From: Sam Sloan ISHIPRESS COM> Date: 17 jun 1999 Subject: More Scandal in the US Shogi Championship More Scandal in the US Shogi Championship I have read the posting of Mr. Minoru Hayashi of the New York Shogi Club in which he defends his selection of Mr. Fassil Bekele to represent the USA at the Amateur Ryo-U shogi tournament in Japan. The best I can say is that it appears that Mr. Hayashi is not aware of the actual results of the tournament, which is surprising since Mr. Hayashi was one of the organizers of the event. Mr. Hayashi says that Mr. Bekele "did a good job in U.S. Shogi Championship. Mr. Bekele reached at the best 8 within all A-class players He was even rated on top rank in non-Japanese people, with Mr. George Fernandez among A-class." This is simply not true. Mr. Bekele did not reach the best result. Actually, he had the worst result, which is why almost everybody is upset that he was selected. To spell it out, here are the results of several of the concerned players in the preliminary section of the tournament: Fassil Bekele Round One Lost to Yoshinari, 4-dan Round Two Defeated Hanazawa, 1-dan Round Three Lost to M. Koike, 4-dan Douglas Dysart Round One Defeated H. Inoue, 1-dan Round Two Lost to M. Ito, 3-dan Round Three Defeated M. Ono, 4-dan Ray Kaufman Round One Lost to Te. Asada, 4-dan Round Two Defeated Krekeler, 2-kyu Round Three Defeated G. Marino, 1-kyu Minoru Hayashi Round One Lost to M. Lamb, 1-dan Round Two Defeated Y. Asada, 8-kyu Round Three Lost to Koyama, 4-dan George Fernandez Round One Lost to S. Ogihara, 4-dan Round Two Defeated T. Nagao, 2-kyu Round Three Lost to Te. Asada, 4-dan Sam Sloan Round One Lost to S. Kugai, 5-kyu The rules of the tournament, which were announced at the start of the event, were that the players would be divided into sections of four. In the first round, every player would play an opponent in his section. In the second round, the two winners of the section would play each other and the two losers of the section would play each other. After the second round, the players who had won their first two games would go into the finals, whereas the players who had lost their first two games would be eliminated and go into a consolation section. The remaining players, those who had won one and lost one, would go into a general group and play one game against somebody else in that group. The winners would go into the finals and the losers would go into the consolation section. As can be seen from the above results, under these rules, Douglas Dysart and Raymond Kaufman, both of whom won two games and lost one, qualified to the finals, whereas Fassil Bekele, M. Hayashi, and George Fernandez, who all lost two games and won one, were eliminated and went into the consolation section. However, when the tournament resumed the next day, that did not happen. Instead, Fassil Bekele, M. Hayashi and George Fernandez, all of whom had been eliminated under the rules, were allowed to play in the finals. On the other hand, Ray Kaufman, who had won two games and lost one, played in the consolation section. I was given only one opponent during the first day of play. Nobody told me the reason for this. On the second day of play, which was a knock-out event, Douglas Dysart lost to Te. Asada, 4-dan (who eventually lost the championship game to Suzuki), Fassil Bekele defeated R. Uechi, 4-dan, but lost to Te. Asada, 4-dan, M. Hayashi lost to Suzuki, 4-dan, George Fernandez defeated M. Ito, 3-dan, defeated M. Koike, 4-dan, lost to Suzuki, 4-dan and lost to Tsuruoka, 4-dan. Ray Kaufman defeated G. Marino, 1-kyu giving a handicap of lance, and lost to J. Nakano, 1-kyu, giving a handicap of bishop. Sam Sloan defeated J. Striker, 6-kyu, giving a handicap of four pieces, one rook, one bishop and two lances, and lost to M. Sato, 4-dan giving a handicap of lance. (M. Sato had been incorrectly entered as a 1-dan player in the tournament and therefore received a handicap when he should have been giving a handicap.) On the second day of the event, I was told that in order to make an even number of 16 players in the finals, three players who had been eliminated on the first day of play had been put in. One of those was M. Ono, 4-dan, who had been defeated by Douglas Dysart. I was told that the players who had been allowed into the finals had been selected on the basis of rating. I did not know nor did I even suspect that Fassil Bekele was one of those who had been put back into the finals, because of his low rating of 2-dan, which is the same as my rating. Had I known, I would have protested immediately. Mr. Hayashi says in his posting that "Fassil Bekele was even rated on top rank in non-Japanese people, with Mr. George Fernandez". This is not true. George Fernandez did much better than Fassil Bekele, reaching the semi-finals before losing to Suzuki, who won the tournament. Moreover, Mr. Fernandez is a much stronger player than Mr. Bekele (and a much stronger player than I am, for example) and had been eliminated on the first day only because his opponents included two of the strongest players in the tournament. Had the top prize of a round trip all expenses paid trip to Japan been awarded to Mr. Fernandez, I would have no objection whatever, even though he had been eliminated on the first day of play. However, Mr. Bekele, because of his poor result of only two wins against three losses, was not entitled to receive any consideration at all, plus he lost two more games later on outside the main event. The player who actually achieved the best result among the above was Douglas Dysart, who defeated the strongest player, M. Ono, 4-dan. Prior to the tournament, it was never announced that players who had been eliminated in the first day of play by losing two games could get back in in order to make an even number of 16. I do not believe that this rule even existed, especially since nobody knew how many players would be playing in the tournament. In all chess tournaments, everybody knows the rules, because both FIDE and the USCF have published rules for tournaments. In addition, the pairings and results of chess tournaments are posted on a wall chart, plus there is an appeals committee appointed in advance of the play in the tournament in case there is a dispute. In the US Shogi championship, none of this was done. Apparently, the rules were just made up as the tournament went on. There was no wall chart. Nobody knew what the results were