From: Pieter Stouten SHOGI NET> Date: 28 may 2000 Subject: Re: A World Shogi Federation and a real World Championship On 00/05/27 at 12:43 -0400, Larry Kaufman wrote: >The Meijin could well be the strongest player, but only the Ryu-O has >some claim to being the world champion, since a non-Japanese or even a >Japanese amateur cannot become Meijin. The Meijin may be considered >the World's professional champion. > I did not argue the Meijin or Ryu O have equal claims as to being World Champion. I only tried to point there can be different opinions about who should be regarded World Champion. I would argue that the World Champion is the person who wins the tournament that is called the World Championship. Although it would be desirable, that does not necessarily mean he is the strongest player (as e.g. measured by Elo ratings). In cycling, the World Championship is a one-day race, and although the winners are mostly very good cyclists, they are not necessarily regarded the world's best. Winning the Tour de France is typically regarded as more important, while there is also a Grand Prix-like system which carries a lot of prestige. >Any player outside Japan was eligible for the New York event; it is >only the free trip that the imaginary player from Kiribati could not >have won. He could still have played. > True. I stand corrected. Although there is an issue as to what "could have played" means. Kiribatians may be poor and their Shogi genius (tutored by Michael Sandeman) may not have been able to afford the trip to New York. >While I am no fan of the knockout system, it is still a legitimate >system to choose a champion, though there are better ones. The >Meijin challenger is chosen by a round robin of ten top players, and >historically I think the Meijin is more often the strongest player >than the Ryu-O. > I was not expressing an opinion either way. I only indicated that there may be more requirements to regard a tournament a World Championship than that everybody in the world in principle has the chance to win that tournament. Ciao, Pieter