Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

"Professional Games with comments" have been updated up to 19th Ryuoh Match

The commentary about the 1st to 7th games of Ryoh title Match between Ryuoh Watanabe and Challenger Kisei Sato was added yesterday to Reijer Grimbergen's page of "Professional Games with comments". You can replay the games with comments through the page.

In addition, there are indexes of the games on the page above by opening strategy. You can refer them through the ISPS's what's new entry.

Tsume problems to improve your endgame skill

There are lot of Tsume problem sites in Japanese. Almost all the professional players say solving a lot of tsume problems is a good way to improve your shogi strength. I am giving you one story about 3 crown Habu. He showed up in a TV interview this year. The female interviewer asked him to show the inside of his bag. He disclosed it and there was the latest magazine of Tsume Shogi Paradise which specialized in Tsumeshogi. Even top players usually brings tsumeshogi problems with him to solve Tsumeshogi at any vacant time to keep or improve their skill in the endgame. Why don't you give it a try to solve tsume problems frequently?

I'm inserting here the tsume practices I published in this blog. It's easier than most of the problems which are available on Internet(Added on February 2, 2008).

Take & Drop - 3 move tsume practice - There are forty problems. You will unconciously learn that you may drop a piece effectively soon after you take it through solving them. Repeating to solve them until you solves all of them without fail is recommended. (Added on February 2 2008).

Atamakin Tsume Practice - There are twenty-four problems. "Atamakin" is a basic mating shape of dropping a Gold in front of the opponent's King. You can learn how to mate using the tactical Atamakin move through solving these problems repeatedly.(Added on April 17 2008)

Easy Tsumeshogi Problem for Beginners - One-move and three-move tsume only.(Added on October 6 2008, Link changed on November 17 2008)

Here is my recommendation of Tsume websites. Although they are written in Japanese, I think it will be no problem to recognize and think about the problems. All the pages are recommended to see with your browser set Japanese as encode setting.

1 move tsume problems at shogitown.com - It's very basic and suitable for beginners. Go to the page and the click the latter half of the twelve links in a horizontal line in the middle of the page first, as the author recommends to do so since the latter half of the links are easier to solve.  Each link contains 4 to 5 one move tsume problems. You can see the answer page by clicking the link under the problem diagram at the bottom of the problem page.

3 move tsume problems at shogitown.com - It's also suitable for beginners. If you see the 1 move tsume problems above a bit easy, then this link is for you. Go to the linked page and click any of the links. Then you can find some 3 move tsume problem diagrams there. Clicking the link at the bottom of each page of the problem diagrams will bring you the answer page.

5 move tsume problems at shogitown.com - It's also suitable for beginners. If you come to feel the 3 move tsume problems above a bit easy, then this link is for you. Go to the linked page and click any of the links. Then you can find some 5 move tsume problem diagrams there. Clicking the link at the bottom of each page of the problem diagrams will bring you the answer page.

森信雄の日々入門詰将棋(Mori Nobuo no Hibi Nyumon Tsumeshogi) - The author is professional 6 dan, Nobuo Mori. I think it's for intermediates although the author says it is beginner/entry level problems. He uploads a few new problems almost daily.

森信雄の日々詰将棋(Mori Nobuo no Hibi Tsumeshogi) - It is maintained by the same author as above. It's for dan players. He uploads a new problem almost daily. Here is the link to the picture of Mori 6 dan in NSR website for your reference.

実践の１手詰（全100問）(100 one move tsume problems extracted from real games at shogizanmai.com) - It is for beginners. I think it's good for the beginners to graduate 3 move tsume problems at shogitown shown above. Java-capable browser is required to see the pages. The problem diagrams are created in 詰将棋盤(in Japanese). The replayable answer diagrams are created in ES将棋（in Japanese site). Click the links of 解答例 under the problem diagram in each page to go to the answer page.

実践の３手詰め（全１００問）(100 three move tsume problems extracted from real games at shogizanmai.com) - It is for beginners/intermediates. Java-capable browser is required to see the pages. The page operation is the same as above.

