Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Information about International Shogi Festival 2011

The information about Internattional Shogi Forum has been released. Briefly, it's to be held from October 27 to 30 in Paris, France. including the tournament of national representative and the other open tournament. In the past, International Shogi Festival(formerly International Shogi Forum) were held in Japan four times every three year starting 1999. This will be the first time for the event to happen outside Japan. For more details, please follow the following links:

•  International Shogi Festival 2011
• PDF Version of the Official Invitation Letter

Update of FESA Shogi Page

Ratings (2011-01) and Tournament Results (Fall 2010) have now been updated! FESA is the abbreviation of Federation of Europeaon Shogi Association.

• Ratings (2011-01) and Tournament Results (Fall 2010) have now been updated!

The FESA's homepage started to generate RSS feeds. You can keep yourself noted timely if you register for it in your RSS reader such as Google Reader etc..,

Researchers uncover neural origins of expert(Shogi Players) intuition

Here are the main links of captioned topic so far I collected.

• RIKEN | Press Release | 2011 | Researchers uncover neural origins of expert intuition

• The Neural Basis of Intuitive Beやst Next-Move Generation in Board Game Experts | Science/AAAS

• Master chess players use hidden brain parts: study | Reuters
• AFP: Chess experts use brain differently than amateurs
• Cosmic Log - How your brain picks the best move
• Experts' Brains Work Differently Than Amateurs' - US News and World Report

• Researches identify brain part that helps professional shogi players make optimal next move - The Mainichi Daily News

Electronic Book of Shogi Sekai Magazine has started since today December 9

Electronic Book of Shogi Sekai magazine has started since today on December 9. It's for iPad. The notable difference compairing with paper version is that you can replay the variation on the diagram as you see in the following short video.

 

Here are the links to the source information and articles in Japanese on this epoch-making endeavor.

• マイコミ[毎日コミュニケーションズ] － ニュースリリース －

• 駒の動きをタッチで再現──将棋専門誌『将棋世界』がiPad向け電子書籍に | ブック | マイコミジャーナル

• 駒の動きをタッチで再現──将棋専門誌『将棋世界』がiPad用電子書籍に | iPad | iPad*iPhone Fan

November 2010 Top 20 shogi players list

I updated the the list of Top 20 players at the end of November, 2010 according to a fanELO site. Here is the link to it.  6-dan Toyoshima Masayuki jumped up to 7th place from 16th place in the previous month with becoming the Osho Challenger.

• the list of Top 20 players at the end of Nove mber, 2010 according to a fanELO site.
  

81-dojo is enhancing multi-language function

81-Dojo, an on-line shogi server where you can play shogi, is enhancing  its multi-language function which you can choose on its login page. Here is the screenshoto of it at http://www.81squareuniverse.com/dojo/client.html

Language choice button exists under the box for Password input. English, Japanese, Chinese, French, Polish and Swedish are available now and the supported language will be increasing thanks to volunteers for each language.

FESA website has been renewed

Yesterday I noticed that the FESA's website has been renewed. I feel it becomes nicer. If it generates feed for aggregators, it will be perfect. FESA means Federation of European Shogi Association. It supplies information about coming tournament and results in the past, rating of players, member countries and so on.

• FESA home page - Home
  

I received an email report about the tournament held on Nov.13 in Ludwigshafen, Germany

I received an email report about the tournament held on November 13 in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

By Dr. Rene Gralla, Hamburg (Germany)

That has been one of the biggest events of SHOGI in Europe since many years: 44 participants have competed during the "3rd Herbst One Day Ludwigshafen" in Germany on November 13th, 2010, and that as been a record turnout. Not enough with that: The 3rd edition of that big tournament in autumn (meaning "Herbst" in German language) has seen a premiere this year: the 1st Youth SHOGI Championship of Germany. 26 ambitious kids have competed in the industrial city south of Frankfurt/Main, and the winner has been Peter Pham from the local club of Ludwigshafen.

The 2nd Ladies' SHOGI Championship of Germany 2010 has been won by title-holder Kirstin Auburger (Ludwigshafen). From the first to the last round of the Open Tournament, Thomas Leiter 2-Dan has kept his pursuers at distance, and the Champion from Michelstadt got 1st place.
Nationwide German press has extensively covered the SHOGI tournament. The Mannheim-based MANNHEIMER MORGEN has published a lengthy feature:
www.morgenweb.de/region/ludwigshafen/artikel/20101115_mmm0000000835849.html
And the Berlin-based daily NEUES DEUTSCHLAND has published an interview with 8-years-old LEONARD ORSCHIEDT:
www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/184530.man-muss-nur-etwas-genauer-hinsehen.html
The young talent is one of the sons of tournament organizer Oliver Orschiedt.

Leo Orschiedt - who has been the darling of the press during the 2nd YINGDE CUP at Shanghai/People's Republic of China in 2009 - has now got 3rd place in the U10-competition at Ludwigshafen 2010. The thrilling tournament has been a successful test run for next year's European SHOGI Championship from July 14th to July 17th, 2011 at Ludwigshafen, Germany. The European SHOGI Championship will be one of the highlights of that up-coming Year of Jubilee 2011 that commemorates 150 years of friendship between Germany and Japan. More information:
http://shoginet.de/turnierberichte/35-grand-prix/84-herbst-one-day-2010.html

A golden opportunity of watching shog lives in Tokyo on Nov. 23

Let's meet at the exit of JR Sendagaya station at 2:45pm on November 23 and walk to nearby Tokyo  Metropolitan Gymnasium to watch shogi lives of the final of JT Nihon  Series between Meijin Habu Yoshiharu and 7-dan Yamasaki Takayuki as well as the two finals of JT Nihon Series elemantary schoolers. Since all the games are something like blitz, we can enjoy watching three shogi live games during the coming three hours. Please let me know in the comment field if you will join.

For more information of JT Nihon Series, please refer to the following page(in Japanese).

http://www.jti.co.jp/knowledge/shogi/professional/2010/final/index.html

 

Kifu search feature has been added to 81-Dojo

The captioned feature has been added to 81-Dojo. For more details, please watch the video linked below;