From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 10 feb 1998 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 724, February 11th 1998) No time to get through all of Shukan Shogi this week, but this is what I got out of it so far: 1) A-class Junisen: * Habu-Takahashi 1-0 Takahashi, whose relegation was already decided, let Habu work hard for the victory. Habu had a lead from the early middle game, but it was near 1 o'clock in the morning before the game was decided in Habu's favour. * Kato-Morishita 1-0 A big loss for Morishita, who seemed better most of the game, but Kato had a harmless looking counter attack that swept through Morishita's position in no-time. * Sato-Nakahara 1-0 Two players with a small chance of becoming this year's Meijin challenger. A natural move in the middle game, carelessly played by Nakahara, turned out to be the winner. * Inoue-Yonenaga 1-0 Big game with both players on the edge of the relegation cliff. Yonenaga sacrificed a general to promote a rook, which looked very good. However, Inoue managed to hold the position together and cashed in his material advantage in the end. * Moriuchi-Sato 1-0 Moriuchi is now safe, Shima loses his chance for this year's meijin title. With only one round left to play, there are still three players with a chance to become this year's Meijin challenger. Habu has the best chance with 6-2. He is at least assured of a play-off spot. Habu has to win though, because his rivals Sato and Morishita will play each other. Will Habu become the second player after Oyama in 1977 to challenge for the Meijin one year after losing the title? 2) C1 Junisen Sensaki beat Sakurai in a difficult game to clinch promotion to B2. Kitahama beat Ito and now has his chances in his own hand after Suzuki lost his third game in a row, this time against Hiura. Kitahama is already called the "Second Year Man" in Shukan Shogi. Rookie year: 4-6 in C2. Second year: 10-0 and promotion. Third year: 2-8 in C1. Fourth year: 8-2 and promotion? Meanwhile Kisei Yashiki is praying for a mistake by Kitahama. Yashiki started with three losses and will regret at least one of them very much if Kitahama beats Sakurai in the final round. 3) Kisei league: A-group: Murayama-Nakamura 1-0 D-group: Fujii-Sensaki 0-1 This leads to no decisions in either group. All four players still have a chance to reach the quarterfinals. 4) Oi tournament All members of the red en white Oi leagues have been decided. Red group: Sato Yasumitsu, Morishita, Takahashi, Shima, Yagura and Kitajima. White group: Goda, Abe, Yashiki, Murayama, Hiura and Kimura. A bit of a strange draw with four A-class professionals in the Red group and none in the white group. The first game in the white group was between Abe and rookie Kimura. Abe won. That's all for this week. Today the fourth game of the Osho will be played to a finish, but I will not have the possibility to send the result to the list. Someone else yoroshiku ne. Off to the computer shogi tournament, Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Electrotechnical Laboratory 1-1-4 Umezono Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp WWW: http://www.etl.go.jp:8080/etl/suiron/~grimberg Tel: +81-(0)298-54-3316 Fax: +81-(0)298-54-5918