From: DANERUD MARTIN <martin.danerud <at> TELIA <dot> COM>
Date: 27 may 2000
Subject: SV:      Re: A World Shogi Federation and a real World

Dear Larry,

>     Actually, for the first time in history, it now exists!  I refer to
>the Ryu-O tournament.  The winner of the event in Armonk gets to play in
>the Amateur Ryu-O next year; the winner of that event gets to play in the
>Pro Ryu-O, and so in theory any player in the world could become Ryu-O,
>which can be considered the real World Champion.  Of course the event in
>Armonk should have had the word "Amateur" in the title, to avoid the
>implication that the winner is the overall world champion.
>     Before this year Ryu-O only invited players from selected regions, so
>it was not really a world championship until now.


No, Larry, that will not do, even if it is a great opportunity indeed, and of course
I am happy for Egoshi-san to get this chance. But still there is no World Shogi 
Federation. Still there is no real World Championship. After the registration to the 
tournament in Tokyo in 1999 they started to use the term "Amateur World 
Championship" instead of "First International Amateur Forum". Then the 
"World Championship" was arranged in Armonk this year, and now you give us
the next candidate. Of course none of those tournaments have the legal sanction
of a recognized World Organisation. I can just truthfully repeat:

"I have a slight suspicion that those terms are not that sacred in the US and in Japan."


                                                Best regards,

                                                Martin