Chu Shogi - KaijiAUT v dax00 #7

8七歩

this is complicated 🧐

What the...

8六歩

I didn't see this for some reason. I give up. Thank you for the game

ありがとうございました。

I do quite like zwischenzüge

The kirin and phoenix are terrible at defending pieces. Perhaps their presence makes it seem as if pieces around them are defended, when they actually aren't. It reminds me back to your game with Evert, where both you and he missed that his lion was totally free for 23 moves.

I see, I think I did learn something here. 

If you want we can play another game. Or if you like to, we can try to analyze a game we played before like you said, which seems more difficult but might be interesting. In the end I don't think I can manage both simultaneously, but to do one would be great. I let you choose

It'll help you more if we do an analysis. I also much prefer to hear about what your thoughts were during our previous games, since you seem hesitant to ask questions. Whatever you didn't understand, I should have at least a reasonable grasp on, if not only because you faced my strategy, after all.

Post-game analysis is vitally important for growth as a player. It saddens me to not be able to discuss a game afterwards with my opponent.

I played [14. 9六仲] because I sensed you had a chance to move 9七仲 reasonably for move 13. Instead, you played [13. 2九竪]. What was your thought begins that move? I like to take a little space wherever I can, if it seems maintainable and follows the gameflow.

It comes down to player discretion how one wishes to proceed in such positions, but it seems to me that there is some credit to be given to how well a player can sense correct timing of moves. That was when my sense said it was time to take the square, and I almost never play against my instinct. It just takes more games to build up good senses.

What did you try to achieve with [15. 10七歩]? It seemed like a wasted move to me, in my favor even. It definitely would've been unwise for me to play 10六歩 anyways, which would've allowed you an easy way to trade off and open the file. By pushing that pawn, you prevented another piece from getting to 10七, as well as making it much more difficult to get any semblance of control on that file. I, of course, was able to take advantage later by getting my 角 onto 12四.

That pawn move was the first definitively bad move of the game. It just turned my weak side into a stronghold. You also could've just brought your horse into the center to trade them off. That would've lost a couple tempi, but compared to the pressure I was able to sustain, that didn't seem like such a bad option.

5七歩 was a perfectly good option for you through most of the opening, but you didn't play it. And then when it was your best option later on, you still didn't play it. The idea behind that is relatively straightforward. It cuts off the file, whether it's taken or not, and, if you managed to get another piece to eye 5六, would cost me an extra tempo each way over the file.

You played [59. 4七仲], which didn't lose immediately but was less than ideal. Without seeing 5七歩, I can understand why, but it still is a tempo worse and with worse shape. 5七歩 also would have taken the sting out of any potential sacrifice invasions along your right side, by allowing you to play the interference move 5六角,...

• (☗5七歩☖2九角成☗同金☖同獅☗4七獅☖6五馬右☗5六歩☖同馬寄[doesn't work]☗同角...), compared to...

  (☗random☖2九角成☗同金[now a blunder]☖同獅☗4七獅☖6五馬右☗5六角☖同馬寄☗5六•6七獅☖3九居食い...)

after which the lines get really messy and confusing. I most certainly would not have gone for the aggressive option in that case.

Interference ideas become a lot more relevant where the lions are involved. 

8. 7六馬 might not be such an interesting move, but I already felt like loosing the centre early on. I was thinking about posdible diagonals to play against that, but didn't find any. Therefore I played 2九竪. Main idea was to build up the flank somehow and get the pressure there, but I didn't follow this plan consequently later on. My first idea was to move 2十角 instead of the 飛, but than I felt like blocking myself to much there.

About the pawn push 10七歩... this was obviously a bad choice. I just thought this will stop you from getting active on that flank, so after this move I can concentrate on the other. Because you already pushed your go between there, I thought you might try to get space there. Bad thinking.

To trade off the 馬 would be good as you said, but I didn't do it exactly because I thought it would cost too much tempi. 

