Dear shogi friends,

Who is the best American shogi player?

Who is the rising star of American shogi?

From the invitation below those questions do not seem to be answered in San Fransisco in April.

Rather, we will know whom of the relatively strong Japanes shogi amateurs living in the US who is capable of making less mistakes in a couple of quick-play games. There may also be some sensation based on luck when drawing the lots, since the system described below does not use the FESA/USSF ELO numbers for making the classification groups equally strong. There is also no possibility of really evaluating the performance of a knocked-out player, since that player may happen to be knocked out early by the strongest opponent, as it happens to be.

Yes, these are the same objections to the traditional KO system which we westerners raise every time. However, since the organizers of most of the U.S. championships are Japanese, they have the right to organize the event according to Japanese tradition if they so desire. At least the time limit does conform to USSF/FESA rules, so the event can be rated, unlike last year's. I fully agree that ELO numbers should be used rather than random selection, but it's hard to fight Japanese tradition. I think that for some reason many Japanese actually prefer to have an element of luck in their tournaments; perhaps it's a cultural phenomenon?

There is also a concern that if the event were not knockout, there would be insufficient utilization of the many Professional players expected to attend, although with a bit of creativity that problem can be worked around even in a Swiss.

For answers to the questions you pose, we simply have no alternative but to rely on the ELO numbers, which at least will be more accurate after the event than before!

For some reason, one may claim to be the person behind a Shogi Club 24 handle (probably with a high rating)...

Probably this question is only asked for purposes of the (unrated, quick play) team event.

Do not misunderstand me here. I wish all participants in the event good luck, and I hope that you will all have a nice shogi weekend. However, I think that sponsor money, a lot of efforts, and some good will will be wasted because of the structure and rules of the event. American shogi players deserve real sports conditions.

Best regards,

Martin Danerud

Larry Kaufman

--^^--------------------------------------------------------------- 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 --^^---------------------------------------------------------------