From: Manabu Terao - Nihon Sun RM Advisory Staff Date: 10 jun 1997 Subject: Example of Bishop non-promotion necessity Dear Shogi-fans, I happened to find a professional game example whether not promoting rook/bishop/pawn could be necessary to make an illegal pawn-drop mate into a permitted pawn-drop check followed by a later mate when reading "Toryo no Shinso(The truth of resignations) written by Hiura(6 dan). I remember there was a discussion on this matter some month ago in this list. So this might be your interest. Oui League, July 19, 1983 Black : Tanigawa White : Ohyama 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 +--------------------------------------------+ White in hand: | wL | | | | | | wP | | wL | a +------------------+ +--------------------------------------------+ | 2R, G, S, 2N, P | | wP | | | | bB | | | | | b | | +--------------------------------------------+ +------------------+ | | wG | | bG | | | | wG | | c +-------------------------------------------- | bP | | wP | | | | bB | | | d +--------------------------------------------+ | | | | wK | | | bP | | | e +--------------------------------------------+ | | | bP | |+wP | wP | | | | f +--------------------------------------------+ | | bP | bS | bP | | | | | bP | g +--------------------------------------------+ Black in hand: | | | bK | | | | | | | h +------------------+ +--------------------------------------------+ | S, 6P | | bL | bN | bS | | | | bL | | bL | i | | +--------------------------------------------+ +------------------+ The diagram is White escape its King 6d to 6e against Black's check of G6c. The forced mate sequence begin with the next unpromotional move as follows; B5b-4c= !! P*5d S*6f +Px6f Px6f K5e P*5f --- This would be illegal if the first move were B5b-4c+ K4d P*4e K3c Bx2c+ Kx2c Bx3d+ K3b G*2c K2a P*2b K1a G1b(mate) Hiura comments in the book that it is very rare that a major piece reserves promotion in a real game. I'm not sure there're another examples before and after this game. Manabu Terao