How about a game of Japanese Chess, i.e. Shogi? Now playing Shogi4 — Page 8

R9x8i

Your king is really well protected.  That's why I'm focusing so much on the other corner.  Gotta get more ammo throw at your fortress there.

+Px8a

To clarify, though I don't know for sure if it is an annotation error or a rule error, but you cannot promote your pawn till after it moves within the promotion zone.  Your annotation signifies that you are moving a promoted pawn.  Perhaps you meant you were promoting your pawn after capturing on 8a, in which case you would put the plus sign at the end.  It makes no difference in this case, but I wanted to make sure you understood correctly.

Anyhow, G*3i

OK, thanks, I thought the plus sign was used to indicate a promotion as well as a promoted piece.

You made a very good move, and it's going to cost me.

Px2c

And I presume you want to promote it, no?  Just remember, already promoted piece moving gets the plus at the beginning; plus at the end if promoting that turn.

Gx2i

Yes I did want to promote it. Now I see where I'm getting confused. I've got it now.

Gx2i

Rx2i mate my friend.  Thank you so much for playing.  I'm really enjoying this with you.  I gotta run to bed, but I'll post the pics in the morning with my analysis.  Hopefully twister wants to start a game.  Are you up for another?

I'm up for as many games as you want, but I'll wait for Twister's response in case he wants to play the next game.

I think I have too much of a defensive strategy, both in Shogi and Chess. I'm never aggressive enough to put my opponent in check, never mind win a game.

I think we both had a good strong defense around our kings, but once you got those two nasty rooks behind my ranks I was doomed to failure. If I had payed more attention to your pieces advancing in the eighth file I would have defended my turf on that side of the board a little better. Unfortunately for me, I was too concerned with getting my king protected that I largely ignored anything not directly threatening at the time.

I managed to set up a decent defense on the left side of the board, but like last game, I didn't account for the paratroopers as much as I should, and when I lost my rook, my defense was weakened a lot while your offense was strengthened nearly as much. I think I did better than last time in regards to forming a defense around my king, but since that was my only strong defense, I didn't hold out as long as last game.

I think I ought to have put my king and my lance in opposite spots, since only two pieces were directly defending my king, while four were defending the lance. :P Had I done that, there would have been four pieces defending the king, and three defending the lance. I guess it's just something to consider next game.

I am willing to play two games at once, and I'm guessing you are too, d_e, so if Twister wishes to play a game, I would be happy to play as well.

So...Twister? Darth_ender? What say you--who wants to play the next game?

JEDIT: Oh for Pete's sake, I lost all my pictures!  Well, I will try again later.  This took a long time and I'm frustrated it didn't work.  Sorry about that.  Maybe I can correct the mistake I made.  This is pretty frustrating.  ARRRGG!

Here is the final set of moves from Ric's and my shogi game, with accompanying commentary.

31, 32

As you can see, Ric had little choice but to remove my promoted pawn, which is essentially the same as a gold general (except that once captured, it reverts to being a pawn).  But removing it with his silver general gives me the chance to capture his silver and promote my rook in his promotion zone.  Now he is in dangerous territory, as a rogue rook behind enemy lines can inflict tremendous damage.

33,34

Ric dropped his silver to defend his knight, so I gratefully took his lance.

35,36

But having moved his gold general to 7i, he effectively contained the damage.  Now my rook couldn't really break through without help.  I needed to figure something else out.  I dropped my new lance into the middle file, hoping to capture his pawn and promote my lance to another gold general, thus working from the other side to break down his defenses.

37,38

Ric moved up his pawn, defended by his rook, thus denying my lance's ability to get to the promotion zone.  But having done so, I now realize he has restricted the number of squares available to his rook.  I drop my silver on a square where I attack his rook, plus nearly every other available square.  If I can hem in his rook and make it mine, then victory is guaranteed.

39, 40

He moves to his only available square.  And very sadly, I realize that I'd somehow made an error way back on move six, as his silver general should be on 2h, not 3h, a mistake I made when showing move 7.  Instead of reworking the diagrams from this point, I hope you can all just imagine it is there, preventing his rook from moving back another square and further protecting his king.  Sorry about this error.  I'll document it on the correct diagram.  In any case, he moved his rook back to its only available square, so I moved my bishop to a spot where I could defend my silver so I could pin the rook in further.  I considered a drop with my bishop in hand to attack his rook, but then he could block with his pawn and then have a new square for his rook to escape to.

