From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 13 dec 1999 Subject: Re: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 818, December 8th 1999) Jonathan Tisdall C2I NET> writes: > 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. > Also, I would like to learn more about Maruyama - he seems to be everywhere > suddenly. > jt I guess I should have been a little more careful in formulating my feelings for the JT Series. As Patrick's excellent explanation says, it is an exhibition tournament that does not have the status of any of the title matches. Furthermore, it is a quick play knock-out tournament, which also lowers its status. This being said, it is a great opportunity for shogi fans all over the country (not only in Tokyo and Osaka) to see the top professionals in action. For this, I think one should be grateful to JT for sponsoring this event. However, I read Shukan Shogi for the tough battles in title matches and challenger tournaments. This was almost not there in last week's issue. Maybe being a non-smoker made me sound a little more harsh than intended :-). 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