and of course there was no appeals committee. I have played in hundreds of chess tournaments since my first rated tournament in 1956. I have never seen anything happen so outrageously unfair as this. Before the posting by Mr. Hayashi, we did not even know who decided to award the prize to Mr. Bekele. (Mr. Hayashi identifies them as Mr. Hayashi, Mr. Fernandez and one other person whose identity is unclear.) Mr. Hayashi and Mr. Fernandez are members of the New York Shogi Club and they have simply awarded the top prize to one of their members of that club, Mr. Bekele. What is especially disturbing are the pronouncements by Mr. Fernandez that I am "beating a dead horse" and that "Your reckless actions have clearly attempted to confuse everyone". Mr. Hayashi gives among the reasons for awarding the top prize to Mr. Bekele, "He contributes to N.Y. Shogi Club very much". One reason why we have tournaments with rules is that whenever some committee decides who gets what award, the award always goes to some long established player whom everybody knows. The young rapidly-improving kid always gets shafted in such a situation. Here, Mr. Bekele's long years with the New York Shogi Club are cited as a reason for awarding him the prize. Obviously, Ray Kaufman, who is 16 years old, and Douglas Dysart, who is 21, cannot compete with Mr. Bekele in the number of years they have been involved in shogi, even though they can beat him on the shogi board. The fact remains that they both qualified to the finals, whereas Bekele was eliminated under the rules. In addition, I was excluded. After losing one game, I was not given a second opponent. Moreover, Mr. Hayashi, Mr. Fernandez and Mr. Bekele, all of whom were eliminated under the announced rules, were allowed to play for the championship nevertheless. It is simply not good enough to say "The idea is good starting from next year." It has already been announced that this prize of a trip to Japan will not be offered again until four years from now. Also, this does not address the question of why the announced rules were not followed and why to everybody's surprise and astonishment it was announced at the conclusion of the tournament that Mr. Bekele had won the top prize. Sam Sloan ----------------------------- At 05:47 PM 6/12/99 -0400, Minoru Hayashi wrote: Opinions regarding U.S. Shogi Championship have been sent by e-mail to shogi fans and me. These mails are untruth and sometimes slanderous. I would like to tell you the fact, with the honor as a shogi fan. This is regarding Mr. Fassil Bekele, because he was chosen to go to Japan for Amateur Ryu-o Tournament. He did a good job in U.S. Shogi Championship. Mr. Bekele reached at the best 8 within all A-class players He was even rated on top rank in non-Japanese people, with Mr. George Fernandez among A-class. It is true that he was not champion, but he did a good job in this championship. He is a 3-dan player in N.Y. Shogi Club, with R1910. He has been keeping A-rank in this four years. Rank is divided by A-rank and B-rank in N.Y. Shogi Club. The rank is determined by games in each rank, four times a year. It is very hard to rise the rank: only two people can rise their rank in each time. Maximum number of players is 10 people for A-rank, and 20 people for B-rank, even though the number of us is 40 people. It is true that he has not been a champion, but Mr. Bekele always has good scores in other games, too. The important thing is not only whether a player has been a champion, but also continues to have good scores in entire games. There is no doubt that hard work is very important, and I know all members are working so hard to improve their ability. However, some people's ability can fall down. We should not look at only the result of today for players, but need to consider with the entire record history of players, including their ability right now. This is the point why WE, three presidents, the manager of U.S. Shogi Championship, USSF president Mr. George Fernandez, and me, chose Mr. Bekele to send to Japan for Amateur Ryu-O. As I wrote, he has always had good scores in his shogi history, even today. He fills other requirements, too. He contributes to N.Y. Shogi Club very much. He also fills residential requirement: must have American citizenship, or must have been in the United States for more than five years if they are from other countries. He is from Ethiopia, but has been in the United States more than five years. My point is, we should not look people from the view of race, age, sex, the amount they spend, whom friends are, etc. If we do, it is discrimination. We believe that we chose Mr. Bekele with the view of equal opportunity. I understand that almost every shogi fans spent a lot of money and effort for the Championship. A lot of fans gathered in Chicago from all over the big nation: the United States. This is same for all players from New York City, including Mr. Bekele, Mr. Fernandez, and me. And our entire schedule went behind the schedule, because airplanes delayed all the time. When we arrived Chicago, we were three hours late because tornado reached at Ohio, and unfortunately we changed airplane in Columbus, OH. When we came back, to New York, it was around midnight and six hours late. Age completely does not matter for shogi. If Mr. Bekele was 39 years old and close near his peak, all shogi Meijins older than him would be much beyond their peak, but they are still strong enough. Mr. Bekele and I were same shogi fans and good partners in the shogi club, but we are not close friends. We are just shogi friends. I made arrangement of airplane tickets to Japan, but it is just because I am in the travel industry. My arrangement gave me no influence upon the selection of player to Japan. The airplane tickets left my hand soon after my arrangement, because all costs will be paid by Yomiuri. It is not my personal invitation: that's their invitation to Japan. I hope all fans can enjoy shogi with everyone without slander. Just to have fun with shogi is the purpose of the associations of shogi, such as the championship and N.Y. Shogi Club, and I believe most of members understand it. And I hope shogi fans have the right view of things. At last, there were mistakes on the e-mail what I recently received, and I would like to make correction. Kaufman, Raymond R. 1629 Sloan, Sam R. 1750 Dysart, Douglas R. 1673 Bekele, Fussill R. 1910 Sincerely Minoru HAYASHI NYSHOGI CLUB