Shogi Game 18 (professional, no comment). The 40-th Meijin title match between Meijin Nakahara Makoto and challenger Kato Hifumi (Judan) was one of the most bizarre ones. The Meijin title is contested in a best-of-seven match. Nonetheless, that years match consisted of no less than ten games. Two games ended in a draw by repetition of moves ("sennichite"). Both times this was to Kato's advantage, since they are regarded no-contest and replayed with reversed colours. Especially the second of the "sennichite" games was important because it was the decisive game of the match. The third drawn game was a 223-moves "jishogi" (impasse). Actually, it was the opening game of the match and played on 13-th and 14-th April 1982. You find its score below. A jishogi game is NOT regarded as non-contest, but it does not change the score either. Black and white for the first game are decided by a toss: 3 or 5 or 7 pawns are thrown into the air and depending on the majority of either pawns or promoted pawns ("tokins") that are lying face up, one has black or white. In subsequent games the colours change every time. Only when the last (normally 7-th) game is necessary, there will again a tossing of pawns ("furigoma"). The match developed as follows: 1. Kato - Nakahara Jishogi 2. Nakahara - Kato 1-0 3. Kato - Nakahara 1-0 4. Nakahara - Kato 1-0 5. Kato - Nakahara 1-0 6. Nakahara - Kato Sennichite Rpl 6. Kato - Nakahara 1-0 7. Nakahara - Kato 1-0 8. Nakahara - Kato Sennichite Rpl 8. Kato - Nakahara 1-0 The final result being: Kato 4 - Nakahara 3 - Jishogi 1. Another curious aspect of this match was that black did not lose a single game. Pieter Stouten 6-th July 1990. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Black: Kato Hifumi (10-dan); White: Nakahara Makoto (Meijin). 1.P7f P8d 2.S6h P3d 3.S7g S6b 4.P2f S4b 5.S4h G3b 6.G7h P5d 7.P5f K4a 8.K6i G5b 9.P3f P7d 10.G5h S3c 11.B7i B3a 12.P6f P4d 13.G5h-6g G5b-4c 14.S3g P8e 15.P1f B6d 16.B6h K3a 17.K7i K2b 18.P1e S7c 19.S4f P7e 20.Px7e Bx7e 21.N3g B4b 22.R3h S2d 23.N2e P4e 24.S3g S7d 25.P'7f P'7e 26.Px7e Sx7e 27.P6e P'7f 28.Sx7f P8f 29.Px8f Sx8f 30.P'8g S7e 31.Sx7e Bx7e 32.P'7f B5c 33.B7g N3c 34.Nx3c+ Sx3c 35.N'2e B4d 36.P5e Bx5e 37.S'6f B7c 38.Nx3c+ G3bx3c 39.P'5e N'9e 40.S'9f P9d 41.Px5d S'4i 42.R3i S5h= 43.G5g N'2g 44.R3h S4i= 45.R4h Bx3g+ 46.Rx4i Nx1i+ 47.Sx9e P2d 48.B8f L'5a 49.N'5e Gx5d 50.P'5b P'5c 51.Px5a+ P'8e 52.B5i +B2h 53.L'8d R7b 54.B7g Px9e 55.Lx8a+ P1d 56.Nx6c+ Rx7f 57.P'5e G5d-4d 58.N'5f Px1e 59.Nx4d K2c 60.+Lx9a K1d 61.Bx9e P1f 62.L'7g Rx6f 63.Gx6f K1e 64.R'3a Gx4d. 65.Rx1a+ Kx2f 66.G'3i +Bx3i 67.Rx3i S'2h 68.R5i K2g 69.K8h S'4h 70.R7i S'5g 71.G5f G'6h 72.Gx5g Gx7i 73.Gx7i Sx5g= 74.G'4i G'3g 75.L'3i S4h= 76.Gx4h Gx4h 77.B'4i G'3h 78.Bx8e G3hx3i 79.B7c+ P5d 80.P9f Gx5e 81.K9g G3i-3h 82.K8f R'3i 83.G8h R7i+ 84.G9g +Rx8i 85.K9e +R8h 86.L7d Gx6e 87.K8d P'7f 88.+N6d G6f 89.G8f P7g+ 90.B9d +Px8g 91.G9e +P8f 92.K9c +Rx9i 93.B7b+ +Px9f 94.G8d +P8f 95.K8b Gx4g 96.+Bx5d P1g+ 97.+Bx4e G3h-3g 98.P3e K3h 99.Px3d +P7f 100.+N5d P'5f 101.+N5e P5g+ 102.S'2f G2g 103.Sx1g Sx1g+ 104.S'3f S'2h 105.Sx4g +Px4g 106.+N5f +R4i 107.P3c+ P2e 108.+R2b P2f 109.+P3d +R5i 110.+R5b G6g 111.+N4f +P5g 112.+N3f Jishogi