From: Larry Kaufman <lkaufman <at> WIZARD <dot> NET>
Date: 10 dec 1999
Subject: Re: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 818, December 8th 1999)

At 11:57 AM 12/10/99 +0100, you wrote:
>I was struck and amused by the disdain for an invitational tournament which
>grudgingly earned a bit of respect since it had the 12 strongest pros. In
>chess circles, such an event would get the world's absolute attention.
>
>It would be interesting for me to know a bit about the background of this -
>if a shogi tournament isn't a vast open, it isn't respectable? Is the JT a
>round robin? Are there any strong regular all-play-alls, or is this looked
>upon the way chess has traditionally looked at knockouts?
>
>I love a good culture clash.
>
     The upper divisions of the Meijin League, including in particular the
very strong A class, are round-robins (all-play-all), so there is no
feeling that this format is inferior.  I'm guessing that the issue in the
above article is not the RR format, but the fact that the players did not
earn their places by qualification tournaments but were arbitrarily selected.

Larry Kaufman