From: Douglas J Dysart UCUNIX SAN UC EDU> Date: 28 mar 1996 Subject: US Championship & US Amateur RyuO (fwd) Hi all: I just received this from George Fernandez, the top non-Japanese player in the U.S. I want you to check it out. Also, I need to apologize for calling him George Foster earlier, since that's just a famous ballplayer in the Cincinnati area. =) I need to give congratulations to my new friend from Chicago, Mr. Chiaki Ito, for his victory over Mr. Ishakawa without handicaps!!! I also need to hide for getting an Elo Rating of (gasp) 546. Yuck!! =) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 04:26:08 -0500 (EST) From: George Fernandez erols com> To: Douglas J Dysart ucunix san uc edu> Subject: US Championship & US Amateur RyuO Dear Douglas, I got your message through Shogi-L and decided to send you an "advance " copy of the results. I'm not very familiar with posting messages, so I'm now waiting to find out what I've been doing wrong. Take care & Best Wishes, George US Championship and US Amateur RyuO Tournament Held in New York City, NY, on March 23-24, 1996. At the start of the tournament nine players were selected by their respective clubs to advance directly to the finals: NY club, Mr. Watanabe, Mr. Nakazawa & Mr. Bekele; DC club, Mr. Kaufman, Mr. Egoshi, Mr. Sango & Mr. Fernandez; LA club, Mr. Ono & Mr. Yamaki; Chicago club, Mr. Ito played in the preliminaries by choice. Preliminaries There were no great surprises in the preliminaries, with the higher rated players by and large advancing to the finals. Group A was by far the strongest. Mr. Hayashi 3Dan, Mr. Sugihara 2Dan, both from Group A and Mr. Ueda 2Dan, from Group B were unable to advance. Group A Hayashi (NY) 3 Dan X L L 0-2 Ito (WI) 5 Dan W X W 2-0 Sugihara (NY) 2 Dan W X L 1-1 Nakamura (NY) 5 Dan L W X 1-1 Group B Hanazawa (IL) 1 Kyu X W L 1-1 Dysart (OH) 10 Kyu L X L 0-2 Ueda (NY) 2 Dan W X L 1-1 Ogihara (NY) 3 Dan W W X 2-0 Group C Kajiura (NJ) Shodan X W W 2-0 Kaufman,R (FL) 10 Kyu X L L 0-2 Ishida (NY) Shodan L W X 1-1 Park (NJ) 3 Kyu L W X 1-1 Group D Koyama (MD) 4 Dan X W W 2-0 Yoshinari (VA) 4 Dan L X W 1-1 Kato (NY) Shodan L X L 0-2 Hamaguchi (NJ) Shodan L W X 1-1 Players with a score of 2-0(4 players) automatically advanced into the finals, those with a score of 1-1(8 players) played one more game amongst themselves, at random, to determine the last 4 spots in the 17 player final feild. Preliminaries play-off: 1. Yoshinari Won vs. Ueda 2. Hamaguchi Won vs. Hanazawa 3. Nakamura Won vs. Park 4. Ishida Won vs. Sugihara ------------------------------------------------ In the Finals positions were determined at random. The format was single elimination. The time control was 30 minutes, followed by 40 seconds Byoyomi and in the final game 40 minutes, followed by 40 seconds byoyomi. Finals During the second round, which was played on Saturday, the action got "hot