From: bogin YAHOO CO JP> Date: 8 nov 2002 Subject: Re: Level of Shogi in Europe Dear Mr. Schnider, I apologize if my initial e-mails somehow have tarnished your recent victory at the Tokyo International Forum. That was never my intention. Winning such a tournament is more than I have ever done so I am really in no position to judge. Also, to all the other Western members of the Shogi world, I really haven't had the chance to play many Western players so again it's kind of hard to truly say who's strong and who's not. I really haven't played enough games against non-Japanese players to make such a leap. Within any rank there are large differences in strength. As many have pointed out no two players of the same rank are exactly the same. Even among 5dans the level of play may vary to a large degree. Of course attaining such a high rank requires a lot of skill and ability. It's only natural that over time some players lose some of their skill and calculating ability. Just look at the recently posted Shogi Forum cross table. You've got 1700 2dans and 1900 2dans. Also, I agree that handicap games are an excellent way to improve ones play and ability to recognize various tesuji. I have only been fortunate to play one Pro to date. I won that game, and it made me feel good and gave me a nice confidence boost to receive some nice compliments about my play. But, you have to take it for what it was. I was only one player of a 20 board simultaneous exhibition. The Pro was volunteering his time in order to promote shogi. Of course, he played to win every game but the ultimate goal was to increase the popularity of shogi. It was not a competition type event. Occasionally, you can see on TV a Japanese Pro Champion playing a Japanese Amateur Champion in a handicap game. Now, even though some of these amateurs are very strong, I have never seen one beat a Pro. My memory may be incorrect, but I kind of remember seeing Tanigawa 9dan defeating 2 strong amateurs simultaneously at a bishop handicap and time handicap. The playing conditions and the overall atmosphere is completely different. So, I think that while these simultaneous exhibitions given by Pro can be fun and exciting, they should be taken with a grain of salt. I guess I was just surprised that the Renmei decided to award a 5dan rank to the winner. It quite fortunate for anyone to achieve such a rank from just one tournament of 5 games. I know I would be happy to get it that way. I played at the Shinjuku Club everyone talks about a few years ago. At that time I was only a Renmei 1kyu player. But, somehow, I was lucky enough to go 5-0 in even games against 3dan and above players. Perhaps I played beyond myself that day or perhaps my actual strength was higher than my rank. But, in either case that one good result did not have me running around thinking that I was a strong dan player. It was nice but it was only one result. So, even if I, currently an average/weak 2 dan, were to go play at a Renmei club (which I agree are not the strongest places around) and were able to win 7 out of 10 games, then even though I would be happy personally that 3rd loss would have already disqualified me for promotion and moved me back to 0-0. Let's assume I just wanted to make it to 3dan than I would have to win more than 86% of my games to get there. And, the further up the ladder you go the harder it gets. Going 46-5 to go from 2dan to 5dan is a 91% winning percentage. And, it's not just that you can lose any 5 games. If you lose any 3 games before you get promoted a rank then you're stopped dead in your tracks and start back at 0-0 again. Of course, this is not impossible but I think it's really really hard(at least for me). So, I was just surprised (and probably envious) that the winner was given the 5dan in that way. Well, sorry for beating a dead horse (again). Bill Gaudry - __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! BB is Broadband by Yahoo! http://bb.yahoo.co.jp/