Thursday 26 November 2015

Speed is more important than Material in Endgame

It is often said "Speed is more important than Material in Endgame."
This mean you should put attacking the opponent's King fast or keeping your own King safe than gaining more material in endgame of shogi.
This concept is very important in shogi.
My example game is shown here.

Figure. 1 is opening position.
The opponent adopted 4th-file Rook and I adopted Right-hand 4th-file Rook with Anaguma.

 
figure. 1

The opponent responded well to my attack, and I was bad position in Middlegame (figure. 2). The entire kifu is shown below, so you may draw the opponent's response.

figure. 2

Figure. 3 is endgame position (opponent put S*5e). What do you move in this position?

 
figure. 3

I moved Sx6e without escaping Dragon.
This is because the opponent's N-6e is so powerful and Knight is effective for attacking the opponent's Mino castle.
After that, the game proceeded Sx4f, N*9d, K-9b, Sx7f (figure. 4).

figure. 4

In figure. 4, my king became in more safety than in figure. 3, while the opponent's King became in more danger.
In this way, I succeeded to close the gap and won the game.

The entire kifu is following.