Louisiana Shogi

Possible Mechacon Shogi Tournament?

2010-11-11T15:20:00.002-06:00

As I mentioned in this video, I will be able to host a shogi tournament at Mechacon next year (August 26-28, 2011) if I can get at least 8 people to agree to show up! So far I have 3 or 4 people who want to participate, which includes some of my attendees from this year. If you want to help shogi popularization in the South, please consider attending this tournament!

There will be prizes and gifts.

You can find more information here.

Mechacon Shogi Panel 2

2010-07-18T21:31:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone, it's been a while.

I haven't updated much this year because there's been hardly any news about the Louisiana shogi scene, aside from introducing the game to a few friends who weren't very interested in becoming serious players.

However, like I did last year, I attended the Mechacon anime convention (this time in New Orleans, LA), and I hosted a How to Play Shogi panel once again.

Many things went wrong about the panel. Firstly, I forgot the reference sheets I had printed to hand out at home. I was also supposed to be given a panel room with a projector so I could make presentations with BCMShogi, but for some reason I was moved without anyone in charge being told, so I ended up having to do the same thing I did last year: Simply explain the rules with my boards, but thankfully I brought along a copy of John Fairbairn's Shogi for Beginners which helped with a lot of my attendees' questions.

Overall, it went better than I expected. Once again, about 25-30 people showed up for the panel, including several people who attended my panel last year. One of my repeat attendees, Thomas, was kind enough to help me explain the rules for people who couldn't see the board I was using.

Thomas, I learned, became so interested in shogi after my panel last year that he went home and watched many of Hidetchi's videos to try to learn how to play the game, but he had no one to play with. We've traded contact information, and I hope to play with him soon.

Another repeat attendee of mine, Chris, was interested by my panel last year but didn't get a chance to play, so he went home and read the rules on Wikipedia. He was so fascinated by the game that he made his own shogi set and has taught about 10 people how to play the game, including his roommate whom he often plays games with. He told me he is trying to start a shogi club in Baton Rouge! I'm so glad I've finally found another person who wants to popularize shogi in Louisiana! We spent a long time discussing holding the first Louisiana tournament.

Here are some photos from the end of the panel when a few people stayed behind to play with each other:

Two of the attendees playing their first game of shogi. Thomas is commenting on the game like he did last year.

One of the above pictured players making a move.

Seven of the thirteen people who stayed after the panel to play with each other.

Chris and Vincent decided to play a game on BCMShogi when the boards were full.

Chris and Vincent playing on BCMShogi.

Even though it was almost a disaster with the convention making mistakes with my room request, it turned out to be several times better than last year's panel! And I've met three Louisianians who are very interested in the game, so now I know I'm no longer alone! I'm starting to see the fruits of my labor, and maybe soon I'll finally be able to host Louisiana's first shogi tournament!

2009 report of shogi popularization

2009-12-13T02:24:00.004-06:00

Hi everyone,

I would like to make a report of my efforts towards shogi popularization in the year 2009.

April 2009

April is when I was introduced to shogi. One could say that this is when shogi first impacted Louisiana, even though I was the only person affected.

July 2009

July was the month that Mechacon was held, where I hosted my first shogi event, the "How to Play Shogi" panel, discussed in this post. The panel was a great success, attracting about 30 people. Unfortunately, even though people seemed interested, I did not take the initiative to make sure that they would stay interested after the convention. I did not actively seek contact with the attendees of the panel, so whether it was a lasting success or not to any of the attendees is unknown to me. I will have to make sure to do better next year.

August 2009

In August, I made my first shogi lecture video on Youtube about shogi proverbs. I think this is a modest success at popularization, and though it seems that it will attract a wide, global audience, I don't believe it targets players in Louisiana enough. Still, it was an attempt to get more information about shogi in the open, so I don't regret starting my Youtube videos.

September 2009

September saw the opening of the most active English shogi forum on the Internet, The 81-Square Universe, in its initial form, which was hosted at Heaven Forum. It began as a huge success and has gained members from around the world. As an English discussion forum, it is easy to refer potential players to it, so I think it would help Louisiana promotion once it gets heavily underway.

October 2009

The 81-Square Universe moved to its own domain in October, making it easier to find.

November 2009

Shogipedia launched in 2009, which has attracted much attention, including becoming the host of the translation of "Lectures on the Latest Strategies" by Kiyokazu Katsumata 6-dan. Also in November, I attended the New Orleans Japan Festival, where I introduced shogi to several people. Unfortunately, as I did not have a set place to teach it there like I did at Mechacon, it was hard to find people who were interested. I'll have to arrange for a table next year. In November, efforts to create a shogi playing server on The 81-Square Universe started as well.

