Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 18 - Chapter 3.08

  The Series Where Offense Always Wins

The Crown Title Match is deadlocked at one win a piece. I’ll jump right to the end and say that the one who went first won every match through the sixth.

The third match was a Double Wing Attack.

But Ayumu’s version of it was so far removed from the modern Double Wing that nobody understood what he was trying to do.

“A 9 Six Pawn version of the Double Wing ...... Huuuh?! He moved the 1 Six Pawn up, too?!”

“The defender secured the seventh file in the meantime. Does that mean trash Kuzuryu has the lead?”

“Wait just a minute here! The offense has slid a Rook into the open 7 Four spot!! What purpose is there in doing that?”

“I don’t have a clue anymore.”

I heard that Shogi fans with software analysis were stunned and even the commentators on the broadcast had no idea what to say other than, “It’s a mystery.”

Actually, this formation is a mystery to both Ayumu and me, too. We don’t understand it, but this is what Awaji says is the best move and maintains the best balance in the formations.

Maybe that’s why Ayumu didn’t look all that happy even though he won, just like in the first match.

Fourth match.

The first move was mine this time, and I set up for a Double Wing Attack. Ayumu boldly accepts. A win here means he’ll have three victories, one away from taking the title, and he gunned for it at full speed.

“The challenger sure is in good form.”

“Kuzuryu-Crown is struggling to hold his ground.”

That’s apparently what analysts were saying at the sealing move.

On the contrary, I was burning bright.

Ayumu was trying to smother my attack by going on the attack himself despite being the defender. I vigorously sidestepped his strikes and took him out with a counter.

The biggest difference between this match and the second was that Ayumu kept playing even after his last shred of hope for a comeback faded ...... He eventually surrendered with the most heartbroken look I’ve ever seen on his face.

“............ I have been defeated.”

“Thank you for the match.”

I threw my head down to accept and we did a short review session. The staff and media people then watched, clueless, as he left them all behind. That brought us back to a tie at two wins a piece.

Fifth match. The formation turned out to be the one that everyone said would definitely show up at some point during the series: yagura.

Ayumu was counting on that yagura castle to win him this match. Even I, who knows the future, had to admit that one was nearly perfect.

“............ It’s beautiful ......”

I managed to hide my mouth with my fan as those words slipped out in the middle of the match.

Ayumu’s research leading up to this title match was so much further along than I ever dreamed it would be. The Meijin and Mr. Natagiri came through for him big time.

―――How did he make this much progress with only 100 match records to work with ......?

This yagura castle is like the whole of humanity’s wisdom coming together, crystalizing like an impenetrable diamond on the board.

I threw in the towel before I even took a swing at it.

Even though Ayumu was one win away from taking the title in the sixth match, I wasn’t worried at all because the first move was mine.

It was a yagura for both of us again.

The modern yagura is steadily morphing into something like a Double Wing and looking more like a rundown shack sinking into the ground than a castle. But the ones played a few decades from now tend to be well-defined strongholds. After computers rediscovered the benefits of the Snowroof formation, it steadily replaced the yagura before disappearing along with it. Maybe the more evolved computers understand pain and fear.

The match became a war of attrition that lasted over 300 moves.

“Haaa ...... Haaa ...... Hauuugh ......!!”

“Wheeeew――― ......”

Both of us were gasping for breath, shoulders rising and falling. There was no end in sight even at 11 p.m. on the second day, but I was holding up much better than Ayumu.

I was physically tired, sure, but never once did I think I was going to lose.

That mental leeway turned out to make all the difference.

“There!”

I was able to focus up until the very end, landing a fatal blow even as our Kings were cornered in mind-numbingly complex sequences.

Then, after 313 moves, I won. Now that we’re tied at three wins a piece, the full set is complete.

“...... Why won’t Kuzuryu play that 5 Eight King strategy he used against Shinokubo?”

“Probably because it’s too big of a risk.”

“Then Kannabe is just that good ......?”

I turned my back on their conversation and left the arena.

I get a phone call right after winning the sixth match.

“What the deal, Yaichi? Is he giving you that much trouble?”

It’s my older brother.

“Wasn’t Shogi’s solution either a Repetition Draw or Double Nyugyoku? Neither of those have happened yet.”

Just before the Crown Title Match started, I had a chance to talk with my brother for the first time in ages at Shinjuku’s Gyoen Park. Rather than congratulate me on winning or dispense some tough, brotherly love, he decides to pick a fight.

“You’ve started doubting the future you claim you saw, haven’t you, Yaichi? Your mindset always comes out in your Shogi. Always has, going way back.”

“And you can’t see past the surface, as always.”

I know he’s just taunting me, but I go along with it anyway.

“There hasn’t been a Repetition Draw or Double Nyugyoku because I’m purposefully avoiding them. It’d be easy enough to do it, but then it’d get copied right away. A title match coming down to multiple Repetition Draws and waiting moves? I’ll pass.”

