Submitted by Reijer Grimbergen
http://www.etl.go.jp/etl/suiron/~grimberg/
On June 19 and 20, the First International Shogi Forum (ISF) was held in Tokyo. Judging from the information I got, this was supposed to be a big event. However, I did not realise how big it was until I arrived in at the venue in Yurakucho on the morning of Saturday, June 19. The Kokusai Forum, where the ISF was held, was next to the subway station on the busy Yamanote line and I had passed it many times without ever going in.
It turned out to be much bigger than I expected and I had some serious trouble finding the right halls inside this immense complex. When I saw a couple of hundred people lined up in front of one of the halls, for a moment I feared that Shogi might have gotten a little more popular than I thought and that I would have to cue up to get in. Then I realised that all people in line were under 30 and that there must be some other big events going on at the Kokusai Forum at the same time.
When I found the B wing, I realised that the set-up was much bigger than I expected. I thought that the International Shogi Tournament (IST) was the main event with some small side shows. Not true. Even though the International Shogi Tournament was the main event, there were all kinds of things going on in three different halls.
In the first hall (B-1), there was a big stage with a huge shogi demonstration board and a couple of hundred seats. This was the event stage where during the weekend there would be exhibition games between professionals, a tsume shogi competition, a pair shogi tournament (pairs of women professionals and players knocked out of the IST) and comments on games going on in the IST. This was not all, because also in hall B-1 there was the Computer Shogi Grand Prix, a computer shogi tournament between the eight best programs of this year's CSA tournament. Furthermore, there was a small exhibition of old shogi boards and pieces and there was an exhibition about the production of shogi equipment.
In hall B-2 (next to B2 on the 7th floor of wing B), the International Shogi Tournament was held. This tournament had a set-up that is even rare at Japanese amateur championships. It had the feel of a top chess grandmaster tournament. There was one separate table for each game, which was played with high quality board and pieces. The table was separated from the spectator area by white chains. Also, at each table someone would write down the gamerecord. I could not help but feel a little disappointed that I was not allowed to play in such a great event.
In hall B-2 there was also a corner where shogi-variants like chess and xiang-qi could be played, and a shop where shogi goods like books, fans and playing equipment were being sold. In the lobby between hall B-1 and B-2 there were some computers set up that had shogi software on them, and where it was also possible to play shogi over the Internet. Going down with the escalator to the fifth floor would bring you to the reception hall where a Shogi symposium was being held on Saturday. The first session was about the history of shogi, while the second was about computer shogi. I did see part of the second session with speakers Iida (Shizuoka University), Morita (Shogi programmer), Matsubara (my boss at ETL) and Habu (famous professional).
There was so much to see at the International Shogi Forum that I did not realize until afterwards that there was also a place where professional players were playing simultaneous games against some 30 opponents. I would not have found the time anyway, since I did not play a single game myself all weekend. This was a great pity, since I have never seen so many shogi professionals in one location before, all very willing to teach non-Japanese players.
During the two days, I basically divided my attention between the Computer Shogi Grand Prix and the International Shogi Tournament. In the computer shogi tournament, all programs were required for the first time to run on the same hardware, 300 MHz computers donated by sponsor Fujitsu. This gave some serious problems as there was no time for testing and the processors used in these PCs were not the normal Pentium processors.
World Champion Kanazawa Shogi even had to withdraw because it was impossible to get the program running. Also, Eisei Meijin was forced to play at a much lower level than normal, resulting in a loss of all games. Even Jeff's Shotest program had problems, even though in this case it only meant that the serial connection did not work, so all moves had to be typed in. The relaxing "sit back and watch" mode of the last CSA tournament was therefore not possible.
In the end, the tournament was won by Kakinoki Shogi, edging YSS on Sum of Opponent's score after both players ended with a 4-2 score. Shared third place was for IS Shogi and KCC (former Silver Shogi) with 3-2 and one draw. Shotest shared fifth place with Sougin with 3-3 and Eisei Meijin was in last place with 0-6. Kakinoki's first tournament victory should have made him happy, but he himself did not feel that it was a proper tournament without Kanazawa Shogi competing. Jeff had a very strange result in this tournament, beating both Kakinoki and YSS, but blundering away an easy win against Sougin. Well, still more than eight months until the next CSA tournament...
Then the main event: the International Shogi Tournament.
