From: Chiaki Ito MAIL COM> Date: 29 apr 2003 Subject: Re: U.S. Championship I have never seen any non-professional tournament in Japan where people spend more than 2 hours on one game. I love slow games, so I sometimes envy chess tournament where people spend on each game long hours. I hope sometime in the future to have a Shogi tournament where each player has 3-4 hours for time control. Chiaki ----- Original Message ----- From: "bogin" YAHOO CO JP> To: TECHUNIX TECHNION AC IL> Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 11:20 PM Subject: Re: U.S. Championship > Thanks for the update. It makes me happy that such an important shogi > tournament was held in my hometown. From what I read most of the stronger > shogi players tend to be located on the coasts, so it's nice that a local > player came out on top. > > I have a few questions about these "national championship" so maybe someone > can help out. > > I agree that 10 30 is a relatively fast time control. But, wasn't this fact > known well in advance? It would have seemed more appropriate to express an > dissenting opinion to the tournament organizing committee before actual > play had begun. Perhaps, then someone may have been able to persuade them > to change the time control or at least the organizing committee might have > been able to explain the reasoning for choosing such a time control. This > kind of leads me to my first question. > > Are the rules for these "national championships" decided by each individual > national committee or are they following guidelines set up by FESA? For > example, since the US Championship used a time control of 10 30 then does > that mean that all of the other "national championships" use a time control > of 10 30? > > It maybe naive and maybe even impossible. But, wouldn't it be better if > these "national championships" were relatively set up and run the same way? > Isn't possible for FESA to come up with some sort of general guidelines > that each national federation has to follow? I'm not talking about FESA > organizing and running each tournament, but certain things like time > controls, number of rounds, determining whether the tournament is rated or > not, determining tie breakers and what type of pairing system and so on > could be standardized. Wouldn't this make running tournaments easier? > Especially, running these big tournaments that determine the qualifiers to > the World Championship. > It seems unfair to decide to not rate a tournament after the fact, and even > stranger to have hold a "national tournament" that can't be rated because > of the format chosen. > > Another example is in the recent Austrian Championship. Even though there > was a clear-cut winner, the "Austrian National Championship" seems to have > been more of a "tournament to determine the participants in the playoff for > the Austrian Championship". It is true that as a few people on the BBS > explained, many sports have a playoff for their overall championship but > usually those are called "playoffs". Most single-event tournaments that I > am aware of (chess, igo, shogi, etc...) that are "national championships" > almost always end up determining a single champion. I understand that > people are trying to get in as many quality games of shogi as possible, but > this seems to be a strange way to about doing it. But, this is the kind of > stuff that can happen if every gets to decide their own format. > > My next question is about "nationality requirements", according to the > update by Mr. Kaufman stated that only 2 Americans made it to the final 16 > but were eventually eliminated and no American made it to the final 8. Let > he mentioned that he was eliminated by former US Champion, Y.Suzuki. I > thought that non-citizens or non-permanent residents were ineligible to > become US Champion. Are non-US citizens or permanent residents now allowed > to become US Champion? Is this the same for other countries with respect to > their "national championship" as well? If no Americans advanced beyond > round 16 then does that mean that there will now be a playoff between Mr. > Fernandez and Mr. Kaufman for the title of US Champion? How will the > American representative to the next world championship be determined? > > Finally, Mr. Kaufman mentions that maybe the faster time controls were > chosen because Japanese prefer rapid shogi, whereas, Americans prefer > longer shogi. Now, this is probably a silly question. But, since this > tournament was called the US Championship, wouldn't it have been better for > it to have been organized by the US National Shogi Association and set up > with the time control preferred by Americans? This tournament was supposed > to determine the US qualifier for the World Championship, right? If so, > then why was it organized to make it convenient for non-citizen, > non-resident alien Japanese players. I may be the only one, but I feel that > this type of tournament should have been planned and organized with the > best interests of American shogi players in mind. As it is, it seems to > have been set up to make things only convenient for the Japanese players. > How can it be called a "national championship" if it's set up to be > convenient for people who don't even qualify to become US Champion because > they are not US nationals. > > Bill Gaudry > > > > --- Larry Kaufman COMCAST NET> $B$+$i$N%a%C%;!<%8!' (B > > The U.S. Championship was held near Chicago this weekend (Ap. > > 26-27). Actually it was a North American Championship this time, > > since the decision was made to allow three Canadian players from the > > Toronto area to participate. Although it was a well-attended and > > well-run event, the decision by the organizers to use a rapid time > > limit (10' + 30") except for the final three games meant that almost > > all of the hundreds of games played will not be rated, and in my view > > as Chairman of the U.S. Shogi Federation the event should actually be > > considered the North American Quickplay Championship. > > The winner was Koji Nozawa of Chicago, listed as 3 Dan but > > clearly deserving the 4 Dan rank, which he would surely have earned > > here if the event were fully rateable. Runner-up was Former U.S. > > Champion Y. Suzuki 4 Dan of San Francisco, who knocked me out of the > > KO event early. Kento Matsumoto 4 Dan of Ashland Oregon took third > > place. "Frosty" Yamamura 3 Dan of Los Angeles won the B group. > > There was also a C group for players below 2 kyu, but I don't have > > the results of that section. The team event, a round-robin of 6 > > teams, was won convincingly by Los Angeles. This event was played > > with no initial time, only 30" byoyomi. In general, it seems that > > the Japanese prefer rapid shogi, while the Americans prefer longer, > > serious games. Perhaps as a result, no American made it to the final > > eight this time. The only other American besides myself in the final > > 16 was USSF president George Fernandez 4 Dan, who unfortunately > > overstepped the time limit in a winning position against a > > lower-ranked opponent due to confusion over which clock was beeping > > during byoyomi. > > Pro 5 Dan "tiger" Nozuki was the attending pro, who gave > > excellent lectures on both opening theory and on the final two games. > > He also played a formal exhibition game against me at Bishop > > handicap (with commentary in the next room for the attending > > players). Due primarily to the long time limit for this game > > (byoyomi was 1 minute instead of 30"), I was able to play well and I > > won a model game which illustrates well the strategy I recommended in > > my handicap series on Eric Cheymol's website. I plan to send him the > > game with comments by Nozuki to be added to my article there. > > Next year's event is set for April in San Francisco. I have > > urged the organizers to come up with a schedule that permits all the > > games to be played no faster than the minimum 20/30. > > > > Larry Kaufman, USSF Chairman > > > > > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Yahoo! BB is Broadband by Yahoo! > http://bb.yahoo.co.jp/ >