From: GRIMBERGEN KUNPV1 PSYCH KUN NL Date: 25 jul 1990 Subject: Professional Shogi The response to my mail about the professional Shogi tournaments showed that there is a need for information about professional Shogi. This gave me the idea to start a series on the Shogi Discussion List about the most important professional Shogi players called "Meeting the professionals". This mail is part one of this serie and I hope to have the time to write something on a regular basis (once a week, for instance). Your remarks are always welcome, either direct kunpv1 psych kun nl> or by means of Shogi-L. MEETING THE PROFESSIONALS part1: Oyama Yasuharu Date of birth: March 13th 1923 Promotion record: 4-dan in 1940, 5-dan in 1941, 6-dan in 1943, 7-dan in 1947, 8-dan in 1948, 9-dan in 1962 (first 9-dan ever) Major titles: 18 times Meijin, 14 times 9-dan, 10-dan tournament (now replaced by the Ryu-o tournament), 16 times Kisei, 12 times Oi, 9 times Oza, 20 times Osho. Special titles (titles gained by outstanding performance like winning a tournament a number of times in a row): 15th Lifetime Meijin, Honorary 10-dan, Honorary Osho, Honorary Kisei. Favorite opening: fourth file ranging rook Oyama is the living legend of professional Shogi. From 1952 until 1972 he was the indisputable king of Shogi. In those 20 years he won the Meijin title 18 times (!) and only lost two times against Masuda in 1957 and 1958. His 89 major titles and over 30 smaller titles set a record that will be almost impossible to beat, even by the other start of this century: Nakahara. Oyama won the Meijin-title 13 times in a row (from 1959 until 1971), the 9-dan, 10-dan tournament (first there was the 9-dan tournament, but when the 9-dan title became a honorary title for all professionals it was called 10-dan tournament in 1962) 10 times in a row (from 1958 until 1967), the Kisei 7 times in a row (1962-1965 and 1974- 1977, remember that the Kisei is held two times a year), the Oi 12 times in a row (1960-1971) and the Osho 9 times in a row (1963 - 1971). Amazing as these figures are, the strength of Oyama can best be measured by the fact that he is still, at the age of 67, one of the strongest professionals. Since his promotion to 8-dan in 1948 he has been either Meijin or played in the A-Junisen without dropping to class B1 once! Only in 1985 he had to stop playing Shogi fo a year because of an operation. Normally this means degradation to the B1 class, but in the special case of Oyama the Renmei (Japanese Shogi Association) made an exception and let him keep his A-place. He proved them right by becoming the Meijin challenger in 1986 at the age of 63 (he lost 4-1 against Nakahara). This year Oyama became very close to going down to B1, but he managed to win the decisive game against Kiriyama. If you think that at the age of 67 he might lose something of his ambition, you are wrong, because this year he became the challenger of Minami in the 15th Kio title match. Oyama really wanted this title, because it was the only title he had never won (it was started in 1974 when Oyama was no longer the dominating player he had been). Unfortunately, Minami was well prepared and won 3-0. Reijer Grimbergen