From: DANERUD MARTIN TELIA COM> Date: 19 apr 1999 Subject: A number of three digits! Dear shogi friends, Today, April 19, the Swedish Shogi Federation got the payment from individual member number 100. I took the opportunity to sum up some statistics: In our northern region (mainly around Stockholm) we have 43 members. In our middle region (mainly around Goteborg) we have 42 members. In our southern region we have 14 members, and there is one member abroad. We still only have one dan player, but with three 1-kyu, one 2-kyu, and one 3-kyu players, I am convinced there will soon be more dan players. There are now two clubs with regular meetings in Sweden, in Stockholm and Goteborg. We are looking forward to see the birth of more clubs in the near future. 35 of our members have taken part in six- or seven-round weekend tournaments with 1 hour + 30 s byo-yomi thinking time during the last year. Only two of our members are women. Several of our members are young, and a promising weekly junior shogi activity is taking place in Goteborg. A majority of our members are still students, and thus not yet financially able to travel to continental European shogi tournaments. We are still just in the beginning and we have a long way to go before shogi is a well established board game in Sweden. But our federation has just existed for two years, and there is a great shogi spirit among the Swedish players. We would also like to contribute to the spreading of shogi in our northern European neighbourhood. We will celebrate our breaking of the one hundred member limit by playing a consultation shogi game between two teams, one from Goteborg and one from Stockholm, at Java Shogi on May 6, starting at 7.00 p.m. Sincerely yours, Dr. Martin Danerud President of the Swedish Shogi Federation