From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 1 nov 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 864, November 1st 2000) No title match game last week, but plenty of other interesting shogi news. Shukan Shogi opens with the final game of the Ladies Open Tournament, which they sponsor. Shimizu won this tournament with one hand tied behind her back this time. This should almost be taken literally, as she had hurt her playing arm which was in bandages and held up by a big scarf. It did not bother her much as she crushed Sekine with her left hand to win the second game of the final of the Ladies Open tournament. It was a big surprise that veteran Sekine managed to get to the finals, but she beat Takahashi, Yauchi and Nakai to get there, so she definitely had some strong opposition to overcome. Winning against Shimizu was just a little too much to ask. So, Shimizu wins this tournament for the 6th time, although the last time was already three years ago. Of course Habu also played last week. He wins too many games to get any real time off and this time he had to face Kato in the last game of the 4th round of the A Junisen. A big game for both players, as Habu was 2-1 going into the game and Kato was 1-2. Habu needed to bounce back from a loss in the previous round against Shima, while Kato needed to avoid to fall to (shared) last place with Aono, Shima and Tanaka. It looked like a tough game for a long time, but Habu showed no signs of fatigue as he simply judged everything better than Kato. So, Habu stays in the lead with Sato, Moriuchi and Tanigawa (great company indeed!). I think there is no doubt that this year's Meijin challenger will be one of these four players. In C1 the sixth round was played, but because of the uneven number of players in this class, almost all players have only played five games. C1 is a tough class that is usually tough until the end, but this season it really is totally unpredictable. After 5 rounds there were no players left with a perfect score and after round 6 there are only 4 players in the lead with a 4-1 score. Sato Shuji is leading the pack after beating Hiura. Namekata also won (against Manabe) and he is definitely a candidate for promotion. Surprising is that veteran Ouchi is keeping pace with the young guns as he beat Kanzaki. The final leader is Horiguchi Kazushiza, who just got promoted to C1. All leaders still have some tough opposition to overcome, so the outcome of the promotion race is still completely unpredictable. My money is on Namekata, who seems to have the easiest schedule, but I would not be surprised if the second promotion ticket goes to a player who now only has a 3-2 score. Yashiki, for example, is still not out of it with games against Sato, Ouchi and Nakata Hiroki (who has 4-2 now) still to come. However, considering Yashiki's history in C1, you have to favour Sato or Horiguchi to play in B2 next year. In the Osho league two games were played. Sato beat Morishita by blundering in the endgame. Sato was ahead at the time, but Morishita made it very easy by overlooking a rather simple mate. Sato has won both of his first two games, while Morishita has lost both of his. Sato and Tanigawa are leading the league, followed by Goda, Nakahara and Kubo. Nakahara won his first game against Kubo after all of their four previous encounters had gone to the young prodigy. I doubt that this result is of much importance, as I think the winner of the Sato-Tanigawa game that will be played in the next round is very close to challenging Habu. The final two quarterfinal games of the Kio challenger tournament were played. Kubo continued to make a name for himself by beating Takahashi. He must be full of confidence after beating Kato, Nakahara and Takahashi to reach the final four. He will need this confidence, as he will play Tanigawa next, who beat Fukuzaki. The other semifinal is between Maruyama and Goda, so we will have a strong challenger for Habu again. Hard to say who that will be, as the Kio tournament has a second chance round. Still, Tanigawa seems to be the player with the best form (except when he plays Habu), so I see another Habu-Tanigawa match in my crystal ball. This year's Shinjin-O match (for players younger than 30 and ranked lower than B1 Junisen) is being played between Kitahama and Yamasaki. Kitahama is (together with Kubo) the highest ranked player in this tournament as he plays in the B2 class. He is known as a Junisen specialist as thus far he has not been able to make an impact on any of the other tournaments. To me, his opponent Yamasaki deserves more attention than he is getting. He promoted to 4-dan when he was only 16 years old and at 19 he is one of only three teenagers in professional shogi (Akutsu and Watanabe are the other two). It seems that people expect more from Watanabe, but I think that even though he may not have the potential of Habu or Watanabe, Yamasaki is a potential major title holder. He might pick up a Shinjin-O title on the way, as he started well against Kitahama. Kitahama made a mistake in the complicated middle game of the Kakugawari opening and Yamasaki got a solid advantage. For a moment, it seemed that Kitahama had a chance to fight back in the endgame, but he had used too much time in the middle game. In byoyomi he could not find a way to make his attack work and lost. Yamasaki now gets two chances to win the Shinjin-O title, as this match lasts only three games at most. More next week with the second game of the Ryu-O match between Fujii and Habu, Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Complex Games Lab Electrotechnical Laboratory 1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305-8568 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp URL: http://www.etl.go.jp/etl/suiron/~grimberg/ Tel: +81-(0)298-61-3316 Fax: +81-(0)298-61-5918