From: Reijer Grimbergen <grimbergen <at> NICI <dot> KUN <dot> NL>
Date: 16 oct 1995
Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no.605, 11-10-95)

Sorry this is a little late, but even I am busy sometimes :-).

Again, not a very exciting week in professional Shogi. No title match going
on and no decisions about challengers for titles. This means that again the
ladies get a chance to step into the limelight. The front page is for the
"Ladies Open Tournament", a tournament sponsored by Shukan Shogi. The three
game final is between Shimizu (ladies Meijin), who already won the
tournament four times (and the last three tournaments in a row), and
Nagazawa (3-dan), who never won a major tournament in her 10 year
professional career. She is more famous for her singing voice than for her
Shogi and had a record of 3 wins and 14 losses against Shimizu. However,
Nagazawa caused a major upset by winning the first game by staying cool in
defence against a strong Shimizu attack.

Also in Shukan Shogi a small article about Nakai (ladies Osho) who gave
birth to a second daughter on August 31st. She returned home and
immediately won two postponed games in the Meijin league against Takamura
and Nagazawa. Her winning record does not seem to be influenced by
pregnancy or childbirth.

For all Ranging Rook players, who have no idea who to handle Double Ranging
Rook, there is a new book by Ranging Rook specialist Sugimoto (4-dan)
called "Ai-Furi Kakumei". I am not completely sure of the translation, but
it should be something like "How to gain control of the Double Ranging
Rook". It is published by Mainichi communications and they called it the
double ranging rook bible. The book is 1200 Yen.

In the second round of the Osho league Maruyama (6-dan) suffered his second
loss against veteran Ariyoshi (9-dan) and seems to have lost his chances to
become challenger to titleholder Tanigawa. Other players in this league are
Habu (seeking the only title he has not yet won), Gouda, Nakahara, Murayama
and Moriuchi. They play a round robin tournament to decide the winner, so
there is little to say at this stage, Maruyama being the only player to
have played two games.

Finally, in the top Junisen class (the winner of this class will challenge
Habu for the prestigious Meijin title), Takahashi beat Kato, thereby making
clear that he has wicked plans this year. His 3-1 record is the best in the
class and for the time being he is the man to chase. Kato falls back to 2-2
and has to make sure that he can stay in this class.

Reijer Grimbergen