“......”

“Besides, the only way to get to the wasteland Awaji showed me is for both players to play at the same level as a super computer. Ayumu and I aren’t that good.”

With human levels of Shogi skill, it’s hard to trigger that kind of Repetition Draw or stalemate.

Impossible, actually.

“Do you know what the largest paradoxical existence in this world is?”

“The Static Rook Party?”

“Yes. Because they play exactly the same strategy on offense and defense.”

I set the phone on the low table in my room and turn on the speaker so I can keep talking as I peel my sweat-soaked kimono off.

I’d been wanting someone to talk to.

One of the few people who lives within the same time frame.

Characters that time slips into the past in movies and TV shows typically use their knowledge of the future to live like kings, but the reality isn’t anywhere near as easy as it looks.

You can’t talk anywhere near as much as you used to because your secret might come out and knowing what’s going to happen next is a lot of weight to shoulder.

Day after day in overwhelming solitude chips away at your humanity.

“With Awaji on my side, I know for a fact that my research goes further than his. But since 100 matches worth of records of the most well-known Static Rook strategies have already been released, starting as the defender puts me at a huge disadvantage if his research has gone deeper than mine.”

“The first move is that big of an advantage: is what you’re saying ......?”

When playing formations that human beings came up with, the first move almost guarantees victory in Shogi.

As long as they play the best move every time, the offense will win. That’s just how Shogi is built.

I used to be able to ignore the paradox of Static Rook players using the same strategy on offense and defense, but I don’t think I can anymore.

Because, well, Ayumu and I have proven that the first move will win when both players use Bishop Exchange, Double Wing Attack, and Yagura strategies during this title match.

“Which is why he’d find a way to counter my research if I showed it early on in the series. I had to keep it hidden all the way to the end.”

In other words, the offense has to stay focused and play the best move every time to win.

Meanwhile, the defense has to hide their research knowing full well they’re at a disadvantage while building up enough power to land a knock-out punch if the offense does make a mistake.

“That’s a title match in the age of first-move victory ...... Makes you wonder why we play Shogi at all.”

“There’s no point complaining. Computers aren’t going anywhere.”

The era of pulse-pounding matches when players push their brains to the absolute limit is over.

Now all we have to do is find the move a machine says is best. It’s a contest of who can be the most like a computer when a new formation comes up.

“Hey, um―――”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“............ Never mind. I’m calling it a night. Bye.”

I was about to ask him about Ai Hinatsuru, but stop myself at the very last second and hang up.

There’s nothing wrong with asking him ...... But what Keika said is still in the back of my mind.

―――Man, am I glad I’m in a title match right now. It gives me something else to focus on ......

My goals are clear as day.

“Avoid the hell I saw at all costs and try to keep Ai Yashajin’s death flags as under wraps as possible.”

They’re doable, for sure.

For example, say the strongest software gave a 51 to 49 rating.

From a person’s point of view, the 51 looks like a 100. Everyone would choose to go with it.

Thus, the truth inside the 49 stays hidden.

“If I can hide half, then Shogi shouldn’t advance very fast at all ......”

But to do that, I need to be at the very top of the Shogi world. I have to be the best of the best.

My plan is based on a model from the past.

It was back when the Meijin had all seven titles.

Shogi was stagnant the whole time. Reason being that everyone tried to play exactly like the overwhelming powerful deity at the very top. Creativity vanished.

Ranging Rook strategies all but disappeared from the Sub League and the newest pros because everyone had their noses buried in the Meijin’s books.

“That’s what the world was like when Usui-sensei created System and claimed the Ryuo title. That guy is on a whole other level ......”

Prodigies like him don’t show up every generation.

Seriously, if someone asked me to come up with my own original strategy like System, I’d say, “That’s impossible.” I could become really strong, but creating something like a new strategy will never happen. Some people are even saying that you have to lose your creativity to get strong in this new Shogi era. It’s hard to be human.

“...... Still better than that barren wasteland. Much better.”

Back when I was playing match after match against Awaji.

It wasn’t until the final week that I could play a decent match with the supercomputer.

I never won, of course.

But I got to a point where I didn’t break somewhere in the middle and played to the end. That’s the first time Shogi ever sent me into despair.

Learning that the only opponent that could get me to go all-out was a machine.

Knowing that I’ll be stuck on a deserted island for the rest of my life.

“...... There’s no way any human being could beat me in that wasteland because no one who knows even the slightest bit about Shogi would ever research how to win that way ......”

I grab some carbonated water out of the fridge and drink it down while watching the night sky start to light up from the open window. The humid summer air feels heavy on my skin.

The seventh and final match is next.

If I get the first move, I can just play the standard all the way to victory.

My first title match against Ayumu will finish up with everyone seeing a false future. That’s probably the best result for everyone. Ayumu will be hurting, yes, but it’s not the worst case scenario.

“But ......”

If I’m on defense, then―――