From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 18 sep 1996 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 653, September 18th 1995) For the second time in the Oza match Shima violated the unwritten rule that a professional title match game should be played in kimono. For the second time it did him no good. In a very slow game, resulting from the B3c variation of the Yokofudori (Side Pawn), Shima made a big mistake and lost in only 70 moves. A 2-0 deficit in a best-of-five match against Habu is too much so this match seems over without too much excitement. It takes more than a change of clothes to beat Habu :-). In the A-junisen Tanigawa continued his strong play of lately by beating leader Mori. Yonenaga beat Murayama, showing that he is not ready to give in to the younger generation yet. Both Tanigawa and Yonenaga are 2-1 after three rounds, sharing the lead with Moriuchi, Morishita, Nakahara and Mori. In C1 there were a number of surprises. Nakagawa was beaten by Miura and Kansaki lost to Sanada. This means that Murooka (who did not play) is now the only undefeated player in C1 with 3-0. He is followed by a pack of six players with 3-1: Nakagawa, Sanada, Abe, Kansaki, Hiura and H.Nakata. All of them very strong and candidates for promotion. This might be a very tight promotion race indeed. Last week also the last rounds of the 3-dan league was played. As usual, it was very dramatic with a lot of nerves and upsets. It was a very black day for 15 year old Yamazaki, who needed only one win out of his two remaining games to become one of the youngest 4-dans ever. However, he lost both and has to swallow what must be the biggest disappointment of his young life. When all the results became clear, it was finally Nozuki Hirotaka (23), who joined earlier promoted Kondo Masakazu (25) in the professional ranks. 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