From: Hugh Denoncourt <hd <at> HOPPER <dot> UNH <dot> EDU>
Date: 17 nov 1995
Subject: Quickest Mate in Shogi?

It seems that every Western Chess player I have come across in the world
knows the quickest way a person can be legally checkmated.  In that game
of quick moving pieces it is 1.f3 e5 2.g4 Qh4++ ... It is only two
moves.  Of course, the moves are highly unlikely and unsound but that was
not the point of the problem(it can be considered a "Chess problem" to
find the quickest possible mate).  I began to wonder what the quickest
checkmate in Shogi might be and whether this was common knowledge in
Shogi.  So, I started to try and coordinate what the quickest mate might
be on my Shogi board.  What I came up with is this:
1.S4h P3d 2.P7f Bx8h+ 3.G7h +Bx7h 4.S8h G*6h mate
Of course this is more unlikely than even the Western Chess version
but I am wondering if this one that I just found here is in fact the
quickest possible mate OR if there is a quicker mate possible and WHAT
that mate is.  Any comments/help would be appreciated,
Hugh