ISM Issue1 2018 PDF

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE
Table of Contents
A Word from the Editor by Karolina Styczynska iii
Strategies Theory
Subway Rook by Shun Tokuni 3
Ishida Style Basics by Andree Viklund 6
Kifu Review
European Ryu by Twan Burg 10
Polish Shogi Championship 2018 - final game review by Krzysztof Stoigniew Sieja 14
Share your Experiences
From Chess to Shogi by Tyler Brown 17
An Interview with Keiichi Abe, head of Singapore branch, JSA by Jim Tan 19
Pairing systems in amateur tournaments by Krzysztof Stoigniew Sieja 24
Shogi, Martial Art by Nicolas Zellner 31
How to teach shogi by using Mini-games – part 1 by Grzegorz Adaszewski 32
All About Tsume
Tsume Shogi Decomposition by Kai Wan Leung 34
Creating tsume shogi puzzles from real endgames by Kai Wan Leung 37
Saving Ben-Hur (Part 1) by Jim Tan 44
Shogi variations and other games
Shogi and Chess by Sergej Korchitskij 50
Introduction of Yoninshogi/ by Ng Teck Sen 55
A Little History
The Historian by Frank Rövekamp 58
Militarism vs Democracy: The Debate over Shōgi’s Ideological Character by F. Mondelli 61
Feedback 63
Disclaimer: The International Shogi Magazine does not take any reponsibility either expressed
or implied for the material and its nature or accuracy of the information which is published in
this PDF magazine. All the materials presented in this PDF magazine have been produced with
the expressed permission of their respective authors / owners. The International Shogi
Magazine and the contributors disclaim all warranties, expressed or implied, including, but not
limited to implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. All images
and materials present in this document are printed / re-printed with expressed permission from
the authors and or writers. The contents responsibility lies completely with the contributing
writer or the author of said article.
This PDF magazine is archived and available from the www.shogi.pl website. The International
Shogi Magazine is made available under Creative Commons 'Attribution-NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 4.0 International' license.
COPYRIGHT © 2018 'International Shogi Magazine' and International Shogi Magazine logo
are copyright of Karolina Styczynska. All products and company names featured in the
publication are trademark or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE ii

A Word from the Editor
Here it is, the first issue of the International Shogi Magazine!
The idea appeared as a result of my master thesis research. Although, there were many
other shogi magazines before, for the first time we have a magazine written by authors from
all over the world.
I would like to express big thanks to all the people who contributed to the first issue. We
had to build everything from the scratch, therefore many corrections were necessary. Thank
you for the time you sacrificed on your part.
I hope you will enjoy this issue, it has wide range of articles: starting from theory, tsume
problems and ending on shogi history or other games introduction. Each of the authors
wrote about shogi from a different perspective, so every reader should find something
interesting.
If you would like to contribute to our magazine by sharing your article, art, poem,
anything that is shogi related, please do so! Let’s make shogi community grow!
Karolina Styczynska Joryu 1 kyu, Chief Editor
Our great team of volunteers in this issue:
Grzegorz Adaszewski
Eric De Las Casas (cover and last page art)
Tyler Brown
Twan Burg
Wojtek Jedynak (translation)
Sergiej Korchitskij
Frank Mondelli
Ng Teck Sen
Frank Rövekamp
Krzysztof Stoigniew Sieja
Jim Tan
Shun Tokuni
Andree Viklund
Kai Wan Leung
Nicolas Zeller
Thank you for help!
INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE iii

About "International Shogi Magazine"
This magazine is an online, free magazine written by volunteers.

It is published on www.shogi.pl every 3 months starting from May 2018.
The idea was started in order to get together all the shogi players around the world.
If you would like to join us, we are searching for writters, proof-readers, designers, translator,
but we also welcome any type of feedback that you can provide. We accept texts in English,
Polish and Japanese. The deadline for the second issue is 7th July with one month left for
corrections and translation.
You can contact the chief editor, Karolina Styczynska, by sending email to
oneye@windowslive.com.
About notation (numerical system)
• K – King, R – Rook, B – Bishop, G – Gold, S – Silver, N – kNight, L – Lance, P – Pawn

• Shogi signs: + at the end – promotion, + before the piece – promoted piece, x – taking a
piece, x without squares coordinates is on the same square as previous move indicated, * -
dropping the piece.
• Squares coordinates begin in the top right corner. First number is the column, second is the
row.
• In cases two or more pieces can move to the same square, original square of moved piece is
indicated afterwards in brackets.
• Special characters: ! - good, strong move, ? - a mistake, !? - interesting move, ?! - dubious
move
In some cases: Black is indicated by a black triangle and White is indicated by a white triangle.
Small dictionary:
Sente - Black, the player that makes the first move

Gote - White, the player that makes the second move
Byo yomi - special time per move after the main time was used up
Tsume - sequence of checks leading to a checkmate. Example: tsume in 3 moves means: check,
escape, checkmate.
FESA - the Federation of European Shogi Associations

NSR or JSA - the Japan Shogi Association (Nihon Shogi Renmei)
Most of shogi diagrams in this magazine were generated using "Shogi Playground" application
https://play.mogproject.com/
INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE iv

Strategies Theory
Subway Rook
Overview
Subway Rook (jpn: Chikatetsu-Bisha) is one of the surprising attacks for a Static Rook
player against 4th file Rook Anaguma. Concentrating his army power on the 9th file and the
square "93", Subway Rook player can storm the bear nest from above.
Indeed, 4th file Rook is one of the popular strategies in Europe, and Anaguma is very
firm once it is constructed. Some Static Rook players may feel difficulty in being against. In
this article it will be explained how to get the bear up from hibernation in the middle game.
See also Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subway_Rook
Why "Subway"?
The reason is very simple: Rook moves
from "29" to "99" square through the 9th
rank. The move is like a subway train. This
idea is almost unstoppable for a 4th file Rook
player, as he has no way to operate
counterplay. To construct the form of
Subway Rook is very simple, although you
should be careful in a couple of moments.
Virtual board URL: https://goo.gl/uFXmY7

From the starting position:
▲P76 △P34 ▲P26 △P44 ▲S48 △S32 ▲P56 △R42 ▲P25
△B33 ▲K68 △K62 ▲K78 △K72 ▲G58(49) △K82 ▲P96
△L92 (diag.)
Seeing the declaration of Anaguma, we will prepare for "the
Subway."
▲P95 △K91 ▲P36 △S82 ▲N37 △G71 ▲B66!? (diag.)

This move is uncommon but not bad in this position.
Bishop is aiming at the square 93 directly. It should be
kept in mind that the head of Bishop is weak and it is
needed to cover the weakness.
INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 3

△S43...
△P45? ▲B33+ △S33, and there is too much space for Sente's
Bishop in Gote's zone.
...▲N77... constructing the railway for Rook, defend the
square "65."
...△G52 ▲S88 △G62(52) ▲G68(69) △G72(62) ▲R29 △P64
▲L98 △S54 ▲P55
Bishop is in safety chasing the enemy Silver.
△S43 (△P65? ▲B75) ▲R99 (diag.) Finally Rook is at the best
position to exterminate the bear.
△P74 ▲N85 Rook, Bishop, Knight and Lance are taking part
in the ideal attack. On the other hand, Gote has no good way
to defend the edge Pawn.
△P54 ▲P94 △Px94 ▲Lx94 △Lx94 ▲Rx94 △P*92 ▲L*98
(diag.) Sente should stick to the bear hunting.
△L*93 ▲Nx93+ △Px93 ▲Rx74 △N*56

In case of △G73 or △G63, you can just take a Gold and the 93 square will get weak. Besides
there is no need for you to be afraid of this Knight fork.
▲P*92! Important Tesuji to remember. It force enemy King to get close to the battle field,
and robs vacant 92 space to put figures on.
△Kx92 ▲P*94 (diag.)

△Px94 ▲Px54 Sente can get pawn here. △Sx54 ▲P*93 △Nx93...
△Sx93? ▲Bx93+ △Nx93 (△Kx93 ▲Lx94 △K82 ▲S*91#) ▲Lx94.
...▲Rx94 △Nx68+ ▲Gx68 △G*84 (diag.) Gote tries to struggle, but it doesn't make sense
anymore.
▲Rx93+!
▲Bx84 △Px84 ▲G*53 may be good as well, but this is the simplest and clearest move.
△Sx93 ▲Lx93+ △Kx93 ▲N*85 △K82...
If △K94 then ▲S*96! and the Game Set.
...▲S*93 △K81 ▲Bx84! (diag.) +/- Now the bear is hunted. The pair of Golds is just an
ironic blockade for Gote.
About the author: Shun Tokuni

1st place in the high school team tournament in Japan (2006), 1st place in WOSC
and Blitz tournaments (Kiev, 2017), manager of the website "Shogi Planet," where
many articles are available in English. (https://shogiplanet.web.fc2.com/)

Strategies Theory
Ishida Style Basics
This will be my first article and I hope that it can help other players. I picked this strategy,
because it was one of the first strategies that I learned and used as my main forte for a long time.
It has a special place in my heart and I have found memories about it.
In this article I will be giving an overview on the strategy “Quick Ishida” for sente. I will
mention the main traps in the opening, the importance of gote’s movement and the usual
standard moves in the opening for bishop exchange and plenary formation of “Ishida style 3rd
file rook”.
The main trap in the quick ishida opening
Here is a trap that gote can fall into, when making a mistake in exchanging P86 too
early. From the starting position:
▲P76 △P34 ▲P75 △P84 ▲R78 △P85 ▲K48 △P86 (mistake) ▲Px △Rx ▲P74 △Px ▲Bx22+
△Sx ▲B*95 (diag.) forking gote’s king and rook. It is a total disaster for gote.
Even thought it seems that gote can attack early in fact sente is safe.
The 4th move importance
Here I will show a point that sente must be careful about: ▲P76 △P34 ▲P75 △K42 ▲R78
(mistake!) △Bx88+ ▲Sx △B*45! (diag.)

This bishop is forking two pawns at the same time. There is no defence for sente and
gote will make a horse. After △K42 it is important for sente to close the diagonal with ▲P66
and only after move the rook. Now let’s see a similar example, but resulting in equal fight.
▲P76 △P34 ▲P75 △P84 (instead of △K42) ▲R78 △Bx88+ ▲Sx △B*45 ▲B*76 (diag.) This
time, sente can drop the bishop to 76 protecting the pawn on 67 while counter-attacking
the pawn on 43.
There are two possible ways to continue: defend the threat a) △K42 or go for it b)
△Bx27+! Both variations are tough fights.
a) △K42 ▲S38 both sides defend but the sente must be careful about △B54 ▲P16 (making
space for lance escape) △Bx76 ▲Rx △B*28 ▲L17 △B19+ with the continuation of
△+B18...△N33...△N25.
b) △Bx27+ ▲Bx43+ and sente can take one pawn more than gote on 53 or 34.
The usual Ishida’s formation bishop exchange
Finally, standards moves for this opening ( joseki ) are the following:
▲P76 △P34 ▲P75 △P84 ▲R78 △P85 ▲K48 △S62 ▲K38 △K42 ▲R36 △Bx88+ (bishop
exchange) ▲Sx △K32 ▲K28 △S22 ▲S38 △S33 ▲G78 (keeping the balance between the
pieces to prevent bishop drops) △P64 ▲S77 △S63 ▲P16 △P14 ▲P86 △Px (gote’s mistake)
▲Rx86 △P*85 (instead: △Rx ▲Sx △R*69 ▲R*88 sente defends strongly) ▲R88 △G52(61)
▲S76 (diag.) online board: https://goo.gl/KSBVHX

From this position gote might try counter-attacking from △P74 or dropping the bishop to
△B*44, but the eventual ▲Sx85 will mean that sente broke through on the 8th file and
became the leader. The most important point of this opening for sente is that after the
bishop exchange the gold should go to 78 square.
Plenary ishida formation and example of an attack
I will now go over the plenary formation and show one example on how to set it up in the
game. Depending on gote’s moves, sente might have some time to prepare the plenary
formation of Ishida style third file rook.
▲P76 △P34 ▲P75 △K42 ▲P66 (avoiding bishop exchange) △P84 ▲R78 △P85 ▲R76
(defending P86) △S62 ▲P96 △P94 ▲S68 △P64 ▲N77 △S63 ▲S67 △K32 ▲K48 △G52(61)
▲K38 △B33 ▲K28 △K22 ▲S38 (finishing mino castle) △S32 (left mino castle) ▲B97 △P14
▲P16 △P24 ▲G52(69) △S23 (trying to develop into left silver crown) ▲S56 △G32 ▲P65
(Ishida plenary formation, diag.) online board: https://goo.gl/amVoSx
All the pieces are in place. Bishop is peeping from the edge. Rook is elevated, while being
defended by the knight. Silver is developed to the center. The attack tends to start with
▲P65. If opponent takes it △Px65, one way to continue is to recapture with the silver
▲Sx65. Then try and break through the 7th file with the cooperation of rook, bishop, silver
and knight. ▲Nx65 also an interesting variation that I want to show.
After ▲Nx65 (diag.) sente is threatening to push the pawn to ▲P74, which if taken △Px,
the knight can promote ▲Nx53+. △Sx ▲Nx73+ allows sente to take the silver △Nx73
▲Rx74.

