Should You Start with 1-Move Tsume? How 1-Move and 3-Move Problems Differ
Hiroki Obara · Developer
Look for tsume shogi books in Japan and you will find 1-move books and 3-move books side by side. Some, like the 1-Move Tsume Handbook by the professional player Masahiko Urano, collect nothing but 1-move problems. On the other hand, the daily tsume shogi page on the Japan Shogi Association’s website starts at 3 moves. It is easy to be unsure which to begin with.
I should say first that Shogi365, the app I make, has no 1-move problems. The easiest level is 3-move tsume. With that in mind, this post covers how 1-move and 3-move problems differ, and where to start.
How 1-move and 3-move problems differ
In a 1-move problem, you are right if your one move mates. The defender never moves. All you have to check is three things: after this check, can the king escape, can it capture, can something be dropped in between?
A 3-move problem is check, the defender’s reply, and mate. The number is only two higher, but the content is quite different. For the first time you have to think about the opponent’s move. After your check, where does the king run? Which piece captures? Where does the defender drop a blocking piece? For each reply, you have to confirm that the third move mates.
This, reading one move of the opponent, is a big step between 1-move and 3-move problems.
What 1-move problems teach
1-move problems teach two things.
The first is seeing exactly what each piece controls. A gold does not cover the diagonal squares behind it, a silver does not cover the squares directly beside it, a knight jumps over pieces. You practise checking those squares one by one, for all eight squares around the king.
The second is learning the mating shapes. Named shapes such as gold on the head, side and tail are almost all mates in one. I wrote about them in Basic Checkmate Shapes in Shogi. Seeing many of them until they stick is what 1-move problem books are good for.
What first appears in 3-move problems
With 3-move problems, several ideas appear that 1-move problems do not have.
The biggest is the sacrifice. Your first move seems to give a piece away for nothing, the king takes it, and that brings the king into a mating shape. Many of the moves in Basic Tsume Shogi Tesuji first show up in 3-move problems. In a 1-move problem there is no reason to give anything up.
Next are branching replies. When the defender has two or three replies, every one of them must lead to mate. Looking at only one reply and deciding “that’s mate” is a common mistake in 3-move problems.
Another is the order of checks. When you have two pieces in hand, which one you use first can change the result. In a 1-move problem, order does not exist.
Who should start with 1-move problems
1-move problems suit these people as a place to start:
- People who have just learned how the pieces move
- People who can give check in real games but cannot finish the mate
- Children who have just learned shogi
What they share is that they cannot yet see what the pieces control or recognise mating shapes. If you go into 3-move problems in that state, you get stuck judging whether the third move is mate before you can even start reading the opponent’s reply. Seeing comes before reading, and there is a view that 1-move problems are what build that seeing.
How to start with children is also in Tsume Shogi for Kids.
Who can start with 3-move problems
On the other hand, these people can start with 3-move problems without trouble:
- People who have played a fair number of real games and can see mating shapes
- People who look at a 1-move problem and know the answer almost without thinking
If you can solve 1-move problems at a glance, that time can go to 3-move problems instead. Otherwise it is easy to end up just looking at answers while feeling that you are solving.
If 3-move problems stop you, go back to 1-move
You may start 3-move problems and find you can hardly solve any. In that case going back to 1-move problems is one way forward.
Going back is not a defeat. Most of the time, what stops people in 3-move problems is not reading ability but not seeing the mate on the third move. The third move is a 1-move problem in itself, so if you practise seeing shapes with 1-move problems and then return, you can put your attention where the reading is.
Another way back is to think about the third move first. Even if you do not know the first move, ask “if the king ends up here, is there a mate in one?” and then look for the first move that brings it there. Working backwards, a 3-move problem starts to look like an extension of a 1-move problem.
Shogi365 starts at 3 moves
Shogi365 is a tsume shogi app with 1,000 puzzles each of 3-, 5-, 7- and 9-move tsume. It has no 1-move problems. If you cannot yet see what the pieces control or recognise mating shapes, one order is to start with a 1-move book and move on to the app’s 3-move problems once you are comfortable.
In the app, any check can be played, right or wrong, and the defender replies automatically. If you miss a branching reply in a 3-move problem, the defender takes that escape, so you see on the board what you failed to read. If there is no mate within the move count, it is a failure, and you can retry up to three times. A hint lights up the piece to move and the square to move it to, and you make the move yourself. After solving, Review lets you step through the line one move at a time.
The rules of tsume shogi and how to solve are in Tsume Shogi for Beginners, and how to use the app is in Getting Started with Shogi365.
