Recent Shogi Activity in Japan Club

Hey all,

it seems that there are more and more 'Go players' trying to learn Shogi from me. Everytime I have a game with them, I would give them a handicapped of two lances, bishop and a rook.

It is a great honour to teach Hock Doong, who was one of the strong Go players in the club. My last game with him has been memorable and special, as he purposely neglected giving Go lectures to his students just to play a Shogi game with me. After playing so many handicapped games, I felt that it was this last game with him that I have learn alot more about Shogi's tactics and 'direction of play'.

Photo courtesy of Chen Xinwen

This is the actual position shown in the picture.

(In case you're wondering why I have an extra gold in hand is because I've managed to capture his silver and then I trade it off for his gold.)

Hock Doong's main strategy is to break into my base at least once, and also to make my gold on 3f retreat back to my base, since I always use the gold as my main attacking piece in handicapped games. Therefore he drop his pawn in 3e, which I have to retreat my gold to 4f, and he drop another one in 4e. Although I felt that the pawn in 3e is a free capture for my gold, I retreat it back to 4g, as I fear he would play P4f! The move itself may not look threatening, but if I retreat my gold back to 3f again, he would have played P4g+, which lures my king into a more vulnerable square. Therefore I played G4g (main move lines: P'3e, G4f, P'4e, G4g). Therefore his strategy of making my gold retreat back to my base is a success. EDIT: Even if I do capture the pawn on 4f with the silver, my position in the center would be weaken too much and there would be more opportunities for white to break into my base, especially when he has a silver in hand. Sorry for not including this information.

Now that my gold won't be able to advance up the board to get into his territory, I managed to find a vulnerable spot in his territory that I might still be able to win the game - the 7b square. I drop my gold in the 7b square, hoping I could capture his silver. "Why would you trade off your gold for a silver?", you might asked. Since the only way for the silver to escape is 5a, I capture it with my gold and at the same time check the king. And if the king recaptures the gold on 5a, I can drop my silver in 3b, threatening to capture either a knight or a gold, or even the bishop in the future. Unfortunately he thought I would try to capture his bishop by moving Sx3a+ so he move away his bishop after I've dropped my silver, but to his surprised I was aiming to captured the gold on 4c, threatening to checkmate his king and kill the bishop at the same time. (main move lines: G'7b, S5a, G6a, P'8f, Px8f, Rx8f, P'8g, R8e, Gx6a, Kx6a, S'3b, B4d, Sx4c+)

To his disappointment, I've won the game without him entering my base once.

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Yesterday my best friend Chen Xinwen decided to challenge Alex in a game of Shogi. To my surprise, this is their last position of their last game.

(Left player: Xinwen, Right player: Alex)

Due to verbal information from Xinwen, Alex did not make any effort of mating Xinwen and only aim for entering king. However Xinwen resigned the game, which he shouldn't have since Alex has made 5 illegal moves in this game without the both of them noticing!


The pawns at the end of the board MUST be promoted since it is a forced promotion. Failed to do so is an illegal move. Also, he dropped two pawns at the same column twice! Alex would have been lost a long time ago...

Despite the 5 illegal moves made by Alex, I would like to honour this game as the "Great I-Go Escape", as this long game has been played by two strong Go players who both have made a rare double entering king.

Alex is really a great player that I have looked forward to play Shogi with. I remember that my second handicapped Shogi game with him has been a great horror to me - he immediately played a complete Anaguma, which I don't think I have a chance at all since I don't have a bishop, rook and lances to break his Anaguma! He is also the first player who managed to beat me in handicapped Shogi games twice in a row. However he tends to make an illegal double pawn drop in the game. If he can overcome this bad habit, I'm sure that he will be a greater player in Shogi.

I will be returning to Brunei this Friday for two months so I'm feeling a little sad that I couldn't play Shogi with them. Nevertheless I'm looking forward to play Shogi with them again two months later!

Regards,
Ryou Takehito

AHHHHHHHHHH

GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!

I MUST IMPROVE MY SHOGI!!!!!!!!!!!

Regards,
Ryou Takehito the bastard who got weaker in Shogi


PS: Below are the videos about the 4-player Shogi. You all can check it out!

Short Update (UPDATED)

Hey,

this is just a short summary about what I have done in Japan Club Kuala Lumpur on last Saturday.

I taught another two girls how to play Shogi! Once again I had two different games at the same time and achieve victory! When the two girls were playing Shogi against each other, one girl had to leave so I have to play her share too. Her position is almost losing, but I still took out two lances and rook from the play (my opponent has already captured the bishop beforehand). Still I managed to counterattack and win back the game, despite having a huge disadvantage.

After that a 4-dan Go player challenge me to a game of Shogi, with a handicapped of two lances, rook and a bishop. Amazingly he immediately broke into my territory and checkmate me due to my wrong calculations. But I have to say that he is really an amazing player so it's no doubt that I have lost to him. I hope I can play more games with him.

