From: GRIMBERGEN KUNPV1 PSYCH KUN NL Date: 13 jul 1990 Subject: Shogi Title-matches and ELO list Recently there have been some questions on the Shogi Discussion List about professional Shogi tournaments and about the ELO-list of professional players. In this mail I will try to answer these questions. If any List-users have other questions considering professional Shogi they can use the Shogi Discussion List or mail to me directly kunpv1 psych kun nl>. First about the professional tournaments. At the moment there are seven major tournaments and about twelve smaller tournaments. Information about the smaller tournaments is scarce. Some of these are tournaments only open to players younger than a certain age, others are Quickshogi tournaments (thinking time 15 minutes or less). Of course, a lot more can be said about the major tournaments and I will try to do so: 1) Meijin-tournament General remarks: Most important Japanese tournament. All professional players (about 130 players) are divided into five divisions. When you become a professional you are 4-dan and enter the lowest (C-2) division (Japanese word: Junisen). Every year a kind of "all-play-some"-tournament (every player only plays against some of the other players but his opponents are known at the start of the competition) is held in divisions C-2, C-1 and B-2 to decide promotion to a higher division. Promotion in division B-1 and A is decided by an all-play-all tournament. If you are promoted to a higher division you also get a higher dan-grade: 5- dan if you promote from C-2 to C-1, 6-dan from C-1 to B-2, 7-dan from B- 2 to B-1 and 8-dan from B-1 to A. (It is also possible to go down, but gained dan-grades are never lost.) The winner of the A-division becomes the challenger of the current Meijin. A best-of-seven match decides the winner. First Meijin-tournament: 1937 48th Meijin-tournament 1990: Nakahara (chall) - Tanigawa (holder) 4-2 Time of the year: April-July Time for each game: Division games 6 hours for both players. In the final match both players have 9 hours per game (these games take two days). When this time is used up the players get 1 minute for every move (Japanese: byoyomi). This byoyomi rule also applies to the games mentioned below. Main sponsor: Asahi newspapers 2) Ryu-o tournament General remarks: A rather new tournament to take the place of the old 10- dan tournament. All professionals are divided into six divisions. In division six a few amateurs are allowed to participate. In every division a knock- out tournament is played. The winners of all divisions and the runners-up of divisions 1,2 and 3 and both the numbers three of division 1 qualify for a final knock-out. The winner of this final knock out becomes the challenger of the Ryu-o title holder in a best-of-seven title-match. The best three players in each division promote to a higher division. First Ryu-o tournament: 1988 2nd Ryu-o tournament 1989: Habu (chall) - Shima (holder) 4-3 (1 jishogi) Time of the year: October-December Time for each game: 5 hours each player for normal games, 8 hours each player in the title-match. Main sponsor: Yumiuri newspapers 3) Kisei tournament General remarks: This tournament is held twice every year. Knock out with all professionals. Sixteen players qualify for the finals. Knock out decides the challenger of the title-holder in a best-of-five match. First Kisei tournament: 1962 55th Kisei tournament 1990: Nakahara (holder) - Yashiki (chall) 3-2 Time of the year: 1st match: December-February, 2nd match: June-August Time for each game: Normal games: 4 hours e.p, title match: 5 hours e.p. Main sponsor: Sankei newspapers 4) Oi tournament General remarks: Knock out tournament with all professionals. Twelve players qualify for the finals. They are divided into two divisions of six players. All play all in both divisions results in two candidate challengers. One game is played between these two and the winner becomes the challenger of the title-holder in a best-of-seven title match. First Oi tournament: 1960 30th Oi tournament 1989: Tanigawa (chall) - Mori (holder) 4-1 Time of the year: July - September Time for each game: Normal games 5 hours e.p., title match: 8 hours e.p. Main sponsors: Hokaido newspapers, Tsunichi newspapers, Nishinihon newspapers, Kobe newspapers, Tokyo newspapers, Tokushima newspapers. 5) Oza tournament General remarks: Knock out with all professionals. Sixteen players qualify for the finals. Winner of the knock out in this final becomes the challenger of the title-holder in a best-of-five match. First Oza tournament: 1953 37th Oza tournament 1989: Nakahara (holder) - Aono (chall) 3-2 Time of the year: September-October Time for each game: all games 5 hours each person. Main sponsor: Nihon Kezei newspapers 6) Osho tournament General remarks: Knock out with all professionals. Seven players qualify for an all-play-all tournament. The winner becomes the challenger of the title holder in a best-of-seven match. First Osho tournament: 1950 39th Osho tournament: Yonenaga (chall) - Minami (holder) 4-3 Time of the year: January - March Time for each game: normal games 5 hours e.p., title match 9 hours e.p. Main sponsors: Sports Nippon, Mainichi newspapers 7) Kio tournament General remarks: Knock out with all professionals. Thirty-three players qualify for the knock-out final. Winner becomes the challenger of the title-holder in a best-of-five match. First Kio match: 1974 15th Kio match: Minami (holder) - Oyama (chall) 3-0 Time of the year: February-March Time for each game: all games 5 hours e.p. Main sponsor: Kyodo Tsushin press company The Japanese also started to make an ELO-list of professional players. I like to stress that this is not an official list. It is not published in any official professinal magazine, only in Shogi Journal, a magazine about amateur Shogi. I don't have a subscription to this magazine, so the latest list I've seen was published in March. Another thing to bear in mind that there is no mathematical base for comparing the ratings in Shogi with ratings in chess. Still, it is a better way to compare the real strength of professionals, especially now there are a lot of young professionals who play a lot stronger than their dan-grade suggests. The best of the list are: 1) Nakahara (42) 9-dan 2697 2) Tanigawa (27) 9-dan 2681 3) Habu (19) 6-dan 2631 4) Takahashi (29) 8-dan 2576 5) Morishita (23) 6-dan 2573 6) Abe (22) 5-dan 2541 7) Sato (20) 5-dan 2539 8) Yashiki (18) 5-dan 2538 9) Aono (36) 8-dan 2536 10) Nakagawa (21) 4-dan 2523 To illustrate that the list will still need some time to settle before anything can be concluded from it I will give the positions of some of the best players in the last decades: Yonenaga 13rd place, Kato Hifumi 17th, Oyama 23rd, Tanaka 26th, Kiriyama 42nd, Ouchi 51st and Futakami 79th. Also notice the recent game between Habu and Maeda (91st place, ELO 2235) in the B2 junisen that Maeda won. Best wishes, Reijer Grimbergen