Goals for 2010

The following are my goals for the year 2010:

Achieve 1-dan. I believe that becoming a dan holder will be important in promoting shogi, because speaking from a master level will give me a much better sense of how to explain shogi than my current 7-kyu level.
Write an English guide to the rules. Since it is somewhat hard to find good material on shogi, and because ordering copies of current books to hand out would be quite expensive, I would like to write a small book on how to play shogi, which I would hand out for free at all of my shogi events. I believe beginners would be more attracted to shogi if they did not have to go out of their way to learn how to play.
Form a shogi club. This will be important in spreading shogi in the US. Forming a shogi club would create a base with which new members could be attracted, and veteran members could branch out and teach others that are not associated with the club. This is one of my top priorities in 2010.
Host Louisiana's first shogi tournament. I learned from Larry Kaufman that there have never been a shogi tournament in Louisiana, so I would like to host the first. I have been trying to arrange ways to execute it, but I have nothing official yet.

That concludes the 2009 shogi popularization report.

A losing game on Shogi Club 24

2009-12-03T01:11:00.005-06:00

Hey everyone, I suppose this will be my first analysis of a game of my own on this blog. This is a game I played and lost badly on Shogi Club 24 due to some very bad mistakes on my part - mistakes that a player at my level should not be making. I played like a 15-kyu. I just want to put this game up to remind myself to think through all of my moves in the future.

[SENTE "hirohiigo"]
[GOTE "takusya"]
▲1.P7g-7f
△2.P3c-3d
▲3.P2g-2f
△4.P4c-4d
▲5.S3i-4h
△6.B2b-3c (diagram)

This was a Static Rook vs. Ranging Rook game, which I seem to play a lot (an unfortunate truth, since I prefer playing against static rook). My opponent's △B-3c seems to indicate that he is planning △R-2b, Opposing Rook strategy.

▲7.P5g-5f
△8.S3a-3b
▲9.P3g-3f
△10.R8b-4b (diagram)

Despite my opponent's early △B-3c, he transferred his rook to the 4th file. I figured he was simply making moves out of order, so I continued along joseki lines.

▲11.G4i-5h
△12.S3b-4c
▲13.P2f-2e
△14.R4b-2b (diagram)

Oddly, after △R-4b, he next played △R-2b, losing one move. I was right after all that he wanted to play Opposing Rook, but he should gone straight to 2b instead of 4b first.

▲15.K5i-6h
△16.P2c-2d
▲17.P2ex2d
△18.B3cx2d (diagram)

Immediately after I started castling, he attacked my pawn with △P-2d. I thought he was trying to trade rooks by △Rx2d, but he played an unexpected △Bx2d. I wasn't really prepared for this move, and I've never studied it before, and, as a result, I did the one thing a shogi player should never do: panic. Instead of taking advantage of his move, I made an impulse move (also bad) and simply ran away without considering the consequences.

▲19.K6h-7h
△20.B2dx7i+ (diagram)

As I said, ▲K-7h was an impulse move. I hadn't even stopped to consider what would happen after I finished moving my king. It took him only 3 seconds to respond with △Bx7i+ and it was immediately, painfully clear why he did so. By checking with a bishop sacrifice, he launched an irremovable discovered attack on my rook. I did not even have sting on my own rook--he was going to take it for free.

Instead of ▲K-7h, I could have managed the situation and material by ▲Rx2d (diagram). Following ▲Rx2d, △Rx2d ▲B*1e △R*2e ▲Bx2d △Rx2d ▲N-3g and I would have been much better. Material would be equal and I would only have to deal with one rook.

▲21.B8hx7i
△22.R2bx2h+
▲23.N2i-3g
△24.+R2hx1i
▲25.P*2b
△26.N2a-3c
▲27.P2b-2a+
△28.R*2i (diagram)

My futile ▲P*2b was a desperate attempt to regain material, but it was quickly ended by △N-3c. △R*2i was also very powerful, and I was once again panicking.

▲29.+P2ax1a
△30.R2ix6i+
▲31.Resign (diagram )

Because I wasn't thinking, ▲+Px1a seemed like a legitimate move for me; I was planning to drop it to 3i the next turn. Regrettably I hadn't checked my opponent's speed, nor had I checked to see if my 6i gold had any string on it. Since I could not recapture the dragon (thanks to his 1i dragon), my only option was to escape. ▲K-8h is nonsense, because △+Rx7i ▲K-9h △+Rx8i is mate, so my only feasible option was to escape up the board. The problem, though, is that his camp was too stable for me to possible achieve king entering, especially with his two dragons. With no options left, I resigned.

I am so ashamed that I played this poorly. I really felt like a beginner in this game. I put up this review in so that I can see it in the future and remind myself to never make the same mistakes in it again.

Everything that has happened since my last update

2009-12-02T22:51:00.003-06:00

Hi everyone.

