From: Albrecht Heeffer PANDORA BE> Date: 10 dec 2002 Subject: Report on the Terzo Campionato Italiano Open di Shogi Hello shogi friends, The third edition of the Italian Open was, as the previous one, part of the Italian Minds Sports Olympiad. The thirteen shogi players were hardly noticeable in this event hosting over 150 games and gatherings. More pronounced were the trekkies in Captain Kirk uniforms, the Star War soldiers in their white harnesses, witches in black dresses with caps, Buffy vampire look alikes and angels with wings. This Giochi Sforzeschi is definitely different in character from the MSO editions in London with crossword puzzle, memory, creativity and intelligence competitions. The large crowd with youngsters, dressed in black and infatuated with swords, costumes and mythical artefacts created a gothic, loaded atmosphere in the catacombs of the Palazzo Stelline. In the central aisles serious wars took place, with adult men dressed in army uniforms tossing dice and measuring the centimetres to advance their armies across beautifully decorated war sceneries. "Serious" games like chess, Xianchi, Go and shogi were practiced in rooms, somewhat protected from the overdressed, overacting crowd. Hans Secelle announced his excellent shape with some practice games on Friday afternoon. He won the Friday night Shogi blitz as well as the weekend tournament with conviction. After winning all games in the Italian Open he added a simultaneous exhibition winning 6 games out of 8. The second league consisted of Terje Christoffersen, Pieter Stouten and myself, losing from Hans, winning one game from two and winning all other games. Guiseppe Baggio leaded the third league and as the first Italian became Italian champion. Martin Muller is a new player from Switzerland showing good promise. He won his first game from Eddy Verhaeven (1K) and lost the others, but after a good fight and demonstrating improvement with every game. New about this tournament was the pairing based on TPR, using a program developed by Asle Olufsen. Although it gave me the second place, which I did appreciate, this pairing system needs some further evaluation. This tournament was good fun, at an excellent location in a beautiful city. Nr Name Nat TPR S Results 1 Secelle Hans BE 2291 6 4+ 3+ 11+ 2+ 7+ 6+ 2 Heeffer Albrecht BE 1775 4 3- 5+ 7+ 1- 4+ 11+ 3 Christoffersen Terje NO 1775 4 2+ 1- 4- 11+ 5+ 8+ 4 Stouten Pieter NL 1762 4 1- 11+ 3+ 7+ 2- 10+ 5 Baggio Giuseppe IT 1337 3 8+ 2- 12- 9+ 3- 7+ 6 Camacho Eddy FR 1329 4 9- 10+ 8+ 13+ 11+ 1- 7 Tognoni Enrico IT 1300 2 0+ 12+ 2- 4- 1- 5- 8 Olufsen Asle NO 1261 3 5- 9+ 6- 0+ 13+ 3- 9 Hrabal Vojtech CZ 1144 3 6+ 8- 13+ 5- 10+ -- 10 Osmont Fabien FR 1092 3 13+ 6- 0+ 12+ 9- 4- 11 Muller Martin CH 1091 1 12+ 4- 1- 3- 6- 2- 12 Verhaeven Eddy BE 808 1 11- 7- 5+ 10- -- -- 13 Trombettoni Andrea IT 572 1 10- 0+ 9- 6- 8- -- Albrecht Heeffer