From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 14 feb 1996 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 622, Feb. 14 1996) Who will be the challenger of Meijin Habu? Usually the A-junisen is a very close matter with many surprises and an exciting last round. This year is no exception. By losing or winning a game, danger of relegation could turn into a bid for the challengership or the other way around. Only Ariyoshi's fate was clear after six straight losses. I will be surprised if we see the 60 year old fox back at the highest level. Anyway, last week the next to last round was being played and even though there have been no decisions, the situation is now much clearer. Leaders Morishita and Moriuchi won, against Nakahara and Ariyoshi respectively. They stay at two losses and now have six wins. They are followed by Yonenaga (beating Kato) and Tanigawa (beating Takahashi). These are the four players with hope to become the challenger. Shima beat Murayama and because of the other results, this means that both are safe from relegation. The other three, Kato, Takahashi and Nakahara all have their fate in their own hands (all three have a 3-5 record). Kato has the worst Junisen position, but because Takahashi and Nakahara play each other in the final round, a win against Morishita would keep him in the A-class. A tough task, but not impossible. Predictions? I have seen a lot of amazing final round results in the A-class in the past ten years, so I dare make none. Let's just wait and see... Also a big round in C1 last week. Leaders Miura and Nakagawa (7-1) had to play rivals Goda and Hatakeyama (6-2). Because the latter two have a better Junisen position, a victory would mean that a win in the final round would mean promotion to B2. The importance of these games was illustrated by Goda, who played the game in kimono. Even though this is virtually required in title matches, it is highly unusual in other games. (There are no fixed rules, though. Sometimes a player will play a title match game in a suit and sometimes a player chooses a kimono for non title match game.) Playing in kimono is sometimes used to show the determination of a player to win the game. If it was the kimono or Goda's superior strength is hard to say, but he managed to win the game. Hatakeyama also won, so they are now in the driving seat. Sato Yasumitsu seems too serious to party too much after his promotion to the A-class. Still, he lost two important games last week. A new Ryu-O title match is very much in doubt after a first round loss against Tanaka in Group one. There is a second chance, but thus far only Habu managed to fight his way back to a Ryu-O title after a first round loss. Sato also lost his game against Maruyama in the Oi-league. It is still early days, but bad starts in small leagues like the Oi are often significant. Finally, a word on the Osho game. The game has not really started yet, but we already have two surprises. The first is Habu's choice of Yokofudori instead of fourth file rook. Second, Tanigawa's choice for the Nakahara system. As far as I know it is the first time this system is played in a title match. I always thought that most professionals found it a little suspect and only Nakahara himself continued to use it (in last week's A-junisen game for example). Maybe this game will show differently... Reijer -- Dr. 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