Wow, it's been a long time since I last updated Louisiana Shogi. Sorry about that. I'd like to use this update to discuss all the shogi-related things I've been doing since my last update.

The 81-Square Universe

I'm sure everyone who has been following this blog is aware, but two months ago I helped start a new English shogi website, The 81-Square Universe. This website's primary feature at the moment is its forum, which has many members from around the world who come to discuss shogi. I am also working on getting actual content on the website.

Shogipedia

Shogipedia (formerly Shogi Wiki) is another website hosted on The 81-Square Universe. It uses MediaWiki software, which is the same software used by Wikipedia. It can be edited by anyone who registers for an account (it used to allow anonymous editing, but I ended this after a spambot attack). There is currently a translation project going on at Shogipedia to provide a translation of the book Lectures on the Latest Strategies by Kiyokazu Katsumata. Wow!

Shogi Videos on Youtube

In addition to the Shogi Proverbs videos (which I hope to get back to soon), I have started a series called "My Shogi Games," in which I analyze my own games. I have also made several miscellaneous videos, such as a couple documentation videos for BCMShogi, and an advertisement for the Ryu-ou-Sen website.

New Orleans Japan Festival

How did I forget to make a mention of this in Louisiana Shogi??? On November 8 I went to New Orleans Japan Festival at the New Orleans Museum of Art. I brought my shogi set to try to popularize the game, but I couldn't find many people who were interested. I did play two people though: One of the staff members at Mechacon, and a little Japanese boy. :) The Japanese boy seemed to be about 5 or 6 years old and was playing with another boy, and when his older sister found out I play, she wanted me to play against him. I won, but he was pretty strong. I spent most of my time at Japan Festival playing igo with the members of a New Orleans igo club. I later saw the two Japanese boys playing igo there. ^^;

Getting stronger at shogi

I'm getting over several milestones in my shogi playing. I've finally become confident while playing against 4th file rook, which was a big problem for me this whole year. My rating at PlayOK is now 1457, and my record is 77 wins and 50 losses.

Also at Shogi-L I found an equation for finding one's PanAtlantic (US and European) rating using PlayOK's rating. The equation is */PanAtlantic/** = 1.75 * /PlayOK/ - 1400*. So for me, that's 1.75 * 1457, which is 2549.75, -1400, which gives me a PanAtlantic rating of about 1150, +/- 100 (so I'm anywhere between 1050 and 1250). Comparing with the FESA's rating list... I'm at least 8-kyu??? Wow! I've improved much more than I thought I have in this past year. I thought I was still a 10-kyu player. Finding out I'm stronger than I thought I am gives me a lot of motivation to keep going. Maybe in a year or so I can become a dan-holder if I train enough...

Real internationalized pieces - Day 1

2009-09-28T21:30:00.008-05:00

Hey everyone. While I was thinking of ways to promote shogi today, I came up with a great idea - making real internationalized pieces! I had two options for this: Make them out of paper, or transform one of my shogi sets into an internationalized set. Since I thought it would be rather cool to have (what I believe to be) the first real set featuring Hidetchi's internationalized piece design, I decided to break out the sand paper and start working on my own set.

These are the materials I'm using: 120 sandpaper, wooden shogi pieces, black and red permanent markers, mechanical pencil, and reference sheets for Hidetchi's designs.

Here's what the King General looked like while I was sanding him. It was quite sad to look at a shogi piece like this, but it made me feel better when I thought about what it would look like when it was done.

With the kanji completely erased, I drew a light pencil drawing of the King General on the piece...

...Then I outlined that drawing in permanent marker, and erased the stray pencil marks.

And then I wrote Hidetchi's name on the bottom of the King General, to credit him for the design. You can see the Jeweled General mid-sanding in this picture.

These are the pieces I have finished at the end of day 1: King General, Jeweled General, two Rooks, two Bishops, and one Gold General. It's much more work than I was expecting! But it'll be worth it.

By the way, here's a picture of the Dragon and the Horse:

I wish I had made the Horses a little better. They aren't centered enough. They were hard to draw! But I think it turned out okay.

Uploading Custom BCMShogi Graphics

2009-09-20T18:33:00.003-05:00

I've made a video presenting how to upload custom graphics into BCMShogi. I made this primarily so that people can upload Hidetchi's internationalized pieces into themes other than the HIDETCHI theme, which may not fit on people's monitor resolutions (it doesn't on mine, for example).

If you're coming here from my video, here are the files I presented in the video:

Bona-sized Hidetchi Internationalized Pieces

DiagramTiny Hidetchi Internationalized Pieces

I obtained both of these images from Hidetchi's blog. The Bona-sized pieces were resized by myself in Photoshop.

