From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 11 mar 1998 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 728, March 11th 1998) One of the major events in professional Shogi these days is the final day of the A class Junisen. The winner of the A-class has the right to challenge the current Meijin for the oldest and most prestigeous Shogi crown. This year there was for the second time extensive television coverage. This is a very good idea, since no less than five top level games are being played at the same time. There is always something interesting happening somewhere, especially in the evening. I watched Shogi from nine o'clock in the evening to 1 o'clock at night and was enjoying every minute. One would expect that most of the attention would go out to the games Habu-Nakahara and Morishita-Sato, where the next Meijin challenger would be decided. Not so, main focus was the struggle of former Meijin Yonenaga to survive in the top class after 26 consecutive years. He had to win against Kato and Inoue had to lose against Shima for Yonenaga to stay in the A-class. Remarkably, the first game to finish was the game between Habu and Nakahara. Habu had a good looking attack going early on, but made a major mistake in opening up the position. Nakahara took advantage and won quickly. Again the interesting fact that if Habu loses, he often does so without having much chances. Nakahara's win meant that the challenger of Tanigawa would not be known on that day. The winner of the game between Sato and Morishita would have a 6-3 score, just like Habu and a play-off game would be needed. However, like a good television drama, this game would be the last to finish. The second game to end was the game between Moriuchi and Takahashi. Takahashi was already relegated to B1 and also had to play with a plastered leg because of injury. Moriuchi still could get to third place to get a good position for next year's class. Moriuchi won after a timid pawn drop in the middle game by Takahashi and ended with 5-4 after dropping his first three games. At half past twelve, Shima resigned. He had tried everything after making a mistake in an open and risky position, but to no avail. Inoue thereby kept his spot in the A-class and the Yonenaga period came to a close. Yonenaga played a good game against Kato and won convincingly, but it was not enough... The final game between Morishita and Sato ended just a couple of minutes before the end of the television broadcast at 1 o'clock in the morning. It was Sato who won a very close game with some very inventive Shogi. One rook move by Sato was overlooked by everyone including the numerous professionals in the press room, but turned out to be a great one. There were some obstacles thrown up by Morishita after that, but Sato steered clear off all of them. I remembered that I wrote half a year ago that Sato would have to wait another year after losing three of his four games, but suddenly he is within a single game of challenging Tanigawa. The play-off will be played on March 17th. A couple of days after the final round there was a press conference by Yonenaga. I find it strange that there is so much pressure on great players to retire after dropping from the top class. Nakahara was very close to dropping out last year and the general opinion was that he would retire if he would have lost that final game. A parrallel with Sumo, where Yokozuna retire before getting a losing record. A press conference was therefore called, but Yonenaga was very clear: "I have absolutely no intention of retiring". There were two other Junisen classes where the final round was played. In B2 Goda showed his strength under pressure by giving Ouchi no chance. Goda was therefore the first to qualify after dropping his first game against Tomioka. He would be joined by either Ono or Kamiya. Ono had been in B1 before and was better positioned in the class than Kamiya. He had his chances in his own hand, but cracked under the pressure and lost against Waki. Waki thereby narrowly dodged a relegation marker. Ono still would have a chance if Kamiya would also lose, but he beat Kodama and makes his debut in B1 next year. Kamiya is not one of the quick rising stars of Shogi. It took him 7 years to get out of C1 and now also 7 years to get out of B2. He is the recordholder for most consecutive wins though (28 if I remember correctly). In C1 Sensaki had already clinched promotion and he put some icing on the cake by beating Ogura. The question was who would accompany him. Kitahama had his chances in his own hand, but there were a group of very strong players who were only one point behind and were better positioned in the class than he was. The leader of the following group, Kisei Yashiki, had a very easy game against the 68-year old veteran Sekine. Sekine probably does not do much opening preparation anymore, because he was lead into a position which had been lost convincingly by his side a couple of times before. This time was no different and the game was over before three in the afternoon. For Yashiki then the long waiting began. Sakurai looked to be losing quickly against Kitahama, but Kitahama made a mistake in the attack and the game became very close. In the end it was probably youthful stamina that decided the game, because late in the evening Sakurai made the decisive mistake and Kitahama got the win and the promotion. Yashiki will be very sorry about his horrible start this year. Three losses in the first three rounds could not be repaired. Kitahama is turning into a Junisen specialist. In his four years as a pro he has now had the following records: 4-6, 10-0 (promotion to C1), 2-8 (relegation marker), 9-1 (promotion to B2). Habu may have missed the chance for a rematch for the Meijin title, but there is always another important game for him. He gave Sato another psychological blow by winning the semi-final of the Zen Nihon Pro tournament. He will now play childhood rival Moriuchi in a best-of-five match. There are two new professionals. I already reported that 17-year old Yamazaki Takayuki became one of the two players from the 3-dan league to become 4-dan. Yamazaki spent less than 6 years in the Shoreikai and is clearly a great talent, even though it remains to be seen if he is in the class of Habu, Moriuchi and Sato. The other new professional, Takano Hideyuki, is a different story. He spent 13 years to get where he is now and even was relegated from 6-kyu to 7-kyu soon after he entered the Shoreikai. Being 25 years old and very close to the age limit, he had considered quitting more than once, but his perseverance paid off. Interesting detail is that Takano is also one of the time keepers in the NHK tournament. This seems a good way of becoming professional, because almost all time keepers managed to get the 4-dan promotion. Another interesting detail is that Ira became third for the second time in a row. There is a new rule that says that he also has the right to a 4-dan promotion and can enter the free class. Since it is very hard to get to C2 from the free class (scoring average of over 60% is needed) he might decide to keep in the 3-dan league. That's all for this week, 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