From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 18 dec 1998 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 768, December 16th 1998) This week in Shukan Shogi a lot of Junisen action. In the A-class there was only one game, the game between Morishita and Shima. Both have virtually no chance of becoming Meijin challenger, so this was a game to take a step to securing a spot in next year's top class. The magic number is three wins, so Morishita (at 2-3) needed only to win to make himself safe. Shima, on the other hand, had only one point from four games and really needed a win to stay out of trouble. Shima overplayed his position in the middle game and against an expert defender like Morishita this is deadly. With some cool endgame play, Morishita won the game. Shima is now in deep trouble and with Inoue seems to be the prime candidate for relegation. Their mutual game in round eight will be vital. In B1 Goda recovered from two straight losses with a convincing win over Kiriyama. With Aono losing a won game against Kobayashi, Goda now again has his promotion chances in his own hand. However, with games against Kobayashi, Nakamura and Takahashi left to play, Goda will have to show all his talents to get to the A-class. Meanwhile, "Tiger" Tanaka seems to have made sure of his return to the A-class. He beat Nakamura and now has seven wins from eight games. With three rounds to play even a 1-2 score is probably enough, since only Minami can get past him in that case. In B2 a big game between leader Fujii (6-0) and newly promoted Sensaki (5-1). Sensaki started this game 1.S4h 2.P3d 3.P4f to invite Fujii into a Ibisha opening, thereby making the Fujii system impossible. Fujii took up the challenge, but it was Sensaki who won the game. This means that Fujii and Sensaki now share second place behind leader Naito, who quickly disposed of Ouchi for his seventh straight win. Naito is not as close to promotion as Tanaka in B1, but it is interesting that two veterans are doing so well since recently shogi has been dominated by players in their twenties. In C1 a big surprise. Both remaining undefeated players lost. Sato blundered away a won position by choosing one of the few ways he could be mated after some desperate last checks from Nakata. Kansaki was beaten by Suzuki, who seized his chance to get back among the leaders. After round 7 there are now six players with one loss: Yashiki, Miura, Suzuki, Kansaki, Sato and Fukaura. All of them are very strong and can be expected to win their remaining three games. To me, Yashiki and Fukaura seem to have the easier opponents. However, Fukaura is ranked very low in the class since he only promoted from C2 last year. My prediction: both former Kisei Yashiki and Miura will promote. Too much partying for Fujii after winning the Ryu-O title? I doubt that, since drinking deep into the night does not seem to be in his character. Still, he might have lost some of his concentration and drive. Not only did he lose a crucial Junisen game, he also lost his first game in the Kisei league against Namekata. Of course Namekata is a strong player, but still... For Fujii nothing is lost yet, but with games against Minami and Meijin Sato still to play, his qualification for the knock-out challenger tournament is now in serious doubt. In group D Nakahara started well by beating Aono. It is only the first game, but it already makes it almost certain that Nakahara will qualify since he is the top seed in group D. That's all for this week, Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Complex Games Lab Electrotechnical Laboratory 1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp URL: http://www.etl.go.jp/etl/suiron/~grimberg/ Tel: +81-(0)298-54-3316 Fax: +81-(0)298-54-5918