From: Takenobu Takizawa <takizawa <at> MSE <dot> WASEDA <dot> AC <dot> JP>
Date: 3 apr 2001
Subject: The 11th World Computer Shogi Tournament (Results)

I am writing about the brief report on the 11th World Computer
Shogi Tournament held March 10 through 12 at Kisarazu, Japan.
I hope that Reijer Grimbergen will post more detailed report.

IS-shogi won the tournament.  Kanazawa was the second and KCC
was the third.

There were 55 programs (out of 63 applicants) entered the tournament.
Three were seeded to the final, 16 were seeded to the upper preliminary
contest, 36 (including 11 new comers) entered the lower preliminary contest.

In lower preliminary contest, there were seven Swiss style games.
Yano-shogi, Amano-shogi, Hyper-shogi by Mr. Wakabayashi, SPEAR by
Reijer Grimbergen, Oojiro by Mr. Oosawa, Suzunone by Mr. Shinohara,
Usapyon by Mr. Ike and TACOS by Iida lab., Shizuoka Univ. proceeded to the
upper preliminary contest.  Yano got 6 and a half points.
Yano-shogi has been awarded as a top amateur three times, and after
two-year absent reentered the tournament.  TACOS is made by Professor
Iida who is a professional 6-dan player and his students.

In upper preliminary contest, there were nine Swiss style games.
KCC-shogi by KCC team from North Korea, Hyper-shogi, Gekisashi
by Chikayama lab., Univ. of Tokyo, Kakinoki-shogi, Kanazawa-shogi,
Tanchou under Reiki by SPEC Co. Ltd, and Sougin by Mr. Koizumi
proceeded to the final.
KCC got eight points.  Hyper-shogi entered the lower preliminary
contest and got to the final.  Gekisashi team has relatively weaker
shogi players, the strongest member is 1-dan.  Kanazawa-shogi
is famous that this was the winner (five times) or the runner-up
(three times) out of nine times participated the tournament but
was fourth in the last tournament.
Jeff Rollason's Shotest was eighth and Pauli Misikangas's SHOCKY
was 14th and did not proceed to the final, this time.

In the final, there were three seeded programs, IS-shogi by Mr. Tanase,
et. al., YSS which entered the Mind Sports Olympiad at London, England
last year and won the tournament by Mr. Yamashita and Kawabata-shogi.
There were round robin nine games in the final.
IS won all nine games in the final.  Kanazawa and KCC got seven, but
the tournament rule (SB:count up the beat opponent's wins) decided that
Kanazawa was the second and KCC was the third.
This was the third time win for IS.  IS was made by Mr. Tanase,
Mr. Goto and Mr. Kishimoto.  They were belonged to the Information Science
Department of University of Tokyo when the program first entered the
tournament.

Professor Iida concluded that the top programs of this tournament
have got about 4-dan level.

Takenobu Takizawa