You can find my custom Kinryuu graphics, specifically made for the Bona theme, in my last post. You can use my Kinryuu pieces in any way as long as it is not for commercial use. I'd appreciate if you contact me before using my Kinryuu pieces.

Custom BCMShogi graphics

2009-08-23T23:01:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't been making any posts on here lately. I've been busy getting ready for school to start and making my Shogi Proverbs videos.

Today I happened to find the pen for my tablet, which I lost several months ago. So while I was wondering what I could do with it, I came up with the idea to make my own graphics for BCMShogi. As you might know, I don't have Kinki or Ryoko pieces; my personal sets (all of them) are Kinryuu style.

And since I thought it would be nice to play in BCMShogi with my own pieces, I made my own with my tablet:

This is how it looks in the program:

I think it looks pretty good.

Shogi Proverbs video series

2009-08-12T19:41:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, I've started a video series on Youtube about Shogi Proverbs. Be sure to check it out:

Internationalized shogi sets

2009-08-09T18:50:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone. Hidetchi brought up in his Shogi Topics series the topic of internationalized pieces. Recently I've also been considering what should be used to introduce shogi to people who don't want to learn kanji, so I'm glad he brought it up in a video. He even drew and proposed his own set. So check it out.

You can find the first set mentioned here, and the third set here (Japanese).

Ultimate Board Game Collection for PSP

2009-07-27T21:17:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone, this weekend I got my hands on Ultimate Board Games Collection for PSP, which is available in English. The version I got was released in 2007, though I heard there was one released on the Playstation Network a few days ago. When I'm able to, I will get a copy of it.

Ultimate Board Games Collection (2007) contains the following games: Backgammon, Checkers, Chess, Chinese Checkers, Reversi, Anagrams, Dice, Kakuro, Sudoku, Word Cubes, Concentration, Enigma, Jigsaws, Mahjong (Solitaire), Tic Tac Toe, Naval Battle, Parcheesi, Quattro, Snakes and Ladders, Dominoes, Igo, Mancala, Gomoku (Five in a Row), and Shogi. Being a shogi blog, I will focus on the shogi aspect of this game.

Shogi players of Clubhouse Games for the Nintendo DS will be happy to hear that you do not need to unlock any games. You can access shogi as soon as you load the game; it is under the Strategy Games category, with Dominoes, Igo, Mancala, and Gomoku.

Although it's nothing important, I don't like that Sente and Gote were translated as Attacker and Defender. This makes it sound like Gote isn't supposed to be attacking. I would much prefer if they had kept with the standard international names, Black and White.

The AI in Ultimate Board Games Collection is very weak. It seems to be primarily aimed at people who have never played the game before. As a person who has been playing shogi for only 3 months, I don't consider the hardest difficulty in Ultimate Board Games Collection to be a challenge at all. However, I do feel it would be good for beginners. In addition to being good practice for beginners, you can only play multiplayer with friends with only one copy of the game.

I have three major complaints about this game: 1) The pieces move too slow. When a ranging piece is moved, it feels like it takes forever to finish its movement. 2) You have to play using the analog nub. I think using the D-pad for a board game collection would be much better. 3) The pieces in hand are confusing. Not only do they put your pieces in hand on the LEFT side of the board, they retain the other player's orientation until they are dropped on the board. Pictured above you can see my playing Double Wing Attack with the AI, and he has just dropped his pawn. On the left is the pawn that I captured with Rx2d, still pointing in the direction it was on the board when it belonged to White.

The best feature of this game for beginners is that you can freely change between Japanese and Western pieces just by pressing Square at any moment in the game. Not only does it give the international notation style letter for the piece, it also displays its movements on the piece. Being able to change back and forth, I think, is a very good way to help someone get used to the Japanese pieces.

On the whole I'd recommend this game if you've either never played before or aren't confident enough to play against real people or a more advanced game like Saikyou Shogi Bonanza. In addition to shogi it also has the other great games in it, so it's nice to have on, for example, a long trip when you have nothing else to do.

You can buy the game here.

Mechacon Shogi Panel

2009-07-26T22:46:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone. Mechacon ended tonight, and my panel was last night. It went much better than I was expecting, and everyone who came very much enjoyed the game.

My panel was at 5:00 pm, but we started a little early since the Igo panel ended about 20 minutes early. I passed out quick reference sheets that contained the basic rules and piece movements for shogi, as well as a page of online resources to find into about the game. (You can find a copy of that reference sheet here.) I made 11 copies, but to my surprise, that wasn't enough - there were almost 20 people at the panel! It was a much larger number than I was anticipating.

After explaining a quick history of the game, I explained the rules, and after answering everyone's questions, we got to playing. There were 3 games going at the same time, and those that weren't playing studied the rules and watched (and commented) on the games being played. If I had had more than an hour I think everyone could have gotten a chance to play, but to those who didn't, I gave them my PlayOK username so that I can play them online.

