Front Cover Introduction to Handicap Play Larry Kaufman (amateur 5 Dan) July 2020 The bulk of the material in this document is authored by, and is the intellectual property of Larry Kaufman. It has been prepared with his permission but the copyright resides with him, and the document (which is 'protected'), may not be edited or changed in any way. There are no authorised 'alternative' versions – eg: translations. Larry Kaufman's original material is unchanged. 'Additional Material' may be updated periodically. For the current version, please see Eric Cheymol's Shogi page, or contact me at [email protected] This document is free and may be freely shared on a no-cost basis. If you have paid for this document, you have been ripped-off!! This release (July 2020) incorporates changes to the Bibliography and Shogi Resources section (p. 303). Table of Contents [5] Acknowledgments [6] Editors Preamble An Introduction to Handicap Play by Larry Kaufman [10] Introduction [20] Six Piece Handicap [39] Five Piece Left Handicap [51] Five Piece Right Handicap [64] Four Piece Handicap – Part 1 [93] Four Piece Handicap – Part 2 [111] Two Piece Handicap [121] Two Piece Handicap – Variation I [123] Two Piece Handicap – Variation II [130] Two Piece Handicap – Variation III [134] Two Piece Handicap – Variation IV [139] Two Piece Handicap – Variation V [143] Rook & Lance Handicap – Main Line [156] Rook & Lance Handicap – Blocking Lines [170] Rook & Lance Handicap – Other Lines [185] Rook Handicap [209] Bishop Handicap [257] Lance Handicap [275] Appendix: LK on the relative merits of Chess and Shogi Additional Material [281] Glossary of Shogi Terms [287] Computer Shogi [299] Shogi Equipment [303] Bibliography and other Shogi resources Acknowledgements. I am grateful to Larry Kaufman for granting permission to make this compilation of his articles on handicap Shogi play available in a single book format. Also, I am grateful to Eric Cheymol for hosting the compilation on his web site, thus making the compilation available to a wider audience. Thank you both! Any errors in the resulting text are entirely the responsibility of the editor! Editors Preamble. There is little material on handicap Shogi easily available in English. The two main sources of information of which I am aware are: a series of articles by Larry Kaufman (amateur 5- dan and Chess Grandmaster) which originally appeared on Eric Cheymol's web pages (http://www.eric.macshogi.com/). a series of articles in the now defunct magazine Shogi, published by the late George Hodges This document is an edited compilation of the first- mentioned articles by Larry Kaufman, who has given his permission for this version to be released publically. The rationale for creating the compilation in the first place was that I wished to gather this material together in one convenient place, in order that I can easily carry it around with me when I travel. My editing has been extensive, but largely 'cosmetic', and (I hope) unobtrusive, being mostly stylistic – capitalising piece names, re-numbering moves in the Japanese style, replacing black with Sente, white with Gote, etc. A very few textual errors have been detected and silently corrected.1 Otherwise, I have made very few changes to the original text. I have added a few footnotes to explain points which seemed (to me!) to be obscure, but I have tried hard to keep these to a minimum. I have added a significant number of additional diagrams (approx. 70). I hope these footnotes and extra diagrams clarify, rather than obscure the meaning of the text! I have numbered moves individually (in the Japanese style), in order to facilitate playing through the sequences with a Shogi program such as Shogidokoro.2 Playing through sequences of moves using such a program is extremely useful if you do not have a board and pieces to hand, (it also enabled me to detect some errors in the original text). However, do remember that (unfortunately!) in handicap games, Shogidokoro counts Gote's first move as 1 not 2, so the move numbers recorded by Shogidokoro are 'off by one'. Where individual moves, or sequences of moves (usually variations to the main line), are un-numbered, I have numbered them, or flagged them with a (Sente), or a (Gote). Move numbers for variations from the main line are 'greyed-out', or occasionally, the whole 1 These were at the level of adding a missing 'x' or '*' in a capture or drop, or correcting an erroneous move number. 