From: Reijer Grimbergen <grimberg <at> ETL <dot> GO <dot> JP>
Date: 30 may 2000
Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 842, May 31st 2000)

I am afraid I have to disappoint the people who are starving for
professional
shogi news this week, since there were no title match games and there
were
actually only two important games played.

In the Oza challenger tournament the quarterfinal encounter between Goda
and
Fujii was played. Goda tried an unusual opening idea by fighting Fujii's
Shikenbisha with a boat castle and the bishop on 4d instead of 2b. This
was a complete failure and Fujii soon got an overwhelming position.
Normally,
Fujii can be trusted in these positions, but this game did not end
without
incident. At one point both players overlooked a fork with a rook drop
on
both bishops! Goda had a great chance to win a hopeless game, but he
also
overlooked this simple move (too simple for a professional?). After this
embarrassing moment the game went normally and Fujii became the first
player
to reach the semi-finals of the Oza tournament and is now two wins away
from challenging Habu.

In the red group of the Oi leagues, Nakata Isao had a 2-1 score before
his
game with Maruyama (1-2), so he could join leaders Tanigawa and Goda
with
a victory. It was a violent game with a very difficult endgame where
Maruyama successfully managed to confuse Nakata in a position where
there
were a number of pieces hanging. It took a long time after that before
the
game was finished, but in the end Maruyama won. This was his 400th
victory
as a pro against only 159 losses, a brilliant winning percentage of
71.6%.
The red group is now very clear with one game to play, as leaders Goda
and
Tanigawa meet in the final round. The winner of that game will play the
winner of the white group to challenge Habu.

As said, not much else this week. Next week will be better, as the fifth
game of the Meijin match will be played on May 31st and June 1st.

Reijer

--

Reijer Grimbergen
Complex Games Lab
Electrotechnical Laboratory
1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305 JAPAN
E-mail: grimberg <at> etl <dot> go <dot> jp
URL: http://www.etl.go.jp/etl/suiron/~grimberg/
Tel: +81-(0)298-61-3316
Fax: +81-(0)298-61-5918