32 players from 27 different countries had come to Japan to fight for the honour of being the first winner of this great event (dare we call it a World Championship?). 6 players from Asia, 13 players from Europe, 1 player from the Middle-East, 2 from North America, 3 from South America and 2 from Oceania were divided into eight groups of four players.
The winners and the runners-up of each group would qualify for the knock-out tournament. For me, the winner was clear: the Japanese Shibu Meijin Hayashi Takahiro is a top-class Japanese amateur player who reached the final of the amateur Ryu-O last year. When I met him there, he turned out to be very talkative and relaxed. Even his English is pretty good, which made him the perfect representative in this tournament. The question was: who would he meet in the final? Larry Kaufman was a likely candidate, as was George Fernandez. And how about the two Chinese Zao and Shu, who were said to be very strong? Or maybe the "Brazilian" Aoki Mikio, who was presented as 6-dan in the Forum booklet? European hopes were European Champion Boris Mirnik from Germany and Eric Cheymol from France.
This is how the groups were divided:
Group A
Cho Ul Cha, Korea
Kisliuk Lev Ulianovich, Russia
Larry Kaufman, USA
Matt Casters, Belgium
Group B
Boris Mirnik, Germany
Ashigaki Kaoru, Japan
Virginia Gonzaga Suzuki, Philipines
Marco Durante, Italy
Group C
Tanada Mayumi, Japan
Robert Miller, New Zealand
Fernando Batista, Portugal
Shu Jen Don, China
Group D
Irina Novikov, Israel
Zao Guo Lon, China
Alexander Martinoff, Paraguay
Carl Johan Nilsson, Sweden
Group E
Chai Mee Joon, Singapore
Simon Morgan, Australia
Alse Olufsen, Norway
Niwa Kenji, Japan
Group F
Hayashi Takahiro, Japan
Les Blackstock, England
Almira Scripcenco, Moldova
George Fernandez, USA
Group G
Eric Cheymol, France
Sakurai Naohiko, Argentina
Seppo Kalevi Ronkko, Finland
Viktor Tyshchenko, Ukrain
Group H
Harry Iwata, Canada
Wisit Ngaolertloi, Thailand
Aoki Mikio, Brazil
Marc Theeuwen, The Netherlands
I was told the draw of the tournament was weighted to avoid having all strong players in one group. Still, the difference in strength between different groups was clear.
One has to feel especially sorry for Les Blackstock, a strong 3-dan player who ended up in a group with Hayashi and Fernandez. In the end, he had to leave the tournament after losing to both these players. Fernando Batista also was a victim of an unlucky draw. In a strong group with amateur Ladies Meijin Tadana and the Chinese Shu, he beat Shu once, but lost the decisive game after both ended up with a 1-1 score. If these two players would have been in, for example, group D or group G, I am sure that they would have qualified easily.
European Champion Boris Mirnik had to struggle hard to make the finals. In the end he had to beat Ashigaki, a young Japanese girl (13, 14?) twice to secure his place in the final 16. Especially the second time it seemed that he was hopelessly lost, but his outstanding defensive skills -- and a little luck -- saved the day. There was a surprising win of Irina Novikov over the Swedish winner of the British Open, Carl Johan Nilsson, which meant that there were no less than three women among the final 16.
Kessho Tournament
Kaufman --
|- Kaufman--
Theeuwen -- |
|- Kaufman--
Mirnik -- | |
|- Mirnik -- |
Cheymol -- |
|- Kaufman--
Tanada -- | |
|- Tanada -- | |
Fernandez-- | | |
|- Niwa -- |
Novikov -- | |
|- Niwa -- |
Niwa -- |
|- Hayashi
Zao -- |
|- Zao -- |
Olufsen -- | |
|- Hayashi-- |
Shu -- | | |
|- Hayashi-- | |
Hayashi -- | |
|- Hayashi--
Suzuki -- |
|- Suzuki -- |
Ronkko -- | |
|- Casters--
Casters -- |
|- Casters--
Aoki --
The knock-out tournament showed some interesting match-ups. Boris Mirnik played
European rival Eric Cheymol and beat him for the first time. Tough on Eric, who had
high hopes for this tournament and cruised through the preliminary group. The result of
Tanada against Fernandez was a big surprise to me. I have played them both and I feel
that George is stronger than the two times amateur women's Meijin.In the other half of the draw, the Chinese will not have been too happy. Shu and Zao played Hayashi in consecutive rounds and both were unable to knock out the favourite. Belgian star Matt Casters showed that a Brazilian 6-dan can still learn some tricks from an European 3-dan and advanced to the final eight.