It seems that gote must drop a pawn △P*64, but then sente will promote the knight to 73
anyway.
△P*64 ▲Nx73+ △Nx ▲P74 breaks through the defence and the position is good for sente.
I hope it have been a fun and helpful article for you, as for myself it has been a good
experience to write something shogi related to help expanding the game of shogi. I just
want to say thanks to the readers of this magazine and a special thanks to the editor for
helping and putting up with me during this time for the making of this first issue.
Andree Viklund

Kifu Review
European Ryu
In October 2017 the International Shogi Forum was organized in Kitakyushu, Japan. The
champions of each country could qualify, so many different countries were represented. It
was a great event where friendly connections were made and interesting games of shogi were
played. In the knockout phase of the A group, we saw two top European players fighting
against each other. Thomas Leiter has been around for many years and won the European
Championship in 2012. Vincent Tanyan is only 18 years and became European Champion
this year. So it is interesting to see when these two players face each other. Vincent chose the
Fujii attack, a modern Ranging Rook strategy that keeps the possibility for an early attack,
so it prevents Static Rook for making a strong castle, notably Anaguma. Using skillful
moves however, Thomas managed to obtain the Millenium castle, with his King being
castled on the place where his knight initially was. When he also won the battle on the other
side of the board, he had a big lead in the endgame, where he could convert his advantage to
a win.
Black: Vincent Tanian
White: Thomas Leiter
▲P-76 △P-34 ▲P-66 △S-62 ▲P-16 △P-54 ▲R-68 △K-42 ▲S-38 △K-32 ▲S-78
Tanian is famous for his Fujii attack, while Leiter signals a Static Rook setup.
△S-53 ▲G(69)-58 △P-84 ▲P-46 △P-85 ▲B-77 △G(61)-52
With castling towards the centre, Leiter indicates that he is not interested in a rapid
attack, but rather focuses on strengthening his castle.
▲S-67 △P-74 ▲K-48 △B-55
While transferring the Bishop the other side, Leiter makes the way free for the generals
to create a super strong castle.
▲S-47
Tanian chooses an original castle as well. An alternative was G47 and then forming High
Mino. Probably he wanted to avoid Bishop´s diagonal, so he now creates thickness in the
centre and puts the King on 38.

△P-44 ▲S(67)-56 △B-73 ▲P-65 △G-43 ▲P-36 △N-33 ▲N-37 △K-21
With putting the king on the place where initially the knight was, Leiter forms the
Millenium castle. This is a modern castle developed in response to the Fujii system.
▲K-38 △G-32 ▲G(49)-48 △S(53)-42 ▲R-69 △S-22 ▲P-96 △S(42)-31
Leiter skillfully completes his Millenium castle. A 4-general castle is more frequently
seen by advanced players. To make it succeed, you need to make Sabaki on the other side
with a limited number of pieces.
▲P-15 △P-94 ▲L-98 △R-52 ▲L-18 △P-24 ▲N-97

Now that Leiter seems to focus on the centre, Tanian start a counterattack on the 8th
file. Putting the Knight on the edge has the obvious drawback that the edge becomes weak.
△R-82 ▲R-89 △P-95 ▲Px △Lx ▲P*96 △Lx
Leiter succesfully broke the edge, and now Tanian untangles himself by entering the
exchanges starting with Nx85.

▲Nx85 △Lx98+ ▲Nx73+ △Nx
Good Sabaki by Leiter. The Bishop is exchanged against Knight and Lance, while he
remains the initiative.
▲R-29 △Rx87+ ▲B-95 △P*84 ▲P-45 △Px ▲P*44
An important tesuji in this kind of position. One doesn't want to ignore such a Pawn, while
taking results in a fork.
△Gx ▲B*62 △L*42 ▲Bx73+ △N*46

Leiter now has a strong attack on the 4th file. He has also 4 Pawns in hand to throw into
the fight.
▲K-28 △Nx58+ ▲Sx △P-35 ▲Px △P*36 ▲N*34
Leiter's King is safer now, which is a result of his solid opening strategy.
△Px37+ ▲Gx △N-25 ▲Nx22+ △Sx ▲N*34 △Nx37+ ▲Hx △Gx34 ▲Px △N*25 ▲N*33
Tanian keeps attacking with very strong moves. Leiter finds a nice balance between
defence and attack, and makes sure his attack is quicker.

△Sx ▲Px+ △Nx37+ ▲Kx △B*46
In fact, there already is a forced mate.
▲K-26 △G*25 ▲K-17 △G*16 ▲Resign
Twan Burg

Kifu Review
Polish Shogi Championship 2018 - final game review
Polish Shogi Championship (which took place in Wrocław on April 28th) is a single
elimination tournament between the top 16 Polish players (based on the FESA rating), with
time of 30min + 40s byo yomi. Players have to win 3 consecutive games to get to the final.
Players eliminated from the main tournament play in the additional Swiss tournament (Open
Polish Shogi Championship).
First player in the final match was Kamil Michaluk, an extremely talented player who took
the title last year (he was defending the title, but still had to fight up to the final). Kamil is FESA
2-dan and currently the 2nd best Polish player (according to FESA rating). Kamil is dedicated to
his central rook strategy - he knows a lot of tricks in many complicated variations, making him
a tough opponent in the opening phase. His ending skill is also fearsome, as he can come back
even from really hopeless situations (many dan players had learned it in the hard way…).
The challenger was Karol Stanclik, solid (and youngest Polish) 1-dan and currently 7th Polish
player. Last year Karol took the 4th place, being eliminated by Adam Dziwoki (2-dan, 1st Polish
player) in the quarterfinal, and defeated by me (1-dan, 6th Polish player) in the match for the 3rd
place. This year he took revenge, defeating me in the 2nd round and Adam Dziwoki in the
quarterfinal. Karol is a static rook player, and on the tournament day he decided to go for an
unusual strategy - a Duck Legs castle! It gave Karol the advantage of surprise, which he utilized
(e.g. in our game I had an advantage, but didn’t know how to effectively attack this rare castle -
while he skillfully destroyed my castle, so only ashes and ruins remained).
Virtual board online of the full game: https://goo.gl/Swc8Y9
Kamil (left) and Karol before the

game, with Krzysztof (author)
noting the kifu.
Photo by Wojciech Jedynak
Due to the furigoma, Kamil has started the game:

▲R58 △P84
First two moves were rather obvious for those players.
...▲P96 △S42 ▲P56 △P85 ▲K48 △P86 ▲Px86 △Rx86 ▲G78 △R84
Karol took his rook back to 84 instead of 82, as the Duck castle blocks the Rook’s
mobility on the 2nd rank.
...▲P*87 △S62 ▲S68 △P14 ▲P16 △K52 ▲P55 △G31 ▲S57 △G71 ▲S56 △B13
Here the Rook’s influence on the 4th row is helping the Bishop, as the edge attack for
Sente is impossible (▲P15n△Px15n▲Lx15n△P*16 and the Lance is dead). If Rook would be
on 82 and this edge Bishop would be impossible for Karol, his position would be worse, as
Bishop is the only piece (apart of the Rook), which can be active in the attack (as Silvers
are in the castle), and leaving it on 22 (and activating by pushing the 33 Pawn) would be
risky, as the battle would start near the Gote’s king.
...▲P76 △P*86 ▲Px86 △Rx86 (diag.)
Now is the first difficult position to consider for Kamil. Gote’s Bishop is eyeing Sente’s
castle, ready for counterattack, and Gote’s king is quite safe, as he can escape to both
sides if the battle would start in the middle. ▲P*87 seems reasonable, giving up the 76
Pawn for the tempo.
Computer suggests the following variation: ▲P54 △Px54 ▲P*87 △Rx76 ▲N77 △P64 ▲P66
△P*86 ▲Px86 △Rx66 ▲S67 △Px86 ▲P*87 △R82 ▲Rx54.
Kamil chose another quite aggressive variation, which simultaneously defends the 76
Pawn:
...▲S65
This move is considered bad by the computer; Kamil probably didn’t have much
experience against Duck castle, which is strong vs Rook drops, so he ignored the possible
exchange.
...△Rx88! ▲Gx88 △B79+
This position looks promising for Karol, but it seems that he lacks some pieces for attack.
Kamil could go for defense, but he decided to attack:
...▲R*85 (computer suggests ▲R*83, for the promotion purposes, although ▲R*85 defends
the 65 Silver) △B*45
This moves looks natural, attacking two unprotected Pawns. △P*82 also seemed
reasonable, as ▲P*82 is a strong attack (in the post-game analysis Karol said, that he
hasn’t seen the possibility of this attack - he decided to play Duck castle the same day, so
didn’t have enough time to practice this rare strategy).
...▲G78 (diag.)

This move looks reasonable, as it both protects 67 Pawn and attacks 79 Horse. It seems,
however, that this is a bad move, as computer suggests the strong answer △+Bx76! With
the continuation ▲Rx76 △Bx67+ ▲R88 △+B66 with a check (here the Rook on 85 is doing a
good job protecting the Silver) ▲K38 △+Bx88 ▲Rx88 △P*87 (Rook can't take it, as there is
△R*68 with a check, winning the Silver) ▲R58 △R*59 (forking Silver and Knight) ▲B*56
(protecting both of them) △G*66 (or △G*67) and Sente's position is ruined.
...△+B69?
This move looks reasonable, as Gote refuses exchanging his Horse for a Gold. However,
the above mentioned chance is missed, and potential △+Bx58▲Kx58 seems acceptable for
Sente, and now he is on the move.
...▲P*82 △+Bx58 ▲Kx58
Now the threat of ▲Px81+ is serious, so Gote has to either defend it or try to attack. It
looks like it’s hard to defend the Knight, but computer comes with an interesting move
△P64, simultaneously attacking Sente’s Silver. It continues ▲Sx64 △Bx27+ ▲S38 △R*28
▲G39 △Rx38+ ▲Gx38 △+Bx38 with a sense of a counterattack.
Karol immediately played:
...△Bx27+ and Kamil answered with a solid attack:
...▲Px81+ △G61 ▲R82+
Now the position looks hopeless for Gote. Sente’s camp is protected from the possible
Rook drops, and it seems that there is no proper attack for Gote. Karol tried the last
desperate attack (computer estimate it as a very big mistake, although there was probably
no other possible attack):
...△R*57 ▲Kx57 △+Bx49 ▲S28 (so Horse won’t take it with a check) △+B38 ▲B*83 with the
finishing attack △+Bx28 ▲+Bx61 △Kx61 (diag., K41 would lengthen the game, but without
any perspectives for Gote)
...▲R*71 △K52 ▲+Rx62 △Kx62 ▲G*72 and Gote resigned (△K52▲R61+ with a mate)
Final match was surprisingly quick (not only due to the low number of moves, but also
because both players were still in their basic time at the end of the match), with a rather
aggressive play from both sides. It seems that moves ▲G78 and △K69 were crucial, and
both players should be able to calculate the variation proposed by the computer if they
would use more time. Still it was an interesting match to watch, and the final mating
combination was pleasant for the eyes. Congratulations for both players and good luck next
year!

From Chess to Shogi
I played and lost my first Shogi game on August 15th, 2017. I had learned the rules earlier that
same day, including the etiquette for beginning and ending a game. At that point in my life, I
played Western Chess very often – in ranked tournaments, against friends and family, and
online; sometimes as many as 20 games in a day. On that day, I decided that I wanted to play
Chess that wasn’t Chess. A version of Chess I didn’t know inside and out – to experience that
wonder again of discovering a game as a pure beginner.
I used all of my Chess experience at my disposal in my Shogi game, which is like saying “I
used all of my baking and cake design experience to cook this Ramen”. Things went about as
well as you’d expect.
I tried to build pawn structures to control the center of the board; I tried to develop my
Bishop and knights to outposts near the center, and started trying to build a material advantage,
and then defend my position until the endgame. In that game, my opponent made an early
Bishop exchange, made a horse and got an early lead. Though my brain was well trained to
recognize forks, pins, skewers, revealed attacks, and other tactical motifs, it wasn’t until very
recently (about half a year later) that I finally feel like I understand the flow of the early game in
Shogi.
I had a strong material advantage when I lost. I hadn’t utilized practically any drops, and
definitely considered Lances as stronger pieces than silver and gold generals (because of their
range). When I was checkmated, it felt like it had come out of nowhere; my opponent’s pieces
flung themselves at my defenses, dying to my footmen and generals. From my inexperienced
point of view, it looked like a last-ditch effort to find a checkmate before my material advantage
slowly strangled the life out of my opponent’s pieces. A few well-placed drops behind my line
later, and my king had fallen victim to one of my own defenders turned traitor! Shogi was
definitely not what I was used to.
I fell in love with it instantly.
In Western Chess, even at my level, games get drawn out into long, precise (generally boring)
endgames featuring the King, a handful of pawns, and maybe another piece or two, working to
escort a pawn to the enemy’s promotion zone, and draws are quite common. Being even one
pawn ahead is generally enough to win a game in the long run. I was flabbergasted when I
learned that it was common in Shogi, even among professional players, to handicap their pieces
by a bishop or more, and still win.