(Unfortunately, I found that Shogizanmai.com which had lots of good tsume problems is missing. So the links below are no longer valid. (April 17 2008).

実践の５手詰め（全１００問）(missing)

実践の詰将棋（全１００問）(missing)

実践の詰将棋２(全１００問） (missing)

毎日楽しむ実践詰将棋（Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec2004, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec2005) (missing)

In addition to this page, please refer to Basic shogi information in English available on Internet(2) for tsumeshogi pages written in English.

"Professional Games with comments" have been updated up to 54th Oza Match

The commentary about the 5th and 6th games of Oui Title Match between Oui Habu and Challenger Kisei Sato and the 1st to 3rd games of 54th Oza Title Match between Oza Habu and Challenger Kisei Sato was added today to Reijer Grimbergen's page of "Professional Games with comments". You can replay the games with comments through the page.

In addition, there are indexes of the games on the page above by opening strategy. You can refer them through the ISPS's what's new entry.

"Switching Plans" of "Lightning Speed Endgame Technique" has been translated into English

According to the Shogi-l posting,, The chapter 4 of "Turning Points in the Endgame" has been translated into English and added to the very good page of Tanigawa's "Lightning Speed Endgame Technique".

Whether you are a beginner or more experienced player, you need to be better at endgame in order to win games in shogi. The page above is a must see text for improving your endgame skill.

The commentary about 4th game of Oui-sen was added to Reijer's page.

The commentary about the 4th game of Oui Title Match between Oui Habu and Challenger Kisei Sato held on August 22 & 23, 2006 was added today to Reijer Grimbergen's page of "Professhonal Games with comments". You can replay the game with comment through the page. The opening strategy of the game was Sente(Black)'s static rook and Gote(White)'s Gokigen Nakabisha(Gokigen Central Rook).

New Shogi Book in English is now on sale

Tony Hosking, a British writer and publisher at The Shogi Foundation who already released excellent shogi books such as "The Art of Shogi" and "Habu's Words", newly published another shogi book in English. The title is "Classic Shogi" The book contains the 80 gamerecords of the past Meijins(Champions) for these 400 years with commentaries. You can touch the profoundness of shogi played by the top players in the world through reading it.

It is available to order online at the website of The Shogi Foundation. The ordering information page is here. In addition, you can order it at Amazon.co.uk.

Diagram update - Pawn(1) of Shogi Kakugen

This entry is just a diagram update of Pawn 1 of Shogi Kakugen from text-based diagram. As you see in the link, the diagrams are text-based since they were created when image file was not so popular. I think this diagram update will serve you to understand the contents of Shogi Kakugen more easily. My suggestion is that you should have two browsers in your PC screen. One is for Shogi Kakugen and the other is for this entry.

These diagrams were created by this tool.

Diagram 1

Diagram 2

Diagram 3

Diagram 4

Diagram 5

Diagrma 6

Diagram 7

Diagram 8

Kifu Database

There is a database website named 棋譜でーたべーす which contains more than 30,000 shogi gamerecords as of June 7, 2006.

Although it has been developed for Japanese readers, I think it can be very useful for non-Japanese readers as well since each gamerecord is replayable on Kifu for Java. If you have knowledge of a few Japanese words such as Japanese notation and names of players and opening strategies, you can enjoy the database more. Here are the links to the various searching/indexing pages at the database.

Newly added gamerecords - Click any kid(I think it's short for "Kifu id number"), then you will have a replayable board for the gamerecord. Items from the left are kid, series name, Sente(Black), Gote(White), date of the game played, total moves, date of uploading the data

Yagura index - Move-tree type index. Click the most right number of any move, then you will have the list of the relative gamerecords.

