From: Pieter Stouten <pieter.stouten <at> DUPONTMERCK <dot> COM>
Date: 26 mar 1998
Subject: Re: US Shogi Championship, LA, 25/26 April 1998

On 98/03/25 at 20:50 -0500, Sam Sloan wrote:

>If there is a serious prize offered to the winner of the best American
>award, then there should be serious rules.
>
Completely in agreement. It also means that the tournament should be
advertised well in advance and it should be crystal clear exactly which
prizes are to be won.

>Last year, everyone was there primarily to have a good time and the
>haphazzard system for awarding prizes did not matter.
>
That is not quite accurate. The rules for the four-men leagues on the first
day were quite clear and it was also quite clear which players were seeded.
The winners and runners-up of the leagues plus the seeded players
participated in a knock-out that was run according to predescribed rules.
Only the players that did not qualify or were eliminated from the knock-out
were paired in somewhat of a haphazard fashion.

Having said that, I agree completely that all rules should be absolutely
clear upfront. In fact (and this may be heresy), I don't think there can be
such a thing as a US Championship if there is no American Association under
whose auspices it is organized. There is also an issue as to who has the
right to award the two tickets to Japan. The rules of the "First
International Shogi Tournament" were sent to Mark Ono (LA), Tony
Salvaggione (Chicago), George Fernandez (DC? NY?), Minoru Hayashi (NY) and
myself. Does that imply that those 5 people decide who can participate in
the tournament? I don't think so, but I don't know who would decide.

Pieter Stouten, SHOGI-L owner
pieter.stouten <at> dupontmerck <dot> com