Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Subtitled "SHOGI HOUR" is now available to watch

Some of the readers of this blog may remember the video "SHOGI HOUR" introduced in my post of May 5 2006. Recently I found the video has become available to watch on Youtube and Aoki Jun, the creator, replied to a comment that he was making English subtitle. So I contact him if I could do something. This is how the subtitled version became available. You can watch it through the linked page below;

YouTube - "Shogi Hour"

In case that the subtitle does not happen to appear, click the triangle on the bottom-right corner of the screen of the linked page. Then, you will get the subtitled version.

Shogi to be showcased in Irish Go Association on October 29

According to the blog of Irish Go Association, Shogi will be showcased along with Igo variants and other games on October 29 after their annual general meeting.

Irish Go Association » Blog Archive » Annual General meeting

After the AGM finishes there will be a demonstration night to showcase Go Variants and other related Games. So far Joker Go, Abalone, Go Moku, Nine Men’s Morris, Shogi, Hive, Clobber and Amazons have been mentioned. Playing Go will be allowed too.

There are many professional Go players who likes shogi in Japan. According to the Wikipedia pages in Japanese, Cho-chikun often playes on-line shogi, Kudo Norio has ama-5-dan and they say Takagi Shoichi would be A class player unless he became a professional Go player. One of my friends told me today that the recent edition of Shukan Go(Weekly Go) magazine reported that a shogi club was formed again in Nihon Kiin. He informed me that the members on the report is Kubo Hideo, Miyazawa Goro and Abe Yoshiteru.

Also, there are many professional Shogi players who likes Go. The greatest players such as Oyama Yasuharu and Masuda Kozo liked to play Go. Yonenaga Kunio wrote a book of Go. Manabe Kazuo, Kawaguchi Toshiko, Tosa Koji, Senzaki Manabu, Goda Masataka, and many more.

Blogs written by some participants of JET programme

Do you know JET programme? I did not know it until recently. Here is the information.

The JET Programme--Official Homepage of The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme

The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme, now in its 21st year, is aimed at promoting grass-roots international exchange between Japan and other nations. The number of countries sending participants has risen over the years, as has the number of participants. In 2007, the Programme has welcomed 5,119 participants from 41 countries.

It seems like lots of non-Japanese people has come and are coming to every 47 prefectures in Japan. Yesterday, I found two blog entries about the culture event including shogi for JET participants in Aomori City. Here are the links.

Crunky Japan! - I am being paid to have fun!

"My second workshop was on the rules of shogi. It was fairly interesting but DIFFICULT. It is a game of strategy, much like western chess. It was hard to remember all ways you can move each piece and I have the sinking feeling that I would not even be aware when I actually had a tsumi and could win (tsumi is like checkmate). Learned about the pro league of shogi and how much money they are raking in. There can be only one dragon king (the ultimate winner) at a time and he makes around 500,000 dollars for winning. The dragon king sounds too much like the grand dragon of the KKK for me. "

Culture Day, Part 1 « Pacificloons

"After lunch I attended sessions on shogi (Japanese chess), taiko (traditional drumming), and karate. Taiko was my favorite of the three. I hope to have a longer post dedicated to it in the near future that will involve a popular arcade game. Shogi was interesting, but I still prefer Go. I spent most of my time in the karate session reminiscing about my two years in taekwondo when I was in elementary school."

I think it is good to use shogi to be used to promote grass-roots international exchange between Japan and other nations.

Yu-Gi-Oh's creator, Takahashi Kazuki, enjoys shogi

Recently I read a blog which informs that Takahashi Kazuki, Yu-Gi-Oh's creator, enjoys shogi. And I found the reliable source information on the Net as below;

SHONEN JUMP

"A lifelong gamer, Takahashi enjoys Shogi (Japanese chess), Mahjong, card games, and tabletop RPGs, among other games."

There is information that it became clear in the interview with him published in the February 2003 edition of Shonen Jump(USA version).

Virtual and real pieces with indication of how to move

An Shotest Shogi user commented about the necessity of real shogi pieces with indication of how to move.

Shogi on the XBox 360! | Shogi | BoardGameGeek

I wish I could find a real board and pieces like the ones they use for this. One look at the piece and you know how it moves. Makes it lots more fun to play when I know what each piece is.

Here is the link to an image of pieces with indication of how to move. One character such as K, R, B or so represents what the piece is and the move is indicated by using arrows.

Xbox.com | Media Viewer - Shotest Shogi ScreenShot

In Japan, Kumon sells shogi pieces with the indication of how to move together with a board. The big difference comparing with the pieces of Shotest is that one Kanji character is used to represents what the piece is. The idea of using arronws on each piece is very similar, though. The page below includes some images of pieces Kumon sells.

【楽天市場】NEWスタディ将棋：日本将棋連盟

NARUTO Shippuuden 78(NARUTO 298) has a shogi scene

Naruto Shippuuden #78(NARUTO #298) aired last night in Japan. It's an Episode of Team Asuma's battle against Akatsuki's Hidan（飛段）and Kakuzu(角都） whose names derive from the names of major pieces such as Rook(飛車） and Bishop（角行） in shogi. As you see below, there is a shogi board appears as a background when Shikamaru concentrates on thinking about remedy for Asuma in the episode.

As we meet unknown position in a shogi game to analize it for thinking about next move within a byoyomi period, Shikamaru encounters unknown Hidan's overwelming power at the battle to have to analize his capability very quickly to make a remedy. Shogi is effectively used as a metaphor to represent very well what Shikamaru is forced to do in this moment.

Link to the interview with chess GM Nakamura Hikaru

He mentioned to shogi and its top players such as Habu and Moriuchi in the interview.

• chesspatzerblog: chesspatzersblog interview with grandmaster hikaru nakamura

Info on Shogi Events together with Ryuo-sen Match in Paris

According to Shogi-l, a cocktail party is scheduled on October 17, A tournament and simultaneous teaching games by Sato Shinya(6 dan) are scheduled on October 18 & 19. For more information, please read the article linked below;

RyoO sen final match: the first game will be in Paris! - SHOGI-L | Google Group

Shogi meetings in New York

Here is the information about shogi meetings in New York, USA according to the blog linked below;

Shogi (Japanese Chess) . Blog Archive . Greenpoint Chess and Go Club

The New York Shogi Club meets on Wednesday evenings from about 7 p.m. with games going on till 10:30 or 11 at the Naniwa restaurant, 4 East 46th Street, zip 10017.

I don't know if the said Club is identical to New York Shogi Club.

I opened takodori's channel - Shogi@FeedEachOther

Today I opened takodori's channel - Shogi@FeedEachOther linked below;

takodori's Channel - Shogi | FeedEachOther

It's a my feed collection of shogi-related contents. The newer, the upper. I hope this will help you find shogi contents saving your time.

For more information about FeedEachOther, please read the following article.

FeedEachother Releases Smart, Social RSS Reader - ReadWriteWeb