Kakugawari(Bishop Exchange) index - Ditto

Yokofutori(Side Pawn) index - Ditto

Aigakari(Double Wing Attack) index - Ditto

Hineribisha(Twisting Rook) index - Ditto

Ibisha(Static Rook) others index - Ditto

Shikenbisha(Forth File Rook) index - Ditto

Sangenbisha(Third File Rook) index - Ditto

Nakabisha(Central Rook) index - Ditto

Mukaibisha(Opposing Rook) index - Ditto

Youdo Furibisha(Feint Ranging Rook) index - Ditto

Ai Furibihsa(Both Ranging Rook) index - Ditto

Other opening strategy index - Ditto

Professional Player index - Items from the left are Name, How to pronounce the name, how many gamerecords collected, links to the list of gamerecords.

Ladies Professional Player index - Ditto

Index by series - Items from the left are Name of series, how many gamerecords collected, links to the list of gamerecords.

Complex search function - Although you cannot input Japanese double-byted characters, you can still choose opening strategy, handicap condition, and/or date of the game played. Check the small square box you can set up the condition, then input/choose parameters at your discretion.

Searching function by move - I think this function needs double-byte character input. So it may be useless to most of you.

According to the website, the gamerecords are mainly collected by 2channel resident volunteers. The source of each gamerecord may be not authorized and most of the gamerecords may not have time consumption of each move, but many Japanese shogi fans actually enjoy using the database. So why not non-Japanese shogi fans?

<added on September 22 2007 - Please give it a try Kifu by Opening Strategy>

Answer to the comment(Itte son Kakugawari)

I had a comment from Andi.

"I'm still very confused about the point of Itte son Kakugawari Senpo; if it's  so good to have the rook pawn back on the 4th rank, why can't white just skip this move in the normal development and then be the first to attack?"

I would like to try to answer the question here. The first diagram is the example of early stage of the normal Kakugawari(Bishop Exchange). The sequence from the beginning to the diagram is as followings;

P-2f P-8d P-2e P-8e P-7f G3b B-7g

As you see above, Gote(White, the upper side of the diagram) has to push its Rook Pawn to the 5th rank such as P-8e very early and Sente(Black, the lower side) has to waste one Bishop move to 7g to prevent Gote from exchanging its Rook pawn in the normal Kakugawari opening. After the diagram above, Bishop exchange is to occur as followings;

..., P-3d S-8h Bx7g+ Sx7g  S-2b G-7h S-3c(Second diagram below)

In the normal Kakugawari opening, Bishop exchange occurs on the square of 7g after Sente wastes one Bishop move to 7g, while it occurs on the square of 8h without Sente's wasting any Bishop move in the Itte son Kakugawari opening. Sente's B-7g is not necessary unless Gote pushes its Rook pawn to 8e intending to exchange its Rook Pawn. This is why Gote cannot keep its Rook Pawn in the 4th rank in the normal Kakugawari opening.. In other words, unless Gote pushes its Rook Pawn to 8e, it will not be able to go to the normal Kakugawari opening.

Gote's right kNight cannot jump to 8e in the middlegame in the normal Kakugawari since its Rook Pawn is already on the square of 8e. Itte son Kakugawari opening will allow Gote to jump its right kNight to 8e much more easily to threat to capture Sente's Silver on 7g in the middlegame.

If you are further interested in the difference between the normal Kakugawari and Itte son Kakugawari, please visit the following two links to to the pages of Chidori Gin no Senpo Zukan(in Japanese) and replay the sequences using Kifu for Java there. Although the comments are written in Japanese, I think you have no problem to replay the sequences.

Itte son Kakugawari

Kakugawari Koshikakegin - Same shapes(1)

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Moriuchi Meijin in Budapest played a 2pc handicap game with an ama.

The Wooldridges unveiled the report titled Toshiyuki Moriuchi, Meijin was in Budapest. The author LW uploaded the gamerecord of his game with Meijin and his comment which must be interesting to you.

LW raised a valuable suggestion that the 2pc handicap games between a top professional and a good amateur should be viewed more in the report;

These games must be viewed as training games and are worth studying. I believe that European players learning shogi can pick up more from studying a two piece handicap given by a top professional against a good amateur than from an even game between two top professionals.

What do you think? I think this depends upon what level a learner is in. If he/she is in a level of 1 dan approximately, I think it's true.

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