From: "shogi.de" shogi de> Date: 18 dec 2003 Subject: 4th Italian Open Shogi Championship in Milano - report and results ***report by Marc Marian*** Dear Shogi friends, The 4th Italian Open Shogi Championship (6th & 7th Dec 2003) in the wonderful City of Milano was organized by the Italian Shogi Association (AIS). The 4th Italian Open Championship was also part of the European Shogi Grand Prix circuit. The congress center Palazzo delle Stelline was an interesting playing venue for this tournament, because it took place in the framework of "Giochi Sforzeschi", which featured over 60 Mind Sports including Chess, Go, Renju, Xiang Qi (Chinese Chess), Bridge, MahJongg, Draughts, Backgammon, Mancala, Othello, Scrabble, Abalone, Risk and Stratego. We met a lot of friendly, mostly younger people, to get to know many other of the games mentioned above. Some of those enthusiasts showed their verve for fantasy games or science fiction by masquerading as Darth Vader, elves, medieval knights or Captain Picard. Beyond Shogi, it was an interesting and exciting weekend for all of us. The Shogi tournament profited from this friendly atmosphere too. 12 players from 7 countries had great fun together. We played 6 rounds swiss pairing system with time discipline encouraging 40 min. + 30 sec. byoyomi. Some of the players only showed up for a few rounds, being interested in shogi but taking part at some other event in the congress center. But on the other hand it was a good publicity for our game. The dominant player was Koji Noguchi, a former Shorekai member (apprentice professional). He won all his games. Actually he travelled to Europe to improve his chess skills. His first station was Italy and luckily for us we could benefit from his participation not only in the games, but also in "kanso-sen" (review the game). Jean-Francois Pinto finished second and showed that he improves his skills quickly. After a good result in Hannover German Open, he deserved to pick up another 150 ELO points taking home to France. I was quite satisfied too with my result and I'd like to give congratulations to Pieter Stouten. He only lost against Noguchi-san and as well did a great job as tournament director. Here are the final results with ELO ratings and promotions: 4th Italian Open Shogi Championship (6th & 7th Dec 2003) Nr Name Nt Gr ELO 1 2 3 4 5 6 S +/- 1 Noguchi Koji JP 2401* 8+ 9+ 2+ 4+ 3+ 6+ 6 2 Pinto Jean-Francois FR 6k 1198 6+ 3+ 1- 5+ 7+ 4- 4 +150 3 Marian Marc DE 3k 1426 5+ 2- 8+ 6+ 1- 7+ 4 +37 4 Stouten Pieter NL 3d 1824 -- 8+ 7+ 1- 5+ 2+ 4 +8 5 Coria-Espada Florencio DE 5k 1271 3- 12+ 9+ 2- 4- ++ 3 -1 6 Schaefer Norbert DE 3k 1556 2- 7- 11+ 3- 8+ 1- 2 -47 7 Baggio Giuseppe IT 4k 1362 9- 6+ 4- 8+ 2- 3- 2 -1 8 Stroud Jeff CA 1726 1- 4- 3- 7- 6- 11+ 1 -102 9 Engelhardt Alexander DE 2k 1386 7+ 1- 5- -- -- -- 1 -6 10 Reale Francesco IT 591* -- -- -- -- 11+ -- 1 11 Bertocchi Marcello IT 400* -- -- 6- -- 10- 8- 0 12 Sassoli Cesare IT 400* -- 5- -- -- -- -- 0 Promoting Pinto Jean-François to 5 Kyu Promoting Schaefer Norbert to 2 Kyu Promoting Stroud Jeff to 3 Kyu You can check here a game from Milano: Marian-Noguchi, round 5, http://www.shogi.de/archiv/2003_milano_open_report_e.htm Best wishes, Marc --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: shogi-l shogi net EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a2i6Ys.a7fLMV.c2hvZ2kt Or send an email to: shogi-unsubscribe topica com TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html --^----------------------------------------------------------------