2 I have experimented with several free Shogi programs and Shogidokoro seems to me to be the best, see page 287. block of text is highlighted in grey. Such sequences may safely be passed over on a first read-through (but will surely repay careful study on a second read- through!!!). An important (vital!) resource used to create this document has been the Shogi diagram generator at: http://wormz.free.fr/kifugen/ I have used this program to add a significant number of diagrams to the original text, and to replace most of the original diagrams (because of formatting problems with the originals). I have also added short sections on Japanese terminology, Computer Shogi, Shogi literature, Shogi equipment and Shogi on the Internet I have used Open Office3 to prepare the document in PDF format as this is likely to afford the greatest portability across devices.4 The document should be easily readable on Windows PCs, Android tablets, Apple laptops iPads, and e-book readers such as the Amazon Kindle. Whichever PDF reader you elect to use,5 it will 3 The version on the PortableApps web site. 4 Dedicated formats for different e-book readers are simply too specific. For example, masochists with too much time on their hands may care to try to convert a PDF document to other formats using software such as Calibre – it is possible, and I have tried it briefly, but I'm not convinced that the result is reader-friendly. In particular, diagrams seem not to scale properly, and text 'objects' such as tables are 'mangled'... 5 I use Sumatra – it is small and fast. Available from the PortableApps web site. almost certainly have a 'View Bookmarks' facility which will display a Table of Contents at the side of the display window, allowing easy navigation through the document. The 'hand-crafted' (partial) Table(s) of Contents are provided for the benefit of anyone who chooses to print the document,6 but they are 'active', and clicking on a page number from within a PDF reader will navigate you to the desired page. If you read this document and find any errors, typos, or other howlers, please let me know at [email protected]. Finally, for lovers of Japanese art, the image on the cover page is a Giga-e (Comic) image from the series of woodblock prints 'Parodies of Shogi, Japanese Chess' (Koma kurabe shôgi no tawamure) by Kuniyoshi Utagawa (1798-1861). Publisher: Gusokuya Kahei; Censor: Fukatsu Ihei. RJH May 2020 6 Try printing 4-up, double sided to save paper... Introduction to Handicap Play by Larry Kaufman Introduction. Handicap Shogi is a great way to learn Shogi, for two reasons. First of all, as you learn the techniques needed to break through and win at each handicap, working from largest to smallest, you will learn most of the techniques needed to do well in the opening and middle game of even-game Shogi. You will learn the most important castles and how to attack them, and you will learn how to judge material sacrifices and how to evaluate positions. I myself learned Shogi primarily in this way. The strategies of even-game Shogi are far too difficult for the amateur player to understand without the proper background afforded by handicap study. The second reason to study handicap Shogi is that it is widely played. Most clubs in Japan and in the United States stipulate that handicap games should be played in formal club play and in many tournaments whenever there is more than a single rank difference between the opponents. Moreover, the Shoreikai (professional training organization) also follows this practice in all official games, though except for special events only the smallest handicap is used. There is also the tradition of an annual game between the Japanese champion (Meijin) and the Japanese Amateur champion, at Bishop handicap. The Basic Rules. When a handicap is given, the stronger player removes the specified pieces from the board, and they are retired from the game. The player with the extra piece(s) is called Sente and the player without is Gote. Gote always moves first in a handicap game, as if Sente's first move was the "capture" of the handicap pieces. In the rare case of mutual entering Kings (Jishogi), when the time comes to count points, Gote gets credit for the pieces removed at the start. In some events, it is stipulated that in case of a draw by repetition or a tied Jishogi count, Gote wins, but this rule should not be assumed. Because the extra piece(s) for Sente are on their initial squares, which may not be ideal, the handicaps are not quite as large as they seem; the extra pieces though useful are also targets for Gote sometimes. Some people feel that to make the handicaps fully valid the extra piece(s) should be in hand rather than on the board, which would be much more difficult for Gote, but this is not the way it is done. One must also keep in mind that Gote need only recover half the handicap to equalize the material, since he will get to use the captured material himself.