A losing game on Shogi Club 24

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

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

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

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

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





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

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







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

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




▲19.K6h-7h
△20.B2dx7i+ (diagram)

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



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










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

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





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

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

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

Everything that has happened since my last update

Hi everyone.

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

The 81-Square Universe

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

Shogipedia

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

Shogi Videos on Youtube

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

New Orleans Japan Festival

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

Getting stronger at shogi

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

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

Real internationalized pieces - Day 1

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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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




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

Uploading Custom BCMShogi Graphics

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

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

Bona-sized Hidetchi Internationalized Pieces


DiagramTiny Hidetchi Internationalized Pieces


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

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

Custom BCMShogi graphics

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

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



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





This is how it looks in the program:





I think it looks pretty good.

Shogi Proverbs video series

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

Internationalized shogi sets

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



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