and heavy" with some interesting pairings. Top-ranked Mr. Watanabe faced an unknown 5Dan from Wisconsin, Mr. Chiaki Ito who was unstopable in warm-up games. The top 2 non-Japanese players, Mr. Kaufman and Mr. Fernandez had to play each other. Current DC Meijin Mr. Koyama got by one of the favorites in Mr. Nakamura 5Dan who was just visiting NY. LA's Mr. Ono got by former DC Meijin Mr. Yoshinari and perennial favorite NJ's Mr. Nakazawa, who is a 4-time East Coast Meijin dispatched LA's Mr. Yamaki before he could recuperate from the long flight. The 4 Shodans who managed to make it this far were all eliminated. In the Quarter-Finals Mr. Nakazawa outplayed Mr. Koyama in the byoyomi stage of the game. Mr. Sango used a prepared variation against Larry's 4th-file Rook he learned from an article in Shogi Magazine, written by professional player Mr. Kanki 5Dan a year ago! After losing twice to Larry recently using Static-Rook "Anaguma" (bear-in-the-hole)he figured it was time for a change and was duly rewarded. In the Semis Mr. Egoshi, who has been very hot recently winning the last two DC Shogi Club seasonal Handicap tournaments had a good game, but made a "big" mistake, something you generally don't want to do, but specially when playing against Mr. Watanabe who seems to win 75% of his games right out of the opening! Mr. Sango was able to repeat his feat of beating Mr. Nakazawa in a late-round game, which he did this past February in the 4th round of the 8th East Coast Meijin. The Finals took place in the smoke-filled basement of the New York (Iwamoto) Go Center with spectators and photographers crammed into a corner of the room. It's still a mystery to DC Shogi Club members why Mr. Sango a non-smoker consented to enter into the "lion's (smoking) den" of Mr. Watanabe where he is known to be at full, if not super-human strength. Mr. Nakamura was the scorekeeper. Mr. Watanabe took the early advantage and never let up, it was like watching a master Greco-Roman wrestler at work. He only releases the opponent when he finds a better bind and gradually brings him to submission. We'll publish the game in the future. 1st Rd. 2nd Round,State,Rank Quarter-finals Semi-finals 1.Hamaguchi(NY) Shodan 2.Ogihara(NY) 3Dan Ogihara 3.Bekele(NY) Shodan Egoshi 4.Egoshi(MD) 4Dan Egoshi 5.Ono(CA) 4Dan Watanabe 6.Yoshinari(VA) 4Dan Ono 7.Watanabe(CT) 5Dan Watanabe 8.Ito(WI) 5Dan FINALS CHAMPION Watanabe Watanabe Sango ******** 9.Fernandez(VA) 4Dan 10.Kaufman(FL) 5Dan Kaufman 11.Sango(MD) 4Dan Sango 12.Ishida(NY) Shodan Sango 13.Nakamura(NY) 5Dan Nakazawa 14.Koyama(MD) 4Dan Koyama 15.Yamaki(CA) 4Dan Nakazawa 16.Nakazawa(NJ) 5Dan Nakazawa 17.Kajiura(NY) Shodan -------------------------------------------------- On Sunday March 24 a 3-Player Team Competition was held while the finals were in progress. Six teams competed in an elimination tournament. The NY "1" and DC "1" teams were