From: Pieter Stouten <STOUTEN <at> EMBL <dot> BITNET>
Date: 13 oct 1990
Subject: Report on the East meets West tournament in Germany,

First East meets West Shogi Tournament, Heidelberg, 29 & 30-9-1990.
===================================================================
 
It is already almost two weeks after the tournament took place. So
this is not completely fresh news.
It was the first and the last tournament in which people from the
German Democratic Republic took part, because three days later that
country ceased to exist. It was a truly international event, too,
with participation from USA, Netherlands, FRG and GDR. The number of
participants was a bit low (10), but our goal was to provide the
possibility to Shogi players from all over Germany to meet and get to know
each other and play Shogi. The second reason for organizing this event was
to have the first general meeting of Shogi Deutschland.
The tournament was not sponsored, but we managed to keep the cost for
participants reasonably low by providing free overnight accomodation and
not charging an entry fee.
 
The weekend was split in two. The first day was used to assess the grades
of players, because several of them were isolated players until now or
had only played postal games. The dan-graded players Gerald Hertneck and
Pieter Stouten served as a reference [Dan-grades can only be awarded by
national associations. Kyu-grades are more or less free; they can be
obtained in clubs or after tournaments].
The a-priori current grade of grade-less players was assessed by the
tournament controller. A win caused a player's current grade to increase
by 1/3, a loss in a decrease by the same amount. This system was used by
Jim Bates at several London tournaments. Handicaps were determined by the
difference in current grades [see file SHOGI RANKING in the SHOGI-L
archives]. Handicaps had to be used because of the large strength
differences between the players (ranging from 15-kyu to 3-dan). Players
who won 3 out of 4 games were suggested a higher grade. All games were
played with time limits of 30 minutes with 30 seconds byoyomi.
 
The Sunday featured a regular McMahon tournament. Handicaps were
determined by taking the difference of the suggested grades of the
Saturday minus 2. This was to done to compensate for the really large
differences in strength, without depriving the stronger players completely
from the advantage of being stronger. On Sunday grades were NOT updated
after each game. The winner of the tournament was decided by the number
of wins (NOT the McMahon score). The winner was Erwin Unruh (9-kyu),
runner-up was young Frank Soelter (6-kyu), a promise for the future !
 
Pieter Stouten, 13-th October 1990.