From: Larry Kaufman WIZARD NET> Date: 20 oct 1998 Subject: No Subject New York Open Report--by Larry Kaufman This was an exciting week for shogi fans who were able to attend several events in New York City. First there was the first game of the Ryu-0 title match between title holder Tanigawa and challenger Fujii. The game was won by Fujii who successfully employed his patented "Fujii system", a method of countering the left anaguma (bear in the hole) strategy often used against Fujii's fourth file rook defense. The game commentary was done live by several pros, including Kobayashi Kenji, Masataka Sugimoto, Waki, Harada, and former Meijin Yonenaga. Several pros, including Sugimoto, Waki, Harada, Honma, and Iina also played handicap games with the amateurs either simultaneously or one on one. In these games, Fassil Bekele 3 Dan of New York scored two wins at rook handicap (out of about five games), a very good result for his rank, while I scored four wins, one loss, and one draw in my six games at bishop handicap, much better than my results in the past. The New York Open was held at the Hamaya Restaurant on Saturday, October 17. It was a four round Swiss system, all even games except for six handicap games played simultaneously in round 3 against the Americans by professional 5 Dan Sugimoto (I was the only winner). The 18 participants included two 5 dans, six four dans, and four three dans. I took first place with 4-0; second place at 3-1 was a four way tie between George Fernandez 4 dan of New York, Frosty Yamamoto of Los Angeles, and two very young Japanese players recently relocated to Los Angeles, Takushi Asada 5 dan (age 13) and Tetsuaki Asada 4 dan (age 10). With the recent or imminent departure from the U.S. of all of our Japanese 5 dans (no less than six in the past two years!), I had expected to be the only remaining 5 dan in the U.S., but I'm glad that this will not be the case now. Top 3 dan and below was shared by Fassil Bekele and Pieter Stouten with 2 points, while Mr. Hamaguchi took sole possession of top shodan and below with the same score. The biggest upset was by my son Raymond (1 kyu), who defeated Koike 4 Dan of Los Angeles. The top four players from this event with U.S. citizenship were invited back the next day for a round robin to decide which two players would represent the U.S. next June in the International Amateur Shogi Tournament in Japan. The four contestants were myself, George Fernandez, Fassil Bekele, and Michael Pustilnik 1 dan (who earned the spot by defeating my son in a playoff game). All the games were won by the higher ranked player (though not without some difficult moments!), so George and I won the two trips to Japan. There was also an organizational meeting of the newly formed Shogi Federation of America, at which meeting the name was changed to United States Shogi Federation. Officers elected were George Fernandez as president, Mark Ohno of Los Angeles as vice-president, Josh Krekeler of Ohio as Secretary, and S. Ogihara of New York as Treasurer. I was named chairman of the board, Doug Dysart was named Web master, George Fernandez was put in charge of tournament rules, and I was put in charge of ratings. It was agreed that the major clubs would submit all their ratable results to me for national rating purposes. Dues were set at $15 per year, starting Jan. 1, 1999. All in all, a memorable shogi week!