From: Sam Sloan <sloan <at> ISHIPRESS <dot> COM>
Date: 12 apr 2000
Subject: Re: Various shogi rules

At 12:25 PM 4/12/00 -0400, Larry Kaufman wrote:

>>In Larry's case, the key issue is that the a win was NOT *claimed* by Mr.
>Yoshinari (even after it was wrongfully pointed out by a spectator) and he
>is NOT compelled to make the claim.
>
>     Mr. Yoshinari was not involved in this incident, but both the 4 dan
>player and the spectator were Japanese.  I am almost certain that the
>player did not deliberately fail to claim the nifu; he seemed quite
>surprised when it was pointed out.  Also, the interval was too long for it
>to be merely a case of giving his opponent a chance to see it himself.

I am surprised to learn that Larry does not know that the Japanese go
through a little act of pretending to be surprised to learn something when
they have known it all along.

Do you really think it is likely that when the nifu was pointed out by the
spectator, the Japanese 4-dan player would simply say, "Yes. I know he made
an illegal move, but I was just waiting for him to realize it."

(I would make a sexual analogy but that would get me kicked off this list.)

Regarding the spectator, what if he was waiting to play the winner and was
being inconvenienced by the delay in winding up the game. Or, what if his
prize depended on the result of the game and the 4-dan player had
eventually "lost".

Sam Sloan