Overall, everyone who showed up loved the game, and I'm excited about possibly hosting another shogi panel at next year's Mechacon.

Here are some pictures from the panel:

Two of the players contemplating their moves.

One of the players pictured above writes notes on his reference sheet.

Two more players contemplating their moves, with one more commenting on the game.

This is me explaining to my opponent the basics of opening strategy.

My opponent finishing his move P-3d.

In addition to this, yesterday I got my hands on Ultimate Board Game Collection for PSP, and I will make a post about its shogi game tomorrow.

Mechacon starts tomorrow

2009-07-23T14:12:00.000-05:00

I just want to remind anyone who's planning to come to Mechacon that there will be a How to Play Shogi panel at 5 pm on Saturday night. I will be discussing a brief history of the game, and I will also of course be giving quick lessons on how to play. I will have 3 shogi sets (I got 2 new sets from Takodori-san the other day, big thanks to him) so that more than two people can play the game at the same time when the lessons are done.

In addition to the panel, I also plan on occasionally hanging out in the Tabletop Gaming rooms when there are no events going so that I can play with anyone who's interested.

Shogi tips for beginners

2009-07-21T22:26:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone. As I've said before, I'm certainly not a great shogi player; I've only been playing since April. However, in these 3 months I've been playing, I've certainly come to grasp some important concepts and tactics when playing shogi, many of which can be found in shogi proverbs. These are tips that any shogi player who wants to get better should memorize and learn to recognize and immediately implement as soon as the situation arises in a game. Today I'll only be discussing two major points.

1. Avoid a sitting King.

This is the biggest piece of advice that I feel should be given to any beginning shogi player, and whether they follow this principle is a good way to tell whether someone has a basic grasp of shogi or not. Keeping your king on its initial square is extremely dangerous because it can be attacked from the front and both sides. If you're not careful, this can lead to an easy checkmate. Consider the following situation:

White has been playing very aggressively and attacking black from all sides, and white has felt like he hasn't had time to castle. Black has broken through white's Yagura Castle, but it seems as though white's hanging in there. The last move was B*7e, and, in order to add a defender to the 8th file, black has played G-8h. In response, black plays Bx5g+. White is now in brinkmate; there's nothing he can do to stop the incoming checkmate. No matter which pieces move where, dropping the gold general on 5h (or 4h if the king runs to 4i) will result in checkmate for black. Had black taken the time to strengthen his defense, he wouldn't have had to worry about this situation.

2. Against a King on the edge, push the edge Pawn.

This proverb is pretty self-explanatory. In the endgame, when you've forced your opponent onto the edge (files 1 or 2), you should attack the king by pushing the edge pawn, especially if that file's lance hasn't moved yet. Take the following example:

This example comes from a professional game between Yasuharu Oyama and Hiroshi Kamiya in 1987. (Go here to watch Hidetchi's commentary on this game.) Oyama is playing Black and Kamiya is playing White. Oyama has just forced Kamiya's king to move to 1c by playing G*2a. Following the proverb "For a King on the edge, push an edge Pawn," Oyama played P-1e. Oyama won the game by playing this move, giving a great professional example of this proverb.

Of course, this proverb doesn't have to only apply to the king. It can work with any piece that can't guard from the front. For example:

When black moved his king to 6h while developing his boat castle, white moved B-1c to make a quick check and try to secure the 2d square at the same time. This is an amateur move, but it's occurred against me while playing on PlayOK. In this situation, you should always follow by playing P-1e, putting pressure on the bishop's head. If white follows with Px1e, then Lx1e attacking the bishop's head. White can't drop anything to defend, so he has to play B-2b (in order to defend the lance and be able to move to 3c to defend 2d). At that point, black should play P*1b. If white responds with Lx1b, then Lx1b+ and you can capture his knight as well. If he responds with P*1c, then the following move line can occur:

1. Px1a+ 2. Bx1a
3. Lx1c+ 4. Nx1c
5. P*1d

This way, white's knight is captured and black is now up in material. This was a very amateur example but I hope it will help any beginners who might be reading.

How to Play Shogi panel at Mechacon!

2009-07-15T21:16:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated in a while, I haven't been feeling well. But I do have some good news.

Next week at the anime convention Mechacon, I'll be hosting a How to Play Shogi panel where I will be discussing how to play the game and the history behind it. You can check the schedule here, my shogi panel will be on Saturday, July 25, at 5:00 pm.

I hope to see plenty of people there.

Importance of defending in Double Wing Attack

2009-06-29T22:14:00.001-05:00

Hey all. I just encountered this tonight and it reminded me that it is a very easy trap to fall for as a beginner, so I want to discuss why it's important to build a proper defense when going for a Double Wing Attack.

