🚀 go-pugleaf

(Somehow neither John nor I thought of posting this earlier. Sorry/PS)

   Pieter Stouten Resurrection Shogi Brunch Tournament

   On Sunday, 22 May 1994, a shogi tournament was held at my house
n Neckargemund in honor of Pieter Stouten's visit. Pieter came to
Europe from the USA, where he has been living for more than a year,
to attend a conference. Afterwards he dropped by Heidelberg to see
old friends and colleagues. Pieter was a strong guiding force in
Shogi here at EMBL and throughout Europe. So it was appropriate that
we play a little shogi. I provided pancakes and Gert Vriend donated a
bottle of superb French champagne for first place. Following brunch we
began a quick-play handicap round-robin tournament. A number of
different nationalities and playing strenghts were represented, from
Glay Chinea of Cuba, who had only just learned the game, to Pieter, a
veteran with more than 10 years tournament shogi experience.
   As the sun shined down, the tournament began with some crazy play
including at least one "ni-fu" illegal move. Quickly the  favorites
pulled ahead of the field, leaving the rest of us to enjoy the sun,
mimosas (orange juice and champagne) and Napoleon brandy. Gert looked
to make a clean sweep with convincing victories over myself and Pieter
in rounds 2 and 4; while in round 5 Yoshikazu succumbed to Pieter
leaving Gert the only undefeated player. All of the games in round 6
were meaningful to the final standings. Pieter came out of a
complicated middle game to crush me and remain in contention, while
Glay and Veronique battled for the last spot. And in the game which
decided first place, Yoshikazu beat Gert to create a 3-way tie for
first place. Thus, the champagne was awarded to all three and by
unanimous consent it was joyfully popped and delightfully consumed,
topping off a fun event. Seems we will have to do this again sometime.

                                        John Kenney.

PS After the regular tournament we played a very interesting shogi
variant - the rules courtesy of Yoshikazu - called 4 player shogi. 4
players with their own pieces play in turn with the object to mate the
others. There are no formal partnerships - everyone is out for
themselves. However, it turned out that players would temporarily form
aliances to attack a stronger opponent or prevent the mate of another
(a so prevent the player giving mate from winning the other player's
pieces in hand). And, so, for instance, several times during the game
players who had been mated were saved by others relieving mate by
attacking the one giving mate! It became clear during play that we
would need to clarify the rules to allow the game to be played in
reasonable time. However, it was great fun and will be repeated as
soon as we get four players together again.

                        RESULTS TABLE

no    name                    ntl  grd  scr  results per round
 1 Pieter Stouten             NL   3-d   4   5+  6+  3-  2+  4+
 2 Yoshikazu Tahara           J    5-k   4   4+  5+  6+  1-  3+
 3 Gert Vriend                NL   6-k   4   6+  4+  1+  5+  2-
 4 John Kenney                USA  2-k   2   2-  3-  5+  6+  1-
 5 Veronique Sanguedolce      F   16-k   1   1-  2-  4-  3-  6+
 6 Glay Chinea                Cub 15-k   0   3-  1-  2-  4-  5-

The tournament was a round robin event with 15 minutes/player/game
and 20 seconds byoyomi. All of the games were played with the
following standard handicaps:

grade difference  handicap
 0    none
 1    left Lance
 2    Silver
 3    Bishop
 4    Rook
 5    Rook + left Lance
 6    Rook + Silver
 7    Rook + Bishop
 8    Rook + Bishop + right Lance
 9    Rook + Bishop + both Lances
10    Rook + Bishop + both Lances + Knight
11    Rook + Bishop + both Lances + both Knights
12    Rook + Bishop + both Lances + both Knights + Silver
13    Rook + Bishop + both Lances + both Knights + both Silvers

For grade differences larger than 13 an 8 piece handicap was used.