From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 2 apr 1996 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 629, April 3rd 1996) It's a good thing Habu got married this week, because these couple of weeks are about as quiet as the first week of the year. The only games played this week are qualifying games for several tournaments. The only important game played was between Sato and Yonenaga to reach the semifinals of the Kisei tournament. As I wrote before, this tournament has turned out to be a clash between generations and thus far the veterans were on the receiving end with Miura beating Nakahara and Yashiki beating Minami. However, 52-year old Yonenaga hit back by beating Sato with a right side king, a rather popular opening these days. Tanigawa has a private battle with Shima using this opening. In the final round of the A-junisen Shima won, but this week Tanigawa found an improvement and beat Shima in the qualifying group of Ryu-O. But let's get back to Habu's marriage. It was all over the television last Thursday. One thing I learned in these couple of months in Japan is that the Japanese just love marriages. I have the feeling someone famous is getting married every day or otherwise they make a couple famous if they are getting married (an interesting extension of Warhols 15 minutes of fame). Breakfast TV is packed with wedding bliss and so it was hardly a surprise to have my morning tea with Habu and Rie. Habu's bride seemed very nervous at the press conference, even though you might think she is used to a little media coverage, being an actress (I do not know how famous she is by the way). Well, I guess you don't marry a poisoned snake everyday ;-). Well, the happy couple has already returned from their honeymoon of only two nights and three days. Moriuchi is waiting in the Meijin match and he is out for blood... There is an article about the upcoming Meijin match with some interesting data. First of all, the Meijin match has never been played between two players this young. Moriuchi and Habu are both 25 years old and their combined age of 50 is the lowest in history. Like chess, shogi seems to become a young man's game. Also, in the last 14 Meijin matches there is a 7-7 split between a victory of the title holder and a victory of the challenger. The mutual score between Moriuchi and Habu is 9-6 in Habu's favour, which is not such a big difference. Of course, Habu is still the favourite. His experience on the big stage will be a big factor with Moriuchi playing only his first major title match. Finally, let's pick out some interesting words from the players promoted from B1 and C2. Sato Yasumitsu is very cautious (as he usually is), but he is "thinking about becoming the challenger and not about relegation". I think he has a good chance to sweep the A next year. Much more confident words from Mori, a player who is not usually stuck for words anyway. He does not fear the young players and gives himself a chance to become the challenger if he can get 2-1 from his games against Nakahara, Yonenaga and Kato. His aim is getting kachikoshi (majority of wins) which almost automatically means he will be fighting for the challengership. Let's what and see if he can put his money where his mouth is :-). Another confident player is Kitahama, who promoted to C1 by winning all games in C2. He says he has had some problems adjusting to professional life in his rookie year, especially effectively using the vast amount of time he was suddenly given for a game (in professional games a player usually gets five hours or more, while in the sandan league of the shoreikai time limits are 90 minutes per player). Having made the adjustment, he feels that his promotion is only one step on the way to the A-class. Nakata, however, knows how difficult the Junisen is and he is much more careful. He is only glad to be out of C2. Interesting detail: in the final round Nakata played against Ito Hirobumi, who blocked his path to C1 six years ago. It crossed Nakata's mind that history might repeat itself, but during the game he managed to focus on his Shogi and win. Sensaki is also just glad that he is out of C2. It was the first time in his eight year career as a professional that he had promotion in his own hands going into the final round and it proved enough. He is looking forward to playing strong opposition in C1 next year. That's all for this week, Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Electrotechnical Laboratory Palcious Tsukuba 302 1-1-4 Umezono 1-24-8 Ninomiya Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305 JAPAN 305 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp Tel: 0298-59-1606 WWW: http://www.etl.go.jp:8080/etl/suiron/~grimberg Tel: +81-(0)298-54-5080 extension: 67431 Fax: +81-(0)298-58-5918