The three most difficult things for me to learn as a Chess player playing Shogi was how to
properly use pawns, how best to use drops, and how to manage my promotion zone.
In Western Chess, at a high enough experience level, the game revolves around the pawns. In
case you don’t know, in Wester Chess, pawns move forward, but only can capture diagonally at
their forward corners. The pawns protect one another, creating the shape of the battlefield. In
Shogi, it took quite a bit of time for me to understand how to protect my bishop’s head, and
even more of how to use pawns well in the middle and late game (oftentimes, I would end up
wasting a few moves, only to end up in the same position, but my opponent would have an
additional pawn in hand).
Utilizing drops in Shogi is such a complex subject, and there are so many ways to do it. I
remember going over a Kifu online with some more experienced Shogi players. I pointed out a
forcing line 6 moves long which ended up winning a rook with a bishop drop forking the rook
and the king – the exact kind of line a tactical Western Chess brain is trained to notice. The
player I was studying with politely pointed out a different (and stronger) forcing line – one that
started by dropping a Silver General to lure the king away from the defense of the other pieces,
and ended with the opponent needing to sacrifice their rook to keep their king alive. Something
as elementary in Shogi as using dangling pawn drops to weaken your opponent’s position may
never be considered as a possibility to a Western Chess player until it happens to them.
In Western Chess, any beginner player knows that one of the first things they should do in a
game is to get all of their pieces into positions where they can influence the board; it’s the best
way to protect the King. In Shogi, paying attention to weaknesses in my camp is a constant
mental strain, and is honestly something I’m still not quite used to. Building a castle by keeping
my minor pieces near my king, and the idea that the safest place for my king to run is towards
my opponent’s side of board were both odd concepts for me. I’m sure other players who
learned Shogi after playing Western Chess can relate.
Despite all of Shogi’s strengths (the rich culture behind it, the attacking style of play, the
handicap rules, and the welcoming online community), Shogi has one glaring weakness:
localization. Shogi is heavily localized to Japan. If you’re reading this from outside of Japan,
there’s a good chance that there is no local Shogi club – if you don’t speak or read Japanese,
you’ll have to make a concerted effort to stay up to date with what’s happening in the world of
Shogi. If you’re looking to play Shogi in person locally, the responsibility to create a local Shogi
club may be entirely yours.
The good news is that Shogi is growing. Every day, people are working to translate books and
to write their own. Tournaments are being held in Europe and even in North America. There
are more online multi-language resources available now than even last year, when I started
playing. As a lover of Shogi, I plan to do what I can to help its growth, despite my inexperience
as an actual player. I hope you’ll do the same.
Tyler Brown

An Interview with Keiichi Abe,

head of Singapore branch, Japan Shogi Association
Game promoters and organizers often do their work tirelessly behind the scenes, away from
the limelight. While much of their work is not a mystery, they themselves are very often not
the focus of attention. Such is also the case for shogi promoters and organizers. Today, the
‘International Shogi Magazine’ presents an interview with one of many such tireless people,
Mr Keiichi Abe, head of Singapore branch, Japan Shogi Association. Singapore is one of the
most diverse country in the world, boasting a multitude of races and cultures all living
together on a very small piece of land. This little country currently recognizes Go,
International chess, and Chinese chess as National Sports Associations with dedicated
facilities. As such, there is real difficulty in advocating shogi as a premier mental sport
among strong established presence of Go, International chess and Chinese chess aficionados.
JIM TAN: Hi, Abe-san. Thank you for agreeing to an interview

for the ‘International Shogi Magazine’. Would you like to
introduce yourself to our readers?
ABE KEIICHI: This is Keiichi Abe, head of Singapore branch,

Japan Shogi Association and 3rd dan in shogi. I currently live
and work in Singapore although my nationality is Japanese. I am
47 now and married 20 years ago. I have a 19 year old daughter.
My hobby is obviously shogi!
JIM: So, who and when did you learn your shogi from?
Mr Keiichi Abe ABE: From my grandfather at age 7 or 8.
JIM: And how did you end up as a representative of Shogi Renmei in Singapore?
ABE: I joined the Shogi club 7 years ago and the former head resigned, no one else was keen for
the position so I took it.
JIM: Static rook or ranging rook?
ABE: Started with static rook then became a ranging rook player.
JIM: Favorite shogi piece? Favorite shogi player? Favorite length of shogi game?
ABE: Rook is my favorite piece although I sacrifice it to win the game often. Habu Yoshiharu
is my hero! I prefer 10min and 30 sec byoyomi game length.

JIM: Ok, now that we know more about you. Can you tell us how long have you been in
Singapore ? and how are you finding life here?
ABE: A great country to live in. Weather, people, working environment and life style are all
great. Only compliant is that living here is expensive!
JIM: What is your favorite local food/drink?
ABE: Bak-kut-teh (A pork rib dish cooked in broth).
JIM: Favorite place to shop for your daily necessities?
ABE: Parkway Parade mall.

Bak-kut-teh, a Chinese dish in Singapore
JIM: Is the weather in Singapore to your liking? How does it differ from your hometown in
Japan?
ABE: Japan has four seasons and Singapore is very tropical. I prefer warm weather in
Singapore. It cheers me up!
JIM: What is the state of shogi in Singapore right now?
ABE: At the first meeting I joined 7 years ago, there were only 5 members. Today, we hold
monthly shogi meets at the Japanese Association of Singapore (120 Adam Rd, Singapore
289899) and 30+ people (approximately 20+ children and 10+ adults) usually join the meeting.
Every session, we play teaching/guiding games with various kids and adults as well as casual
games. Besides the monthly meeting, we also host the local Shogi Open tournament,
participate in the Asia regional branch tournament, join the summer festival and various
Japanese Association related events etc. All in all, we hold roughly 30 to 40 shogi related
events/meetings per year. We also have a Facebook page (in Japanese) for all of our activities so
please visit at your leisure.
JIM: Singapore currently recognizes Go, International Chess and Chinese Chess Associations
as National Sports Associations (NSA), tasked with driving and developing said sports. Key
criteria for obtaining NSA status is for the sports body to be registered as a society, serving the
public good in a charitable fashion for the interest of society and country. Do you think
Singapore has what it takes to establish a National Shogi Association?
ABE: Why not? Frankly speaking, the time is not quite ripe for myself. This is due to the fact
that currently all shogi activities are conducted largely by me in my own free time. Therefore,
from a resource perspective, I have limited manpower. Looking forward, I think that if we can
get more committed and passionate people involved then its not a problem to think about
setting up a National Shogi Association in Singapore with dedicated facilities and proper
instructors etc.

JIM: Who in your opinion is the best shogi player in Singapore right now? And what is
his/her best result so far?
ABE: Lim Zhuo Loon, Leon, a Singaporean. He is the best in our club. He is still young and
has a good potential as well. Leon is currently a student in the local university. He is also a
frequent player at the online site https://81dojo.com where he is currently ranked at 7th dan.
Leon has participated in the 7th International Shogi Forum (ISF) held in Kitakyushu, Japan as a
Singapore representative last year. This is his first participation and while he lost in the
quarterfinals in his group, it was a very promising result. I am looking forward to better results
from him in the future.
JIM: What do you think is the greatest obstacle in promoting shogi in Singapore? And what do
you think should be done to alleviate this issue?
ABE: Maybe language barrier. There are many available shogi books in Japanese so it is quite
efficient for Japanese to learn shogi. However English or non-Japanese shogi books are quite
limited.
JIM: Do you play shogi online? And what is your opinion about playing online as opposed to
playing in real? Are you ever afraid that you might be playing against a faceless AI?
ABE: Yes, Shogi Quest is the one I play. Online play is good but playing online too much
could lead less thinking in the game. Personally I enjoy playing against AI. It is effective
learning for me. And it is the most efficient and effective way to increase one’s skills in my
opinion.
JIM: In 2017, there were many major events in shogi. How do you feel about them?
ABE: There were many wonderful news in 2017 and these helped to spread shogi among many
more people. Karolina’s news could be the top news in a normal year but so many happened
last year!
JIM: Do you think a shogi prodigy can appear in Singapore if there were more people playing
it?
ABE: Anything could happen!
JIM: In the local scene, which country is the closest rival to Singapore in terms of shogi?
ABE: Hong Kong, Bangkok and Malaysia.
JIM: What, in your opinion, do you think is the greatest difference between local shogi players
and japanese shogi players?
ABE: A local player, Leon is the best player in my club so a local is currently better than
Japanese players here for now. Shogi learning environment is different between Japanese and
local. There are many Japanese books about Shogi but limited books are available in local
language or English.

Photos from top left (a) typical shogi day at the Japanese Association Singapore (b) kids having fun
playing shogi (c) Shogi Workshop at NUS in 2015, (d) shogi teaching session (e) Shogi Workshop at
Kinokuniya in 2015 (f) Summer Festival with fellow shogi players at the Japanese Primary School in 2016

Left photo: Asia branch Shogi Tournament in Malaysia 2017 with Ms Madoka Kitao, Mr Kenji
Kobayashi (professional shogi players) and Mr Shohei Takada (shogi instructor)
Right photo: Asia branch Shogi Tournament in Hong Kong 2015 with Ms Karolina Styczyńska
(professional shogi player, middle)
JIM: What do you hope to achieve for shogi in Singapore in 2018?
ABE: Successful Asia branch Shogi tournament in Singapore. The Asia branch Shogi
tournament was kicked off 6 years ago among the four shogi branches in Asia: Bangkok, Hong
Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. It is an annual event and the event location is rotated among
these four countries. At the last tournament, Vietnam and Shanghai joined the event and the
number of participants has grown to about 70. The size of the event is expanding. This year,
Singapore will be hosting the event. The details are not yet confirmed but it is to be expected in
September.
JIM: One last question, if you could give a shoutout to all international shogi players, what
would you say?
ABE: Enjoy Shogi!
JIM: Thank you, Mr Abe for your invaluable time and insights. I hope our readers will
understand shogi in Singapore better. I wish you success in the forthcoming tournaments and
the best in all your endeavors for 2018!
Jim Tan, Singapore

Pairing systems in amateur tournaments
Tournament organizer has many difficult tasks to do. For many of those tasks, it’s hard to
give any general advices, as some issues might be strictly connected with the local shogi
community and its surroundings (finding place for the tournament, arranging equipment etc.).
One of the important task is to choose the tournament system (number of rounds, round
length, pairing system). There is no perfect solution for choosing the system, and
simultaneously there are many options to choose from. Fortunately, in this matter it is possible
to give some general advices, which - I hope - will help you to successfully start your own
tournament.
Below article refers to FESA (Federation of European Shogi Associations) organization and
FESA rating (list of players sorted by their tournament performance, calculated by the ELO
system; most tournaments organized in Europe are reported for FESA rating). If players in your
country does not have FESA or similar rating, and it is necessary for the pairing system (e.g. for
McMahon tournament), you can use any other reliable rating (e.g. from the Internet game
platform like 81 Dojo). If there is no reliable source to estimate the player’s level before the
tournament, please do not worry - in such case you can just randomize players starting numbers
(McMahon won’t work in this case, but other pairing methods will be fine).
So it all fits well
To correctly set the tournament rules, two main factors are important:
1) number of players;
2) tournament duration (number of days and hours).
If you know exactly how many players will come, it is quite easy to plan everything ahead. If
you don’t know it (which is usually the case), you must prepare some emergency scenarios. But
let’s start with the duration, as it is easier to plan ahead.
Time conditions
The minimum time of game for the FESA rated tournament is 20 min + 40s byo-yomi or 30
min + 30s byo-yomi. Please note, that this difference in byo-yomi might be deceptive - basing
on my experience, 20+40 games usually last no longer than 1 hour, while 30+30 games usually
last much longer than 1 hour. 20+40 is the most commonly used time in European
tournaments (although some strong tournaments use even longer time conditions, e.g. 30+60).
In my opinion, 20+40 games are perfectly fine for most tournaments - inexperienced players

(especially children) usually tend to use less time than strong amateurs (so even this time might
be too long for them), and simultaneously it is enough time for stronger players to play good
matches. Longer time might be boring for many players, who will finish their games much
faster. Therefore, if you are not organizing any big shot tournament (in which many strong dan
players will participate), I strongly recommend playing 20+40 games. With such conditions,
you can safely estimate, that each round will require about 1 hour (of course it’s possible, that a
very long game might happen, but it’s a rare situation and it’s impossible to predict it).
Number of rounds
Depending on the pairing system, number of rounds might be strongly (round-robin, single
elimination tournaments) or weakly (Swiss, McMahon) connected with the system (I will cover
this relation later, describing each method in detail). This is a flexible matter, whether you
chose the system on the basis of the number of rounds, or you choose the number of rounds
depending on the system.
Generally, the number of rounds shouldn’t exceed 5 rounds per day (assuming, that 20+40 or
longer time is applied; in case of any kind of blitz or quick play tournaments, there might be
more rounds). It would be possible, but simultaneously really tiresome for players. If the
number of rounds exceeds 5, the tournament usually lasts at least 2 days (in most cases, it’s 7
rounds - 4 games 1st day, 3 games 2nd day, or 9 rounds - 5 games 1st day, 4 games 2nd day).
Please note, that the even number of rounds is also perfectly fine, but such system is used less
often (I suppose that it’s a custom from chess tournaments, in which - due to some rules on
playing with white or black pieces - it’s easier to optimize the tournament with an odd number
of rounds; it’s irrelevant for shogi tournaments). Looking at the European scene, both 4 rounds
and 6 rounds tournaments are organized, and 6 rounds tournaments usually last 2 days.
Therefore, to sum up the European experiences:

• one day tournament - up to 5 rounds (usually 5, but 4 rounds is also possible).
• two days tournament - 6 - 9 rounds is common.
Please note, that if you expect players coming to your place from afar, it is good to consult
the number of rounds with them. I’ve personally resigned from playing in some foreign
tournaments, when there were only 4 rounds - travel is long and expensive, and with 4 rounds
there might be not enough interesting games to play (especially with Swiss pairing - I’ll
elaborate it in the “Swiss” part of this article). Usually players want to play more than less
games.
In Poland, most tournaments are played with 5 rounds of 20+40 and I strongly advise it for
the beginner organisers, as this is a reliable and proven system. Pairing system will depend
mostly on the number of players (please look below).
Main pairing systems and variations
Tiebreakers
Tiebreaker is not a pairing system, but a tool to classify players which has the same number

of points. It is important in Swiss and McMahon tournaments, semi-important in round-robin
system (as usually only one certain tiebreaker is used), and not important in single-elimination
tournament.
Usually few tiebreakers are used, which are deciding in a descending order (so if the 1st
tiebreaker does not indicate the winner, you look at the 2nd tiebreaker etc.). There is many
kinds of tiebreakers, and there is no proper way to choose them, as all of them has pluses and
minuses. There is no official rule in this matter, but for the WOSC purposes, FESA suggests the
following tiebreakers (in descending order):
• SOS (Buchholz) = sum of the opponents' scores;
• SOSOS = sum of the opponents' SOS;
• median SOS = SOS minus the highest and the lowest score;
• mutual result.
I believe that using the abovementioned tiebreakers should be ok, as they are “almost official”
(they were chosen by the recognized organization for the purposes of an important
tournament). Regardless of the chosen tiebreakers, there is always a possibility, that the final
results of the tournament will feel unfair (at least to some players). Therefore, if you chose those
tiebreakers, you can always say, that they were suggested by FESA, so it is not your fault, that
somebody feels “cheated”. Or you can show him this article, especially this short paragraph:
“There is no ideal pairing or tiebreaking system, and life is brutal. I have both won and lost
tournaments due to the tiebreaking criteria and sometimes it felt unfair, but this is how it is,
currently there is no better solution. If you want to be certain to win the entire tournament, you just
have to win all games, then no tiebreaking system will harm you. ” (by author)
If you are not sure about the tiebreaking criteria, you can just use the default criteria of the
pairing software, which should be more or less proper. Fortunately, most players (especially
beginners) do not care about such issues, so usually you will not have any problems with this
matter.
Round-robin system
Also called “league” system - in which every player plays every other player. Works great in
small tournaments with even number of players (in case of odd number of players, additional
round has to be played, and every player pause one round). The number of rounds equals N-1
(where N is the even number of players) - it is perfect for 6 players (1 day tournament) or 8, 10
players (2 day tournament). Well, if this is the number of players and rounds you want to play,
there is no different system to use.
This system might be considered as the most “fair” system, as every player has the same
opponents. This also means, that many standard tiebreakers won’t work, and so-called “Berger”
system is usually used for those tournaments (although this system is better for chess, where
draws are possible). It is rather complicated (you can google it), therefore I strongly advise to
use pairing software. Please note, that in some situations it might be impossible to chose the
victor, so playing some additional matches might be necessary.
It is surprisingly easy to ruin the tournament, if you start it without setting the proper
pairings in advance (e.g. in the last round it might be impossible to pair players which has not
played each other in previous rounds). If you use the pairing software, please be sure, that you

use the round-robin settings (we had the above mentioned situation in one tournament, when
we paired 6-person round-robin on the swiss settings), and if you draw it on paper - please look
for pairings tables in the Internet, or just make sure, that you have all pairs correctly set before
the tournament.
Swiss system
Swiss is the most common pairing system and if the number of players exceeds the number
of rounds (so that you can’t play round-robin), this is the default choice. The general idea of
this system is to pair players, which has the same number of tournament points (if it’s not
possible - to pair players, which difference in points is as small as possible). Therefore, in the
2nd round players with 1 point (winners in the first round) will play each other and players
with 0 point (losers in the first round) will play each other, than in the 3rd players with 2
points will play each other, players with 1 points will play each other and players with 0 points
will also play each other, and so on in following rounds.
In the 1st round all players have 0 points, and the pairings might be randomized or (more
popular approach) set according to the rating. In this second approach, players are sorted
according to their FESA ratings, and (example for 8 players tournament) 1st players plays with
5th, 2nd with 6th etc., so the difference in strength between players in each pair is
(theoretically) equal.
Swiss system tends to pair the players with the similar strength, but it requires some time to
work, usually 1-2 rounds. If the tournament has only 4 or 5 rounds, this might feel as a waste of
time, as in most situations stronger players easily win in the 1st round (and the 2nd round often
is also not interesting), so it might be not entertaining for both groups of players. For those
reasons, McMahon system might be better in tournaments with a small number of rounds.
However, if number of rounds exceeds 5, Swiss system should be fine.
It is possible to make Swiss pairings on a paper, but I strongly recommend to use pairing
software.
McMahon system
McMahon system is a variation of a Swiss system. At the start of the tournament, players
(sorted by their FESA ratings) are divided into groups, which receive additional tournament
points (e.g. if there are 3 groups, stronger players would receive +2, average players +1 and
weaker players +0). If possible, groups should have similar number of players. First round
starts with players from each group play with other players from the same group. From this
point, standard Swiss rules are used (in the above example, in the 2nd round there will be
players with 3, 2, 1 and 0 points, so it will be easier to pair the players, which are similarly
strong). Initial groups will mix during the tournament, so that the players with high rating, but
weak performance will go down, and the players with low rating, but strong performance will
go up.
Generally, McMahon tends to provide more interesting games for every player. However,
it also has some weaknesses:
1) it requires some experience to properly choose the number of McMahon groups (if
there are 10 players, 2 groups should be ok, but there is no rule, when to introduce the 3rd
group - I believe that 20 players might be a good starting point) and to properly divide players

into those groups. And even, if the division is objectively proper, some players might be against
it, if they are not happy with their group. System has to be properly introduced to players (and
spectators, especially, if there are young kids on the tournament, which might not properly
understand the system - in such cases parents should know, why the sole number of victories
does not translate to the overall standing);
2) If there is a strong player with no FESA rating (e.g. experienced Internet player plays
live for the first time), it might be difficult to assign him to a proper group. Usually it would be
better to assign him to the stronger group, as (in this case) FESA rating should be treated only
as a hint, and not a decisive factor. If there is a lot of players without FESA rating, using Swiss
system is probably a better idea;
3) players from weaker group(s), even if they perform very good during the tournament,
have small chances to have a good final standing (in some cases it might be impossible to win
the tournament even if they would win all of their games). Therefore it is a good idea to provide
some prizes for the best players of each McMahon group (or at least to read their names during
the prize giving ceremony).
Personally, I am a big fan of McMahon, but it is not a perfect system and should be used with
caution; sometimes Swiss is just better. You should consider using McMahon (instead of Swiss)
if:
• there is a small number of rounds;
• there are a lot of players (I believe that 10 players is minimum for a 5 round tournament);
• it is visibly easy to divide players into McMahon groups.
You should also use McMahon, if you have a lot of beginner players (mostly kids) and don’t
want them to play with the strong players (and there is not enough players to start two separate
tournaments). Alternative approach would be to manually set pairings, but this might lead to a
conflict (it can affect the performance of the other players; I have a really bad experiences in this
area). For such purposes, I strongly advise using McMahon, as it is a systematic approach and it
both protects weaker players and simultaneously gives some bonus for the stronger players.
Single elimination tournament
Also called “knockout” tournament or “cup” tournament (as it is commonly used in cup
tournaments, mainly football). As the name “single elimination” implies, player is eliminated
after first loss, and the number of players is halved each round. To be fully effective, the number
of players must be equal to any square of 2 (8, 16, 32, 64… players); otherwise, players would
have to play different number of games (and win the different number of rounds to win the
tournament). Usually, during the final match, players who have lost with both finalist in
previous round play for the 3rd (and 4th) place, and following places may be only generally
assigned (5th-8th place, 9th-16th etc.).
This system is rarely used in practice, as it has two significant weaknesses:

1) number of active players is decreasing quickly, therefore it is not fun for losing players,
as they have no more games to play;
2) one loss is decisive for entire tournament (which might be also true in other systems,
but not to such extent).
Another problem might be, that if two very strong players will meet in early rounds, one of
them will be unable to fight for a higher place, while - due to the pairings - weaker player might
obtain high place (which theoretically would be impossible for him, if there would be different

pairings). This problem occurs mostly if seeds are randomized; it is possible to set the seeds
according to e.g. FESA ratings, so that the stronger players will meet in later rounds (as long as
they will be able to win all of their matches up to this point). Please note, that it is not easy to
set those seeds appropriately, so it requires some preparation (I couldn’t find a proper,
systematic procedure to set such seeds regardless of the number of players - generally, it is
necessary to set groups and add players in sequence, so stronger players will start versus weaker
players and play with strong opponents only in later rounds). Free pairing software discussed in
this article does not support this system (however, it is rather easy to draw it on a paper,
especially if seeds are randomized).
I know only two tournaments in Europe, which use this system - European Shogi
Championship and Polish Championship. However, it is not “pure” single elimination
tournament - it is mixed with swiss tournament rules (MacMahon is also ok). Those
tournaments consists of two tournament groups - closed group (single elimination) and open
tournament (swiss / MacMahon) group. Rounds are played simultaneously, and players
eliminated from main tournament join open tournament with the number of points obtained in
earlier rounds. This mixed system is possible only in big tournaments and it is certainly
interesting and useful.
Another variation of this tournament is a double elimination tournament, which is popular

in e-sport events (especially in StarCraft tournaments). After first loss, player is transferred to
the “losers bracket”, where rounds are played simultaneously, and the losers are eliminated
permanently. Winner of the “winners bracket” advances to the final with 1 point (win), while
the winner of the “losers bracket” advances to the final with 0 points (wins). Then the final is
played until one of the players gets 2 wins. This system is more complicated and requires more
rounds, but it forgives mistakes (single loss does not eliminate the player) and weaker players
can have fun for longer time. I have not seen any shogi tournament like this, but I believe it
might be interesting to use this system.
Pairing software
Currently there is no software dedicated for shogi tournaments. Most organizers use software
dedicated for chess tournaments, in which it is important which player starts the game (which is
irrelevant for shogi tournaments, and the starting player is chosen by furigoma). In theory, this
might interfere with the pairings, but I have never heard about such problem in practice (and if
necessary, you can always use manual pairing option to solve such issues).
I use “Vega Chess Pairing Program”, which is free and rather easy to use. It supports round-
robin and Swiss tournaments.
As to the McMahon tournaments, it is not popular in chess, so chess software usually does
not support it. This system is popular in go, therefore go pairing software is better for it. I don’t
have experience with such software, but my club colleague successfully uses the free
“OpenGotha” program for those purposes (it also supports round-robin and Swiss tournaments,
although - at least for me - it looks more complicated than Vega, so for round-robin and Swiss I
would chose Vega).
Both of those applications does not support the single-elimination tournament. There is a lot
of applications (even online) which support such tournaments, but you have to manually seed
players, which is the biggest problem (otherwise a card of paper is perfectly enough).

Please note, that software is only a tool, so choose the one which is easiest for you to use (if
you are able to afford it, ChessArbiter is an expensive, but really good software). Be sure to
become familiar with the software before the tournament, so you will be able to run it
smoothly.
I hope, that the above article will be helpful for you. If you have any additional questions,
please do not hesitate to contact me: krzysztof.s.sieja@gmail.com.

Shogi, Martial Art
Shogi is a martial art of mind. The preparation of the attack is slow, but the attack itself is
often made at ligtning-speed. You can imagine two experienced samurais, watching each other,
slowly gathering forces for a decisive attack. Patience is a virtue, we all know, but to acquire
patience is a difficult way. And in shogi patience is decisive. Do you remember this scene in
Akira Kurosawa’s "Seven Samurai"? A angry samurai wants to fight a calm samurai. The calm
samurai doesn't want to fight, because he doesn't want to kill someone unnecessarily. But the
angry one doesn't let him choose, so they fight. We see the angry samurai run to his opponent,
pass him, and fall a little more further, dead. Between live and death, a katana striking at
lightning-speed. Don’t we often experience that in shogi: by our lack of patience, we lose good
shape, don't construct tickness, miss the taikyoku-kan (situation juedgement), and finally lose ?
My second point is that there are endless possibilities in shogi, so you have to calm and purify
your mind to play it well. In the art of japanese archery, the bowmen attains a state by which
there is no more difference between the bowman, the arrow, and the target. To attain the target
is to attain oneself, they say. This state of mind is called in zen satori. You don’t have to shot
the arrow, but something else do it (from "Zen in the Art of Archery" E. Herrigel). And there
is no more difference between victory and defeat. The zen master Taisen Deshimaru tells us,
what the zen do, scientifically speaking, zen reactivates fully a part of the mind, that our logical
education reduce a lot.
This part of the mind is the seat of unconscious. So zen is connected to psychanalysis, but it
is another story. But concerning shogi, i think we can say that the great players don’t play with
only conscious logic, but with their unconscious too. Only the unconscious can guide us in the
labyrinth of endless possibilities on the shogi board. This way somebody can forge his own
style, and find his liberty with this art. Because the problem of humankind isn’t to win or to
lose, but to live a happy life. For philosophers, I would add that the theory I developed here is
in fact the same as the one of Spinoza: logic in shogi is the second kind of knowlege, the reason
(common notions), and the intuition is the third kind of knowledge, the intuitive science.
Nicolas Zellner

