasegawa is supposed to play as Sente in the even-numbered games up to the 4th game. Ueda took the first game so the score before this game is 1-0 led by Queen.

Some Shogi medium say Hasegawa is a "Cinderella girl" as she just became a femal professional players last year as a high schooler and became a challenger against Queen Ueda by winning five games in a row in the knock-down tournament. But I personally think it's too early to call her "Cinderella" yet. Whether we can truly call her Cinderella depends on whether she takes the first title in this match. So let's see what's happening today and in the later games. Hasegawa's first game against Ueda was in the previous Mynavi knock-down challenger deciding tournament in 2010 when she was still amateur player. Ueda defeated Hasegawa then and continued to win in the tournament and beating ex-Queen Yauchi to take the title. So Hasegawa has not overcome the barrier of Ueda yet.

You can watch and replay the game through the following link of the live-board.

• Hasegawa vs Ueda

Here are the links to the official site of the 5th Mynavi Joshi Open and the official blog with lots of photos of both players to be uploaded. You can also watch the game at 81dojo with a chat window where you can have a chat on the game and other stuff with other spectators. I think the game will end sometime after 4:00pm since the allotted thinking time per player is three hours. Please be advised the lunch break will be inserted during the play between 0:00pm and 1:00pm(JST) with time-off.

Aono vs Moriuchi - Shogi Boardlive Now, 20th Fujitsu Cup Tatsujin-sen

The following game is available to watch on boardlive now. It's one of the first round games of the captioned tournament.

• 9-dan Aono Teruichi vs Meijin Moriuchi Toshiyuki

It began at 10:00am at JSA building in Sendagaya, Tokyo. As a result of Furigoma, Aono became Sente. The allotted thinking time per player is three hours. So I guess the game will end after 4:00pm today.

Here is the link to the official site of the 20th Tatsujin-sen(in Japanese). Tatsujin-sen is a kind of senior tournament where selected ten players who is forty or more competes in a knock-down tournament. It's an unofficial tournament so that the results will not be recorded as an official performance. Though, for spectators like me, it gives a nice opportunity to see a game of unusual pairing. You can also watch a game with a chat window at 81dojo.

 

A Konami's news release about its online shogi game in Japan

Thi linked press release is to show what's happening to Konami's arcade. It may be interesting to read though it's happening in Japan.

• Play Shogi Matches against Popular Manga Characters! New Collaboration between t...

Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. announces that beginning on Friday, April 6th the online shogi game "TENKAICHI SHOGIKAI 2" will feature in-game events where players can challenge characters from the shogi manga March Comes in Like a Lion. The characters from the popular manga will help introduce new players to the joy of shogi games.

Here is the PV using "Sangatsu no Lion(March comes in like a lion) characters.

 

Interesting articles and blogs I found these days

Here are links to the articles and blogs I found interesting to read these days. I'm copying a few first sentences of them under each link. If you are interested, click one or some of them to read full stories.

• ChessBase.com - Chess News - Chess-playing Japanese Shogi champions

The Japanese chess variant Shogi is the most popular board game in the country. In recent years some of its greatest contemporary champions have started taking up chess, and two intersting experiments were recently conducted: a top GM played a chess simul against two Shogi masters, and the top Shogi champion a three-board Shogi handicap against chess masters. Illustrated report with games.

• Internet site listing added « Shogishack's Blog

One could call this a bug. My site never listed a link to online shogi playing sites.  This is partially because when I started this site, I myself knew only one place to play shogi, kurnick.org. This site since changed its name to PlayOK.com.  In the meantime, we have seen the birth of 81dojo.com.

• Beginners' News » Interview

“Shogi” or “Japanese chess” is the two-player board game. Playing chess can improve players’ logical thinking skills because the players will plan for invasion ingeniously. Surely, it can make them joyful and excited with the result when the game ends. Moreover, playing chess brings to a good relationship between them, so the players will have many new friends.  Koranat Saengwat, my friend, love playing Shogi. I see he always play Shogi on websites although he must prepare for the final exam. Therefore, I decide to interview him because I would like to know more details about his experience.

• Dates Set for Brooklyn Botanic Garden 2012 Cherry Blossom Festival - Windsor Ter...

Sakura Matsuri will take place April 28- 29, with or without the blooms.

• Playing Shogi Online | Japan and Korea: Life, Language and Religion

The topic of Shogi, or Japanese chess, is something I haven’t written about in a long, long time in this blog.¹ Search the blog for “Shogi” and you’ll see what I mean. In fact, most of the posts I’ve written were imported from my previous blog, the Level 8 Buddhist. I played avidly for years with people in my office (all non-Japanese like me), and sometimes with Japanese friends and family. However, when I moved to Dublin, I had fewer opportunities to play, and when I came back to the US, I lost all opportunities because I moved to a different team within the same company. So, my posts about Shogi died off. I was never very good anyway.

• This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 1447, March 28th 2012) - SHOGI-L | Google Groups

In this Shukan Shogi report the fourth game of the Kio match between
Kubo and Goda. Here is the game with comments:

• This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 1445, March 14th 2012) - SHOGI-L | Google Groups

In this Shukan Shogi report two title match games: the fifth game of the
Osho match between Kubo and Sato and the third game of the Kio match
between Kubo and Goda. Here are the games with comments:

• Pole vies to make 'shogi' history | The Japan Times Online

Kyodo

WARSAW — Karolina Styczynska, a 20-year-old Polish university student, is dreaming of an unlikely career in Japan: becoming one of only a handful of foreign professional "shogi" players.

Mori Keiji vs Kiriyama Kiyozumi - Shogi Boardlive now

Today is the day for a first-round game of 20th Fujitsu cup Tatsujin-sen between 9-dan Mori Keiji and 9-dan Kiriyama Kiyozumi. Tatsujin-sen is an unofficial knock-down tournament among selected ten senior players who are forty or more. But recent critisism is that "forty or more" means to allow most of title holders such as Meijin Moriuchi, two crown Habu, and Osho Sato to participate in the tourney and you are sure if we can still call it a "senior tournament". This year's contenders are 9-dan Mori Keiji, 9-dan Kiriyama Kiyozumi, 9-dan Aono Teruichi, 9-dan Takahashi Michio, 9-dan Kato Hifumi, 9-dan Naito Knio, 9-dan Tanigawa Koji as well as the said three title holders. I don't know why Kio Goda, the other title hoder in his forties, is not selected.

Anyway, the game started at 10:00am(JST). The allotted thinking time per player is three hours. I think it will end after 3:00pm. The game will suspend for lunch break between 0:00 and 1:00pm. Mori became Sente as a result of Furigoma. You can watch and replay the game through the following link

• Mori Keiji vs Kiriyama Kiyozumi

Here is the official site of 20th Fujitsu Cup Tatsujin-sen. You can also watch the game with a chat window at 81dojo.

Day 2 of 1st game of 70th Meijin-sen

Here is the link to the Nico Nico live show which will available to watch till the end of the game which is expected to end after 7:00pm(JST) today.

 

Several mirro-streamings are available.

• http://www.itmedia.co.jp/live/articles/1204/07/news009.html
• http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv88878488