From: Reijer Grimbergen fu is saga-u ac jp> Date: 16 jan 2004 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 1026 and 1027, December 31st 2003, No title match games in the two Shukan Shogi, but quite a lot of important games, so here is a small overview of the results of the past weeks: * Fukaura almost came from behind to challenge for the Kio title. As winner of the second chance round, he needed to win two games against Tanigawa to challenge Kio Maruyama. He won the first game and got an unexpected opportunity in the second game that was dominated by Tanigawa until the endgame. However, Fukaura missed his chance and Tanigawa will now challenge for the Kio for the first time in 11 years. * Moriuchi stays in brilliant form as he beat Kubo in the Osho challenger play-off. Moriuchi dictated the pace in this game from the beginning, but needed a nice bishop sacrifice to break down Kubos tough defense. Moriuchi and Habu will now meet for the third time in a title match this season, each winning one match 4-0. Another whitewash seems unlikely, as both Habu and Moriuchi seem to be in good form lately. A seven game match this time? * In the A class Junisen another Habu-Moriuchi match is in the making, because Moriuchi beat rivals Sato and Suzuki to extend his perfect record to seven games. No one is even close to that and if Tanigawa loses his 7th round game against Maruyama, Moriuchi will already clinch the league with two games in hand. This years A class might get a boring finish, as the relegation also might be decided before the final game. Shima took his final lifeline by beating Aono and Aono now seems to be going down for sure with a 1-6 score. Shima still has a chance to stay in the top class, but probably has to beat both Maruyama and Moriuchi in the final two rounds to survive. This sounds almost impossible, so the safe bet is that Aono and Shima will be relegated to B1. * Habus form is improving, which he showed by being the first player to clear the Kisei leagues with two wins and qualify for the eight player challenger finals. This was his fourth consecutive win, which promises excitement in the upcoming Osho title match. The first game of this Osho match has already been played at the moment of writing (Moriuchi won). The commented game will be in next Shukan Shogis report. Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Department of Information Science Saga University 1 Honjo-machi, Saga-shi, 840-8502 Japan E-mail: grimbergen fu is saga-u ac jp URL: http://www.fu.is.saga-u.ac.jp/~grimberg/ Tel: +81-(0)952-28-8821 Fax: +81-(0)952-28-8650 --^---------------------------------------------------------------- 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 --^----------------------------------------------------------------