From: Patrick Davin <patrick <at> LYRA <dot> VEGA <dot> OR <dot> JP>
Date: 15 nov 1997
Subject: Re: "QUEST" yagura (10) 1-3-4

Takako translates Katsumata:
>I talked with Morishita-8 dan privately. Here is what he said:
>It was when I was playing with Awaji-8 dan and then Aono-8 dan that the
>idea dawned on me. They were playing with the similar notions, which I
>found quite promising. I put those ideas together, so to speak. Based on
>the R-2i formation, which was rather weak in the offensive, I made it
>into something more playable in actual games.
>The reason why I stopped playing it? The direct cause was the game I
>played against Yonenaga sensei. If I'd placed my B once again onto 4f
>from 6h, it would have checked White's attack, but I couldn't bring
>myself to do so because it meant loss of time. Now I have no intention
>of adhering to the Morishita System.  (*)I've come to think that
>investigations are meant for passive strategies. In actual shogi games,
>stronger players win in the end. Now that I think about it, the game
>with Kunio Yonenaga brought about a change in me. I now play the Black
>S-3g formation which I didn't like before. I think I'm playing with less
>preoccupied notions now.
>(*)The original sentence was totally ununderstandable. I may be wrong to
>put it this way.

My (over-)interpretation of the sentence in question:

I think what Morishita 8-dan was trying to say was that research of the
type he was doing (i.e. systematically focused on preparing a counter to
any move his opponent could possibly make) paradoxically resulted in a
kind of passivity over the board, in the sense that each move, rather
than being a self-inspired action, became a self-programmed REaction.

Does this make sense?

In other words, Morishita's preparation was _too_ thorough.  He was left
without any feeling of freedom or creativity during the game.