In the quarterfinals Kaufman beat Mirnik in a game that was very one-sided for a long time, but became quite close in the end. When Boris missed a good chance (his only one), his tournament run was over. The battle of the Japanese between Tanada and Niwa was decided in the favour of little Niwa, the Japanese elementary school champion. In the other half, Hayashi beat Zao and Casters advanced by beating Suzuki, knocking out the last female player.
No excitement in the semifinals, where both Kaufman and Hayashi showed that they were the two strongest players in this tournament.
I expected that the final would be just as one-sided with an easy win for Hayashi. At first it looked that way, with Hayashi getting a pawn in hand with natural piece development. However, a knight sacrifice followed by a well-timed edge attack brought Larry back in the game. A gold drop far away from the king by Hayashi, which was critizised by the commenting professionals even allowed him to break into Hayashi's camp and suddenly it seemed that the Japanese was fighting for his life. I'm sure that Larry missed a win in byoyomi, but in the end some shrewd endgame play won the game for Hayashi. I hope Larry can give his comments on the game some day. The moves of the final game are given below.
So, in the end this great event got the expected winner. Larry was a little disappointed that he was not able to make history and that he had to settle for "best of the rest." Maybe next time, since this event is supposed to be held every two years. I'm already looking forward to the 2001 International Shogi Forum.
The Final
Black: Larry Kaufman, USA
White: Takahiro Hayashi, Japan
1st International Shogi Tournament, June 20, 1999
1. P7g-7f
2. P3c-3d
3. P6g-6f
4. S7a-6b
5. R2h-6h
6. P6c-6d
7. S7i-7h
8. S6b-6c
9. K5i-4h
10. S6c-5d
11. S7h-6g
12. R8b-6b
13. B8h-7g
14. K5a-4b
15. K4h-3h
16. K4b-3b
17. G6i-5h
18. P7c-7d
19. P5g-5f
20. G6a-5b
21. S3i-4h
22. P1c-1d
23. P1g-1f
24. P4c-4d
25. P4g-4f
26. P4d-4e
27. P4fx4e
28. S5dx4e
29. S4h-5g
30. S4e-5d
31. P*4f
32. S3a-4b
33. G5h-4g
34. S4b-4c
35. P3g-3f
36. G4a-4b
37. G4i-4h
38. S4c-4d
39. N2i-3g
40. G5b-4c
41. R6h-6i
42. N2a-3c
43. B7g-9e
44. P8c-8d
45. R6i-7i
46. P9c-9d
47. B9e-6h
48. R6b-7b
49. B6h-8f
50. S5d-6c
51. P4f-4e
52. N3cx4e
53. N3gx4e
54. P8d-8e
55. N4ex5c+
56. G4cx5c
57. B8f-6h
58. S6c-5d
59. P1f-1e
60. P1dx1e
61. P*1d
62. K3b-4c
63. L1ix1e
64. P*1b
65. P2g-2f
66. K4c-5b
67. P2f-2e
68. B2b-3c
69. R7i-1i
70. P*4e
71. P1d-1c+
72. P1bx1c
73. P*1b
74. L1ax1b
75. N*2f
76. N*1d
77. L1ex1d
78. P1cx1d
79. N2fx3d
80. G4b-4c
81. P2e-2d
82. P2cx2d
83. N*3e
84. S4dx3e
85. P3fx3e
86. N*2c
87. G4g-3f
88. G5c-4d
89. P*1c
90. G4dx3e
91. G3fx3e
92. N2cx3e
93. P1cx1b+
94. L*3f
95. K3h-4i
96. P*3g
97. R1ix1d
98. P3g-3h+
99. K4i-5h
100. L3f-3g+
101. G4hx3h
102. +L3gx3h
103. P*4d
104. B3cx4d
105. R1dx2d
106. G*8h
107. R2d-2a+
108. P*5a
109. L*5e
110. S5dx5e
111. P5fx5e
112. P4e-4f
113. S5gx4f
114. P*4g
115. P*4i
116. +L3hx4i
117. K5h-5g
118. P4g-4h+
119. +R2a-3b
120. P*4b
121. N3dx4b+
122. G4cx4b
123. S*4c
124. K5b-6a
125. S4cx4b+
126. N*3c
127. +S4bx5a
128. K6ax5a
129. +R3bx7b
130. P*5f
131. K5gx5f
132. S*4g
133. K5f-5g
134. +P4h-5h
Resigns
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