From: "Howard Wachtel (312) 975-7970" <U13054 <at> UICVM <dot> BITNET>
Date: 20 feb 1993
Subject: Re: Re: A shogi problem from a rank beginner

> This problem had been posed:
>>Don't ask me how I got into this predicament.  My question is,
>>would there have been any way to save BOTH the black B+ and the
>>black R+?  I ended up sacrificing the B+.  Also, this setup
>>illustrates my earlier question about the allowed positions
>>for the dropping of lances.
>
> With the following position:
>
>    9    8    7    6    5    4    3    2    1
> +--------------------------------------------+       White in hand:
> |    |    |    |    |+bB |    |    |    |    |  a   +----------------+
> +--------------------------------------------+      | N N L P P P P P|
> |    |    | wG | wS |    |    |    |+bR |    |  b   | P              |
> +--------------------------------------------+      |                |
> |    | bK |    | wP |    |    |    |    |    |  c   |                |
> +--------------------------------------------+      +----------------+
> |    |    | wP |    |    |+wB | wR |    |    |  d
> +--------------------------------------------+
> |    | bN | bL |    |    |    |    |    |    |  e
> +--------------------------------------------+
> |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |  f    Black in hand:
> +--------------------------------------------+      +----------------+
> |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |  g   | N L G S P P P P|
> +--------------------------------------------+      | P P P          |
> |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |  h   |                |
> +--------------------------------------------+      |                |
> |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |  i   +----------------+
> +--------------------------------------------+
>
> Without much analysis I would move +B-a6. This pins the gold to the king and
> attacks White's Rook, and if White's Bishop can be drawn away from defending
> the Silver then Black's +R can capture the Silver putting pressure on the King
   Am I missing something here?  What happened to the second King and the
other pieces not accounted for in this diagram?  The diagram give _Black's_
King at 8c, which means it would be in check from the White Gold at 7b.  So
Black must answer the check and cannot save his attacked pieces on this
move.  But it seems that the position of the White King is crucial.
________________________________________________________________
Howard K. Wachtel              University of Illinois at Chicago
U13054 <at> UICVM <dot> CC <dot> UIC <dot> EDU        Phone (312) 975-7970