How to teach shogi by using Mini-games – part 1
Grzesiek Adaszewski (author)

teacher and shogi enthusiast
The language barrier in an old problem in teaching shogi. Most of the people that are
promoting shogi are probably unaware that it is the biggest barrier in quick expansion of the
game. Of course, it is not the only factor that is preventing a quicker increase of the number of
players, but in my opinion, it is the most decisive one. The experience I earned through 6 years
of promoting shogi at events and over 3 years teaching it at schools, had allowed me to create a
complete teaching system. Its main objective is to minimise the risk not learning shogi
continuously. The evidence that this system is efficient is the rising number of Polish players on
the FESA list.
The system that I propose allows even primary school 1st class students (6 years old) to start
learning shogi. With this system I was able to easily encourage over 400 people with a minimal
amount of work. For a shogi promoter in Poland these numbers may look small, but it looks
much better if you consider that the amount of events that I participate is around 2-3 a year,
and my main activity is at schools. The small number of event participation comes from the
fact that this kind of events do not have much effect. From my experience, at most 50-100
people get to know about shogi at promotional events. Again, it might seem small, but we must
consider that one must spend at least one hour to properly teach (and learn) shogi and many
interested people do not have this much time (or patience). My system decreases the time
required to master the rules of shogi 3-times. Of course, dear reader, you could say that shogi
rules explanations is maybe 5-10 minutes of work. You are right. But it becomes meaningless,
when the person will keep mistaking kanji and won’t be able to play. Each pieces will look
alike. You could give that person a shogi leaflet with all the pieces' movements. But it's really
pointless as most of the people won’t be able to finish one game, not to mention that they
won’t even bother to start another anytime soon.
My objective as shogi promoter in Poland is to interest people in shogi and to make those
people start playing shogi regularly. Mini-games, because this is how I call my system
temporarily, caused that maybe the player numbers is rising not in Belarus pace, but at least
number of people that play at their homes raised greatly. I estimate that in Poland the number
of people that know the rules, and play from time to time, is around 600. Besides the players
noted on the FESA list (143 people, data taken on 26.02.2018) and the players who were
removed after 2 year long hiatus (47 people, 26.02.2018), I estimate that around 400 people are
in the "grey-zone". By this term I mean players who know the rules, who played a few games
but don't show up at rated tournament. At the time of writing I started making efforts to
activate such players in Warsaw, I want them to take part in at least one tournament. It will
take some time to see the results of these efforts, but I assume that we will see a change in two
years since the publication of this article. One of the difficulties is that many of such players
live in small cities and often they are still children or teenagers.

Without further ado, I would like to present my teaching system to you. Mini-games consists
of three steps, which allow the student to learn the rules with a full understanding. The basic
premise is to slowly increase the difficulty and to introduce the pieces in a step-by-step manner.
In this article I will present the first step.
Step 1 - Rook and bishop:
The goal is to teach about three pieces: the king, the rook and the bishop. One of the players
(usually the teacher) controls the king and his goal is to enter the last rank. He is the one to
play first in all of the mini-games. The goal of the other player (usually the student) is to
prevent that by controlling the rook and the bishop and give checkmate. If the student gets one
of his pieces captured then he loses and we play again. If may sound very simple and easy, but
many shogi-wannabes have no experience in chess. In the teaching process we need to have the
following elements:
• A method for telling the pieces apart
• A method for remembering the moves of the pieces
• Capturing the pieces
• The skill of checking and check-mating the king
• The skill of promoting the pieces
We also need to explain some crucial concepts:

• In most cases, promoting a pieces makes it more powerful, because it increases the
number of possible move (and makes it less likely to be attacked by the king)
• Controlling the key squares and taking away safe squares for the enemy king
• Cooperation of the attacking pieces by mutual protection
• Checkmating the king (as opposed to stalemating the king, which is still a win in shogi,
but much less useful. For the non-chess players: a king is in a stalemate when he has no safe
squares to go, but it not under check)
• The student can win his first shogi game (and quickly!)
• Learning the starting squares for the king, bishop and rook.
The mini-game that I have explained is a nice and simple introduction to the game of shogi. I
believe that it enables us to have more people enjoy shogi and join our club or tournaments.
Have fun!
Grzegorz Adaszewski (author)
Wojtek Jedynak (translation)

All About Tsume
Tsume Shogi Decomposition
Solving tsume shogi problem is always an interesting challenge to all enthusiasts. To have an
interesting mate, both within and beyond shogi, we need one that fits ourselves.
To share the excitement of solving tsume shogi to players at all levels, I shall hereby share a
themed challenge problem for advanced players, and break down its variations into various
mini-puzzles for novices. Readers looking for challenges may try to solve the themed puzzle
directly. Other friends may start with easier mini-puzzles, and use them as hints to tackle the
themed one. The mini-puzzles are slightly modified to ensure that all solutions are unique.
They also serve as illustrations of major variations of the themed puzzle and help readers
understand the correct answer.
This issue's theme challenge is one of my recent creations. The puzzle diagram looks like an
artificial construction and may involve some looping in some of the variations. The essence is
how to extend the power of the pieces sideway. In the later stage, there is an interposing move
to consider.
Theme challenge (29 steps)
Online board:
https://play.mogproject.com/?u=9_9_9_9_9_2zpp4p_1Lnn2nn1_9_zb6Pk.b.2RGb3g4s3l14p
~0..

Mini-puzzle 1 (5 steps)
Online board:
https://play.mogproject.com/?u=9_9_9_9_9_9_6nn1_9_6zpPk.b.2RG2b3g4s2n4l16p~0..
Hint: To fix the king at the corner
Online board:
https://play.mogproject.com/?u=9_9_9_9_9_9_2p1p1nn1_5G2R_6k2.b.R2b3g4s2n4l16p~0..
Hint: The rook's most powerful drop
Mini-Puzzle 1 Mini-Puzzle 2
https://play.mogproject.com/?u=9_9_9_9_9_9_1Lnn2nn1_1G6R_k8.b.Brb3g4s3l18p~0..
Hint: Always try to promote major pieces
https://play.mogproject.com/?u=9_9_9_9_1n7_8P_1Lnn5_1k1zB4R_N8.b.Lrb4g4s2l17p~0..
Hint: To check the king's route to escape
Mini-Puzzle 3 Mini-Puzzle 4

https://play.mogproject.com/?u=9_9_9_9_2s6_2zpp5_1L1n5_1k1zB4R_9.b.SPrb4g2s3n3l15p
~0..
Hint: Occupy the critical square
Mini-Puzzle 5
Epilogue: This is a tentative approach to share tsume shogi for everyone - to make it
piecemeal rather than usual challenge or tutorial. Hope all readers will find this way, and this
puzzle enjoyable. Please feel free to share your feeling and how this column may be improved
in the next issue.
Anwers:
Mini-puzzle 1: R*18, K18, G*28, K19, R*18

Mini-puzzle 2: G49, K49, R*41, K59, R48+, K69, +R68
Mini-puzzle 3: G98, K89, R88, K79, B*13, K69, +B68
Mini-puzzle 4: +B78, K97, L*98, K98, +B88
Mini-puzzle 5: +B77, K97, P*98, K96, S*85
Themed problem solution available online:

https://play.mogproject.com/?u=9_9_9_9_9_2zpp4p_1Lnn2nn1_9_zb6Pk.b.2RGb3g4s3l14p
~0.c3i942bck98m83m9d68869hq8cq9ma8ha9qu8lu9vec3wa3w8qe9zubwibza2ct9uw8lu8ug8qe
7tybws6oy2xx.
Kai Wan Leung, Hong Kong

lkaiwan@gmail.com

All About Tsume
Creating tsume shogi puzzles from real endgames
Very often we would try to keep a record of an interesting game after it was just finished, but
neither it had been written down, nor can it be recalled from memory. Creating a tsume shogi
puzzle from a real game is another way.
Unlike real endgames, a properly developed tsume shogi puzzle have to fulfill several rules:
a) the solution must be unique (except the last move), whilst promotion or non-promotion of
pieces, different dropping positions which do not affect the mating moves are considered
equivalent and would not violate the unique solution rule;
b) all of black (the attacking side)'s captured pieces should have been dropped on to the
board, black should not have any unused pieces in hand at the end;
c) ineffective interposing drops by white (defending side) are not considered;
d) repeating checks are not allowed.
Rules (a) and (b) are particularly relevant to tsume shogi makers. Sometimes there can be
several ways to checkmate in an endgame. To satisfy (a) to make the solution unique, we have to
alter the position such that some mating variations will become non-mating.
There are various ways to clear up black's pieces in hand at the end to satisfy (b). One way is
to avoid unnecessary captures, by removing some white pieces at positions where black pieces
will move and take. Any unneeded pieces for black at the beginning position may be removed.
Another way is to alter the position such that all captured pieces will be used. Sometimes we
may change the white pieces which black will take and drop later.
I can not tell if all endgames can be converted into tsume shogi puzzles. Suppose it can, then
the next question is which position we shall reference to begin with. Virtually any position
after the opening may be considered. But the ending, as well as couple of moves before it, are
natural candidates.
Tsume shogi puzzle position (25 moves)

Online board:
https://play.mogproject.com/?u=lzRzRg5_b1zP2pzP2_kgGp1g3_p8_1s7_1p3zb3_3P5_9_9.
b.3s4n3l11p~0..
Before proceeding to the following sections, readers looking for a challenge may try to solve
the problem themselves. Otherwise, let me explain how it is created from the real game.
This time I was inspired by an official game between Karolina Styczynska Ladies 1-kyu and
Saki Satomi Ladies 1-dan. You can watch the game on the official shogi live application.
Here, the base position is the position before the continuous checks leading to the end. In-
between there are 3 moves only without complications. Probably these may also be the
beginning moves in the tsume shogi puzzle.
The original game continued Gx83, Bx, +R82(71) and white resigned.
At the final position, if white follows with +Bx82, then +Rx, K84, black can win with (i)
+R73, K95, B*84; (ii) B*73, K74, G*65; and (iii) B*62 (or B*51), K74, B73+. In a tsume shogi
puzzle, at least two of the above lines must not be checkmate. If we don't want to finish here,
then the next question is, where will the next battlefield be? To keep the game open with more
variations, see if it may continue somewhere from the top left-hand corner towards the centre.
As a simple rule of thumb, if a position will not result in checkmate, then makes black
stronger or makes white weaker. If there can be checkmates in multiple ways, or black still has
unused pieces in hand, then makes white stronger or makes black weaker. Here, let's give the
white king a way to escape (... K84, ... K95, ..., K96, ...) , by removing N96 and L98 from the
board.

So far, the correct answer will probably begins with:
1. G83, 2. B83, 3. +R71-82, ... (black pieces in hand: G; removable: N)
White pieces captured by black during the tsume shogi composition and pieces which black
will drop in the future must be included as black's pieces in hand. Black's original pieces in
hand during the real game which may or may not be used in the tsume shogi are considered
removable.
With the K84-to-K96 escaping path, if black plays +R71-82 at the first move, it will not be
mated after K84. A safety exit is an important tool to control the correct moving sequence in
composing tsume shogi.
After +R71-82 in the third move, if K84 then +R83, it is mated easily. So it has to continue
with:
... 4. +B82, 5. +R82, 6. K84, ... (black pieces in hand: B, G; removable: N)

To guard against white's K95 in the next move, a bishop must be dropped on the 51-73
diagonal.
White's P75 and black's P66 severely limited where the king may go to. We also need to give
black a chance to drop back the bishop and gold onto the board. After some trials, white's P75
is removed and black's P66 is placed one square backward at P67.
After these changes, B*62, K74, B73+, or K65, G*66, is almost checkmate. We only need to
add a white pawn on 54 to block the white king.
However, even without the extra pawn on 54, black still has another strong attack with
+R83. After white's K84:
... 7. B*73, 8. K74, 9. +R83, 10. K83, 11. B82+, 12. K74, 13. +B73, 14. K65, ... (black pieces in
hand: B, G; removable: N)

Comparing this line of moves and the previously discussed from B*62 to +B73, black can
arrive at almost the same position with longer moves, plus another bishop in hand, which must
be utilised. In creating tsume shogi puzzles, very often we discover various unexpected moves.
In such case we may (1) change the position to avoid the variation, (2) make the variation
ineffective or become incorrect, or (3) change the main line. By then we have to consider which
option is more feasible.
Interestingly, the white pawn and gold on 42 and 43 get close enough to the king and become
relevant. So after +B73, we may expect the solution will continue with:
... 15. G*66, 16. K54, 17. G55, 18. K53, ... (black piece in hand: B; removable: N)
Obviously it become mate-in-1 with +B62, but black's bishop in hand can not be redundant.
If we improve white's defending power, the king may escape to 41.
To balance these factors and complete the tsume shogi puzzle, a white gold is added on 61
and a black tokin is added on 32. Though black was inherited with a knight in hand from the
real game, since it had never been used in the main line and various variations, it can be
ignored.

So the solution continues with:
... 19. B*64, 20. K52, 21. B51+, 22. G51, 23. +B51, 24. K51, 25. G*62 checkmate.
Congratulation, we have now developed an unique mating sequence of moves, without any
unused pieces in reserve. After taking away irrelevant pieces from the original endgame
position, a tsume shogi puzzle is created.
Everyone agrees that practice tsume shogi can improve endgame skills. I think the reverse
also holds. Real endgames are essentially gold mines for tsume shogi creations. Look at the
potential mating sequences and variations, or other necessary intermediate steps towards
checkmate, then modify the position to achieve it.
Checking if there are any alternate solutions is another tedious task in tsume shogi
composition. Luckily it can be done by computer nowadays.

