My question is. . . while Alekhine was there, surely someone showed him how to play a little Shogi. It would be interesting to see how he did. When I learned Shogi, it took me one game to learn all the pieces, one game to adjust to the difference and strategy, and I won the third game I played. (Of course, there's always more to learn.)

Some of the shogi players I know, who also played chess usually ended up with bizarre and rather undynamic pawn structures owing to the difference between the two games.

It actually doesn't surprise me that a lot of chess masters when first playing shogi play like beginners. Many chess masters today have such solid backgrounds in opening theory, that when they first play Shogi, it's difficult for them to form a plan, and they spend a lot of time floundering about.

I play fairly well in the middle game of shogi, but I still get hammered occasionally due to a lack of depth in my openings. (Probably worse now since I rarely get to play shogi anymore.)

I'm not familiar with Satou and Morioka. Where do they play in Europe?

I'd definetly noticed a difference in the handling of the chess pieces by Shogi players, they don't seem to realize how dynamic they can be in play.

By the way, what's the name of the Englishmen who occasionally appears on NHK some Sunday mornings and does commentary on the shogi games, I think he's around 4th or 5th dan. . . or wait, was he a Go player? Maybe he appeared on NHK's Go show and I'm getting them confused.

. . . or was it you? heh.

So, what's Kyoto Shogi? Is it some radical variant played or originated in the old capital? By the way, exactly what dan are you? I think I guessed that you were 2nd or 3rd at one point. Are you a member of the Shoreikai? Perhaps I should ask you these questions in e-mail.

After a few days rest he gave his first exhibition in Japan on the 20 January at the Hotel Imperial, Tokyo. According to contemporary sources this was a blindfold display against fourteen players, although, Alekhine in My Best Games 1924-1937, p275, states that it was on fifteen boards. All the sources agree that Alekhine won on every board. This event was organised by the Japanese Shogi Association, who provided two speakers, one Japanese and the other English, who acted as intermediaries between Alekhine and his opponents. The names of all the players taking part were given in Les Cahiers de l'Echiquier Francais, 1933, p114; they were; Mrs Kon, Mosler, Gotzscheke, Kimura, Kramer, Clausnitze, Alexander, Baumfeld, Nakajima, Ishida and Mmes. Freeman, Mitamura, Knoll and Asami. More than half were European and there was a high proportion of female players. Grace Freeman, one of the woman players, later became Alekhine's third wife.

Alekhine's game against Kimura was widely published in contemporary magazines from across the world and he also selected it for inclusion in My Best Games 1924-1937. In view of the remarks given below, which casts some doubt on the authenticity of this game, it is worth noting that Kimura was definitely listed as one of the participants taking part in the exhibition.

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/...

Conclusively proving, from the horse's mouth, that this game was indeed played-

"Richard Sams (Tokyo) informs us that an article by Yoshio Kimura entitled ‘Thoughts on Chess’ was published on pages 190-193 of the magazine Bungei Shunju, April 1933. Below is the complete text, in our correspondent’s translation from the Japanese...

"Although I am considered a strong chessplayer in Japan, I must seem to him a mere novice. Nevertheless, when he sat down to play me, he showed no sign of relaxing his attention, and at moments where an unexpectedly interesting position arose he studied the position afterwards and explained it with the attitude of a researcher. His kindness and obvious passion for the game made this encounter a very pleasant experience for me."

Alekhine scored +15=0-0. One of the games was against Grace Freeman, who later became Alekhine's third wife.