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.
