From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 15 mar 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 830 and 831, Because of the Computer Shogi Championships last week, I had no time for a Shukan Shogi report, so here are two in one. These are the weeks of the decisions in the Junisen, the most important games most professionals play in the year. Only title match appearances are more important than the pecking order that the Junisen is. These two weeks there were decisions in all classes except C2. A Junisen: ========== The most important class is of course the A class where the challenger of the Meijin is decided. For a couple of years it has been the custom of having long coverage of the final round in this class on Japanese television. A great idea, since in title matches one is stuck with only a single game, which may or may not be interesting. On the other hand, the A class Junisen has five games, so there is almost always something interesting somewhere. This year promised to be good, with the decisions about relegation and meijin challenger all to be decided on the final day and only Habu and Morishita not involved in either struggle. Unfortunately, the reality was different. Maruyama, who was leading the class with a remarkable 7-1 score, completely crushed his opponent Goda, securing his first challenge for the Meijin title early. This left the question of who would relegate to B1. The first spot was also decided very quickly. Kato had a surprisingly easy victory over Nakahara, ending the great Meijin's stay in the top class after 29 years. There were some who were wondering if this might mean Nakahara's retirement from professional shogi, but Nakahara immediately put an end to these rumours. He still thinks he has some very good shogi in him and he said he would have no problems playing in B1 next year. This left open the question of the final relegation spot. Goda could only hope that Moriuchi would be so kind to beat Tanaka Torahiko, which would make his awful 3-6 score just good enough to avoid relegation. For a long time it looked like Moriuchi had a great position, but some clever defending by Tanaka killed Moriuchi's attack and saved Tanaka's spot in the A class for another year. It is a big surprise that former title holder Goda is relegated to B1 in his first year in the top class. Before the season started, he was considered a dark horse to become challenger. He will have a hard time getting back next year, since B1 looks quite strong with Fujii, Miura and Nakahara fighting for promotion next year. B1 Junisen: =========== Some real drama in B1 in the final round. Not for Aono, who started only with 3-3, but then won four games in a row to have his chances in his own hands to get back to the A class after ten years in B1. In his final game he had to face Naito, who was already relegated and might have lacked a little fighting spirit. Naito got only one chance to get a good position, but when he overlooked that a bad looking move was his only chance, he never got another chance again. At 47, Aono will be the second oldest player in the top class next year. Only 60-year old Kato will be his senior. The second promotion spot was for either Inoue or Senzaki. Senzaki quickly beat Kiriyama to put the pressure on Inoue, who was playing Fukuzaki. Because of the bad position of Senzaki in the class, only a loss of Inoue would mean promotion. Senzaki had to wait more than four hours for that game to finish and commented that he had never been so tired watching after watching other people play. Inoue had a good position for a long time, but in the evening things were starting to turn around. It became one of those games that make shogi such a great game. Strong attack and brilliant defence made it unclear at every move who was actually better . In the end, Fukuzaki won the game at about half past twelve. After his unlucky relegation last year, again a blow for Inoue, who had to win only one game from the final two but lost both. While Senzaki will have had a party where he had to pay all of Fukuzaki's drinks, Inoue will not have had much sleep... B2 Junisen: =========== In B2 there were no surprises in the final round. Ryu-O Fujii beat Kitahama in a game that looked worse for him after the opening his opponent had prepared for him. However, things were very complicated and there was no clear mistake by Kitahama, so things might have been better than they looked for Fujii. Fujii is joined in B1 next year by former Kisei title holder Miura, who showed no nerves against Tomioka. A better middle game position was coolly extended to a win. Miura was stuck in C1 for a couple of years, but the second consecutive promotion will bring him close to the A class where he belongs. I think there is a good chance that he will make it three promotions in a row next year. It all ended in tears for Fukaura, who was aiming at his third consecutive Junisen promotion. He beat Tsukada to get the same 9-1 score as Fujii and Miura, but because he was ranked lower that Miura based on the Junisen result two year ago (both had 9-1 last year), he missed promotion by the smallest possible margin. Bad luck, but I am sure he will make it next year as he also is an A class caliber player. C1 Junisen: =========== Suzuki and Kubo had already clinched promotion from this class before the final round (they both lost their final game for good measure :-) ), so the remaining questions were about the relegation markers. It was especially a big day for Zen Nihon Pro finalist Okazaki, who was in big danger of dropping back to C2 after only two years in C1. After losing the first six games, things looked desperate, but three wins in a row gave him back the chance to save his skin. He managed to do so by beating Nishimura, giving his up and down season a very good end. Since his Shoreikai days he seems at his best when everything is on the line, so this promises something for his upcoming Zen Nihon Pro encounter with the mighty Tanigawa. Relegation markers now went to Kodama, Nakata Isao, Ishikawa, Maeda and Katsumata. Katsumata's bad result is a little surprising after promotion to C1 last year. Next year he will have to be careful to avoid the same trouble Okazaki was in this year. For Maeda the relegation marker was his second and he will play in C2 next year. Shoreikai 3-dan league ====================== We have two new professional 4-dan players. One of them is an unusual talent. Watanabe Akira is only 15 years old. He is only the 4th player to become 4-dan at such a young age after Kato, Tanigawa and Habu (good company indeed!). He is considered one of those players that come along only once every ten years or so and he is expected to make a strong impact on professional shogi. An exceptional talent and a name to remember. Clearing the difficult 3-dan league in only his second try is evidence of that. Watanabe is accompanied by Iijima Eiji, a 20-year old pupil of Sakurai, 7-dan. Iijima had to sweat a lot for his promotion, as he lost the first of the two games on the final day against Watanabe. He did not look at the results table before the second game and played it like his chances had already gone. A good strategy as he won the the final round, which secured his promotion. In the end it was all quite safe, as losses by his rivals meant that even a loss in the final round would have been good enough for promotion. More next week, 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