Shogi Makes a Move

If mental concentration were an energy source, then all the electricity needs of downtown Los Angeles could be met from brain waves of two young men kneeling on floor pillows today before a game board in a Little Tokyo hotel suite.

There, for the first time in the United States, an important championship round of the chess-like Japanese game shogi is being played. The contestants are such superstars in their homeland that the match of exquisitely slow calculation is being broadcast live to television viewers in Japan.

Just to have defending champion Yoshiharu Habu and challenger Koji Tanigawa compete in California is a high honor for local shogi players. Fans from as far away as New York made pilgrimages to the New Otani Hotel on Thursday morning as the blue-robed contestants began the two-day round with ceremonial bows.

“This is the best day in my life, said San Diego resident Seiji Kawaberi. “After my wedding,” he quickly added.

Kawaberi is champion of an amateur club that meets every Saturday in Little Tokyo. He and his friends hope the Habu-Tanigawa match will entice more people to try the ancient game that is so beloved in Japan.

“This is a good opportunity for people to get exposed to shogi and a great opportunity to learn more about Japanese culture,” said Anastasia Telesetsky. A graduate student at UC Santa Barbara, she became intrigued with shogi while teaching English at a high school in Japan for two years.

Shogi has rules, terms and an aura of mental warfare similar to chess. But shogi is more complicated because pieces won from the opponent can be used again by their captor.

A household game may last an hour or two. But a championship round takes two sessions of eight hours each. A shogi genius like Habu may spend two hours contemplating a single move.

Stakes are high. After the New Otani round concludes today, the players will return to Japan for more until one wins four rounds in total. This championship, the Ryuo-Sen, carries a $300,000 prize, plus other participation awards. Sponsored by the Yomiuri Shimbun daily newspaper, it is one of the most important of the seven shogi titles in Japan.

Habu, 26, now holds six of those seven titles. “He is like Michael Jordan,” explained Masatoshi Ono, who is president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Japan Shogi Assn.

Tanigawa, 34, and also very well known, entered the suite first Thursday and knelt on a green pillow, with a pot of tea, a water bottle and a hand fan on a tray beside him. Habu then assumed the same position in front of a $50,000 table board of rare woods.

After Tanigawa made the first move, photographers and about 40 hushed fans left the room to the players and silent referees. Cameras captured the game and television commentators in a hotel banquet room analyzed each move. Big-time shogi finally had come to America.