Seo Tsume is a checkmate checking tool which can be used with USI shogi interface
software, such as Shogi Dokoro or Shogi GUI for MS Windows. They can be downloaded at:
Seo Tsume
http://panashogi.web.fc2.com/seotsume.html
Shogi Dokoro
http://www.geocities.jp/shogidokoro/
Shogi GUI
http://shogigui.siganus.com/
Meanwhile, another potential frustration for a tsume shogi puzzle author is that the same or
very similar puzzle had been created and published by another person beforehand. The
following page is commonly used to make sure that our works never existed before our
creation.
Tsume shogi identical search page

http://www.kukiminsho.com/tdb/searches/index
Since it only searches identical positions, we may also need to revise the position a bit to
ensure there are no similar products.
Composing tsume shogi puzzles is like playing a game with oneself, having unlimited
thinking time, can always undo & redo, being able to use shogi sets, computers or any other
equipments, or may even receive advices from mentors. Sometimes we would like to keep a
memory of a game, or got some particular patterns or moves in mind, then we can try to create
a tsume shogi puzzle to realise it. When a problem is composed, we may keep on revising and
revising, to improve it in any ways we look forward to. We can also start, adjourn, and resume
as many games as we like at any time.
Developing a tsume shogi puzzle can take a lot time and effort. But presenting and
distributing the work is simple. Write it down, put it on a shogi board and take a photo. Many
software in your computer or mobile can also help. Then share it to your friends or to the
public, or as shogi event souvenirs. Distribution cost may be the lowest among anything you
can think of.
Enjoy your shogi, enjoy your puzzle -- and let everyone enjoy it with you.
Solution online:
https://play.mogproject.com/?u=lzRzRg5_b1zP2pzP2_kgGp1g3_p8_1s7_1p3zb3_3P5_9_9.
b.3s4n3l11p~0.31e25w0rw60w0we3awbwu4au21e45w30x36c21c46sbbs5686b83wqbwa2rq1r90
mq3081mqb9s.
G83, B83, +R71-82, +B82, +R82, K84, B*73, K74, +R83, K83, B82+, K74, +B73, K65,
G*66, K54, G55, K53, B*62, K52, B51+, G51, +B51, K51, G*62 (25 moves)
Kai Wan Leung, Hong Kong

lkaiwan@gmail.com

All About Tsume
Saving Ben-Hur (Part 1)
In 2003 March 2nd, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (also known as The Nikkei) published a 111
moves checkmate puzzle by the professional shogi player Naitō Kunio 9th dan. This puzzle was
inspired by the movie ‘Ben-Hur’ and its infamous chariot race scene. For the uninitiated, shogi
checkmate puzzles are no different from other chess checkmate puzzles with a few exceptions.
Fig. 1 ‘Ben-hur’, a 111 moves checkmate

puzzle by Naitō Kunio 9th dan
The rules for solving shogi checkmate puzzles can be briefly summarized as follows:
a) Black always moves first.
b) Black must put the White’s king in perpetual check on every move leading to mate.
c) Black should have no pieces in hand after the mate is completed.
d) White may not use futile interpositions, ie, dropping pieces to the board when said drop
has no impact on the outcome.
e) White has all pieces in hand that are not already on the board or in Black’s hand.
f) Black loses if it is no longer able to place White in check.
Based on the above rules, a 111 moves checkmate puzzle requires Black to place White’s king
in check for 56 moves and White’s king has to escape check for 55 moves. Any lesser means that
White did not make the best escape move and any more signifies that Black did not make the
best checks. Shogi checkmate puzzles are constructed from the aggregation of shorter puzzles
intricately chained to form a larger picture. As such, by studying the branches individually, it is
possible to eliminate mate paths that are too short or paths that do not lead to perpetual checks.
This is good practice for shogi players as the ability to read many moves ahead is useful in
practical play and for end-game scenarios. Not to mention that solving one long checkmate
puzzle is equivalent to solving multiple shorter puzzles all at once.
This article is Part 1 of a three-part series that delves into the process by which a long
checkmate puzzle is solved in a systematic and patient manner. Part 1 discusses the first moves
and key branches that lead to a definitive early approach, essential to the solution. Part 2 looks
at a single flow mate path commonly found in long checkmate problems as well as a systematic
elimination of duds. Part 3 completes the solution and summarizes the entire puzzle. By then,

the avid reader will do well to appreciate the effort it took to construct the puzzle and the
lessons taught. Along the way, the reader is advised to recreate said formations with a shogi set
for best learning experience or visit https://goo.gl/qHhbjO for online/virtual board.
Terminology used throughout the article series:

King Gold Silver, Knight, Lance Pawn, Rook, Bishop
For consistency, western numbered notation is used for shogi moves.
Move 1: ▲L*37 (Fig. 2)
Fig. 2: First move L*37

White has little option here, it can either block with its Lance in hand or evade. The point
of interest here is White’s Gold at 13 and Black’s pawn setup at 14, 24 and Tokin 15. Let’s
look at the case when White evades its King with △K-21 and Black plays ▲L*23. White can
(a) continue to evade with △K-11 or (b) block with △L*22 or (c) capture with △Gx23.
For (a) and (b), Black can simply advance ▲L-22+ or ▲Lx22+ to create the shape as
shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3: White evades K-21, L*23, K-11, L-22+ (sacrifice)

The idea here is to bait the King up to the second row as close as possible to the Gold at
23. White has no choice but to capture △Kx22 which allows for Black to advance its Pawn
with ▲Px13+ and obtain Gold as a piece in hand. This is an important move as White can
no longer retreat and must capture the promoted pawn with △Kx13 leaving Black to drop
▲G*23 for the easy mate.
For (c), if White captures the dropped lance with △Gx23, then Black can play ▲L-32+
(Fig. 4) to setup the similar shape as Fig. 3 again baiting the King to the second row with
Gold in range for continued check.
Fig. 4: White captures

Gx23, L-32+ (sacrifice)
The Pawn setup at the edge allows for such penetrating play by Black. If White chooses
to evade again to 11, then ▲L*12 drop again baits the King into the second row and into
range for the easy mate (△Kx12, ▲Px23+, △Kx23, ▲G*22).
So what happens when in Fig. 4, White chooses not to evade anymore but instead
captures with △Kx32? Black simply has to capture Gold with ▲Px23+. With a Gold and
Lance in hand, there are several mate paths from here that Black can use to deadly effect.
Continuing from Fig. 4, as an example, Black can use another 11 moves to mate: △Kx32
▲Px23+ △Kx23 ▲+P-24 △K-32 ▲R-34 △K-43 ▲R-33+ △K-54 ▲L*56 △K-45 ▲G*36 mates.
The conclusion here is simple: White cannot evade to its left if Black plays ▲L*37 as the
first move. It can either block or evade to its right. In accordance to checkmate rules, the
best defensive play possible is for White to block with its Lance in hand with △L*32. Black
then captures Lance with ▲Lx32+ and White recaptures with △Kx32 to get another Lance
in hand, like so ▲L*37 △L*32 ▲Lx32+ △Kx32 ▲L*37 △L*33 ▲Lx33+ △Kx33 (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5: Black drops L*37, White retreats to K-42
Continued Lance block will result in capture as the Black Rook at 84 is guarding the 4th
row and White will not be able to block. White’s only option is to evade to its right with △K-
42.
At this point, White doesn’t have much options left and has to drop Lance to block and
slowly evade to its right. The play sequence repeats until △K-62 (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6: White’s King only has one escape route left
The total number of moves until △K-62 is 22 and White has managed to block and evade
mate successfully thus far. One caveat that has not been mentioned here are the positions
of the Black Lances. For now, it is safe to assume that they can safely occupy 37, 47 and 56
spots. It is possible that the actual spots are in fact 35, 45 and 55 or any other variations.
Until there is further evidence, this article operates under the assumption of Lances
occupying 37, 47 and 56 for now.

As Fig. 6 now shows, White’s King only has one escape route left at 72 with all other
paths cut off. Black has two main options here: (a) ▲R-64 or (b) ▲P-64. (a) With ▲R-64
△Kx72 ▲Rx61+ △Kx73 (Fig. 7), there is no reliable mate path left and White has more
escape options than before.
Fig. 7: White King has multiple escape routes
Should Black proceed with ▲P*74 △K-82 ▲+R-62 △K-83 ▲+R-73 △Bx73 ▲Px73+ △Kx73,
Black ends up with a Bishop in hand but no checkmate possible. Should Black opt for ▲+R-
64, then △K-82 ▲N-74 △K-72 ▲+R-62 △K-83 leaves Black with a Pawn in hand and no
sensible checks left. Therefore (a) ▲R-64 is a bad move because Black’s Rook now occupies
the 6th column away from White’s Bishop and Gold which leaves Black unable to continue
the mate sequence due to its lack of pieces in hand, plus the White’s Bishop is guarding
the crucial 73 and 64 spots.
For (b) ▲P-64, the mate sequence becomes ▲P-64 △Kx72 ▲Rx81+ △Kx73 as shown in Fig.
8.
Figure 8: Black’s Rook at 81 cuts off White’s options

Comparing Fig. 7 with Fig. 8, it is clear that ▲P-62 is a much better move. Not only is
Black’s Rook in the 81 undefended spot (where the Rook can easily capture White’s Gold),
there are only two spots that White’s King can escape to which is in the direction away
from its Bishop and Gold defenders. If Black follows up with ▲P*74 and White escapes
with △K-62, then ▲+Rx92 gives Black a Gold in hand and a huge advantage! White has to
block the 72 or 82 spots. Regardless of the pieces it can drop (Pawn, Lance or Knight),
there is no stopping the eventual mates (left as short exercises to the reader).
Therefore, White’s escape route at 62 (Fig. 8) is a dud. Continuing the check sequence
from Fig. 8, Black drops ▲P*74 to check, White escapes with △Kx64. Black no longer has
any pieces in hand and the most sensible check here is ▲+Rx61, this gives Black a Pawn in
hand. White has no escape paths left and must block. For now, we assume White blocks
with △P*63 instead of Lance or Knight. Like Black’s triple Lance drops (see Fig. 6), until
there is evidence that White should have played another piece to block, this article
operates under the assumption that White blocks with Pawn. Black has no sensible checks
left. If Black opts to capture the blocking Pawn with ▲+Rx63, there is simply no possible
way for Black to find a mate path with two Pawns in hand in the current state. Therefore,
Black must play ▲P*65 (Fig. 9) which is an illegal pawn drop mate! To be continued…
Figure 9: Black with the illegal pawn drop mate P*65
Jim Tan, Singapore
References:
[1]
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 2nd March
2003.

Shogi and Chess
About the author: Sergej Korchitskij (42 years old)

Shogi 5 dan of NSR and 4 dan of FESA, currently the highest ranked player in
European ELO-list, European champion (Minsk, Belarus, 2013), runner up of ISF
(Tendo, Japan, 2008). University lecturer, PhD, strong chess player in the
childhood, runner up of Belarus championship under 18, the last hexagonal chess
European champion (Tatabanya, Hungary, 1998), one of the top European players
in Chinese chess xiangqi.
Rules’ differences
The main differences in the rules of these two games are that the Shogi board is more
spacious (9 per 9 squares in Shogi against 8 per 8 ones in European Chess), more pieces are
initially placed on the board (forty Shogi pieces against thirty-two Chess ones) and these pieces
are more various (there are eight Shogi troops against six Chess ones), though the Shogi pieces
are weaker (there are two main forces in Shogi, a Rook and a Bishop, while all the Chess pieces
are sufficiently strong), however, the pieces in Shogi can drop from the outside, which makes
their power stronger, and promote, which enlarges the hierarchy up to fourteen units.
The ability of Shogi pieces to drop to the board having been captured differences Shogi from
other games of chess. The rule of dropping conditions almost complete absence of drawn
games, the increase of the number of moves and ‘sane’ game situations appeared not by the
artificial way; with the landing rule it levels the material sense making the checkmate really the
main game’s goal.
A percent of drawn games, the advantage of the first move, and a strategy dextrality. A
game balance
A full of a divine grace pacifist’s spirit being above the modern world and embalming in its
memory of not such remote times, but such bum and relentless slaughters, not having given the
wise Chess game a wide berth. But, per se, being a war model, a bloodless and the most humane
battle of these two armies, Chess, which ignores painful and hart holds, breathtaking speed only
looses for this reason. Beneath our very eyes the least spectator sport transformed into the least
intriguing. The talks about the ‘draw death’ pushed the Chess reformers, among which were
even world champions, forward the new rules invention, which should complicate the game by
reducing the possibility of the ‘peaceful’ result, but such innovations didn’t get accustomed to a
place for a long time and rarely were taken seriously. The drawn game zone in European Chess
turned out to be really spacious and a great amount of high-level sets so far falls into the gape

