From: "George I. Fernandez" MINDSPRING COM> Date: 13 jun 1999 Subject: Re: Scandal at the US Shogi Championship At 09:55 PM 6/12/99 EDT, "'Ben Bednarz'" AOL COM> wrote: >In a message dated 6/12/99 12:50:36 PM Pacific Daylight Time, >g.fernandez MINDSPRING COM writes: Dear Ben, [...] >Sam seems to have a knack for putting himself into the middle of >controversies, but it was George's bureaucratic and autocractic letter that >has moved me to write. I can relate to what you are saying. Please feel free to propose a better system which contains no bureaucracy and no rules in which everyone will be happy. >George, it does no good to say only one person is unhappy. Most peope don't >complain (publicly, at least) when they're unhappy. The best way to meet >Sam's claims of general unhappiness is to poll your players. Why not send a >questionaire to all your particpants? You might even get some useful feeback >for next year. The questionaire idea is good starting from next year. I don't see any benefit in conducting one now. The event was a one-of-a-kind in that it was run by too many individuals some of which had little directing experience in the US. >You also seem to rely very heavily on the rules as justification for action. >This is probably why you have difficulty justifying the tie-break system in a >swiss tournament - if you can't explain the reason *why* things work that >way, people aren't going to be satisfied. Instead of explaining everything >at the tournament in terms of "within the rules," I'd love to see your >*reasons* for the way things were handled. Sam might be completely off his >rocker, but how would we know if you can't explain your logic and motivation? Perhaps you've missed something but I think everything HAS been explained. As for the swiss system tie-breaks, I didn't say that I couldn't explain it, but only that it is a very foreign concept to many Japanese players who have been playing shogi in Japan for many years and are used to different systems of tie-breaks. If you could be more specific about your "*reasons* for the way things were handled..." I will gladly address it. >One thing I will take exception to is claiming that Mr. Hayashi is more >influential in the success of American shogi than Larry. I realize that New >Yorkers like to think of themselves as the center of the universe (you guys >really do deserve Donald Trump), but for the rest of the country, looking >back over the last fifteen years, my vote would be Larry. My comment was: "More so than Larry Kaufman, myself or anyone else, Mr. Hayashi is at the "hub" of US shogi whether anyone realizes it or not." Your interpretation seems a bit off to me. I didn't say that Mr. Hayashi has done more on the whole, or in the past, than Larry for US shogi's development but rather that currently he is more in the center of National and International shogi activity. The main reason for this is his ability and willingness to communicate regularly, in Japanese, with The Shogi Renmei, individual professional players, potential shogi sponsors and numerous other individuals throughout the US and Japan. Yes, "center of the universe" sounds about right, now that you mention it! ;-) During this past week in New York a "Shogi Outing" took place in the Poconos, a NY Shogi Club meeting was held with more than a dozen players, Mr. Nakazawa ama-5Dan (former 3-time East Coast Shogi Champion) visited from Japan, Mr. Toshiaki Tanigawa ama-6Dan (elder brother of the professional Mr. Koji Tanigawa) will arrive tomorrow on a business trip, and a meeting was held on Tuesday with an officer of major Japanese corporation to discuss a proposal to hold a major shogi tournament in NY next April. You be the judge, but I think it is clear that NY is a natural "center" for all sorts of activities. Best regards, George George I. Fernandez President United States Shogi Federation 28-30 34th Street, Apt.#6-O Long Island City, NY 11103 Home Telephone:(718)956-5382 Pager:1(800)Sky-Page, Pin#1149515 E-Mail:g.fernandez mindspring com