From: Reijer Grimbergen FU IS SAGA-U AC JP> Date: 21 aug 2002 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 956, August 21st 2002) No title match game in Shukan Shogi this week. Actually not much other activity either, because of the O-bon holiday season. However, next week I will be in Hokkaido and unable to send a Shukan Shogi report, so here is the other shogi news because it gets stale. * In the A class the third round game between leader Miura (2-0) and Fujii (1-1) was played. Both players have the same teacher so they know each other very well. Fujii played an active third file rook opening, but Miura quickly countered to get a very aggressive attacking position himself. Still, Fujii managed to take the initiative in his typical attacking ranging rook fashion, although for a very long time it was unclear if his attack would be strong enough. In the end it turned out that it was (just barely), so Fujii joins Miura in the lead with two wins from three games. With no undefeated players left after only one game in the third round, the A class promises to be a very tight affair this year. * There is only one amateur left in the Asahi Open tournament. Yoshizawa lost his third round game against Chuza after beating Takano and Tomioka in the first two rounds. The game against Chuza was very violent from the start, which was what Chuza was aiming for and even though Yoshizawa had some chances, Chuza showed that he is more comfortable in positions like that and won. The final amateur challenging the pros this year is Ishii and he will meet Ono Yaichio on the 24th. Not in Shukan Shogi yet, but there are two more important professional results that I might as well mention here: * Habu avoided a white-wash in the Oi match against Tanigawa by winning game 4. An important win as he not only avoided losing his title, he also won with white which gives him black in the next game and a slightly better chance of winning and putting pressure on Tanigawa. Furthermore, he beat Tanigawa in his favourite Kakugawari opening with a strong new move in a variation that seemed to have been analysed to death. Of course, Tanigawa is still 3-1 up and needs only one win from the remaining three games. * A big surprise in the Ryu-O challenger tournament as Abe beat Fujii to reach the challenger final. He will now play Nakata Hiroki in a best-of-three match to challenge Habu. Both players have never challenged for the Ryu-O and Abe has never even been in a title match. (As far back as 1991, Nakata challenged Tanigawa for the Oi title and lost 4-2 and became a rather anonymous player after that). More in two weeks, 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