drawn game gap, while the opponents’ power doesn’t allow tear off more then a small step. It
can be called this rough parity a principle of justice, but in other games the fate is determined
by split seconds, while two extra knights in Chess are unable to provide victory at the empty
board. On the other hand, in a thousandth time grieving for the disastrous of he drawn result
for morale and partially killing the interest to the game, we cant note the definite balance of
Chess, which still helps it, it seemed that there is no known method for it, to ‘keep its head
above water’. This drawn game zone is the only counterbalance to the advantage of the first
move. Grand master’s principle ‘the white to win, the black to draw’ assumes the loophole for
the side, which is in the disadvantageous terms from the beginning. So it seems that two main
disadvantages of the European Chess supplement each other preserving the game’s balance and
making a harmonic set. Though we have a large dragonflies with one pail: if Chess is saved from
the first move advantage by the ‘draw death’, so what will save it from the ‘draw death’? It seems
that nothing will…
Japanese Chess Shogi, reflecting a thoroughgoing samurai mentality, doesn’t ‘pamper’ their
admirers with the amount of drawn games. There are about 3 per cent of drawn games there. It
is the direct consequence of the dropping rule, which rules out the possibility of the heavy
slugging of the two armies. Drawn games in Shogi can only be achieved after the fourfold
repetition of the moves and the mutual of the kings’ encroachment while the amount of points
is not enough. But drawn games in Shogi are never considered as a result and the sets, which
were a draw, are played again and never taken into consideration. Such a duality of the result
conditions a thoroughgoing struggle spirit and improves the importance of the game. During
the move election a player should pattern his/her behaviour on positional factors, while the
existence of the drawn games’ strategy in European Chess often leads to the player’s decisions,
his/her aggressiveness and the will to struggle, quite often influences the general tournament
conditions. Moreover, Chess is a typical game with a skew strategy. As it has already been
mentioned, the white ones are more active and always try take from the opening as big plus as
possible, while the black ones wait for equalization to try their luck in the middle game. There
is no drawn games’ strategy in Shogi, there are no special game aims for both black and white
elements, and there is no advantage of the first move. The professional tournaments say that
both white and black win approximately often; moreover there are the professionals who
achieve the best results starting the set as a second one! Shogi is a really balanced game.
A material advantage and a strategic pattern of the struggle
According to the laws of every war one of the main factors of collision of two approximately
equally trained and technically equipped armies is a quantitative advantage in power. The games
which model a war are not an exception. But if it’s enough to count up the number of pieces at
each gamer in Draughts, but in Chess, both European and Japanese, the playing material is
heterogeneous, therefore the pieces’ value scale is used for its calculation. The achievement of
the material advantage is the main strategic goal in the Chess set. The time of Chess romantic
has passed and nobody already plays for a checkmate any more. The initial stage of the strategic
struggle consists in accumulation of small positional advantages, which transform gradually into
the material advantage. After the accumulation and transformation stage follows the stage of
realization. So it’s the general plan of the game set. The material realization usually comes to the
exchange strategy, which is based on the elementary logic: the reduction of the quantitative
composition and activity of the two armies leads to the increase of the player who has superior
forces (e.g. four is twice bigger than two, but if the exchange of an element, so three is bigger
than one in three times and the exchange of another one element will lead to the absolute
annihilation of the weakest army). That is the Chess essence - quality transforms into quantity,
the elusive positional advantages transform into tangible material.

The material in Shogi is not a foundation stone as it is in Chess, despite of the existence of the
pieces’ value scale in this game, and the material balance is one of the main criteria of the
position’s assessment. Let’s turn again to the elementary mathematic logic. Because of the
dropping rule all the exchanges in Shogi never lead to the reduction of the opposite forces, but it
leads to their quantity transformation: the activity of the captured pieces is usually grows, as
they are less mobile at the board (the gold general while moving at the board chooses not more
than from six squares, while this piece can drop from the outside to the board to one of
minimum fourty-one square), and the integral mobility of both armies is increased by the
exchanges. Mathematically, it is profitable for the weakest side, so the exchange strategy in Shogi
just doesn’t work, where it’s the main line in Chess. It explains the interest and popularity of
odds games in Shogi. In contrast to European Chess odds play here its own cense, as its
realization happens through the constructive strategic projects, but not by means of blind
exchange.
The material in European Chess is a lake, in which all the numerous tiny brooks of the
positional factors flow together. Getting of the material advantage are the means, which
commonly darken the main goal of the game. It’s only one of tiny brooks, rushed to the main
goal, consisting in destruction of the opponent’s king. The material advantage in Japanese Chess
needs transformation into other position factors to become appreciable: the effectiveness of the
pieces, the attack speed, the strength of the protective constructions. Very often exactly other
factors come to the foreground of the position, by which the heightened dynamism of the game,
the abundance of heterogeneous exchanges and positions with a disturbed material balance. The
imbalance frequency and the depreciated material as compared with the European Chess version
are closely connected with the transformation rules, which give the right to almost every Shogi
piece to improve mobility in the range of an enough spacious zone, containing twenty-seven
units of the opponent’s camp. Thanks to this rule there is a possibility of the non-violent
change of the material balance in one’s favor. In this respect the most effective are the pawns’
transformations which can be landed inside the transformation zone or directly near by it to
acquire a new quality at the next move.
And one more blow at the ‘materialist’ view at Shogi strike the rules of the pieces’ movement,
making the most of them rather plain. It is hard to find in one’s heart to move fast at the nine
per nine board, low-speed Shogi pieces change their value in accordance with the closeness or
remoteness of the piece from the kings of both the opponents!
Having compared these two games for the importance of the material advantage, now we
won’t be surprised by the fact that in Shogi fine combinations and crazy tactical ideas, which
ravish the mind, are similar to rare pearls, while pearl scatterings lay at the surface, gladdening
the ingenious aesthetes from the world of mind games.
Important consequences of the dropping rule
The dropping rule transforms the game tree into impenetrable thickets. If there are not so
many variants at the beginning in Shogi game, moreover there are solid Chess opening databases
simplifying the choice, so at the end of it can appear a situation when a player have to recall
from more than five hundred possible moves! Secondly, this very rule has one more interesting
consequence. If there is a great amount of legal positions in Chess, which because of their
pretentiousness, in principle, are unachievable, in the time of the play of two rational creatures,
so the most various and fanciful positions are achievable thanks to the landing in Shogi. That is
obvious that the greater per cent from the number of all variants may be incarnated in a real
game, besides the fact that there are more probable variants (10220 as compared with 10120 in
Chess). Chess differ by a greater per cent of senseless combinations which may be out of either
human’s or computer’s sight without any damage to a set quality. Thirdly, the less importance

of the material advantage in Shogi but again makes the number of positions large, which may be
met during the play of two masters, while main positions with another piece at one of the rivals
in Chess are absolutely hopeless and disreputable to be considered. And finally, fourthly, in
spite of the high variety of Japanese Chess, Shogi players deeply estimate positions, relying on
long-term policy decisions. And, besides the coordination and activity of the pieces, it is one of
the consequences of the dropping rule, thanks to which appears one more characteristic of the
position – ‘a form’.
A form
A form in Shogi is called a positional relationship of pieces which, unlike the effectiveness of
their disposition, is not dynamic but a static factor of the position, defined its both tactical
peculiarities and long-term strategic projects. The term ‘a form’ is absent in European Chess,
which are not accustomed to the dropping rule. From the point of view of Shogi the weakness
in Chess is usually not a weakness at all. It can be shown at the concrete example. Imagine a
Chess position in which the King and a Rook of the white team are via a square which is
supposed to be a Knight fork. And the black rival brings his ‘fast horse’ closer to the critical
point, wasting on it more then one move and sacrificing other attractive opportunities. But
after noticed a danger, threatening a move, a watchful white player takes away his/her castle to
the other square and defends the place to which rushes a hostile Knight. The moral of this story
is that the Knight’s maneuver is ten a penny if it’s conjugated with other, more disguised and
competent goal. Let’s imagine the same situation in Shogi: the King and a Rook are a square
from each other. At that moment a performance is being performed at the other part of the
board. The exchange of a number of pieces, including Knights, is in the performance’s script.
And our rival, being given a Knight, erects it at the critical point by his/her next move, makes a
pin and winning the game.
The term ‘a form’ is suitable in Japanese Chess for the whole position, but the form essence is
realized more impressive in the castle theory. The piece fortifications are called in Shogi in this
way. These fortifications protect the King from the enemy’s attacks. The varieties of such
fortifications are about a fifty-odd, each of them has its own strong and weak sides. The
comparison of the rivals’ fortifications, their protective ‘forms’, describing the degree of the
king’s safety, is one of the main elements of the strategy and assessment criterion of the
position. There are only two variants of the castling in European Chess and the types of king’s
castles don’t differ (unless the existence/absence of a Bishop`s fianketto and a ‘hole’ for the
King). The term ‘King’s castle’ as like as the term ‘a form’ are absent at the official Chess
theory. The King in Shogi unlike that in the European ones is sensitive not only to the real but
to the potential threatens too, which may be realized in case of exchange (see the above-listed
example with the Knight pin). So the form, formed by the King protective pieces, is so
important in Japanese Shogi.
Well, thanks to the dropping rule every most weak and awkward piece in the Shogi world
may have an indirect action at a distance to the whole board. This fact has not only tactical but
a strategic measurement, conditioning the appearance of a new term in the game theory – ‘a
form’.
It may be added that ‘the form’ in Shogi is a comprehensive conception too, not exhausted by
the information above. Other specific Shogi rules include different corrections to the form
theory. Developing the form, it’s necessary to reckon the possibility of the hostile pieces’
transformation at the unprotected area of your camp. And a blocked mobility of the Shogi
pieces in comparison with their ‘colleagues’, joining battle at the black and white board, makes
take into consideration even unimportant shades of their disposition. For example, a knight
and a lance never come back while silver, moved forward vertically, needs three moves to

occupy an imprudently left square!
‘A Pawn is a Chess spirit’
We’ve found out that the statics of the game in Shogi chess is found in ‘a form’. Is there such
an aspect in European Chess? Absolutely. The Chess static energy is contained in the position’s
‘skeleton’, that is its pawn’s structure. Though these are two absolutely different statics. The
Pawn’s structure in Chess is not extremely dynamic, is classified in different types, the game in
which it is limited by a set of concrete strategic projects. Pawns can support each other being
autonomous elements. The weakness, moreover the absence of at least one pawn can become a
fatal factor in definition of the winner. The pawn’s transformation is a tenor of any Chess end
game. So Francis Philidore was right to call a Pawn ‘the spirit of Chess’. Sometimes it appears
that the goal of the game of Chess is to win a Pawn but not the King.
Statics at Shogi has its own specific character. Any form can be promoted in accordance with
the position’s requirements; it can be shattered, deformed and given its nature too by the forces
of the rival. There are no known impregnable fortresses and tightly motionless pawn chains at
Shogi. There is no term ‘a Pawn chain’ at Shogi at all as Pawns moving strictly in one file can
hardly protect one another! The Japanese pawn is a fierce weapon in rival’s position attack as
you should be always taken into consideration the threat of its transformation. You know, that
pawn’s sacrifice by dropping the enemy camp allows disturbing the alignment of rival’s forces
before the fight. The pawn organically combines strength and weakness which fits in with the
picture of the battle. And of course Japanese pawn is one of the bearers of both samurai spirit
and a Japanese Chess spirit, which is stretched for eighty-one one-coloured squares.
A little bit history
Shogi and Chess evolved from the same game – ancient India Chaturanga. Spreading,
however, in two directions, to the West and to the East, this game was being altered
conformable to the mentality and customs of the nations, who were apprehending it. Through
different ways the ancient game reached Europe an Japan, so remote and different parts of
world, in a very modified form. In spite of formal and considerable differences, both Japanese
and European chess obtained the total recognition at home. In connection with the strong
expansion of the European culture, Chess have already overstepped regional limits and spread
round the world. Shogi started to capture the world only at he end of the 20th century in
connection with the globalization process and the increased interest in mysterious eastern
culture. These cognate games gained more differences than preserved likenesses. And now, less
then two thousand years later, they met again, having left the knowledge about these games in
nearly thousand books and finding millions of admirers en route, having collected million
dollars of sponsoring money. The National Federation of European Chess exists in Japan,
while about fifteen Federations of Japanese Chess are in Europe. But who can tell what lies
beyond? I think that we, Europeans, setting the vague in literature, philosophy, science, law,
political structure and other spheres of human being, should admit that wise Japanese people
appeared to be sagacious and long-sighted in the range of the intellectual games.
Sergej Korchitskij

Introduction of Yoninshogi/
Yoninshogi/
Japan Yoninshogi League Federation/
Yoninshogi is the variants of Shogi which consist of modification for number of players,
number of pieces, location of pieces, strategies, and the rules. It can be played with a dedicated
yoninshogi set or with two sets of standard shogi pieces, and is played on a standard sized shogi
board.
It was conducted and investigated by the Japan Yoninshogi League Federation actively
throughout the year with numerous events such as tournaments and meeting. The tournaments
that held by the Japan Yoninshogi League Federation are as below:
"The Japan Yoninshogi League Federation Certified Battle Campaign List"

• /tournament of imperial
• /tournament of heavenly king
• /tournament of konoei
• /tournament of ryuu
• /tournament of thunder
• /tournament of emperor
• / tournament of Asahi
• /tournament of strongest
• /tournament of adept
• /four masters tournament
• /tournament of newcomer

The game is fun and easy for beginners to learn and play, and weaker players will have chances
to win the stronger players in this game. In addition, the games consist of luck elements. Hence,
the players can suppress their luck as much as possible during the games. Usually, the players
will attack the players who are in defensive position before them. The reason is that when the
player successful to do a “check” on the defensive position’s player who has the turn before him,
the player who successful make the “check” will gain another turn of movement again. The
example can be seen below:
Diagram 1
In diagram 1, the player has made a “check” to the player before his turn which gives him a
chance to move again due to the sequences of the “turn” turns to him again. At this moment,
the player who makes the “check” has a chance to capture the silver (3, ) of player or do
other steps that he deserves. To understand more about the rule and regulation of Yoninshogi,
kindly visit the official webpage of Yoninshogi: www.yoninshogi.com.
Moreover, there are some tactics and strategies in Yoninshogi. Recommended for beginners is
"subway train strategy- ".This tactic will be able to attack the lower house
with the lower " Hisha". It also has defensive capabilities, so it is a strategy that the
professional also loves. The list of tactics can be seen on the next page

