From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 10 dec 1998 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 767, December 9th 1998) This week again no title match game, but there is an interview with Ryu-O Fujii, who told he was surprised to win the title 4-0. He agreed that this was mainly due to Tanigawa not being in the best of form. The second reason was winning game 1 after having a bad position (he even calls it losing). This gave him a great boost of confidence. He also said that he did not feel especially nervous in his first title match appearance, since he had already experience in playing the Zen-Nihon Pro tournament. He admitted that he was more nervous before his speech at the reception on the night before the game. Another big point in his win was the "Fujii system", the anaguma crusher opening that he invented. He admitted that there is still a lot in the opening that he does not understand himself. However, he is very flattered by the fact that other professionals who were very sceptical about the system at first ("you are really playing strange moves, aren't you?"), now play the Fujii system themselves. As for game news, Shukan Shogi opens this week with the final of the JT Series. This shogi tournament selects the 12 strongest players of Japan (only titleholders and A-class professionals), who play a quick shogi knock-out tournament all over Japan. The final was held in Nagoya and had Habu and Sato playing each other. For Sato it was his first appearance in the final, while Habu won the tournament once, but this was already seven years ago. A great match-up that unfortunately did not live up to the expectations of the 2300 fans. Sato passed up the opportunity to play positively (but risky) twice and then had to fight from defence all through the game. He made it hard, but in the end Habu found some fancy endgame moves to win the game. Habu: "Since winning this tournament was such a long time ago, it feels like the first time. I am very happy.". In the Kio-sen the semi-finals were played. Fujii again showed that he is the man to beat these days. He only needed a small mistake from Shima to win the game quickly at about 7:00 pm. At that time the fighting in the other semi-final between Meijin Sato and Kobayashi had only just started. Kobayashi is not having a great season (only a 10-12 record), but he seems to save his best shogi for the Kio tournament. After beating Tanigawa and Maruyama, he now played a great game against Sato and scored a very surprising win. This does not mean that he is now one game from being the challenger of Kio title holder Habu. In the Kio the losers in the semi-final en final get a second chance. Therefore, this is not over. Even Shima and Sato still have a chance to challenge Habu. In the Osho tournament the situation has changed dramatically. Morishita, who seemed to be cruising to victory in the league, lost against Tanigawa and drops back to 4-1. In the final round he has to play Meijin Sato, who is 3-2 and therefore can force a play-off by beating Morishita. Actually, Morishita is now in danger of not even making the play-off. Only two players will play in the play-off (if needed) and Maruyama also has 3-2 and is ranked higher in the league than Morishita. If Maruyama beats Yashiki in the final round and Sato beats Morishita, a play-off between Sato and Maruyama will decide the challenger of Habu. In the Kisei leagues Tanigawa started well by beating Kimura, 4-dan. Sato scored a big first win against Minami in a very tough group, having Fujii and Namekata as the other two players. From the four groups two players qualify for the knock-out final to decide the challenger of Goda. Last week amateur Hayashi beat professional Ina (and not Ira, like a mistakenly wrote) in group 6 of the Ryu-O tournament. This week it was Endo's turn to challenge a professional, Takano (4-dan). Endo is one of the few amateurs with his own nickname ("Mister Anaguma") and also one of the few amateurs that really scares professionals. An unnamed professional commented: "I am glad I promoted to group 5 before having to play Endo". Endo did what he also did last year: win against a professional in an official tournament game. It was Endo who dictated the game, but in the end he almost gave it away. Takano got only one chance and missed it. 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