given byes into the 2nd Round. The Los Angeles and Chicago teams had only 2 players so they were allowed to have one player, of their choosing, play twice, if necessary. Team Competition 1st Round DC "2" vs. Chicago 1.Kaufman 1.Ito DC "2" 2.Yoshinari Won 2.Hanazawa wins 2-0 3.Fernandez Won 3.Ito NY "2" vs. Los Angeles 1.Nakamura Won 1.Yamaki LA 2.Kajiura Lost 2.Ono wins 2-1 3.Hayashi Lost 3.Ono 2nd Round NY "1" vs. DC "2" 1.Nakazawa Won 1.Kaufman NY "1" 2.Ogihara Won 2.Yoshinari wins 2-1 3.Hamaguchi Lost 3.Fernandez DC "1" vs. Los Angeles 1.Egoshi Won 1.Ono DC "1" 2.Sango Won 2.Yamaki wins 3-0 3.Koyama Won 3.Yamaki Finals NY "1" vs. DC "1" 1.Nakamura Won 1.Egoshi NY "1" 2.Nakazawa Won 2.Sango wins 2-1 3.Hamaguchi Lost 3.Koyama ******** --------------------------------------------------- Statistics of all participants Listed according to DC Shogi Club pre-tournament ratings. # NAME Rank State Pre/Post Record Opponents 1.Watanabe 5Dan NJ 2512/2533 4-0 W2,W9,W6,W7 2.Ito 5Dan WI 2500/2489 2-2 W14,W3,L1,L12 3.Nakamura 5Dan NY 2500/2492 4-2 L2,W16,W24,L8,W11,W6 4.Kaufman 5Dan FL 2491/2476 1-2 W12,L7,L5 5.Nakazawa 5Dan NJ 2482/2495 5-1 W19,W11,W8,L7,W4,W7 6.Egoshi 4Dan MD 2358/2359 3-2 W17,W13,L1,W9,L3 7.Sango 4Dan MD 2333/2354 4-2 W18,W4,W5,L1,W11,L5 8.Koyama 4Dan MD 2332/2355 5-1 W10,W22,W3,L5,W11W22 9.Ono 4Dan CA 2325/2323 3-2 W10,L1,W19,W14,L6 10.Yoshinari 4Dan VA 2319/2294 3-3 L8,W20,W15,L9,W23L13 11.Yamaki 4Dan CA 2300/2277 0-4 L5,L3,L7,L8 12.Fernandez 4Dan VA 2293/2307 2-1 L4,W2,W22 13.Ogihara 3Dan NY 2097/2128 4-1 W23,W15,W22,L6,W10 14.Hayashi 3Dan NY 1902/1881 0-3 L2,L16,L9 15.Ueda 2Dan NY 1900/1892 1-2 W25,L13,L10 16.Sugihara 2Dan NY 1889/1883 1-2 W14,L3,L18 17.Bekele Shodan NY 1807/1805 0-1 L6 18.Ishida Shodan NY 1773/1776 2-2 L19,W26,W16,L7 19.Kajiura Shodan NJ 1740/1755 2-2 W18,W24,L5,L9 20.Kato Shodan NY 1700/1680 0-2 L10,L22 21.Kuwaki Shodan NY 1641/1641 0-0 22.Hamaguchi Shodan NJ 1626/1648 2-4 L8,W20,L13,W23,L12L8 23.Hanazawa 1Kyu IL 1500/1488 1-3 W25,L13,L22,L10 24.Park 3Kyu NJ 1250/1248 1-2 L19,W26,L3 25.Dysart 10Kyu OH 550/ 546 0-2 L23,L15 26.Kaufman, R. 10Kyu FL 507/ 503 0-2 L18,L24 ------------------------------------------------- Upon completion of the weekend events it was announced that professional players Mr. Ishikawa and Mr. Kitajima on behalf of the Shogi Renmei along with the representative of The Yomiuri America who had sponsored the events had selected Mr. George Fernandez, amateur 4 Dan from Virginia as the US representative in the upcoming Amateur RyuO Shogi Tournament to be held in Japan on June 22-23, 1996. A non-Japanese player was sought as the US representative, for promotional as well as diplomatic reasons. Mr. Fernandez was chosen over Mr. Larry Kaufman, amateur 5 Dan from Florida partly due to the fact that Larry had already been selected in the past to compete in this same tournament. George will receive a