From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 3 dec 1998 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 766, December 12th 1998) The quick finish of the Ryu-O title match has left Shukan Shogi with quite a big hole to fill until the start of the next major title match, the Osho. December is traditionally not the busiest month of the professional calendar and except for the decision in the Osho league and perhaps another Junisen round in each of the classes, there are not that many interesting games to write about. This weekly post will therefore be much shorter for the next couple of weeks. In the Osho league Morishita still has two games to play, but his path to challenging Osho Habu in Janaury was significantly shortened by Meijin Sato, who beat Morishita's rival Nakahara. Sato dictated the game for a long time, but in the end the sacrifice of a promoted bishop had to be carefully calculated to win the game. Both Sato and Nakahara now have a 3-2 score, two games behind Morishita's perfect 4-0 score. Morishita now needs only one win from his remaining two games, but with games against Tanigawa and Sato this is still far from decided. Tanigawa scored his first win in the league against Yashiki. It was not an important win, since both players now have 1-3 scores and will drop out of the league. However, psychologically, this was a big win for Tanigawa in a game played only two days after losing the Ryu-O title. Tanigawa further showed his unbroken spirit by asking journalists not to refer to him as Zen Ryu-O or Zen Meijin ("Zen" standing for "previous"), thus ending a long custom. It was supposed to be an honorary title, but Tanigawa made clear that he did not like the custom and preferred the normal "9-dan" suffix. The fourth player still with a theoretical chance to become Osho challenger is Maruyama. He beat Nakamura and now in his quiet, modest style also has collected 3 wins and two losses. With a game against Yashiki still to play, he can wait and see if Morishita will make a mistake. In the Kisei tournament Hatakeyama Nariyuki beat Ouchi to follow his twin brother in the Kisei leagues. The final pre-round game between Aono and Tosa was won by Aono, who is having a very good season so far. The pre-rounds for the next Ryu-O tournament have started and it was time for the amateurs and women to try their luck against the professionals. Yamamoto played his first game as a professional against one of the strongest amateur players of Japan, amateur Ryu-O Hayasaki. This must have been hard for Yamamoto, but he will be very pleased with his good play that gave him his first professional victory. For Hayasaki it was the third time he lost in the first round of the Ryu-O tournament. 21-year old Hayashi, who was runner-up in this year's amateur Ryu-O tournament, did much better. He scored a very good win against Ira, in which he gave the impression of calculating deeper and more accurately than his professional opponent. There was another upset by Nakai, who beat Seki, 5-dan to reach the second round. Shukan Shogi does not give any comments on this game. Perhaps an indication that a victory of a lady pro against a weaker professional is no longer unusual. Shimizu defended her full set of ladies' titles by beating challenger Usui 2-dan, in the Oyama Meijin Cup. She had to work hard for the victory, since the match went to the deciding game after both players won one. With this victory Shimizu now won this tournament for the fifth consecutive time. Not much more next week :-), Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Complex Games Lab Electrotechnical Laboratory 1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp URL: http://www.etl.go.jp/etl/suiron/~grimberg/ Tel: +81-(0)298-54-3316 Fax: +81-(0)298-54-5918