From: Sam Sloan <sloan <at> ISHIPRESS <dot> COM>
Date: 9 nov 2002
Subject: Re: ISF, 5-dans, Gert Schinder and Artem Kolomiyets

At 12:09 AM 11/9/2002 -0500, Larry Kaufman wrote:

>     Back in the '80s NSR did hold international tournaments that were open
>only to foreign players, regardless of whether they lived in Japan or
>abroad.  But since they didn't want to spend big money back then on this,
>they didn't offer much for travel, and if I recall correctly when I played I
>was the only player not living in (or perhaps near) Japan.  My rivals then
>were G. Townhill and Eddie "the Turk" (sorry, I forgot his last name).  I
>believe I finished second.  Does anyone know what became of either of these
>strong players?  They would perhaps be somewhere around 70 years old now or
>so.

I played in that tournament in 1984 as the representative of the USA. I was
a 1-kyu player then and I had only been playing shogi for three months.

I played the player you call Eddie "the Turk" in the first round. His name
was Asad Kurbanali. He was a Turkish diplomat working for the Turkish
Embassy in Tokyo. He had been born in Japan. He was ranked 4-dan.

The tournament was won by Luis Crespo, a young boy who had been born in
Brazil but his mother was Japanese. I never heard of him again.

I am surprised to learn that Glydyn Townhill and Asad Kurbanali are no
longer around.

Sam Sloan