Once again the Japanese man had challenge me to a game of Shogi. He played Central Rook Opening (Nakabisha) again, so I too followed. Knowing that he can't beat me in a double Nakabisha, he changed his tactic to Third File Rook Opening (Sangenbisha). Never studied how to counter a Sangenbisha strategy, I immediately lose to him, which his castle is still intact (though I have managed to mess his castle up a little). Although I lost to him, I do not feel angry towards him or feel ashamed of myself. Instead, I feel that I should study up more Shogi strategies if I'm going to achieve 2-dan this year. Thanks to this Japanese man, he taught me that my Shogi studies are still not enough and I should work harder to improve in Shogi.

I am also not ashamed to tell you all that I have lost. Afterall, playing Shogi is about enjoying, not about winning or losing. If I do not enjoy the game after I have lost, I have no right to say that I want to be a professional Shogi player. It is the enjoyment of the game that have made me decided to aim to be a professional Shogi player in the first place so I should work hard for the sake of my beloved game - Shogi.

Thanks for listening and hope you all have a great week!

Regards,
Ryou Takehito



PS: YOSH! It's time to study up Sangenbisha strategies so I can beat the Japanese man this Saturday! xD

EDIT:
This is the reason why I hate playing Shogi online. Not only they are rude, they have no self-discipline.


When he lost, he immediately ban me out of his game and send me a lot of private message saying "die". I am never gonna play Shogi online again. How can they hope to be strong if they have no self-discipline?

Regards,
Ryou Takehito

Killing Two Birds with One Stone

Hey all,

Maybe it's not really killing two birds with one stone. It seems that there are more and more players in Japan Club Kuala Lumpur that are interested in playing Shogi (although they're not considering being an active player). I'm quite happy that there are players (non-Japanese) that I can actually teach and play Shogi. There are a few players who wanted to play against me so I decided to play two games of Shogi at the same time, with a handicapped of two lances, bishop and rook! I've played a total of 4 games against them and I achieved total victory! Unfortunately I lost the last two games because I was playing two games (at the same time) against a beginner (with handicapped of two lances, bishop and rook) and a 2-dan Japanese player (with no handicap). I should have just focus on my game against the Japanese player so that I wouldn't have faced a very humiliating defeat, which he immediately broke into my territory and checkmated me in less than 50 moves.

I have been playing a lot of Shogi games against the Japanese player (I forgot his name) for the past few weeks. Two weeks ago we were playing games of 'best out of three'. The first game is a normal Yagura game with Bishop exchange, which I aim for a right edge attack and emerge a total victory over him. In our second game he decided to use his favourite Joseki (opening) against me: Central Rook Opening. I was very unfamiliar with this Joseki so he immediately attack my weak left base with a silver, getting a total victory over me this time. In our last game, he played Central Rook Opening again. After trading off our bishops, I made a weird bishop drop at 2a square, which he got greedy and decides to come after my bishop. Fortunately I made a right edge attack again, sacrificing my bishop for a gold, and finally checkmated him. The last game was really a tough fight because he broke into my base first but fortunately I made an entering king which have secure my solid win over him.

After having a win of 2 out of 3 over him, he decides to have a game with me again yesterday. As I have mention earlier, I lost my first game because I was concentrating two games at the same time. In our second game (which I am only focusing on this game), he once again used his favourite Joseki: the Central Rook Opening. I'm actually a little annoyed about him always playing this Joseki so I have decided to irritate him a little, by playing his favourite Joseki against him: a Double Central Rook opening game! He was quite surprised when my silver was a move earlier to participate the battle in the 5e square. Unfortunately I'm not very familiar with this Joseki so he actually have a pawn advantage over me after we have traded our Silvers and Bishops. Worst, my King's castle is a mess because I wanted to protect the 5g square, while he has already made an incomplete Mino Castle. I couldn't really remember the positions but I think it look something like this...

This is not the exact position. I do know is that I made a brilliant (to me it's brilliant) bishop drop at 3d, trying to attack his weak 2c and 4c square, then he drop his silver at 3b and I promote my pawn, trying to capture his rook. I was really lacking a pawn material and also a risk of the silver drop at 4e so I decided to just take my chances and break into his base, which is a success. I keep on mating him until I've made a cool move to checkmate him. Can anyone guess what it is? It's a mate in 3 moves without a silver drop. (The rest of the pieces have been remove because I couldn't remember the position)

Anyways back to the topic. Yesterday was my first time playing two games at the same time so I am quite happy that I can still concentrate well during those games. It was a little exciting and fun for me and I really enjoy the thrill. I hope I will be able to play handicapped Shogi games against 9 players at the same time one day!!!

Regards,
Ryou Takehito


PS: Do you think the Japanese man will use Central Rook Opening against me again after he has taste his own medicine?

1 minute Shogi

Hey all,

Last year back in Beijing (during the participation of AISEP), I remember there's a night where Kazuma and Taichi Nakamura had a "1-minute Shogi" game. It was really exciting and fun to watch, and I always wanted to post a video about it.

