1 # Shogi Game 2 (amateur game, some amateur comment).
3 # The game below was played at the sixth International Utrecht (the Netherlands)
4 # tournament, October 1984 and features the strongest European player Mike
5 # Sandeman, now already for more than a year living in Japan. His style is very
6 # flamboyant and this time he played an old and speculative opening. He allows
7 # his opponent to exchange rook pawns and, contrary to the proverb, keeps his
8 # rook and king together. He hardly makes a localized castle for his king, but
9 # instead puts up sort of an aerial (or area) defence. Jan Oosterwijk, one of
10 # Holland's Shogi nestors, builds a standard three-generals castle known as
11 # "yagura". Among other things "yagura" can mean: arsenal or scaffold. In
12 # English literature it is sometimes translated as fortress, but normally the
13 # Japanese term is used. The "yagura" is hard to break down with a frontal
14 # attack, but is weak at the side. It is therefore almost solely employed in
15 # double static rook games. The comment below the game was provided by Mike
16 # Loftus, 3-dan and published in "Shoten" (=focal point), the quarterly
17 # journal of the British Shogi Federation.
19 # Pieter Stouten, 16-th May 1990.
20 # bitnet: stouten@embl
22 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
24 # Black: Jan Oosterwijk (1-dan); White: Mike Sandeman (3-dan)
25 1.P2f P3d 2.P7f P4d 3.S4h S4b 4.G4i-5h S4c
26 5.K6h P5d 6.P5f P8d 7.S7h S6b 8.P2e G3b
27 9.P2d Px2d 10.Rx2d P'2c 11.R2h S5c 12.S7g P7d
28 13.P6f P6d 14.K7h G5b 15.B7i G6c 16.G6g P8e
29 17.K8h N7c 18.G7h K6b 19.P3f R8a 20.S3g K7b
30 21.P9f P9d 22.S2f P5e 23.Px5e(A) P4e 24.S3g S4c-4d
31 25.R4h(B) P8f 26.Px8f Sx5e 27.P'5f Sx6f(C) 28.Sx6f P'8e
32 29.Px8e P6e 30.S7g S6d 31.B5g P7e 32.Px7e(D) Nx8e
33 33.P'8g P'5h 34.P'6f Nx7g+ 35.G7hx7g Px6f 36.Bx6f Bx6f
34 37.G6gx6f P'8f 38.G6f-7f Px8g+ 39.Gx8g B'7i 40.K9h P'8f
35 41.G7fx8f Rx8f 42.Gx8f S'9g 43.Nx9g G'8h 0-1
37 # (A) Rather than let white have his own way, black can try 23.P'2d Px2d
38 # (otherwise 24.Px2c+ Gx2c and 25.S3e or S1e looks fast) 24.S1e and
39 # black looks better to me.
40 # (B) Presumably to attack up the 4th file, but it looks rather negative.
41 # (C) White sacrifices a silver for a purely positional advantage.
42 # (D) Perhaps K7i and early escape might have been expedient.
43 # Subsequently, Mike went on to win the tournament with 6 straight