By Galo S Mirth
2012 was a transitional year for modern shogi. The established title holders still dominated the major seven title matches, but the conversation around the game was also being reshaped by computer shogi, especially the early Denou-sen events.
By Galo S Mirth
For Japanese professional shogi, 2008 is remembered for two things above all: Yoshiharu Habu regaining the Meijin title (and securing the 19th lifetime Meijin qualification), and Akira Watanabe producing one of the most dramatic comebacks in modern title match history to defend the Ryuo crown.
The 21st Ryuo (2008 season) became famous for both its international setting and its reversal of fortune. Game 1 was played in Paris, and the title match itself turned into a rare “from 0-3 down” comeback: Ryuo Akira Watanabe lost the first three games to challenger (and Meijin) Yoshiharu Habu, then won four straight to take the match 4-3. With his 5th consecutive Ryuo defense, Watanabe also obtained the qualification for lifetime Ryuo (eisei Ryuo).
Several of the year’s biggest matches centered on Habu, who appeared repeatedly in title fights while also reclaiming Meijin. Here are a few key results from the major titles that concluded during the 2008 season.
In computer shogi, the World Computer Shogi Championship (WCSC) continued to be a major annual benchmark. The 18th tournament (2008) was won by Gekisashi (激指), with Tanase Shogi (棚瀬将棋) in second and Bonanza in third.
By Galo S Mirth
2006 was a year of familiar giants and a few clear signals of what would come next. Toshiyuki Moriuchi kept the Meijin crown, Yoshiharu Habu continued to pile up long-running title streaks, Yasuhiro Sato (Yasumitsu) collected trophies across multiple fronts, and Akira Watanabe’s Ryuo reign continued.
The seven major titles in the 2006 shogi season (2006年度) ended with four champions: Moriuchi, Habu, Sato, and Watanabe.
In the season awards (第34回将棋大賞), Sato was named Most Outstanding Player (最優秀棋士賞), with other major awards going to Habu (優秀棋士賞), Watanabe (敢闘賞), and Tetsuro Itodani (新人賞).
One headline for the next generation was Tetsuro Itodani winning the 37th Shinjin-o (新人王戦) final. Another was Akira Watanabe’s league result: he earned promotion to B1 with a perfect 10-0 in B2 (B級2組) in the 65th Jun’i-sen season.
In May 2006, the engine Bonanza entered the World Computer Shogi Championship for the first time and won immediately, a result that helped push computer shogi into the center of public conversation. Its author, Kunihito Hoki, later presented details of the approach at a programming workshop in November 2006.
