From: Pieter Stouten EMBL BITNET> Date: 16 may 1990 Subject: Shogi Game 2 (amateur, some comments) The following game is again a game between amateurs. I promise that the next one I post will be one between professionals. The game below was played at the sixth International Utrecht (the Netherlands) tournament, October 1984 and features the strongest European player Mike Sandeman, now already for more than a year living in Japan. His style is very flamboyant and this time he played an old and speculative opening. He allows his opponent to exchange rook pawns and, contrary to the proverb, keeps his rook and king together. He hardly makes a localized castle for his king, but instead puts up sort of an aerial (or area) defence. Jan Oosterwijk, one of Holland's Shogi nestors, builds a standard three-generals castle known as "yagura". Among other things "yagura" can mean: arsenal or scaffold. In English literature it is sometimes translated as fortress, but normally the Japanese term is used. The "yagura" is hard to break down with a frontal attack, but is weak at the side. It is therefore almost solely employed in double static rook games. The comment below the game was provided by Mike Loftus, 3-dan and published in "Shoten" (=focal point), the quarterly journal of the British Shogi Federation. Pieter Stouten bitnet: stouten@embl ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Black: Jan Oosterwijk (1-dan); White: Mike Sandeman (3-dan) 1.P2f P3d 2.P7f P4d 3.S4h S4b 4.G4i-5h S4c 5.K6h P5d 6.P5f P8d 7.S7h S6b 8.P2e G3b 9.P2d Px2d 10.Rx2d P'2c 11.R2h S5c 12.S7g P7d 13.P6f P6d 14.K7h G5b 15.B7i G6c 16.G6g P8e 17.K8h N7c 18.G7h K6b 19.P3f R8a 20.S3g K7b 21.P9f P9d 22.S2f P5e 23.Px5e(A) P4e 24.S3g S4c-4d 25.R4h(B) P8f 26.Px8f Sx5e 27.P'5f Sx6f(C) 28.Sx6f P'8e 29.Px8e P6e 30.S7g S6d 31.B5g P7e 32.Px7e(D) Nx8e 33.P'8g P'5h 34.P'6f Nx7g+ 35.G7hx7g Px6f 36.Bx6f Bx6f 37.G6gx6f P'8f 38.G6f-7f Px8g+ 39.Gx8g B'7i 40.K9h P'8f 41.G7fx8f Rx8f 42.Gx8f S'9g 43.Nx9g G'8h mate (A) Rather than let white have his own way, black can try 23.P'2d Px2d (otherwise 24.Px2c+ Gx2c and 25.S3e or S1e looks fast) 24.S1e and black looks better to me. (B) Presumably to attack up the 4th file, but it looks rather negative. (C) White sacrifices a silver for a purely positional advantage. (D) Perhaps K7i and early escape might have been expedient. Subsequently, Mike went on to win the tournament with 6 straight wins.