package which includes: Round-trip airfare to Japan; Accommodations for 6 nights and 7 days and some allowances for food. We at the DC Shogi Club are certain that all participating clubs wish to wholeheartedly thank The Yomiuri America and The Nihon Shogi Renmei for sponsoring this event and the accompanying invitation for a player to join in the Amateur RyuO Tournament in Japan. ---------------------------------------------- In addition to the events listed above, we also had the pleasure of having two professional players available for teaching games. Mr. Ishikawa and Mr. Kitajima both played two sessions in DC and in NY. They each played 3 opponents at the same time throughout. Here is a summary of the results. Mr.Akio Ishikawa 5 Dan List of Opponents and Results Opponent Rank Hdcp. Result DC Saturday, March 16 1.Egoshi 4 Dan R L 2.Ishibashi 3 Dan R L 3.Eigelsbach 2 Dan R+L L 4.Motohashi 1 Kyu 2pc W DC Sunday, March 17 5.Okouchi 2 Dan R+L L 6.Krieger 4 Kyu* 8pc W 7.Wachi 1 Kyu 4pc W 8.Kando 2 Dan R+L L 9.Fernandez 4 Dan B L 10.Yoshinari 4 Dan B L 11.Sango 4 Dan B L 12.Koyama 4 Dan B W 13.Egoshi 4 Dan R W NY Saturday, March 23 14.Fernandez 4 Dan B L 15.Sango 4 Dan B L 16.Hanazawa 1 Kyu 2pc L 17.Hayashi 3 Dan 2pc W 18.Watanabe 5 Dan B L 19.Sugihara 2 Dan 2pc W 20.Kuwaki Shodan 2pc L 21.Bekele Shodan 2pc W 22.Ono 4 Dan B W 23.Nakazawa 5 Dan B W NY Sunday, March 24 24.Hamaguchi Shodan R L 25.Kaufman, R. 10 Kyu 6pc L 26.Nakazawa, H. 9 Kyu 6pc L 27.Kajiura Shodan R+L L 28.Nakamura 5 Dan = L 29.Kuwaki Shodan 2pc L 30.Bekele shodan R+L L 31.Ono 4 Dan B W 32.Ogihara 3 Dan R W 33.Kaufman 5 Dan B L 34.Dysart 10 Kyu 6pc L 35.Ishida Shodan 2pc W 36.Ito 5 Dan = W (Yes, that's right!) 37.Hanazawa 1 Kyu = L 38.Ueda 2 Dan 2pc W Mr. Tadao Kitajima 4 Dan List of Opponents and Results Opponent Rank Hdcp. Result DC Saturday, March 16 1.Okouchi 2 Dan R+L L 2.Motohashi 1 Kyu 2pc L 3.Fernandez 4 Dan B L 4.Egoshi 4 Dan R W 5.Eigelsbach 2 Dan R+L L DC Sunday, March 17 6.Kando 2 Dan R+L L 7.Yoshinari 4 Dan B W 8.Motohashi 1 Kyu 2pc W 9.Krieger 4 Kyu* 6pc W 10.Sango 4 Dan B W 11.Kando 2 Dan R+L L 12.Koyama 4 Dan B W 13.Egoshi 4 Dan R W 14.Eigelsbach 2 Dan R+L W (finally!) 15.Okouchi 2 Dan R+L W (He too!) NY Saturday, March 23 16.Kaufman 5 Dan B L 17.Egoshi 4 Dan B W (1st try at B!) 18.Ogihara 3 Dan R L 19.Park 3 Kyu 6pc L,W 20.Dysart 10 Kyu 6pc L,W 21.Ueda 2 Dan 2pc L 22.Sugihara 2 Dan R+L L 23.Ito 5 Dan = L 24.Nakamura 5 Dan = L 25.Kuwaki Shodan 2pc L 26.Dysart 10 Kyu 5pc W 27.Fernandez 4 Dan R W 28.Nakazawa,H. 9 Kyu 6pc W 29.Hayashi 3 Dan R+L W 30.Ishida Shodan 2pc L 31.Kajiura Shodan R+L L 32.Hamaguchi Shodan R L 33.Hayashi 3 Dan R W 34.Kuwaki Shodan 2pc W (Hallelujah!) 35.Bekele Shodan R+L L,W (1st W at R+L!) 36.Hanazawa 1 Kyu = L 37.Kajiura Shodan R+L n/a 38.Hamaguchi Shodan n/a n/a Greetings and Salutations! I'll try to keep future postings a little shorter!:) George