From: John Kenney EMBL-HEIDELBERG DE> Date: 7 may 1992 Subject: Report on the Pieter Stouten Memorial Handicap Shogi Tournament EMBL PIETER STOUTEN MEMORIAL HANDICAP TOURNAMENT 25 and 26 April 1992 at the EMBL, Meyerhofstrasse 1, 6900 Heidelberg. When I found out that Pieter Stouten was leaving EMBL this year I began to anticipate the loss of a friend as well as an enthusiastic Shogi player. I first became aware of Pieter through his prodigious computer use. In fact, it was while impatiently waiting for one of my computer jobs to start on a batch queue that I "fingered"* this Stouten (who had what seemed like an endless string of jobs being submitted to the same batch queue) and I found out that he played Shogi. That at least moderated my annoyance at having to wait for my job to run. I had played Shogi for about a year in England, but since coming to the EMBL, Heidelberg I had stopped playing. So I sent a message to Pieter asking if we could play sometime. And even though he thrashed me soundly in our first game, we both began to play again (Pieter also had been suffering a Shogi hiatus). Soon thereafter, with Tomio Sakamoto (the Japanese vice-consul in Frankfurt), we came up with the idea of organizing Shogi in Germany. This was later realized at the East Meets West Shogi Tournament**; and with its participants we formed Shogi Deutschland. Pieter along with Klaus Blumberg and Reinhold Soelter were its executive committee. Pieter, known for his numerous Shogi contacts and "subtle tact," was voted into the office of International Relations. Therefore, in order to honor Pieter's contribution to Shogi in Germany I, along with Alan Sawyer (and eventually Pieter***), organized this memorial tournament. Even though it was organized and advertized with short notice, the tournament was a success. There were a total of 24 participants of seven nationalites, of which seven were dan-level players, eleven were EMBL club members and four were Japanese. Players came from all over Germany, including the former DDR (Dirk Bielefeld), as well as three from France. We even had Chess Grand Master Gerald Hertneck of Muenchen participating. The players all played in one group and were paired under the McMahon system. Initial McMahon scores were 1 for all players of 2-kyu and above and 0 for all others. A modified handicap system was used so as to allow interesting play among the wide range of playing strengths****. The tournament ended in dramatic style. Guillaume Schmidt was playing hot Shogi and went into the last round undefeated. Yet, in that game he had to play another hot player in the tournament, Klaus Blumberg. Klaus, having suffered his first loss in the previous (fifth) round to Tomio Sakamoto came back and defeated Guillaume in a handicap game tieing them both for first place with 5-1 records. However, Tomio, playing just as hot as Klaus and Guillaume (his only loss was to Guillaume), beat Pieter in his last game to go 5-1 and tie for first. On the tie-break Guillaume took top honors followed by Tomio and then Klaus. All three won Shogi Deutschland T-shirts*****. Klaus's was arguably the hardest won. He played four dan-level players, beating three of them, overcoming reduced (by two grades) handicaps, earning him the promotion by two grades to 7 kyu. Two new comers to the game and EMBL club members, Andrea Musacchio and Fabio Rossi (both of Italy), played well and came in 4th and 5th respectively, winning copies of the Shibu Magazine (a quarterly publication of Nihon Shogi Renmei) and earning promotions to 10 kyu and 12 kyu, respectively. Detailed results are incorporated in the file TOURNA RESULTS in the SHOGI-L archive. My level of play was good, but my results unsatifactory. I scored only two wins, but I gave Tomio Sakamoto and Denis Lerminet (1-dan) good games, although I eventually lost both. My only terrible game was played in the first round against Pieter. The participants response to the tournament was very good. I was asked if we would have another. I think that's a good idea. John Kenney InterNet: Kenney EMBL-Heidelberg DE Notes: * To get information on a user ID we use a command called FINGER. ** East and West Germans were invited to play in a free tournament at EMBL, Heidelberg on 29 and 30 September 1990 with the idea of forming the German Shogi association. *** Those who know Pieter understand that he is enthusiastic about organizing things, including his own memorial tournament. **** The handicaps were based on the difference in playing strength minus two. No hadicaps were used between two players of 2-kyu and above. All games played without handicap will be used for ELO rating calculation. *****The T-shirt has a copy of the picture from the back of Shogi For Beginners (a hugh rampaging Samurai with a Lance Shogi piece at the end of spear) with SHOGI DEUTSCHLAND written underneath. They cost 40DM each and are printed in color on quality "beefy" T-shirts. People interested in getting one should contact me.