From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 10 dec 1999 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 818, December 8th 1999) If Shukan Shogi opens with the victory of Maruyama in the JT Series, it is clear that there were not many exciting professional games last week. Admittedly, the JT Series is a strong tournament with the 12 strongest professional, but it is only an invitation tournament. I guess JT needs the publicity now the Japanese government has opened its attack on tobacco by announcing extra tax that will increase the price of a pack of cigarettes with 40 Yen. Still, it was a good win by Maruyama over Habu, showing perfect judgement even in quick play. Maruyama ends a great year by taking the last tournament victory. More important was the sixth round game of the A-Junisen between Moriuchi and Shima. Moriuchi (4-1) had to win to keep pace with Maruyama (4-0), while Shima had gotten himself in relegation trouble again after losing two games in a row. Moriuchi controlled this R8e Yokofudori game from the start and won convincingly. The A class looks to be a two horse race until the end. Will Shima be able to dodge a bullet for the third year in a row? In the Osho league Maruyama's hard schedule seems to be catching up with him. Lately, he has been spotted to take a nap in the press room when following slow pace games of other players. Morishita had something prepared in Maruyama's favourite R8e Yokofudori opening and got a good middle game position that he converted to a win. With this he joined Meijin Sato in the lead with 3-1, while Maruyama dropped back to 2-2. Later in the week Maruyama kept his hopes of challenging Habu alive by beating Nakahara. It will probably not be enough, since Morishita and Sato meet in the next round and the winner of that game will almost certainly be the Osho challenger. The Kisei leagues are especially unbalanced this year. I do not know how the draw for these leagues work, but in a group with Habu, Meijin Sato and Maruyama it is a great pity that only two can qualify for the knock-out challenger tournament. On the other hand, a group with Moriuchi, Yonenaga, Tanaka Kaishu and Izumi looks much easier to qualify from. The fourth player in the Habu group, 4-dan Matsumoto, must have been surprised about the strength of his group as well. However, instead of giving up he seized the opportunity for a big upset by beating Sato in the first game. He will need to kill at least one more giant to advance to the final eight. Habu had a good start in an attempt to add another crown by beating Maruyama. This was Maruyama's fourth game in a week. It is not surprising that his winning percentage has dropped a little lately. More next week, Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Complex Games Lab Electrotechnical Laboratory 1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp URL: http://www.etl.go.jp/etl/suiron/~grimberg/ Tel: +81-(0)298-54-3316 Fax: +81-(0)298-54-5918