/Tactics list
1. / Inflexible war zone 4 / subway train

( /kouki zagura professional idea) strategy
2. /Rig Tospear 5. / Lower

( /kouki zagura professional idea) stage golden rook approach strategy
3. / flawless war zone 6. / Heavenly

( Atsuto professional idea) castling defense
Basically, Yoninshogi can be another choice for practicing and enhancing an individual
cognition function such as critical thinking skills, planning skills, analytic skills and etcetera.
Thus, people can try it out either online or using two set of Shogi as the combination to form a
Yoninshogi game. The online platform for people to engage in Yoninshogi is in the link below:
http://sdin.jp/browser/board/yoninshogi/
In the nutshell, kindly give it try and practice more as the game is easy for the beginner to
learn and obtain numerous of benefits in term of cognitive functioning. Stay tuned for more
information and sharing from next session of International Shogi Magazine.
Ng Teck Sen, Malaysia

A Little History
The Historian
In his long productive life Kōichi Masukawa, born 1930 in

Nagasaki, has written some 30 books and numerous articles
about the history of shogi and other games like chess and go.
But his work is not finished yet; every day he spends 4-5
hours at his desk doing research and writing. His search for
ancient chess pieces has led him to various places all over the
world, including India, Pakistan, Irak, and Samarkand in
Uzbekistan. Also, he has strong connections with museums
and collections in Europe, especially Germany.
Kōichi Masukawa speaks German fluently. His father was a

physician and long before World War II he spent some years
in Germany receiving medical training. Returning to Japan –
of course by ship in those days – he brought many things
German like books, toys and accessories with him which
aroused the curiosity of little Kōichi. The father owned a
hospital in the city of Osaka at that time. In the
neighborhood there also lived a German boy called “Otto”.
“We couldn’t talk to each other, but nevertheless we became good
friends”, recalls Mr. Masukawa.
Early on Mr. Masukawa was a keen player of shogi. But different from other people his main
interest was not in the latest openings or endgame tactics. Rather, he was extremely curious
about the question, ‘Who invented this great game and how did it develop?’
In this connection Mr. Masukawa recalls two defining moments in his life.
Back in 1942 Japan was at war and things looked exceedingly promising. The attack on the
American Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor was successful and an easy win was expected. The
atmosphere was highly charged with nationalistic and militaristic sentiment. All boys strived to
become good soldiers—to serve and possibly die for emperor and nation. All personal and
collective endeavors were directed towards lofty concepts like the nation, honor and ultimate
victory. In those days Mr. Masukawa entered a junior high school in Kobe which had, very
unusually, a division of arts and culture. He was then approached by a student four years his
senior and “asked” to receive instruction from him on the “spirit” of this particular school.
Quite naturally Mr. Masukawa expected a sermon about nation, emperor and honorable death
and how this school would conduct proper education in this regard. But quite to the contrary,
and to his utter astonishment, his senior student told him: “The spirit of this school is not about
nation and death, but about the spirit of culture, leisure and playing. Because these are the real things
which define us as humans.” Mr. Masukawa was thunderstruck. Such a statement was not only
quite unusual but outright dangerous. It left a deep impression on him.

A second episode also left its mark on Mr. Masukawa:
Before and during the war this school, like many others, had a
military officer who was in charge of supervising proper conduct
by all teachers and students. Is the national anthem sung each
morning? Is everyone standing at attention while singing? Is
everyone showing sufficient enthusiasm for nation and emperor?
“A very nasty guy”, recalls Mr. Masukawa, “shouting around all the
time. Especially his constant talk about war and death did little to
endear him to anybody.”
The war ended 1945 with Japan’s utter defeat and destruction. A few years later, when things
got a little better again, while still at the same school, there was a sales promotion event with
American sporting goods. Simple things like balls, caps, baseball bats, sportswear and so on.
And there was this smart looking guy, all smiles and charming promoting his goods to the
students. “I too was curious and went to have look”, Mr. Masukawa said, “but when I looked closely
at this guy I just froze: Wasn’t that this military officer, who had told us all about nation, war and
honorable death? And now this guy is here promoting American leisure goods with a big smile on his
face, instead of having committed suicide at the end of the war? This had a huge impact on me. All
the things we learnt about history and how they define our mission as a nation and persons during
the war were basically bunk. Truth is a complex thing. To unearth truth in history is hard work, but
it warrants any effort for the good of our lives.”
All things were in place now to define Mr. Masukawa’s life-mission: His enthusiasm for
shogi, chess and other intellectual games, his conviction that such pastimes define us above all
as humans, and his awareness that debunking ideology and false anecdotes in order to create
true histories free of such is an arduous but worthwhile undertaking.
The search for the roots of shogi quickly led Mr. Masukawa to the common roots of all chess
variants and stimulated his international activities. Over the years he not only unearthed an
impressive amount of historical sources written in Japanese and other languages, but he also
collected valuable chess pieces from various times and places. Furthermore he developed strong
ties to a range of important international institutions like the Pergamon Museum in Berlin,
which has a collection of precious ancient chess pieces and which he visited already in the
1970s.

Mr. Masukawa has published extensively the results of his
research over the years. And he still continues his work. Currently
he is working through the diaries of the house of Ōhashi, a very
rare collection of documents from the early 19th century. Ōhashi
was one of three houses during the Edo Period of Japanese history
(1603 – 1868), which received official grants from the government
to pursue shogi. The diaries deal in detail with the property,
organization and daily life of the Ōhashi house. The grants from
the government were not sufficient for a family to live on so parts
of the building were run as a hostel. Further income was generated
by selling the night soil of the guests as manure to the nearby
farmers for their fields. Making a living through an art has never
been easy.
“The history of games is not an easy subject to pursue”, Mr. Masukawa says. “Research institutions
like universities often receive no funding for this subject. And organizations like the Japanese Shogi
Federation mostly regard themselves as a kind of players union, which promotes active competitions
and thereby tries to secure the livelihood of their members. There is not much room for the pursuit
and preservation of history. But the history of shogi, chess and go is much more than game records. It
is a history that allows us to gain deep insights about culture, ways of life and the spirit of the times.
And that’s what distinguishes us as humans.”
It appears that in these times of chasing ratings and powerful software like Stockfish, Ponanza,
AlphaGo and AlphaZero, which do not rely on human know-how any more, Mr. Masukawa has
some important lessons to tell us about the true value of our treasured games.
Frank Rövekamp

A Little History
Militarism vs Democracy: The Debate over Shōgi’s Ideological

Character
Masuda Kōzō
a famous shogi professional 9 dan
lived in years 1918-1991
With piece names like “Silver General” and “Lance,” the thematic connection between shōgi
and war remains evident. While this connection is unlikely to induce fear in contemporary
times, it frightened American authorities so much they almost purged the game in the latter
half of the 1940s. But what happened to stop this?
When the Americans and Allies (known as GHQ) began their occupation of Japan in 1945,
they introduced a campaign to shift Japanese society away from what they perceived as an
authoritarian, fascist state into a haven for “democracy.” American occupiers believed the root
cause of so-called deficiencies in the Japanese “moral character” lied in the country’s feudal past.
Through a mixture of censorship, propaganda, and other policy reforms, the Occupation
attempted to inject liberalism and consumerism into Japanese society. This resulted in Japanese
games and sports such as kendō and martial arts coming under fire for the militarism that was
apparently latent within.
So, when the time came to deliberate over how to further suppress fascist, militaristic, and
nationalistic ideology, shōgi came up. Noting that shōgi boards had been used since medieval
times to plan military strategy, GHQ motioned to ban the game. But their reasoning was not
simply concerned the game’s themes or history, but with its mechanics: they charged that
barbarism lied in the possibility to take opposing pieces and drop them on the board as one’s
own. Claiming this mechanic embodies the abuse of prisoners of war, GHQ sent notification to
the Japan Shogi Association.
The Association decided to send Masuda Kōzō, one of the day’s greatest players and a
boisterous personality, to the American headquarters. Major General Courtney Whitney, the
second-in-command at GHQ, received Masuda inside. Whitney opened the discussion by
repeating GHQ’s argument. Masuda listened and took a sip of his beer, which he then insulted
(this’ll come up again later!). Then Masuda launched into his counter-attack, making a number
of points:
1) Indeed, in shōgi we take our opponent’s pieces. But rather than barbarism, does this
not illustrate a fundamental respect for human life? In your game of chess, you simply massacre
the opponent’s army!
2) Furthermore, when we place the opponent’s piece on the board as our own, the base
rank of the piece remains the same. A pawn will always be a pawn, and a lance will always be a

lance. This illustrates shōgi’s great respect for inherent human talent!
3) Finally, you Americans are always talking about “democracy” and “equality between
the sexes,” but where do you see that in your games? A typical game of chess involves the king
sacrificing the queen in order to get away from his opponent. That certainly doesn’t sound like
any sort of political or gender equality to me!
Whitney did not have specific counter-arguments to Masuda’s points, but he did have another
argument to deploy: he mentioned how in war time just a few years ago the Meijin (major title
holder) Kimura Yoshio had gone to Japanese military headquarters to deliver lectures and offer
military strategy on more than one occasion. This would demonstrate unequivocally that shōgi
was connected to Japanese militarism. But Masuda responded swiftly, saying that while what
Whitney said was technically correct, he was neglecting the fact that Japan had lost the war in
the end. What military help had shōgi really been? In fact, Masuda continued, had the Japanese
military called HIM to their headquarters, the Americans would have been the ones who had
lost, so Whitney should be grateful to Kimura!
Whether through a combination of Masuda’s personality or argumentative force, Whitney

backed down. It is said that they then spent the next few hours talking about everything from
chess to politics to alcohol, and GHQ sent Masuda home with rare whiskey to take as a
souvenir. Shōgi had thus been spared from American intervention.
From a distance of more than half a century, it may be easy to take issue with parts of
Masuda’s argument, at least how the story goes: pieces in shōgi do demote when they are placed
back on the board, chess at least has a woman represented in its pieces, and Masuda’s bragging
that he would have been able to use his shōgi skills to win the war for Japan undermines the
idea that shōgi was useless to military aid.
But that is neither here nor there: Masuda had successfully convinced the Americans within
their own historical circumstances that shōgi posed no ideological threat. Some attribute
Masuda’s description of dropping pieces back on the board to have had larger ramifications:
GHQ ended up releasing some of the war criminals they had sentenced to death. One of these
was Nobusuke Kishi, the grandfather to Japan’s current Prime Minister – who, incidentally,
seems to have taken a liking to shōgi as a quintessential game that embodies a particular kind of
Japanese spirit.
Frank Mondelli

Do you want to support our magazine but you do not have time to write articles?
Give us your feedback so we can improve!
Please send your comments, opinions and constructive criticism to the editor Karolina
Styczynska to email oneye@windowslive.com with topic "Magazine Feedback".
Each small comment is a huge help for us!

International Shogi Magazine
Issue #1

ISM Issue1 2018 PDF

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

ISM Issue1 2018 PDF

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE ii

Here it is, the first issue of the International Shogi Magazine!

Karolina Styczynska Joryu 1 kyu, Chief Editor

Our great team of volunteers in this issue:

Thank you for help!

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE iii

This magazine is an online, free magazine written by volunteers.

About notation (numerical system)

• K – King, R – Rook, B – Bishop, G – Gold, S – Silver, N – kNight, L – Lance, P – Pawn

Sente - Black, the player that makes the first move

FESA - the Federation of European Shogi Associations

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE iv

Virtual board URL: https://goo.gl/uFXmY7

▲P95 △K91 ▲P36 △S82 ▲N37 △G71 ▲B66!? (diag.)

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 3

△L*93 ▲Nx93+ △Px93 ▲Rx74 △N*56

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 4

About the author: Shun Tokuni

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 5

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 6

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 7

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 8

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 9

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 10

▲P-15 △P-94 ▲L-98 △R-52 ▲L-18 △P-24 ▲N-97

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 11

△Gx ▲B*62 △L*42 ▲Bx73+ △N*46

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 12

In fact, there already is a forced mate.

▲K-26 △G*25 ▲K-17 △G*16 ▲Resign

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 13

Kamil (left) and Karol before the

Due to the furigoma, Kamil has started the game:

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 15

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 16

From Chess to Shogi

I fell in love with it instantly.

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 17

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 18

An Interview with Keiichi Abe,

JIM TAN: Hi, Abe-san. Thank you for agreeing to an interview

ABE KEIICHI: This is Keiichi Abe, head of Singapore branch,

Mr Keiichi Abe ABE: From my grandfather at age 7 or 8.

JIM: Static rook or ranging rook?

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 19

JIM: What is your favorite local food/drink?

ABE: Bak-kut-teh (A pork rib dish cooked in broth).

JIM: Favorite place to shop for your daily necessities?

ABE: Parkway Parade mall.

JIM: What is the state of shogi in Singapore right now?

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 20

ABE: Anything could happen!

ABE: Hong Kong, Bangkok and Malaysia.

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 21

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 22

JIM: What do you hope to achieve for shogi in Singapore in 2018?

ABE: Enjoy Shogi!

Jim Tan, Singapore

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 23

So it all fits well

INTERNATIONAL SHOGI MAGAZINE 24

Therefore, to sum up the European experiences:

△L93 ▲Nx93+ △Px93 ▲Rx74 △N56

△Gx ▲B62 △L42 ▲Bx73+ △N*46

▲K-26 △G25 ▲K-17 △G16 ▲Resign

Mini-puzzle 1: R18, K18, G28, K19, R*18