From: Larry Kaufman COMCAST NET> Date: 13 nov 2002 Subject: Re: A cultural difference? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jochum Drechsler" WEB DE> To: TECHUNIX TECHNION AC IL> Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 8:19 AM Subject: Re: A cultural difference? > Dear Larry and other shogi-friends, > > in the last meeting in Brussels Fesa has decided to allow Bronstein- and > Fisher- You mean "Fischer". modes for tournaments. We have not yet set the time limits for those > modes. I am supposed to propose some. > We have allready some ideas and are trying them out in our club. We hope to run > our team championship early next year in Fisher-mode. > > Jochum. > This is good news! Bronstein mode is much closer to normal shogi practice, but "Fischer" mode also works well for shogi. In fact Fischer is not the inventor; I am! Back in 1980 I noticed that the "Micromate" digital chess clock could be set to accumulate time, and we began to play our club shogi games (and some chess games) with this accumulation feature. The manufacturers of the clock, after learning of my invention, changed the manual to include "accumulation", crediting me as the inventor. Later the name "increment" became more popular for it. Only some years later did Fischer claim to have invented the idea! In my opinion with increment there is no good reason for any initial time for shogi (unlike chess), because in shogi the endgame is likely to require just as much time as the opening or middle game. But playing pure increment shogi does not work well in tournaments due to the unpredictible length of the game. With delay the initial time becomes important, and this method is probably more suitable for actual tournaments as the game length is more predictible. One point of warning: some digital clocks can give warning sounds in delay or increment mode, while others cannot. With increment such warning beeps are especially important, but in either case they are desirable. Larry Kaufman