From: Larry Kaufman WIZARD NET> Date: 22 nov 1999 Subject: Eastern Open and Handicap The Eastern Open and Handicap shogi tournaments were held this weekend in Frederick, Maryland at the home of Mike Lamb, D.C. shogi club member. Although turnout was a bit low (16, including 6 from New York and 2 from Ohio), the tournaments were quite strong, with six players ranked 4 Dan or higher. The handicap tournament ended in a three way tie for first between myself, shodan Mike Lamb, and shodan H. Inoue, all with 4 out of 5. Since the specified tie-break method still ended in a tie, playoff games were played at the proper handicaps, and I won the first place after defeating Mike Lamb in the final at four piece handicap in a very close and exciting game. Mike took second, and Mr. Inoue took the top prize for two dan and below, there being no third prize. Top Shodan went to Ohio shogi organizer Doug Dysart. Top kyu player was Ed Strickland of Virginia, the lowest rated player in the event and father of two promising junior players. For me, the high point of the event was defeating U.S. champion Y. Suzuki (4 dan) giving him lance handicap, a nice echo of the famous story about the great Masuda giving lance handicap to Meijin Oyama and defeating him about forty years ago. However Suzuki evened the score by defeating me in the even game tournament the next day. Of the 38 games played in the handicap tournament (including playoffs), 37 were handicap games (!), and the handicap giver won by 24-13, despite a very severe handicap system. This is normal; we assign fair rating values to each handicap, but whenever the rating difference is between two handicaps, the smaller handicap is used; this gives the stronger player a modest advantage in general. Handicaps used in this event ran from lance all the way to five piece. The Eastern Open (even-game) also finished in a three way tie for first at 4-1. This time we specified six tie-breaks in order so no playoff would be needed. George Fernandez 4 dan of New York, the US Shogi Federation president, took first place on the tie-break, I took second (we needed all six tie-breaks to settle this placing!), and Mr. J. Yoshinari 4 dan of the D.C. club took third. Top 2 dan and under went to Doug Dysart with 3 points, who thereby earned promotion to 2 dan. Congratulations, Doug! I believe he is the first non-Japanese player from the central portion of the U.S. to achieve this rank. Top Shodan was H. Inoue, who is now getting close to promotion to 2 dan, and second Shodan was our host Mike Lamb, whose rating jumped to a lifetime high as a result of the two events. Top kyu player was U.S. Shogi Federation Secretary Josh Krekeler of Ohio. Most of the even games were won by the favorites or were just mild upsets, but there was one spectacular upset in the first round, when my son Raymond Kaufman (shodan) defeated U.S. champion Y. Suzuki, nearly a five hundred point upset! Following are the post-tournament USSF ratings of the participants: L. Kaufman 2396, J. Yoshinari 2261, M. Koyama 2235, Y. Suzuki 2158, G. Fernandez 2135, S. Ogihara 1976, F. Bekele 1934, D. Dysart 1808, H. Inoue 1744, Ray Kaufman 1677, M. Lamb 1625, S. Masui 1544, J. Krekeler 1228, E. Motohashi 1141, Mike Strickland 1108, Ed Strickland 1073. Thanks to our hosts not only for giving us a nice place to play (and free home-made beer), but also for allowing six of the out-of-towners to stay there overnight, so no one had to pay any hotel bills. Larry Kaufman, tournament director.