New Shogi Association President

 

For the first time in its 101 year history the Japanese Shogi Association has elected a female president, Ichiyo Shimizu, 56, who holds a 7-dan “joryu kishi” ranking. (Shogi is also known as Japanese chess, but is a different game than chess). She is succeeding 54 year old Yoshiharu, a 9-dan professional, who is retiring. Shimizu is an active player whose term of office is two years. 

There are two types of professional shogi players: 

One is “kishi” who become professional after graduating from the “shorei-kai”, a training organization. 

The other is “joryu kishi”, where only women can become professional players under a separate system. 

Shimizu started playing shogi at the age of 8, and became a joryu kishi in 1985 at the age of 16. She won her first title, “joryu meijin” in 1988. In 1996, she became the first woman to win all four joryu crowns. In 2020, she was promoted to joryu 7-dan for the first time in the history of the game for her exceptional performance!

The Shogi Boy

I first heard about shogi (Japanese chess) last year when there was something of a scandal putting it in the news.  Recently shogi has been in the news for a good reason - the youngest professional shogi player made history by winning 28 games in a row, tying the record which is held by Hiroshi Kamiya.      

This14 year old junior high school student, is named Sota Fujii.  His winning streak is creating a new interest in shogi, with many elementary students learning the game.  Although an estimated 20 million people in Japan are able to play this game, there are only 164 professional players. Major tournaments are held throughout the year by the Japan Shogi Association.  Professional players draw a monthly salary, as well as game fees based on performance. In February of this year, Karolina Styczynska became the first non-Japanese to be awarded full professional status.  

Fujii's next professional game will be held Monday.  I'll be cheering for him from afar!

Shogi

Have you heard of Shogi, or do you play?  The game of shogi is sometimes called Japanese chess.  After being in Japan almost five years, I have only just recently learned about this game.  This is an intro to the game from Richo.com  

Shogi is a Japanese board game played by two players.
The object of the game is to capture the opponent's King.
Shogi is played on a nine-by-nine board. The vertical rows are called files, the horizontal ones ranks or just rows.
Each player has twenty pieces: one King, two Gold Generals, two Silver Generals, two kNights, two Lances, one Rook, one Bishop and nine Pawns.
The player moving up the board and making the first move is referred to as black and his opponent white, although in Shogi sets all pieces have the same colour.
They are differentiated only in direction: pieces pointing away from a player are his. The pieces lie flat on the board and have their Japanese name written on them.

The game has been in the news lately after a high level player was accused of cheating with a smart phone in a tournament.  Shogi apps rival and sometimes outperform human players.

In the past players have been allowed to check their smart phones during lunch breaks and when they leave their seats temporarily.  The Japan Shogi Association has now banned players from bringing smartphones into match venues. The phones must be kept in lockers during the tournament.  The new rules will become effective on December 14th.  Offenders face expulsion from the professional players association.