From: DANERUD MARTIN <martin.danerud <at> TELIA <dot> COM>
Date: 19 oct 2002
Subject: Results of the 2nd International Shogi Forum, day 2

Dear all,

Today was the final day of the 2nd International Shogi Forum. Among the
side events was a meeting between the Team Managers and representatives
of Nihon Shogi Renmei. When the play-off of the individual tournament
was cancelled, it was replaced by a talk show, where professionals like
Sato, Shima, and Takahashi discussed how to popularise shogi in the
west. Surprisingly enough, Tony Hosking and Sincerely yours were called
to the stage to comment upon this subject. Tony talked about the
necessity of cooperation with ISPS and the Japanese government, and I
stressed the attraction that Japanese culture has on westerners as a
contrast to the lack of shogi in the English language Japanese
newspapers like The Japan Times and the International edition of Asahi
Shimbun. In such newspapers they have several articles about ikebana
etc, but still they run columns about chess and bridge instead of
shogi. I also stressed that promoting shogi from man to man in the west
has to be done by westerners themselves. Professional visits and
translated literature is good for the those who are already into shogi,
but Nihon Shogi Renmei should also support the basic job of recruiting
players in schools and at board game events.

In the team tournament the semifinals were played:

China-Sweden              2-1
  Shunjie-Kaneko          0-1
  Jiming-Nilsson          1-0
  Liang-Carlsson          1-0

Japan-Brazil              2-1
  Hanawa-Yoshida          1-0
  Obata-Hama              0-1
  Takeda-Shibayama        1-0

Sweden and Brazil got the third prize.

Final:

Japan-China               3-0
  Hanawa-Shunjie          1-0
  Obata-Jiming            1-0
  Takeda-Liang            1-0

China got the second prize and Japan got the first prize.

The individual tournament saw four players with four points out of
five. The tie-break was decided with Sum of Opponents Score, and thus
Gert Schnider got the first prize, Boris Mirnik got the second prize,
Eric Cheymol got the third prize, and Larry Kaufman got the fourth
prize.

Tomorrow we will be able to witness chess games between the French GM
Joel Lautier and the three Japanese shogi professionals Habu, Sato, and
Moriuchi. Last time Lautier won all three games. Is there a chance of a
surprise this time?

Sincerely yours,

Martin Danerud

Swedish Team Manager