From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 6 mar 1996 Subject: Re: Habu and the Crown ...? "george (g.) jost" BNR CA> writes: > It has been said that professional Shogi will be relatively boring now because > Habu, the 7 crown winner, is likely to stay around for years to come. > I don't quite understand the professional Shogi scene. What is the difference > between the seven tournaments? I mean if you are a Grand Slam winner in > Tennis, you have to beat other players on different soil. The seven major tournaments differ in the way to decide the challenger, the number of games in a match, the thinking time available and the playing conditions. Here is a summary: 1) Ryu-O Path to glory: Six knock-out groups. The best qualify for an overall knock-out to decide the challenger. Best two of the major knock-out play a best-of-three match to decide who may challenge the title holder. Length of the match: best of 7 games Thinking time: 8 hours per player (two days) 2) Meijin Path to glory: 5 leagues. In each league the best players promote and the worst are relegated. Winner of the top league (A-class) challenges the title-holder. Length of the match: best of 7 games. Thinking time: 9 hours per player (two days) 3) Kisei Path to glory: prerounds to get into one of the 4 four-player leagues. Best two of each league qualify for the major knockout of 8 players. Winner challenges the title holder. Length of the match: best of 5 games (twice a year) Thinking time: 5 hours per player (one day) 4) Oi Path to glory: qualifying rounds to get into one of the two six-player Oi leagues. Winners play each other for the right to challenge the title holder. Length of the match: best of 7 games Thinking time: 8 hours per player (two days) 5) Oza Path to glory: qualifying rounds for the main knock-out of 16 players. Winner challenges the title-holder. Length of the match: best of 5 games Thinking time: 5 hours per player (one day) 6) Osho Path to glory: qualifying rounds to get into the 7 player Osho-league. The winner of this league challenges the title holder. Length of the match: best of 7 games Thinking time: 8 hours per player (two days) 7) Kio Path to glory: qualifying rounds to get into a 30 player knock-out. When the best-four stage is reached, losers get a second chance. Eventual winner challenges the title holder. Length of the match: best of 5 games Thinking time: 4 hours per player (one day) Special playing conditions: the final part of the game is played in front of an audience. So, the main difference between the titles is the difference between one and two day games. Problem: Habu is almost unbeatable in one day matches (19 consecutive wins) and nearly unbeatable in two day matches. > Also, even if Habu does stay around. Won't his opponents be studying his > game rearing to beat him? Perhaps he will always prevail but "the underdogs" > should be coming in droves. Ah well, it all might come out as quite interesting? Another problem: they are already doing that. Hiura 6-dan is a specialist on Habu Shogi. When Habu was younger, Hiura had a very good score against him and he was even called "The Mongoose" because "Habu" can also mean "poisonous snake" and I am told that mongooses eat poisonous snakes. But even Hiura can not solve the mystery of Habu's strength. Maybe somebody will one day... > P.S I heard that Habu's feat made it to people magazine!!! I wonder if > they have had any multi-game tournaments: Go Master, Chess Master, Chinese > chess master, and Thai chess master battle each other in other games on > pint system? Of course more mediocre players may be able to prevail over the > Grand Masters in the big picture... Just a though that crossed my mind. Actually, in Holland they had some kind of game olympic a couple of years ago. Chess, draugths (10x10 checkers) and bridge. Winner: an ex-world champion draughts with a keen interest in chess and bridge as a hobby. By the way, don't fool yourself. Habu is a multiple dan in Go and a 2100 chess player and that is all without taking these games too seriously... 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