Anyways last night I happen to stumble upon this video in Youtube, which shows a game of 1-minute Shogi. I always wanted to try 1-minute Shogi but unfortunately I did not try it back in Beijing because I was only 7 kyu back then and Kazuma and Taichi are very strong players.

I hope you all enjoy this video. =)



Regards,
Ryou Takehito

Kunihiko Kiuchi, where art thou?

Hey all,

It seems that my friend has received Mr. Kunihiko's comment for a long time, but he never told me anything about it.
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Reference: http://idazuwaika.wordpress.com/about/#comment-544
Kunihiko Kiuchi : September 6, 2008 at 6:49 am

"Nice to see you Waq. My name is Kiuchi (43 years old, male, Tokyo)

I saw your web site few weeks ado. And I am very happy to play Japanese Chess “Shogi”.

Will you execute “joint Shogi Project” which is an establishment of Shogi club or Shogi company in Malaysia with me?

If you approve with me project, reply to me in Email.

Thank you very much for reading."

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It seems that he is highly interested in creating a Shogi club in Malaysia. I mean if there's a Shogi club in Malaysia, there would be more opportunities for me to learn Shogi in Malaysia!

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Reference: http://idazuwaika.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/haha-shogi-again-but-at-home/#comment-765

Kunihiko Kiuchi : December 6, 2008 at 7:07 am

"Hi! Zaid. This is Kunihiko.

Did you read previous Email from me on 13 & 25 Sept?

I would like to ask you again.
If you have a higher motivation and strong enthusiasm for establishment of a Shogi club.
Let’s establish a Shogi club with me in Malaysia.

I would like to confirm your real intention.

Please reply in Email immediately."

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Mr. Kunihiko is highly interested in setting up Shogi club in Malaysia unfortunately he has contacted the wrong person because Waq (Zaid) is an active Go player, not an active Shogi player! It's true that Waq knows how to play Shogi but he only plays Shogi leisurely with me. Unfortunately Waq never told me anything about it until I have found it out myself. If only I knew about it, a Shogi club would have been set up in Malaysia by now! God must be playing tricks on me!

If Mr. Kunihiko is reading this post right now, please please please contact me at all cost! MR. KUNIHIKO!!!! WHERE ARE YOU??? Please make sure to leave down your e-mail if you do comment on this blog!!!

Regards,
Ryou Takehito

Who's the Malaysian guy?

Hey all,

This interview is quoted from this site: http://www.shogi-isps.org/Enews/archives/000049.html

Editor:
What do you think of the Internet in relation to spreading Shogi? You appear to imply that spreading efforts should be focussed on countries where people cannot afford to have computers.

Habu:
In Japan where the atmosphere surrounding the Internet is excellent, the Internet is very effective in spreading Shogi. In the international field human presence should be essential at the initial stage. However, I found an exception in Beijing this year. A Malaysian student participated on his own. In the circumstances where Shogi is totally unknown, he learnt it through the Internet, improved himself and came to the meeting. Thanks to the Internet, an amateur of the Shogi was born. There exists a possibility that Shogi spreads in an unimaginable circumstance.

I am very happy that Mr. Habu mentioned about me in the interview, although he did not say my name. Well, it is true that I did not know about Shogi until I saw Japanese play Shogi in Japan Club Kuala Lumpur. Having the urge to know how Shogi plays, I went home that night and start learning Shogi using the internet. Although I did learn how to play Shogi using the internet, but I rarely play Shogi games against human players. The only games I've played on the internet are against AI (Ham Shogi) and against human players when I was still a beginner (about 15 kyu). I did not play against human players again until after the participation of AISEP (Asian Intercultural Shogi Exchange Program), which I was playing against a Beijing friend for leisure and teaching. I think it has been more than six months since I last played against a human player in the internet.

I personally hate playing Shogi while staring at the monitor because if I concentrate too much it will actually hurt or strain my eyes. However I still use my laptop to play Shogi only for leisure or blitz, which the game will normally only last less than 5 or 10 minutes. It's no wonder why I have never participate in any "internet Shogi tournaments" mainly because it hurts my eyes and the match usually starts in midnight.

Back in Beijing last year, during Mr. Habu's talk, I remember he once said that it is impossible to improve Shogi skills/techniques without the supervision of a teacher/sensei. Even if the player do improve he will never achieve dan-level or become a professional. I think it was during that time that I have made a big resolution to prove that I can improve alot just by self-teaching myself and also without a sensei. America and Europe countries are very lucky to have their own sensei to teach them how to play Shogi but in Malaysia there is not even a single Shogi professional (or maybe he's hiding) so it's hard to find myself a sensei. But I want to prove to the Shogi community that even without a sensei I can get stronger, solely on passion, dedication and hard-work. Becoming 1-dan in a year without a sensei is a great achievement for me, therefore I'm going to continue to work hard to become a Shogi professional one day.

Lastly, a quote from Habu:
Habu: "Exactly, there would be a choas should 'The Shogi Sekai' magazine begin to sell all over the world. (Laugh)"

I have copies of Shogi Sekai since last year and you don't see me going insane. Hmm...


Regards,
Ryou Takehito