World Amateur Shogi Championship

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Larry Kaufman

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Nov 16, 2009, 11:53:59 AM11/16/09
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     The World Amateur Shogi Championship was held near New York this past weekend. Entry was limited to players who either live outside Japan or are non-Japanese citizens except for two young Japanese women Amateur titleholders. Format was knockout.
     The convincing winner was 24 year old Paul Ogi. He lives in Japan but holds US citizenship; his father is Japanese but his mother is American. He recently finished in the top eight in the Japanese Amateur Meijin tournament, holds a 2600 (6 Dan) Shogi Club 24 rating, and has a 1-1 score in formal games with pros. It is quite amazing to me that no one in the west seemed to be aware that a U.S. citizen had reached the level of the very top of the Amateur world in Japan. Naturally no one in this event had much of a chance against him; most of his games were not even close. I was paired with him in the second round of the KO, and although I at least made the game close enough that he had to demonstrate a rather difficult TSUME to win, I never really had a chance.
     Second place went to 76 year old Hisao Uyma of Brazil. Third place went to the winner in the year 2000, Mr. Egoshi of Chile (previously of Brazil), a former member of the Shoreikai. Fourth place went to my son Raymond Kaufman, who should have made it to the final match as he was clearly winning against Mr Uyma in the semifinal. The B group was won by Shigetaka Ogihara of New York, one of the organizers.
     With one or two exceptions, the invited European players failed to score against the ethnic Japanese players; Eric Cheymol won against one of the Brazilian Japanese players when he punched his clock after executing a capture in an illegal way.
     There were six pros in attendance, including three time Kisei titleholder Yashiki. They played clock simul games at bishop handicap (even games in the case of the two lady pros) against the invited players, who each played three pros. Only one player, a Japanese-American from Los Angeles, won two out of three. Among the pros, Mr Yashiki showed his class by winning all of his twelve bishop handicap games, although I did manage to beat him at bishop later in the day.
     It was a very enjoyable event and I'd like to thank the sponsors and organizers for it. Hopefully there will be more. I'd just like to add my usual disclaimer that I consider the knockout system to be a terrible format, as many players get to play very few official games, and also because it tells nothing about who is really the second best player, since if the second best player is placed in the same bracket as the best, he cannot reach the final. I know this knockout system is popular in Japan, but if the Japanese hope to spread shogi in the West they should abandon this system for Western tournaments. As long as sponsors are paying for travel, western players will attend regardless of format, but very few will spend their own money to attend a knockout event.
 
Larry Kaufman, Amateur 5 Dan 

Fabien Osmont

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Nov 16, 2009, 7:01:04 PM11/16/09
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Dear Larry,

Thank you for this report in the Shogi-l!

Do you know if the result table will be published somewhere?
I went to the worldshogi website but there was no related update apparently.

Kind regards

Fabien

Larry Kaufman

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Nov 16, 2009, 7:44:55 PM11/16/09
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I expect that once we get the event rated we will post the result table, but
it might have the prelims and finals etc. merged all together. Hopefully
someone will take the time to post the tables in the proper fashion.

Larry

FBatista

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Jan 4, 2010, 11:12:22 AM1/4/10
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Hi Larry,
I read with interest your report on the last World Amateur Shogi
Championship held in the USA. Is there any information on how to be
involved/invited to such tournaments?
Is it necessary to be registered at the USSF?
My last participation at a international shogi event was in 1999 in
Tokyo, where you and I exchange some words.
Regards

FBatista


On Nov 17 2009, 12:44 am, "Larry Kaufman" <lkauf...@comcast.net>
wrote:

> > Larry Kaufman, Amateur 5 Dan- Hide quoted text -
>
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Larry Kaufman

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Jan 4, 2010, 11:21:42 AM1/4/10
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----- Original Message -----
From: "FBatista" <kare...@ymail.com>
To: "SHOGI-L" <sho...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 11:12 AM
Subject: Re: World Amateur Shogi Championship

Hi Larry,
I read with interest your report on the last World Amateur Shogi
Championship held in the USA. Is there any information on how to be
involved/invited to such tournaments?

Is it necessary to be registered at the USSF?

This and other such events are open to all eligible players, you need not
belong to any organization. Usually just reading the posts here should be
enough to be advised of such events.


My last participation at a international shogi event was in 1999 in
Tokyo, where you and I exchange some words.
Regards

FBatista

Regards,
Larry Kaufman

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