From: Larry Kaufman <lkaufman <at> WIZARD <dot> NET>
Date: 23 may 1999
Subject: Re: Shogi-L current subjects

-----Original Message-----
From: tiger22 <at> IX <dot> NETCOM <dot> COM <tiger22 <at> IX <dot> NETCOM <dot> COM>
To: SHOGI-L <at> techunix <dot> technion <dot> ac <dot> il <SHOGI-L <at> techunix <dot> technion <dot> ac <dot> il>
Date: Saturday, May 22, 1999 2:50 PM
Subject: Re: Shogi-L current subjects



>>The coming FIST tournament is a major event for western amateur shogi
<snip>
>I'm sorry, never heard of the FIST tournament.

    The "First International Shogi Tournament" is a bit of a misnomer, as of
course there have been many international shogi tournaments before.  What it
really is is a sort of World Amateur Championship, except that Japan is not
being represented by its strongest players.  Each shogi playing nation was
given one spot in the tournament, with two slots for the U.S. and China and
four for Japan.  All expenses are being paid for the event, to be held in
Tokyo June 19 and 20.  I believe that most of the players were selected by
qualifying events.  Europe is being represented by Eric Cheymol, Marc
Theeuwen, and Boris Mirnik (to name only the strongest ??) , the U.S. by
myself and George Fernandez, and Japan by the Elementary school champion,
the Women's Amateur champion, and two others I'm not sure of, but I'm told
that one is a prefectural champion of an important prefecture, which if true
would make him the favorite.  I'm also told that the Chinese players and one
or more of the players from South America (who have Japanese names) are of
five Dan strength, so it will be quite a strong event at the top, though
there are also many much weaker players.

>>The Meijin tournament is still in competition, <snip>. And I
>>read only a very few number of mails on this subject.


     Okay, here's an amazing fact: Both of the last two games featured a
bishop being dropped early in the enemy camp, only to be trapped by a
counter bishop drop in defense, forcing the first-dropped bishop to
sacrifice itself for a general.  The two openings were totally dissimilar.
In the first instance Tanigawa won the material and went on to win the game;
in the second Sato won the material but Tanigawa won the game.  The games
illustrate that if you have to "waste" a bishop by dropping it on a poor
square in your own camp to win the exchange of bishop for general, it is a
matter of fine judgement as to which side got the better of the deal.

     Finally, I'd just like to point out that recent discussions of the
merits of different tournament formats (Swiss vs. elimination, handicap vs.
even, etc.) are of potential interest to everyone on the list, not just
Americans.

     Larry Kaufman