From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 7 apr 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 834, April 5th 2000) This week's Shukan Shogi marks the end of professional shogi season and there is a small recap of the different types of season's rankings. The season was clearly the breakthrough of Maruyama as a top player. He lead all professionals in number of wins (50), number of consecutive wins (18) and the number of games played (68, shared with Tanigawa). Only the most prestigious one of highest winning percentage he had to leave to Kimura Kazuki (5-dan) who had a season's mark of 47 wins and 12 losses, a winning percentage of 0.797. This was just one win short of the magic 80% winning percentage borderline and still well short of Nakahara's 1968 record of 0.855. The end of the season also means the end of the television tournaments and the final games of the NHK tournament and the Hayasashi Senshuken were broadcasted last week. In the NHK Cup Suzuki Daisuke crowned a great season (Ryu-O challenger, promotion to B2) with his first tournament victory as a pro with a win over Goda Masataka in the final. Suzuki is a quick play specialist, so his victory was not a total surprise. Still, Goda was very disappointed after the game as he did not manage to convert a very good position. In the Hayasashi Senshuken the final was between Kisei Tanigawa and Ryu-O Fujii. For both players a win would mean their first victory in this tournament. This is especially surprising for Tanigawa, who has won every other professional tournament at least once. He desperately wanted the win, but Fujii did not give him much chance. An early lead by the Ryu-O turned out to be decisive even though the perfectionist Fujii was still unhappy about some of the decisions he had made. In the Red group of the Oi league Morishita managed to end a streak of bad form (5 consecutive losses) with a win over Suzuki Daisuke in the second round. With two wins in the group he shares the lead with Yashiki. Suzuki lost his second game in a row and has almost no chance to stay in the league, let alone play a role in the challenger race. Next week a little more news, as the Zen Nihon Pro Tournament will start. 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)298-61-3316 Fax: +81-(0)298-61-5918