From: Sam Sloan ISHIPRESS COM> Date: 23 may 2000 Subject: Re: What is the Logic? At 02:37 PM 5/22/00 EDT, SalvaAC AOL COM wrote: >Hi, > >Perhaps I didn't save every item that came through for the tournament, but >every one I did have said that the tournament was to be held in Armonk, NY. >I missed any references to White Plains. However, if the earliest ones >mentioned White Plains, were later posts, which consistantly mentioned >Armonk, ignored? > >fwiw, I just pulled out the atlas, started at the top of New York state, >found no Armonk on the top page of the two-page map. Kept looking down, >found the corner of Connceticut you were referring to, and just over that >border as 694 reenters New York, I found Armonk. That's scarcely upperstate. > >I understand that between costs of transportation, accomodations, food, etc, >that to fly in and rent a car could be cost prohibitive. However, I suspect >that if you had let people know when you would be arriving, on which flight >and airport, there would have been volunteers to pick you up. Plan ahead. > >Tony Salvaggione First, the same situation arose at the 1999 US Shogi Championship in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. I arrived in Chicago on a flight from New York City at 8:00 AM. The tournament was scheduled to start at 10:00 AM, so I had two hours to get there. I assumed I could make it there easily, but I failed to realize that it is impossible to make it from Chicago to Hoffman Estates in just two hours without taking a taxi cab which would cost a minimum of $70. I made it to Schaumberg, Illinois by train and called the tournament organizers again from there. Nobody volunteered to come to the train station to pick me up. There was also no taxi stand at Schaumberg. Therefore your statement: "However, I suspect that if you had let people know when you would be arriving, on which flight and airport, there would have been volunteers to pick you up" is simply not true. It is wrong to assume that the shogi organizers are going to extend any conveniences to make up for the fact that they scheduled the event at such a remote location. I lost about $450 by attending the US Shogi Championship in Chicago (actually Hoffman Estates). When they accepted my $40 entry fee, which I paid at 12:30 in the afternoon of my arrival, I assumed that I was in the tournament. I did not find out until the next day that they considered me not to be really in the tournament, or that I had come merely to play in the consolation event and not for the championship. How dare they assume that I would fly all the way to Chicago, come all the way to Hoffman Estates, pay an entry fee and then not be interested in competing for the top prizes! I have received a lot of private e-mail about this from persons who say that they agree completely with me but, being Japanese, they do not want to say anything and cause embarassment. This is precisely the problem. Because nobody but me complained about what they did at the last big event, they do the same thing again: Hold an event at such a remote location that nobody can find the place or get there without renting one of their vans. (Remember than the organizer of both events is in the business of renting vans.) Regarding Upstate New York, most residents of New York City define "Upstate New York" as all of New York State North of New York City. In other words, New York City and Long Island, both Nassau and Suffolk Counties, is Downstate New York and the rest is Upstate New York. I reslize that residents of Yonkers and White Plains, which are towns immediately north of New York City, feel that they do not live in Upstate New York, but Armonk is not a close case. To get to Armonk you have to drive through Connecticut. This is more than one hour by car from Midtown Manhattan. Nobody who lives in New York City will contend that Armonk is not in Upstate New York. More importantly, the purpose in holding the World Shogi Championship in New York rather than in Tokyo was obviously to get international television and newspaper publicity for shogi. It is not possible to do that for an event to be held in Armonk. The Shogi Renmei spent a lot of money sending players from Japan for this event. I do not think they would have been willing to spend that money if they had realized how far away from New York City the event was going to be held. Not only did the Shogi World Championship receive absolutely no publicity in the New York News Media, but it has received no publicity on this discussion group. Nobody has yet reported the results of the event or anything about what happened there. I want to make it clear that is not only me who is unhappy about these developments. Others have told me privately that they are in full agreement but are afraid to say anything for fear of being kicked out of shogi. Already, certain shogi officials have threatened to ban me from competition because of my complaints. For example, here is a quote from a letter I received by private e-mail. For obvious reasons, I cannot name the author: "In 1999, things become fishy. So far, I've found that 4 people were allowed to play in the "A Class" KO that were NOT SUPPOSED to, while 3 people were dropped down to the "B" league that were NOT SUPPOSED to be! Let's take a look: To qualify for the top KO, you enter a quad and play 2 games - only! Confusing yet? (Well, I have no problem with this format, but to a Westerner it is quite weird. Anyway...) Now, you go 2-0, you're in. Simple enough. If you lose one, you play a playoff game against a player selected randomly from the 1-1 field. Thus, a record of 2-0 or a record of 2-1 gets you in. Anything else eliminates you. George Fernandez (NY) went 1-1, then lost the playoff to Te. Asada. Fassil Bekele (NY) went 1-1, then lost the playoff to Koike. Hayashi (NY) went 1-1, then lost the playoff to Koyama. Mark Ono (LA) went 1-1, then lost the playoff to Doug Dysart. All these players went 1-2. Were they eliminated? NO! They played in the KO anyway. Notice that 3 players are from NY, the other from LA. Now, for those who were slighted: Ray Kaufman went 1-1, then WON the playoff vs. George Marino. Ogihara went 2-0, as did Komatsu. One player went 2-1, while the others went 2-0! Did they get in the top KO? NO! Komatsu is from Illinois, Ogihara is from NY, and Ray is from DC. One thing I did not know at the tournament was that winning the B class got you a trip to Japan. This was a new thing, and somehow I missed that announcement. Is it possible that someone would volunteer to be dropped down to have a better shot of going? That's another interesting little question. Well, Fernandez made the Semifinal, while Bekele the Quarterfinal. Next year, both will probably be seeded players (according to the formats of 1996 thru 1998). Yet, neither one was even supposed to be playing!!" ================================================================= I think the above quote makes it clear that I am not the only person who is not happy with the State of Shogi in America. Since the shogi officials in America are obviously not interested in hearing the players' views, perhaps the shogi officials in Japan will be. Sam Sloan