From: Reijer Grimbergen FU IS SAGA-U AC JP> Date: 4 oct 2001 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 911, October 3rd 2001) This week in Shukan Shogi no title match games, but there was some Junisen action. As I am very busy at the moment, I will keep it short. A-class: Habu dropped out of the challenger race with a 4th round loss to Miura. This was his third loss against only one win so next year Habu will have plenty of time again to play some chess in May. He even has to worry a little about relegation, but I'm sure that this will not be an issue. On the other hand, the victory was very important for Miura, who now is also 1-3, but his bad Junisen position had him in trouble. With games against relegation rivals Aono, Senzaki and Kato still to play, he will probably be able to stay in the top class. In the other game played in this class last week (the final game of the third round), Kato beat Senzaki for his first win. Senzaki is now the only player in the A class without a victory and really needs to win his next game against Aono to have a chance for survival. B1 Junisen: Shima seems certain to return to the top class after only one year absence. He won his sixth straight game against promotion rival Inoue. A difficult game for Shima, but he managed to wriggle himself out of trouble and win. If he beats Abe (who is 5-1) in the next round, he can afford to lose two of his remaining games and still promote. The question seems to be who will accompany him to the top class. At the moment it looks like that might be Goda. Kisei Goda scored a vital win over Kubo and now has a 5-1 score. Kubo dropped back to 4-2 and is out of the promotion race for the time being. The order of the favorites seems to be Shima, Goda, Abe, Kubo. All other players are already way back, with only a theoretical chance for Inoue at 3-2. In the Kio challenger tournament, three of the four quarterfinals were played last week. Moriuchi showed that he is in top form with a win over Kimura (this was Moriuchi's 10th straight win). Sato also plays well at the moment, beating Iizuka to advance to the semi-finals. Finally, Goda beat Morishita to go through. The final quarterfinal game is between Fujii and Kubo. Sato showed his good form in the Osho league as well, which he started with a win over Tanigawa. Tanigawa had the better position after the opening, but Sato managed to turn the tables and win. Another tournament victory for Habu as he beat Fukaura in the final of the Ginga-sen, which is a quick play television tournament. A tough game that Fukaura should have won, but Habu managed to make things difficult and Fukaura lost his way in the endgame. More next week, Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Department of Information Science Saga University 1 Honjo-machi, Saga-shi, 840-8502 Japan E-mail: grimbergen fu is saga-u ac jp URL: http://www.fu.is.saga-u.ac.jp/~grimberg/ Tel: +81-(0)952-28-8821 Fax: +81-(0)952-28-8650