From: Pieter Stouten <stouten <at> SHOGI <dot> NET>
Date: 10 nov 2002
Subject: Re: ISF, 5-dans, Gert Schinder and Artem Kolomiyets

On 2002/11/09 at 22:40 +0900, bogin <bogin <at> yahoo <dot> co <dot> jp> wrote:

>I still think that his comparison of the ISF and the Pro Mejin
>tournament is way off, but to each his own.
>
The only point I made was that they are similar in that there is a
qualification tournament preceding both the ISF and the Meijin title
match. I also said "a bit like" on purpose, as qualification for the
Meijin is obviously quite a bit more difficult than winning a
national qualifier outside Japan. I exaggerated somewhat to make the
above point.

The only reason I responded at all was that the impression was made
that just about anybody could have made 5-dan "just" by winning the
ISF, which I think did unjustice to Gert Schnider's performance. I
hope this time I managed to make myself a bit clearer.

Bogin also mentioned "I would imagine that the rules for qualifying are
made by each countries organizing committee not the NSR." NSR did
impose rules (e.g., a kyu player had to be part of the team for the
team match). I was not involved in handling the Italian
representation at ISF and don't know all rules, but any of the people
on this list who were in some way associated with ISF (as player,
team captain or officer of a national organization) could probably
let us know the requirements.

Back to lurk mode now and to preparing the final version of Takako
Noda's excellent "Quest" pages for Shogi.Net. They should be
available soon. I'll keep you posted.

Ciao,

Pieter