In Double Wing Attack, both players push their rook file pawns into the opponent's bishop's head for the purpose of trading pawns in order to have one pawn in hand. The standard moves are as follows:

Double Wing Attack
1. P-2f 2. P-8d
3. P-2e 4. P-8e (diagram)
5. G-7h 6. G-3c
7. P-2d 8. Px2d
9. Rx2d 10. P*2c
11. R-2f

However, a beginner who is playing black that hasn't studied these moves might think that his opponent's bishop's head is completely unguarded, so instead of playing G-7h, he'll go straight for P-2d. This will create the perfect situation for white's most basic trap.

Play has resumed as follows:

5. P-2d 6. Px2d
7. Rx2d 8. P-8f
9. Px8f

To a beginner this might look like a good situation for black. He might be thinking play will go 10. Rx8f 11. P*8g, but...

White is actually going to play 10. P*8g. Suddenly, black's bishop is undefended, and white has the initiative. Play will typically resume as follows:

11. P*3c 12. Px8h+
13. Px3b+

But if black leaves himself undefended yet again...

... 14. B*3e

Due to black's greed (or panic), he is now put in a horrible position: his rook and 5g pawn are forked. Either he can save his rook and let white's bishop promote, or he can defend the 5g pawn and let white get away with having 3 major pieces right in the opening. Either way, black is put in a bad position, and no matter what he does, his position will only get worse and worse as the game goes on.

drisato (1168) vs. hirohiigo (1240): This is a game I just played tonight in which my opponent fell for this trap. I didn't beat him up as much as I could have since I don't like bullying players weaker than me, but it's a good real-life example of this situation.

Hidetchi has a great video on Double Wing Attack:

Shogi in the Limelight + Checkmate problems

2009-06-29T02:28:00.000-05:00

The other day I was looking through Takodori-san's blog and I found a fascinating series of articles on the history of shogi. It's called Shogi in the Limelight and it was posted in the Japan Foundation's Newsletter VOL.XXVI/NOS.5-6 in April 1999. These articles are very good and they will definitely give you a good sense of what shogi is.

I have also decided to post ten checkmate that are fairly easy and are very good for beginners.

One Move to Mate

Three Moves to Mate

The answers will be posted in the comment section of this post.

The beauty of Shogi pieces

2009-06-27T23:37:00.000-05:00

I read today that shogi pieces are specially cut so that one player's pieces would make a circle if you put them together side-by-side. I decided to see if this was the case:

I was happy to see that even my cheap, factory-made pieces fit together like this. They're very beautiful even when not playing the game.

Saikyou Shogi Bonanza for English Speakers

2009-06-27T02:01:00.001-05:00

Like I mentioned in my last post, I want to make a guide for English-speakers who are interested in Saikyou Shogi Bonanza. Anyone with a PSP who is interested in shogi should definitely pick up the game. You can buy it here.

I am only going to post images where I have translated the menus, so that you can see what is what. When you play the game you will be able to compare it to my graphics to navigate. If you would like me to upload some raw, Japanese graphics of the game, send me a message on Twitter or IM me at T3h HT (AIM) or edelas2@gmail.com (MSN). I do not often check my email.

The first thing you will need to note is that with this game, as well as most (if not all?) Japanese PSP games, O is the accept button and X is the cancel button. Anyway, this is the main menu that you will see after beginning a new game. The options go from right to left in Japanese vertical style. The options are Computer Play, Network Play, Checkmate Problems (Tsume Shogi), Joseki, Game Record, Shogi Rules, and System Settings. Game Record will let you see how many times you've won or lost against the computer and how many moves you made each game. I haven't been able to tell if you're able to check the notation of past games. I'm not sure of Network Play means over the internet or over a local network. I can't connect to anything so I don't know what to do with that.

If you want to use one-character pieces, go to System Settings and go down to this option, and choose the second setting. I don't feel like this menu is important to translate; if you want to mess around with the settings they're not that difficult to figure out.

This is the screen you will see when you choose Computer Play. I'm sorry I forgot to translate the Thinking Time, it should be 1 minute and 5 occurences. I'm not sure what that means, sorry. ^^; The handicap options are No Handicap, Lance Handicap, Bishop Handicap, Rook Handicap, Rook+Lance Handicap, Two Piece Handicap, Four Piece Handicap, and Six Piece Handicap. The options for Black Player are Pawn Toss, Player, and Computer. Byoyomi is the amount of time you can use per move after you've run out of time, and it refreshes back to its original number after every move. For example, in a 30 minute game, after you've used your 30 minutes of time, each move you make must be 30 seconds if you are playing with a 30 second byoyomi.

