From: Larry Kaufman WIZARD NET> Date: 14 may 2000 Subject: Pros visit D.C. Two shogi professionals, Mr. Ishikawa 6 Dan and Mr. Kondo 4 Dan, visited Washington D.C. area this weekend and played twenty handicap games against seven local players (including Marc Theeuwen of the Netherlands who was visiting D.C.). All games were either head to head or two games at one time. Total score was 15 to 5 in favor of the pros, Mr. Ishikawa scoring 8-3 and Mr. Kondo scoring 7-2. Those scoring wins were Mike Lamb shodan( one out of two at two piece), Don Connors two dan (one out of two at rook & lance), Marc Theeuwen 3 dan (two out of four at rook), and myself (one out of three at bishop). J. Yoshinari 4 Dan, M. Koyama 4 Dan, and Ray Kaufman 2 Dan also played but did not score. Noteworthy were Marc's games at rook. Playing standard strategy, he had lost four times previously against pros and lost his first two games here too. Then, I showed him a game that George Hodges had sent me, in which black forces an early bishop exchange and won easily against Nakahara Meijin in his prime. Marc then switched to this strategy and won both times! Also of interest was the strategy used by Ray Kaufman at Rook & Lance, an idea recently recommended by Izumi 7 Dan. It worked very well, but Ray missed an easy mate in one game, and missed his opponent's threat of a mate in another. It seems that these lines are better practical choices than the traditional josekis. Larry Kaufman, amateur 5 Dan