International Shogi Festival 2021 New Events

Many thanks to the Japan Shogi Association and Ladies' Professional Shogi_Harbour for helping bring the game of shogi to the world. As a chess teacher and shogi amateur enjoying this year's festival (which you can follow here), I write about what is new.

For those not familiar, shogi (Japanese: "Game of Generals") and chess derive from the Indian game charatunga. There are videos by HIDETCHI and professionals covering the rules of the game; for purposes of this writing I simply say:

• The goal is to checkmate the opposing king.
• Like crazyhouse, pieces can be dropped onto the board.
• Shogi is played with polite greetings and polite manners; illegal moves (such as perpetual check!) immediately lose the game.

One new event I enjoyed this year is an explanation of other shogi-like games. Please enjoy "Introduction of world Shogi" by Koji Horiguchi 7-dan: https://youtu.be/Ro5vUpmFhLU

Another new event is multiple "Basic Tactics for Beginners" videos, accompanying a basic rules explanation video spoken in English using Japanese piece names. Please find these on the Japan Shogi Association channel.

We are fortunate to be graced with a special game: Akira Watanabe Meijin vs. Yoshiharu Habu 9-dan (Commentary: Hirotaka Noduki 8-dan; Listener: Madoka Kitao female pro. 2-dan):
https://youtu.be/Ww4a2EGHfXw

FIDE has a single "world champion" title** whereas JSA much more excitingly has eight titles! Later today is another new event - a special game between (Oui, Eiou, Kisei) title holder Sota Fujii with the ISF winner. Please do not miss it! (Commentary: Koji Horiguchi 7-dan; Listener: K. Styczynska female pro. 1-dan) https://youtu.be/6NSZ7BzTZiU

Image credit: Kentaro Toma

** Technically, FIDE does have a Grand Swiss champion title and a World Cup champion title, although these are used as qualifiers for the WC cycle. On one of multiple shogi sites (Shogi Wars) 250,000 matches are played per day (which I assume is mostly players living in Japan), comparable to the number of games played by the entire world on Lichess every day. My point that it is exciting to have eight titles still stands.