This is the game menu. Even though I translated the notation, it will show up in Japanese style (for example, those moves are listed as 1．七六歩　2．三四歩 in the game). I forgot to translate the menus under Byoyomi, but it's "Thoughts Remaining" or something to that effect. Once again I don't know what that means, sorry. The ranks are also listed in kanji rather than letters like this (一 through 九). The words in the black bars are the names of the players.

These are the menus in the game mode. "Next Move" will suggest what your next move should be.

This is the Checkmate Problems menu. It's very self explanatory. The kanji in the boxes is the number of the problem, which appears in the black box on the left. The Japanese below the problem number just tells you how many moves to checkmate it is.

This is the joseki menu. As you can see they have a good variety of opening josekis, so be sure to check them out and pick a favorite.

And that's it for this English-speaker's guide to Saikyou Shogi Bonanza. With this information, you will be able to enjoy this game to a good extent. If you buy it and use this guide to play it, please be sure to comment on this blog or message me to let me know, I'll really appreciate it.

A huge thanks to Hans Geuns' Basic Shogi Vocabulary for translations of most of the openings and to my friends Trent, Hawkeye, and crazysjd89 for various small translations within the menus.

Saikyou Shogi Bonanza for PSP

2009-06-26T22:35:00.000-05:00

So today I got a copy of Saikyou Shogi Bonanza for the Playstation Portable. I had already played AI Shogi for PSP and also Minna no Shogi for Gameboy Advance, so I was excited to see what it was like.

Firstly, Minna no Shogi is an excellent game. If you have the chance to get it, do so. Even for a player who doesn't speak Japanese, the game is easy to navigate and has a good selection of difficulty levels as well as 150 good checkmate problems. It also features a cute minigame of Rounding Shogi, which was described by Hidetchi in his video Non-Tactical Games Played with Shogi Instruments.

AI Shogi was a bit disappointing. From what I could tell, all it featured was an explanation of Shogi's rules and a bland game mode. The game mode had multiple difficulties, but I felt that sometimes it moved a bit too fast, especially when the computer and I make a rapid series of moves, and it takes some time for the game's notater to catch up to the current move. On the whole it's not a bad game, it's just not a very good one.

Saikyou Shogi Bonanza, however, is a very good shogi game for PSP. It is made by Success, the same company that made Minna no Shogi, so I had high expectations. Luckily, those expectations were met. The first and most important thing is, of course, that it has a good AI system to play against. It's challenging and I enjoy playing against it when I don't have a person to play against. My favorite part of the game system (it also appears in other parts of the game) is that it lists the whole notation for the game on the lefthand side

Like Minna no Shogi, Saikyou Shogi Bonanza also has many checkmate problems. Although it has less problems than Minna no Shogi does (it has 100), it has more challenging problems. Minna no Shogi featured 150 problems, divided into fifty 1-move-to-mate problems, fifty 3-move problems, and fifty 5-move problems. Bonanza is separated into ten 1-move problems, ten 3-move problems, twenty 5-move problems, twenty 7-move problems, twenty 9-move problems, and twenty 11-move problems. Much more advanced than Minna no Shogi! It will definitely help someone read out long mating lines. My only complaint about Bonanza is that, unlike Minna no Shogi, when you make a wrong move in a mate problem, it simply tells you that you failed and asks if you want to try again. Minna no Shogi had an excellent system where it showed you why your move failed. However, it is still excellent.

Another fantastic part of Saikyou Shogi Bonanza is that it features josekis for various openings. It has commentaries on the openings, but I can't read them very well since I can't read much Japanese. Even without the commentaries, though, it is nice to see various openings played out, and it is nice for both learning and refreshing one's memory about shogi strategy. The openings it discusses are Climbing Silver, Static Rook Anaguma, Yagura Opening, Tateishi's Fourth File Rook, Reclining Silver, Side Pawn Picker, Central Rook, Double Anaguma, Fourth File Rook, and Twisting Rook. This is a very good number of openings to study, especially for beginners.

The best part is that PSP doesn't have region lock-outs, so you can play games from any part of the world on your PSP. If you're interested in playing this game, you can buy it from Play-Asia.

I was going to include an English-speaker's guide to navigating through the menus, but this post is getting too long so I'll end it here. Thanks for reading!

Habu has won the Meijinsen

2009-06-25T01:47:00.001-05:00

Mainichi Daily News article

Yesterday was the second half of the 7th and final game of the Meijinsen between Yoshiharu Habu and Masataka Goda. At the beginning of the game, the score was 3-3, and Habu defeated Goda impressively yesterday, defending the Meijin title for another year.

You can replay the game here.

In addition, I also recommend reading Takodori-san's commentaries from his Twitter regarding the game. You can find duplicates of his Twitter entries on his blog:

Day 1
Day 2

Why is it important to castle?

2009-06-14T01:59:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, today I thought I'd make an update to point out the most basic defensive strategy so that beginners can get a grasp of it. I'll explain it using examples of my own games that I've played in the past week. The topic is, of course, castles.