41,42

Trying to regain initiative, Ric dropped a pawn where he could ideally distract me, else I let him promote it and have a gold general loose in my territory.  But I refuse to give up my assault, and thus I prepare to capture his rook by moving my silver to the appropriate square.  Now he's completely pinned in.

43,44

Instead of countering with his silver, he drops another pawn in front of my knight, presumably again hoping for more free material and perhaps to regain some initiative.  But I won't be deterred, and I take his rook.

45,46

He captures my promoted silver with his silver.  Note the position is now correct and accurate.  I myself drop a pawn in front of his knight, hoping that I can either promote it and thus allow my rook to break through his little wall, or else get him to capture it with his gold, thus allowing me to capture his gold and still break through.

47,48

Surprisingly, Ric moves his gold next to his king up one.  I'm not sure his motivation here, but it allows me to drop my new rook between his king and the gold general I covet, forking both.  Now I can surely break through his defenses, connect my rooks, and lay in for a final assault.

49,50

He drops his new silver to protect his king, and I capture his gold with my rook.  He's almost in my hands now.

51,52

Not foreseeing quite the danger he is in, Ric moves his silver general to safety, attempting to deny me more material.  If his position were not so precarious, this would be a wise move.  However and this point, it actually eases my attack, as I capture his knight with my original rook and the two rooks now support each other.  But how to break through his seemingly solid defense line...

53,54

He follows through with an earlier idea and captures my knight, probably hoping to drop it effectively soon.  I however don't plan on giving him enough of an opportunity to use it effectively, and I drop my gold on 3i.  The natures of the gold and silver generals disallows a capture, as the gold cannot move diagonally backwards and the silver cannot move sideways.

55,56

Ric moves his other pawn into my promotion zone, capturing a pawn and putting another gold general in my turf.  If he had more time, this could be pretty effective.  I capture his silver general with my gold, offer check, and leaving him only one possible move.

57,58

He captured my gold with his own, and I then capture his gold with my promoted rook.  Mate.  It was a good game, and I really enjoyed it.  I hope he did too, and I hope that my commentary is instructive and not demeaning.

RicOlie_2 said:

So...Twister? Darth_ender? What say you--who wants to play the next game?

 Crap!  I hadn't posted for a while, and now that I did, I lost all my pictures, as it took a long time.  I won't have much time, so I hope twister can take you on.  If not, I'll play you again soon.  Just give me a few days to get through some busy stuff.  Thanks again for playing me.  It's really so much fun!

darth_ender said:

...  I hope he did too, and I hope that my commentary is instructive and not demeaning.

 Ha! Don't worry about that. Your commentary made my mistakes clearer and further enlightened me on your strategy throughout the game.

darth_ender said:

RicOlie_2 said:

So...Twister? Darth_ender? What say you--who wants to play the next game?

 Crap!  I hadn't posted for a while, and now that I did, I lost all my pictures, as it took a long time.  I won't have much time, so I hope twister can take you on.  If not, I'll play you again soon.  Just give me a few days to get through some busy stuff.  Thanks again for playing me.  It's really so much fun!

 No worries, I can wait.

Twister, if you're there I am willing to help you get set up for a game and play with you if you wish.

I don't suppose anyone else besides Twister has been visiting this thread?

Hmmmm....perhaps I can change the first post to get someone else  to play against you.

I'm glad you found that site.  All my diagrams disappeared, and I don't have the time to recreate the game once again, save all the diagrams, and upload them to my photobucket account, and I don't know when I will.  I honestly am excited to just watch a game and see how two other players play out the game.  Different strategies will emerge, and I may be inspired by you two. :)

Thanks for playing Twister. Are you familiar with the algebraic notation for Shogi? I'll make the first move I guess.

R-5h

twister111 said:

darth_ender said:

I honestly am excited to just watch a game and see how two other players play out the game. Different strategies will emerge, and I may be inspired by you two. :)

Heh, I'm just hoping that I don't become too distracted by other things that I end up falling into possibly obvious traps or something.

Yeah, I do that a lot, but not as much when I play over the internet, because I don't feel as pressured to move quickly, so I spend more time analyzing the board.

RicOlie_2 said:

Thanks for playing Twister. Are you familiar with the algebraic notation for Shogi? I'll make the first move I guess.

R-5h

Well I've been following along, roughly, with the previous games. I'm not sure if I've got it down yet but if I do have it wrong you or ender can correct me. Hopefully I've got this right.

P-3d
linky

You can check to see if I understood your move too.

 Looks like you've got it.

K-4h

K-3h

K-2h

Hmm...I think I'm playing too defensively again. I'd better watch myself. :P