The 銅 which first blocked 4十 was awful. I should have moved 角 to the centre first, the whole idea about sending the 銅 to the centre was bad and cost time which could have been invested to the flank. My reasoning was simple to weaken your center controll. Well...

About the situation at the flank, I didn't foresee it early enough. After trading my 竪 with your 飛 I was little bit happy. I know material don't mean much and this trade was not especially good, but I still was confident to be able to defend the flank.

But I underestimated your 獅. Especially after you moved 1六獅 it was clear in how bad shape my formation were standing. Usually you would cut of such a lion move with your own lion, but due to the situation in the center my lion was just standing there, blocking my diagonal. I consider the center control of you in combination with the inactivity of my lion as a crucial key to my loss.

After I trade off my 獅 the game seemed quite over.

99. 六十虎 was just to cover the square and open the room for the 金.

5七歩 somehow doesn't appear to me. But yes now I see it.

Overall I didn't focus enough on anything, blocked myself and didn't solved the center and my lion situation. 

I don't have to ask too much into your reasoning behind muves, because they turned out well in the long plans and therefore explained themselves through the game. 

You summarized the key points well enough. It's good that you can pinpoint what went wrong. I caught you in a moment of neglect, took you out of balance, and never let you fully recover that balance. Once you lost balance, it was nigh on impossible to get any counterplay. Simple ideas are fine against most people, but you must remember at least to put your opponent under pressure. This does not mean to carelessly attack, rather to set up situations that force them to stay alert to numerous possibilities.

Strategy is my strong suit, not tactics, so I always try to steer the game into a battle of ideas, not into a tactical melee. I only concede counterplay in about 3.5% of games, so you shouldn't feel too bad in that regard.

The main alternative moves I had closely looked at during the game were [39. 3十飛] and [43. 2八銅]. I considered those to be good attempts at trying to hold the position. Whether or not they actually worked is pretty difficult analysis.

Besides that, and perhaps a loose sacrifice of your 4-pawn, opening a square for your 竜, I didn't see much you could have done to stop the bleeding. I offered you a long premove, which was probably a bit too kind, since it at least would have given you some glimmer of hope on that side of the board.

Advancing your 横 was a reasonable approach to hold your line. I saw no problem with that. For your last move, if you had seen that your 豹 was loose and played appropriately, I was going to chase your 横 off that rank with my 銀.

I think the most obvious and rectifiable area for your improvement is shape recognition. The one problem with playing regular games to learn shapes is that they can take a long time. And it takes a lot of games to pick up the more obscure shapes, if you even manage to notice their nuances. So, we preferably want a shorter exercise that achieves the same goal, to at least an acceptable level of similarity to real chu shogi.

It would be really cool to have some puzzles where you have to play a series of moves to complete the optimal shape or exploit a weakness in the opponent's shape. That kind of thing takes a lot of time to get right. I could probably make 3-4 puzzles in an hour, if my focus is good. "dax00's chu shogi tesuji trainer" has a nice ring to it.

Until then, I came across this board configuration on Twitter. It seems to be a good learning board for beginners, to get a feel for the game, without committing to a long game on the 12×12 board. This theoretically should be harder to win decisively. Perhaps you'd like to give it a try?

I'm also fine with discussing this game further if you have any questions, discussing another of our past games, or staying a new regular game of chu shogi. 

I am also happy to receive general questions of the following nature: "What do I aim for if my opponent does ...?" "How do I avoid ...?" "Is [insert move] possible in [... type] of opening?" 

Thank you for your further advice. I wish I could play more games generally. Unfortunately our asian chess group in vienna is in no good shape at the moment. Therefore it's a slow progression, the only games I play right now are the game with you and evert. Might become better after summer.

Yes thank you for the offer, of course I would be interested in doing the chu shogi puzzles. Sounds great. 

And yes let's try the 10x10 variant. This might be also interesting to introduce players to chu shogi. Might be an opportunity to improve player base if it is good balanced. I am very curious let's give it a try.

I really appreciate that you play and explain me, although the skill difference.