Takodori's Entrance to Shogi World

Shogi Tactics #0015

Sente's turn to play This is a Yagura endgame position where Gote took the 13 pawn with Lx13 just after Sente had dropped a Pawn on 13 engaging in the edge attack(For Firefox users, please forward one move from the displayed position to have the problem. Sorry, this cannot be displayed on some smartphones). Please find an eleven-move-mate-line from here. It is very similar to the previous one, but the different points are that Sente's Rook stays on its original square and that Sente's pieces in hand is a Gold only. Here is a positional tip. It is often very effective to conduct an edge attack to the King in Yagura castle when the King cannot run to the 31 square. In this problem, the 41 Tokin controls that place, but it's not limited to a Tokin there in real games. It also happens in case of Sente's dropped Rook on the back rank, Bishop on the 31-97 diagonal, Gote's piece staying additionally on 31 and so on. The castle's guardians of three generals cannot play their defensive role well against the edge attack since their location is a bit distant from the 1st file.  You can replay the answer line by clicking the arrow directing to the right under the diagram. Also, an exclamation mark sometimes appears there on a specific move during your replay, then click it and you can read my comments on that move.

Shogi Tactics #0014

Sente's turn to play.This is a Yagura endgame position where Gote took the 13 pawn with Lx13 just after Sente had dropped a Pawn on 13 engaging in the edge attack(For Firefox users, please forward one move from the displayed position to have the problem. Sorry, this cannot be displayed on some smartphones). Please find a 9-move-mate-line from here. You have two silvers in hand and your attacking pieces on the board are the 41 Tokin, 68 Bishop, 25kNight, 19 Lance and some more Pawns which are sufficient enough to deliver a mate with the pieces in hand. This problem and the next ones will show you how effective the edge attack will be when Gote's Silver does not come to 24 and stays on 33 in Yagura games. I think you will find the importance of Gote's S-24 to protect the edge when Sente tries to attack the edge file with N-25 paradoxically through these problems. You can replay the answer line by clicking the arrow directing to the right under the diagram. Also, an exclamation mark sometimes appears there on a specific move during your replay, then click it and you can read my comments on that move.

Shogi Tactics #0013

Sente's turn to play.This is a Yagura endgame position where Gote took the 44 Pawn with Sx44(For Firefox users, please forward one move from the displayed position to have the problem. Sorry, this cannot be displayed on some smartphones). Please find the 9-move-mate-line from here. It is one of the patterns to practice repeatedly to help you when you approach to the King in Yagura Castle. You can replay the answer line by clicking the arrow directing to the right under the diagram. Also, an exclamation mark sometimes appears there on a specific move during your replay, then click it and you can read my comments on that move.

Shogi Tactics #0012

Sente's turn to play.This is a Yagura endgame position where Gote dropped a Pawn on 12(For Firefox users, please forward one move from the displayed position to have the problem. Sorry, this cannot be displayed on some smartphones). Please find the next move which will lead Gote's King to mate. You have lots of pieces in hand such as a Bishop, Silver and kNight. You can replay the answer line by clicking the arrow directing to the right under the diagram. Also, an exclamation mark sometimes appears there on a specific move during your replay, then click it and you can read my comments on that move.

Shogi Tactics #0011

Sente's turn to play. This is a Yagura endgame position where Gote played G43-42 to try to let the 41 promoted Bishop go away(For Firefox users, please forward one move from the displayed position to have the problem. Sorry, this cannot be displayed on some smartphones). Please find a three-move-approach to Gote's King in Yagura castle. This problem is to show that it is easier to approach the King in Yagura when your Rook file is semi-opened comparing with the situation that your Rook pawn still stays on the Rook file such as a 25 or 26 pawn. You can replay the answer line by clicking the arrow directing to the right under the diagram. Also, an exclamation mark sometimes appears there on a specific move during your replay, then click it and you can read my comments on that move.

Shogi Tactics #0010

Sente's turn to play. This is a Yagura endgame position where Gote played K-22 from 31(For Firefox users, please forward one move from the displayed position to have the problem.). Please find the best move in the next. You can replay the answer line by clicking the arrow directing to the right under the diagram. Also, an exclamation mark sometimes appears there on a specific move during your replay, then click it and you can read my comments on that move.

6-dan Katagami Daisuke's tsume practice book in English is available at verious Amazon

It turned out that 6-dan Katagami Daisuke's tsume practice book in English is now available to buy at verious Amazons which are on-line retailers. Here is the copy of the Book description.

Publication Date: December 31, 2012

A basic shogi mate training book with 100 useful problems. For each diagram, you will be given three different pieces in hand and you must figure out whether or not you can mate the king with each one of them. In some problems, all three pieces have a mate, while in other problems there may be only one piece that can mate. Therefore, in a way, you will be trying to solve 300 problems in total. The problems are composed by professional shogi player Daisuke Katagami. It is a compilation of three Japanese booklets from NEKOMADO.

You can choose a store to buy from the filve below;

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.uk
• Amazon.fr
• Amazon.de
• Amazon.es
• Amazon.it

My posting log to 81SU Forum(November 4 2012)

Today I posted the following posts in 81 Square Universe Forum. Please click the links if you are interested.

• 7-dan Ito Hatasu's "Tsume Everyone Can Solve" on twitter
• Tesuji(tactical move(s)) that appeared in professional games
• 71st Juni-sen brief updates
• Monthly flash ELOlist based on a fan-site

Tsume positions from real pro games and new tsume problems

Some of the readers may like solving tsume positions. This is to inform you of some problems for you to enjoy solving.

• Tsume in 9 or less from pro games - Containing 100 positions taken from pro games with my annotation.
• 7-dan Ito Hatasu's "Tsume Everyone Can Solve" on twitter
• Tsume Problems in one, three and five - To be updated regularly, brought by Shogi wo Mago ni Tsutaeru Kai
  

Minishogi Tsume Exercises

I've started providing minishogi tsume exercises taken from actual games in Little Golem that is a turn-based boardgame site. The default pieces are using HIDETCHI's international set there. If you are a Google Chrome user, you can use traditional Kanji pieces by adding this "Bigger Golem" extension to your Chrome browser.

• Mini Shogi Mate(tsume) exercises from actual games in LG