From: SalvaAC AOL COM Date: 4 oct 2000 Subject: Re: Fw: Re: MSO 2000 Shogi Festival Hi, > This is a very interesting discussion. > > After participating in a couple of shogi tournaments in Sweden, I > reached a couple of personal conclusions about the tournament form 60' + > 30'' byoyomi : > 1) The quality of the games deteriorated continuously when the players > approached the byoyomi stage. The game is too difficult to be played with > 30'' byoyomi. The quality of the endgame in such conditions is a joke. I > don't think it is possible to develop your abilities in this beautiful part > of the game (the endgame) during these conditions. A horrible situation > occurs : the philosophy of the game demands a crucial factor, time. That > precious resource is sacrificed on the altar of profanity. Not in one > singular game, but in many. The incremental form is more just, and gives > power of disposition to the player. I would advocate 60' +120'' increment; > in order to give time for the recording of moves. If you cannot study the > games afterwards; why should you play tournaments in the first place? --------------A 30" byoyomi is quick, especially if you are recording moves. I've often had someone else who is done with their game come over and keep my record in such situations, but I've never played in an ultra-formal tournament setting. The game may deteriorate and moves and lines may be missed, but the other side can be that the playing field is potentially skewed for better or for worse by how much people have studied endgame technique. In my case, I am quite poor in the opening and have studied opening theory very little. I often, though, keep a pocket tsumeshogi book with me and will practice even just one or two problems - even just five or seven moves. Because of that, I generally prefer to spend my time in a tournament game using up minutes in the opening and middle to try and ensure that I have decent chances in the endgame, and hope that my greater skill in the ending will carry the day. I also feel for myself, a shodan player at best, that I'm going to miss the best move in difficult situations whether I have a minute or an hour to find it. > 2) The tournaments are squeezed in, with a very tight schedule. At > least > a week should be allocated for a serious shogi tournament. Players will > then > be able to analyze their games during the evenings. Personal shogi > development after a hard game and during analysis! Not more than one > tournament game per diem would be my motto! I think that this is more in > the > nature of the game, and much more satisfactory for the individual. --------------In a perfect world, the thought of a full week for a tournament, with maybe only one or two games played each day, would be wonderful. Longer time controls could be given and there would be time to study and recouperate. The seven-games-in-one-day tournaments are very brutal mentally, and often by about the fourth game I'm so mentally taxed I just can't play with any sense of real shogi ability. Game four with Doug Dysart back in April comes to mind. (And Doug, dont' you DARE say a word about that game! ). But realistically, that would mean everyone managing to work vacations and schedules and lodging and food and so many other aspects that it simply would never happen. In my experience planning anything, it's hard enough to find three hours in a given weekend to get people together. I think for me, the satisfaction is not necessarily having long time controls to ponder what to do next. I do enjoy playing as well as I can, and that is not all that fantastic. The real satisfaction comes with the getting together with other people who share a common interest across societal boundaries, something as Americans we get precious of over here - interaction with people of various sites around the world. > My personal opinion is analogous to Mr. Kaufman's : The byoyomi stage > of the game is very unsatisfactory in the form used in MSO. Byoyomi should > be replaced by increment in future tournaments. In a setting like MSO, I would agree (based on what I'm hearing, as I've never been there). But MSO is also very much not the norm, and is much more one of the shogi mountaintops of the west. There, you DO have the opportunity to stay for a week for a tournament. Sal