Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

"Fullmetal Alchemist" has a shogi scene

Recently I played a shogi game with a Spanish person who lives in France now at Kurnik - online multilanguage game server. He told me that he got to know shogi through manga such as Fullmetal Alchemist. I looked into that today and found the followings;

Heyman's Breda, one of the characters, is very good at strategy games. According to the page of State Military Characters of the Fullmetal Alchemist Manga in Wikipedia, He's an intellectual, number one graduated from military academy, despite his face and postures (who suggest him as rather brutish man) and has talents for strategy games, including chess, go, and shogi.

The Episode 27 of the anime has a shogi scene that Heymans Breda plays a shogi with one of the members of the State Military.

The volume 6 of the manga has a shogi scenes. There are some quiz including shogi in Fullmetal Alchemist vol.6 Manga Quiz

There seemed to be a shogi workshop in Singapore

Here is a blog entry that the author went to a shogi workshop. Since Singapore is found in the author's profile, I think the workshop was held there.

5.5km!!

New professional players

On March 10, the final two rounds of Shoreikai 3-dan league took place. The following two will become professional players on April 1 2008.

Inaba Akira --- (19 years old, upper photo)
Tanaka Yuichi --- (22 years old, lower photo)

The 3-dan league score of both players are 13-5.

In principle, two new professional players come into the world every half of year. Top two players of the league are to become professional players.

It started in a subway in Tokyo last April

Here are blog entries about the heartful exchange between a Japanese guy and an American(probably) family including shogi scenes. The exchange started in a subway in Tokyo last April.

Yagi san's visit(Day 1)

Yagi san's visit(Day 3)

Blog "Shogi London" started

A blog titled Shogi London started recently. According to it, the London Shogi Club normally meets on the last Saturday of the month at a Cafe in London. If you are further interested, please visit the following link.

Shogi London

Top 10 money makers by playing/winning shogi for 2007

According to Japan Shogi Association, the top 10 money makers by playing and winning shogi games for the year 2007 are found in the list below. The first column is showing the standing. The second one is the name of the players. The third is the money earned by playing and winning shogi games last year(unit = ten thousand yen). The forth is that of the year 2006(unit = ten thousand yen). The last one is showing the standing of the players last year. Why Watanabe exceeds Sato and Moriuchi is due to the special match with Bonanza, a computer program according to his weblog. in Japanese.

1	Habu Yoshiharu	8,132	9,376	1
2	Watanabe Akira	8,032	5,654	4
3	Sato Yasumitsu	7,927	7,576	2
4	Moriuchi Toshiyuki	6,721	6,536	3
5	Fukaura Koichi	3,392	1,864	12
6	Goda Masataka	2,994	2,159	9
7	Kubo Toshiaki	2,680	1,485	14
8	Kimura Kazuki	2,384	1,925	11
9	Tanigawa Koji	2,350	3,205	5
10	Maruyama Tadahisa	1,953	3,116	6

Community of "3gatsu no lion"(manga)

"3 gatsu no lion" is a manga of Kiriyama Rei as the main character who is 17 years old professional shogi player in C-1 Juni-sen class written by Umino Chica. Her former "Honey and Clover"(ten volumes in total) is sold in more than eight million prints cumulatively in Japan. The 1st volume of 3 gatsu no Lion has been on sale since February 22. It's most likely to be sold very well so far.

There is a community of 3 gatsu no lion in English. It may be a good idea to join it if you are interested in that manga.

March Comes in Like a Lion

About the article titled "In the squares, not on the intersections, goddammit!"

It is an interesting article. But there is one point I don't think it's true.

In the squares, not on the intersections, goddammit!

Even in Japan, shogi plays second fiddle to Go.

In Japan, no Go professional player exist who is more famous than Shogi professional player Habu Yoshiharu.

According to Leisure White Paper published every year,  the population of  Go in Japan has never exceeded and tied with that of  Shogi  since it was published. Shogi population is larger in Japan.

In manga  world,  Go has only one major title - Hikaru no Go. On the contrary, shogi has more such as Gekka no Kishi, Shion no ou, 81 Diver, 3 gatsu no Lion and so forth.

I don't see any reason why it is true that shogi plays second fiddle to Go in Japan.

Kasparov's Premiere at Shogi - English version

Though the photos and articles were published at chessbase.de in German before, most of readers of this blog are happy to read English version of them available to read in chessvariants.org.

English materials published by City of Tendo

Tendo is the city in Japan that produces more than 90% of shogi pieces crafted in Japan. International Shogi Festival will be held there in this fall. Here are the links to the English materials the city publishes in its website. The first one is a must-see if you are interested in the aspect of  shogi pieces as craftwork..

TENDO and SHOGI PIECES(pdf file)
TENDO Guide Book(pdf file)
TENDO City Map