From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 28 feb 1997 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 675, February 26th 1997) One of the things I postponed too long when I was very busy was notifying Shukan Shogi that I wished to continue to subscribe. Result: no Shukan Shogi for me this week. Only today I could get my hands on a copy (thanks Matsubara-san), so this muust be brief. Luckily there was not much pro shogi anyway. The prize for the unluckiest professional of this week goes to Morishita. In the second game of the Kio-sen he had again plenty of chances to win, but he saw it all slip through his fingers in byoyomi and Habu did not hide his relief from a crowd of 400 people who stayed until the final move was played. A great fight (judging from the frontpage comments) that lasted for 180 moves with both players in byoyomi for more than 40 moves. If this game is really as interesting as it looks, I might post it next week with some comments. So, Morishita, still trying to win that elusive major title, is now two down with three to play. More news from the Habu front: he will be a father in August. Of course, Shukan Shogi is already speculating that Habu's son will take over where his daddy left of and that the Shogi world will be dominated by Habus for centuries to come. It will probably be a girl :-). Some more decisions in the Kisei groups. For the eight player knock-out to decide the challenger of Miura two groups were played to a finish last week. In group A Nakahara and Habu were already certain of qualification, but Nakahara will have felt very good that he was still able to beat Habu in the final game. In Group C Yashiki won his third straight game, but he was already certain of a place in the final eight. He was joined by Tanigawa, who beat Takahashi in the decisive game of this group. Will Tanigawa be able to play for yet another major title? In the Oi league, former Oi Goda had a good start by beating Morishita. Sato Yasumitsu also started well in the other group by beating last year's challenger Fukaura. In the group system a good start is vital to stay in the race for the challengership, so a rematch between Habu and Fukaura now seems far away. Finally, the thrilling ladies Meijin match has finished. Nakai came very close to winning the title back from Shimizu, but in the fifth and deciding game it was Shimizu who showed the strongest mental attitude in this gruelling match and kept her perfect set of lady titles. Hopefully I will get Shukan Shogi next week, so that I have more time to read it, 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