Castles are formations of pieces that surround and defend your king. Unlike chess, where the only "castle" is putting your rook in front of your king, Shogi castles are deliberately designed to ward off the opponent's attacks and keep your king as far away from the battlefield as possible. There are many types of castles and many variations of every kind of castle, but here are the three most common castles:

Yagura Castle

Yagura Castle is one of the most popular kinds of castles, although it takes some time to make. It is used when the opponent is playing Static Rook (when a player keeps his or her rook on its opening file in the opening). Its strength is that it heavily defends the front of the king, which is where a Static Rook player will be opening fire. Often times you will see two players in Yagura Castle at the same time, as they are castled used by Static Rook players. Its weaknesses are the left side and the bottom.

Mino Castle

Mino Castle is another popular castle, especially among beginners, especially because it is one of the easiest castles to make. Mino Castle is used by Ranging Rook (when a player moves his or her rook in the opening) players, typically against Static Rook players, because it heavily defends the left side. Its weakness is the silver general's head, 3g. Often times the rightmost pawn will also be pushed, to give an escape route to the king.

Anaguma Castle

Anaguma Castle is a fairly popular castle among beginners because it is one of the hardest castles to break in shogi. It defends decently from the front and heavily from the side. The biggest problem with Anaguma is that if your opponent manages to break your castle, you will be checkmated in a few turns because your king has no escape route.

Now that I've given a quick introduction to castles, I'd like to go into their uses in-game. A few months ago when I was very new at shogi, I was of the mentality that, "Well if I can make a big enough attack, they won't have time to attack me, so I don't need to build a castle." This mentality worked against some of my friends and some other beginners in PlayOK, but as I started getting better and playing against better players, I realized I was very, very wrong. It's always important to protect your king in one way or another. There are two shogi proverbs that apply to castling: "Avoid a sitting king," and "Protect your king with three generals, etc."

Here's an example of one of my games that I just played tonight where I had a solid defense while my opponent didn't:

hirohiigo (black) vs. mawelikeke (white)

I knew for sure that I was going to win this game at move 36. S-2f. He made a huge error in making that move, and it allowed me to play 37. Rx2f. He hurried the game along by playing 39. B-2e to attack my rook. Since I could skip going after his bishop, I could run straight into his camp and promote. With a dragon and 2 generals in hand in that kind of situation, I don't think it's possible to lose.

Mawelikeke could have extended the game even farther, but by playing 42. R-5a, he put himself in a Mate In 2 situation, and he could not block 43. +R-4c. 44. K-3a 45. R*3b Gold on the Head checkmate. Mawelikeke was obviously new to the game, so I don't blame him for not knowing any castles. But my next example is against a more skillful opponent:

ryoku (black) vs. hirohiigo (white)

Ryoku showed his aggressive intentions right away by opening with a one move loss bishop exchange and quickly moving into a third file rook strategy. His attacks were coming so fast that I was having trouble keeping up with him - it was like he had his attack planned out before the game even began. I was panicking early into the game, but his first major blunder followed my bishop promotion at 16. Bx6g+, in which his reaction was 17. Px7c+. I don't understand why anyone would continue their attack with a major piece in their camp. Whatever the case, he traded a rook and a pawn for a bishop and a pawn.

But even after that his attacks were coming in strong. The only thing I could do to save myself from 23. R*7a was R*6a to force a rook trade. It kept going on like that until I managed to kick his horse off of its diagonal with 42. B*7b. As soon as his horse moved, I began preparing for my attack with 44. R*7d. He delayed my attack slightly with his lance and knight drop, but the moment I was able to make my first check with 54. G*6i, his entire game collapsed and I won. In the end, it was a matter of the player who had the stronger castle survived.

I hope these real examples of the benefit of castles has taught any beginners reading this how important it is to castle your king, or at the very least move him away from 5a (or 5i if you're black) into a more secure position.

Basic Shogi lessons and reference

2009-05-31T15:40:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone. I've begun a series of lessons/reference pages on how to play Shogi on the forums. You can find them here. So far I only have a thread about the Shogi board up. While I don't think I can do as good of a job with my lessons as Hidetchi has with his videos, I do believe having a quick reference to Shogi rules in English will help many people learn to play Shogi.

Last night I also posted a game I played on PlayOK along with my own commentary and analysis of it. It wasn't one of my best played games at all but I wanted to make note of it so I could see what I did wrong.

LA Shogi forum

2009-05-30T22:06:00.001-05:00

Hello, everyone! I have created a forum for Louisiana Shogi so that my readers may discuss Shogi with each other outside of the comments.

Louisiana Shogi Forum

Thank you very much to anyone who's reading this and double thank you if you decide to join the forum!