The art of one minute Shogi Blitz

August 8, 2013 by shogishack

I thought this kind of game play was only possible in Manga World (81 diver – There is an episode of main character playing one minute Shogi play).

This maybe an old news for some of you, but I have just found in the video clip on Youtube where professional players were actually doing one minute blitz as a part of attraction in Shogi program on tV.    Here is a link.   There, four young Shogi professionals play against each other.  Its amazing to see these games played out.   A commentator in pink suite is a retired pro.  In fact, half of the audience shown in the studio are Shogi professionals.  Commentator makes some hilarious comments, like “wow it actually looks like a decent game.” “The reason he did not promote the pawn was because he did not have time to turn the piece” and “Don’t think! whoever think longer is going to lose!”   But my favorite comment comes from  Kimura (8D), the judge.  who says before the second game “Let’s put your piece in the center of square”

Even if you don’t understand spoken Japanese, the video should be still a joy to watch.  On the last game, the winner actually win the game by mating his opponent’s king.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.