Shogi Strategy & Lessons: The Japanese Chess

Conclusion of This Chapter An essential tactical pattern: in most cases, you can win with 2四歩. If you don’t want to read the explanations, it’s also fine to just work on the lishogi problems. In opening theory, memorizing how to respond to your opponent’s ideas is crucial. Introduction Shogi(Japanese chess) is a game of responses. In the previous chapter( Return to Part 1 ), Gote was completely crushed by Bo-gin (the Climbing Silver attack). To avoid repeating this loss, Gote needs a new way to respond. For that reason, let’s once again review Sente’s intentions in the Bo-gin attack. Review of the Previous Conclusion and Examination of Countermeasures Silver’s advance toward the 5th file ▲2四歩 ▲2四銀 Allowing these three ideas led to a complete collapse. In other words, Black needs to cut off this sequence somewhere. In this chapter, we will examine two methods to prevent 2四歩. Examining 1四歩 ① 1四歩　(The idea is to force the Silver to retreat...

 Summary Chess requires deeper calculation in the endgame. In shogi, it is often sufficient to calculate only near-terminal positions, but players must consider a much wider range of branches. Introduction There was a time when the famous chess grandmaster Garry Kimovich Kasparov(Га́рри Ки́мович Каспа́ров) played shogi. During a shogi-related event in Japan, he commented on the differences between chess and shogi, noting that the ability to reuse captured pieces is a unique feature of shogi. In this article, I will explain why piece reuse is such a distinctive characteristic, based on a comparison of the fundamental features of chess and shogi. Differences in the Endgame Between Shogi and Chess Chess requires deeper calculation in the endgame. In contrast, shogi involves a much higher number of branching possibilities, and compared to chess, players can only realistically calculate positions that are close to checkmate. This difference stems from how captured pieces are t...