|
The 2000 US Shogi Championship
The 2000 US Shogi Championship and 5th US Amateur Ryu-O tournament was held at Oikawa Restaurant in New York City on 3-5 November 2000. Twenty-two amateur players from six states were joined by two visiting professional players, Mr. Akio Ishikawa, 6 Dan, and Mr. Masakatsu Kondo, 4 Dan.
First US Blitz Championship
On Friday evening, the tournament got underway with the 1st US Blitz Championship. A 14 player, 8 round Swiss event where each player had only 8 minutes per/game and no byoyomi! In the end, Yasufumi Fujiwara 4 Dan, from the New York Shogi Club, emerged as the winner with a score of 7-1. Larry Kaufman 5 Dan (DC Shogi Club) and the reigning US Champion Yoshihisa Suzuki, also a 4 Dan from NY, tied for 2nd place with 6-2 scores. Raymond Kaufman 2 Dan had an excellent and exciting tournament, scoring wins over his father Larry, Mr. Fujiwara (in both of these he was ONE move away from being mated but won on time!) and myself, en route to a 5-3 score and the Top 2 Dan and below prize.
Little sleep and/or excessive drinking the night before a shogi event has never really bothered me. However, this time, I was nearly sleepwalking after working 15 hours on no sleep at all! After my 7-1 score, at the recent MSO Blitz event in London, I had thought that even on a bad day I would do alright in a Blitz... I was wrong, played poorly and was never in contention after my 4th round loss to Ray.
Results, 2000 US Blitz Championship.
Qualifying tournaments
On Saturday morning, the qualifying round-robins were held. These determined who would play in the "A" and "B" groups. When compared to years past, none of the groups were particularly strong. Group #2 (see chart below) was perhaps the strongest overall and #3 the most interesting, in that BOTH of the lower rated players managed to advance to the finals!
Doug Dysart, my houseguest from the Ohio Shogi Club, who arrived late at night on Friday and I missed our 1st round game due to oversleeping. We were both exhausted and slept, cleanly I may add, right through TWO alarms. Had Mr. Fujiwara not called us, I have a feeling that we'd have slept 'till the afternoon! We both had to win two-in-a-row in order to advance to the A Group and did. Doug had two tough opponents while I was lucky to draw two lower rated opponents.
Results, 2000 US Team Championship Qualifier tournaments.
Team Championship
During the afternoon, the 2000 US Team Championship was held. This year, the LA Shogi Club team was not represented due to slightly insufficient notice and conflicting schedules. In addition, both the DC (4 players) and Midwest (3 players) teams were smaller than usual. The NY Shogi Club used their top five players to form the "NY A" team and supplied the DC and Midwest teams with their next three highest rated players [6th(to MW), 7th(to DC) & 8th(to MW)] as fill-ins. The remaining NY players formed the "NY B" team and received Bishop handicap [kaku-ochi] from all of the other teams.
The NY "A" team enjoyed a substantial rating advantage over all of their rivals and was still confident of victory, their first since 1996, even after the team's narrow defeat to the DC Team in the 2nd Round. It all came down to the 3rd and final round, with the NY "A" team needing a 3 wins over the Midwest team to secure a win. The first board match had already been played, earlier in the day, in order to accommodate Mr. Tsuruoka's schedule, so, the Midwest team had a 1-0 lead going into the deciding match. Boards #2 and #3 went in NY's favor first and all eyes were on the remaining boards, #4 & #5, with the NY Team needing just one more win. Unfortunately for NY, there was not much to root for in either game and both games were decided soon after in favor of the NEW Team Champions, the Midwest Team!
No doubt the contribution of the NY fill-ins, Mr. M. Hayashi and Mr. H. Inoue, with a combined score of 5-1, helped the Midwest team to achieve the win. Likewise, Mr. Ishida performed well for the DC team, winning a pivotal 2nd round game against the NY "A" team. However, the use of fill-ins is a tradition that goes back many years and is necessary until all teams can field sufficiently large teams.
Results, 2000 US Team Championship.
Championships
The Elimination phase of the event began on Sunday. There were 11 players in the "A" Group and 10 in the "B" Group. Only 3 games were played in the 1st Round of the "A" Group to narrow the field to eight players. Ray Kaufman, who continues to improve steadily, provided a rapid exit for the US Champion, Mr. Suzuki 4Dan, in yet another big upset. Mr. Yoshinari 4Dan made a mistake in the opening, after exchanging Bishops, and almost got back into the game against me, but he missed his best variations in the endgame.
In the Quarterfinals, Mr. Ogihara outplayed me in a double ranging rook (Ai-furibisha) game and favorites Larry Kaufman and Mr. Fujiwara also advanced. The showdown of the young and rapidly-improving "gaijins" ended in Doug's favor. Perhaps this was their first really "big" game, but many more are sure to come. In the Semi-Finals Larry ended Doug's streak and Mr. Fujiwara got pass Mr. Ogihara setting up a final among the two highest rated players. Ogihara san beat Doug for 3rd place and we started to setup the room for the finals.
Both Mr. Ishikawa, Pro 6Dan, and Mr. Kondo, Pro 4Dan, commented on the Final game. It was a well-played Side-pawn opening (Yokufodori), with Mr. Fujiwara gaining a clear advantage in the late opening. Larry's Rook (Hissha) was very cramped and there were many traps for both sides. Mr. Kondo, in particular, was extremely funny in his assessments after playing out some possible variations. They had to conduct the whole game analisis virtually without speaking, due to the close proximity of the actual game, but still got their many points across very well!
Entering the endgame, Mr. Fujiwara gave Larry a few chances that only the pros saw and examined. In the end, Larry could not muster enough of a counter-attack and had to give up. During the review, both players were very surprised to see all that they had missed! A great lesson, indeed, for all of us.
Results, 2000 US Championship "A" Group.
The "B" Group was played using handicaps. Unlike previous years, the rating range was very narrow, resulting in many games being played Even or at Lance [Kyo] handicap. Mike Lamb, a Shodan from Maryland, went all the way to the finals again, repeating his feat from the 1999 Eastern Open Handicap. However, he couldn't overcome the very experienced Minoru Hayashi 4Dan in the finals.
Results, 2000 US Championship "B" Group.
This year, mostly cash prizes were awarded, in addition to the main prize of a round-trip ticket to Japan for each the "A" and "B" group winners, courtesy of H.I.S. Travel agency. Nihon Shogi Renmei donated several trophies for the event as well, in addition to the special ones already in circulation as perpetual trophies. Numerous shogi computer programs and books were donated by Mr. M. Hayashi's friend in Japan, Mr. Kaneki. Shukan Shogi also donated many shogi books.
We greatly appreciate Mr. Oikawa for making the large Party Room at his excellent restaurant available, free of charge, for the event. Special thanks also go out to Mr. M. Hayashi for arranging the Pro's visit and to Mr. Ogihara for hosting them during most of their stay in NY.
Mr. Fujiwara was an excellent Tournament Director, keeping everything going smoothly from start to finish. He was assisted by Mr. Ishida, Mr. Inoue and myself.
Next year's 2001 US Championship and 6th US Amateur Ryu-O Tournament will be held in Washington DC. We'll make every effort to provide a more ample notice for that event and hope to have, at least, double the number of participants.
Summary of all rated games per player.
- George I. Fernandez, President,
United States Shogi Federation
|
