Pushing the water bottle away, Ayumu says, “I refuse.”
It took me a second to realize what he meant.
At first, I thought he was refusing the water, not my offer of a stalemate.
“………… What?”
“I REFUSE!!” Ayumu repeats and slams his fists down on the tatami mat and leans over the board, showing me he clearly wants to keep going.
“Hey ………… Think this through, will you?”
Some annoyance comes out in my voice. Players aren’t supposed to let that happen during a match, but Ayumu rejecting the stalemate gets under my skin.
The match will never end if we keep going from here.
Well, actually …… There will be an end. There’s a rule for that.
But going that far would be meaningless.
We both have enough points and there’s no chance of our Kings being checkmated. All we can do now is just produce an endless chain of Promoted Pawns.
It’ll become a stalemate in the end anyway.
“Yes, I know you’ll lose the first move advantage in a rematch. I completely understand where you’re coming from and I admire your willingness to fight to the end without giving up.”
I notice the observer, Usui-sensei coming into the arena through my peripheral vision but keep trying to get Ayumu to see reason.
“But all you’re going to do is muck up this match record and cause trouble for the staff at this hotel if you keep playing. This is a title match, remember? We’re not playing a practice match in the kids’ room anymore.”
“…………”
Compiling meaningless moves as a pro is called soiling the record. We hate it when people do that.
That’s because it’ll stay in that record forever.
For Ayumu, who has always honored tradition and cared about aesthetics, being criticized by future players for all eternity is something he should want to avoid at all costs.
I was absolutely sure he’d agree to a stalemate, but―――
“………… Are you aware of Mozart’s twilight years?”
He said something that had nothing to do with Shogi. M-Mozart?
I have no idea how to respond to that, but Usui-sensei does it for me.
“He was a boy genius who wrote his first piece of music as a five-year-old, but his money dried up along with his popularity as he got older. Word is he couldn’t even pay for a headstone on his grave or a funeral when he passed away.”
“Yes. Mozart spent his final years in isolation …… But it was not due to financial struggles ……”
Ayumu is so completely absorbed in the board that he doesn’t notice the difference between our voices.
He just keeps talking like a witchdoctor casting a curse ……
“Prominent figures like Bach and Handel were history in Mozart’s day. Beethoven had yet to distinguish himself as a composer and Wagner wasn’t even born yet. He advanced too far ahead of his time …… to the point that his contemporaries couldn’t comprehend his music and left him out in the cold ……”
“That’s how it always is for prodigies. I speak from experience.”
The creator of Usui System acknowledges Ayumu’s point and then asks an obvious question.
“But what does that have to do with this match?”
“I will not allow Yaichi Kuzuryu to become another Mozart.”
Ayumu’s voice shakes with glee, but he never once looks away from the board.
“Finally …… I have finally made it this far. At last, the true battle can begin. This match will end everything, once and for all. Judgment shall be cast …… before the 500th move.”
“?! A-Ayumu …… Are you seriously trying to make that happen?!”
Shogi rules took one player refusing a stalemate when all the conditions were met into account.
So there are a few ways to settle it.
First, the match has to continue all the way to 500 moves.
The regulation currently says that all matches that reach 500 moves will be unconditionally replayed from the beginning.
Ayumu is talking about the other rule.
It says that if a player meets specific conditions, that player will be recognized as the winner if they declare that they have met all the conditions.
In the Shogi world, matches end with one player lowering their head and acknowledging their loss. This is the one exception when the winner can declare their own victory.
It’s called―――
“The Nyugyoku Victory Declaration ……!!”
The four people in here other than Ayumu harmonize.
Usui-sensei looks worried that he could make the correct call as the observer with all those complicated rules in play.
Noboryou 3-dan is in utter despair thinking about how much longer she’s going to have to stay sitting on her ankles.
The journalist Ms. Mato rips up everything she wrote so far because now the match will either end in a victory declaration or a 500-move stalemate.
As for me ……… A certain moment popped up in my head…..
During the first match, when I had to choose between going for a checkmate or playing Double Nyugyoku….. That look on Ayumu’s face when I decided not to play Double Nyugyoku …… He looked lonely, almost hurt.
“Th-There’s no way …………”
I get back to the match to see if that really is the case.
Ayumu plays his next move instantaneously.
Seeing him keep all the victory declaration conditions in mind, in addition to the point tally and avoiding checkmate while extending the match under one-minute Shogi …… that no way became a definitely.
Ever since these rules were set in place, no match between human beings has ever been decided by a victory declaration.
The conditions are just that strict.
While I doubt that even pro players have them all memorized, the biggest reason no one does it is because―――
“In the event the conditions have not been met, the declaring player will lose the match.”
That.
You have to completely grasp not only your own pieces, but your opponents as well in a matter of seconds.
Most will settle for the tie than crosses that razor-thin bridge.
But Ayumu, who has already rejected a stalemate, is making every move necessary to meet all the conditions.
He’s not even hesitating. He would have had to have researched to get this far without making any mistakes.
Just knowing the conditions doesn’t mean you can play this efficiently!
“Ayumu …… Don’t tell me you were expecting this and researched how to play Double Nyugyoku strategies?!”
“Not I.”
“Huh?”
“He was the one who ventured into the boundless possibilities that exist post-Double Nygyouku. Though he never had a chance to show it in a match, he kept researching …… For years and years, he thoroughly dissected this very battle! I am merely benefiting from the fruits of that labor!”
The he Ayumu is talking about.
Who was it that spurred on talks of Shogi’s solution, accurately predicted the future and even set a rule that would soon be necessary?
“The …… Mei ….. jin ……?”
I heard that everyone had doubts when the Meijin first proposed the Nyugyoku Victory Declaration because it was so complicated and unrealistic.
But after listening to Ayumu’s story …… I get a different picture.
―――Was it because he wanted to enjoy Shogi even more ……?
All of Awaji’s Double Nyugyoku match records plunged me into despair.
Seeing all those matches, which would end in either a declaration or a stalemate at the 500th move all lined up, made me believe that was Shogi’s inevitable future and it broke me inside. How could Shogi be so flawed?
But my friend sitting across the board is saying this:
Don’t give up before figuring out the intricacies of Double Nyugyoku matches.
“Fine then, show me what’s possible!”
“Acknowledged!!”
A duke it out over the shoulders type of brawl. The true mark of a Double Nyugyoku match!