The First International Shogi Tournament is the very first amateur shogi tournament with that many different nationalities. With 32 players from 27 different countries, it looks like a world amateur shogi tournament. This tournament gathers the best player or the best players from each country : 4 for Japan, 2 for China and the United States, and 1 for the other countries.
Each country has the responsibility for choosing its candidate. For France, we organized a qualification match between Frédéric Pottier and myself in december 1998. The first player with 3 wins qualifies for the journey in Tokyo. Strangely, two other French representatives do the same trip: Joël and Almira Lautier. Joël is the best French chess player and is invited by the Nihon Shogi Renmei for playing simultaneously chess games against the best shogi professionals. Almira is GMI in chess as well, she plays in the FIST for Moldova.
The schedule is worthy of a Japanese tourists journey in France : the marathon is over 5 days in Tokyo without forgetting the jet lag recovery. With such a tough schedule, you don't forget to sleep in the plane, do you Almira ?
We land on thursday 17 june at the Narita airport in the beginning of the afternoon. The weather in Tokyo at this time is hot and wet : I saw it myself two years ago when I participated in the 1997 amateur Ryu-O sen. I intend to rest quietly near the ANA (All Nippon Airways) hotel swimming pool. But this was without thinking about the customs stop in the airport. Forecast at least one hour between exiting the plane and looking for your baggage. Just to show your passport ! In the Kansai airport, Osaka, several minutes are enough for this formality ! Narita airport is very far from the center of Tokyo, and we arrive after 19h00 at the hotel, goodbye the relaxation near the swimming pool. On the other hand, the rain wishes us a warmly welcome !
The first satisfaction of this journey comes from the presence of Toyokazu Miyamoto at our arrival in the hotel. Toyokazu comes especially from his island in the south of Japan to see us during a couple of days. When you know how many annual free days a Japanese has, you appreciate more his presence. Just a couple of minutes to check in and to put our baggage in the comfortable room, and we go for diner with old friends from the Paris shogi club : Toyokazu, Taketoshi Toyoda and Terao Shinato. Those players gave us a lot of hard work over the board during their stay in France ! We learned a lot with them, especially with the almost invincible Toyokazu !
On friday morning, Toyokazu takes us, Matt and I, to visit Shogi Kaikan, Tokyo. Shogi Kaikan is the Mecca of the Shogi player : it is the Nihon Shogi Renmei building, you can buy books, shogi bans and pieces, and play there all the day. After paying an entry fee, the hostess organizes the pairings between players of about the same grade. Two years ago, I had the chance to live in the building during almost a week and I didn't play a single game ! I prefered the visit Tokyo. The games are so interesting that we even forget to go to eat. It is with an almost empty stomach that we go to the draw for the preliminary league : the 32 players are divided in 8 groups of 4 contestants. Each group receives one member of each geographical zone previously defined by the organizers. The existence of those 4 zones prevents the possibility of having two players of the same area (for example France and Belgium) in same preliminary group.
On friday evening, the Eve's Festival takes place in the ANA hotel. After speeches by the Nihon Shogi Renmei chaiman Tatsuya Futakami, 9 Dan and by the Embassy of France representative in Japan, we meet the shogi professionals in the ceremony hall. Before arriving in Tokyo, I expected to play in a tournament for amateurs in a shogi festival, but the quality of the people attending the Eve's Festival changes this idea and I have the feeling of taking part in a tournament organized for professionals : imagine a place with all world champions at the same time. Such an idea is really inimaginable in chess, rivalries are too strong, too many organisational problems would arise, Bobby Fischer would refuse systematically.
With shogi, this is possible and I have all of them under my eye : after previously seeing Harada, I can speak with Yoshiharu Habu who improved his English a lot since his trip in Paris for the first game of the 1994 Ryu-O sen. I meet again Yasumitsu Sato, Meijin and Koji Tanigawa, his challenger for the 57th Meijin-sen of which the final 7th game just ended on thursday the 17, the day before of the Eve's Festival ! Despite his disappointment, Koji Tanigawa is here and wears a kimono kept for the great occasions ! Since, he won the Kisei title and is still in the race for the Oi title. The great Makoto Nakahara comes to me to speak about his many journeys in Paris. Japanese really like our town, Koji Tanigawa came in Paris with his wife for his honeymoon. If only one of those champions would come to see us in the Paris shogi club ! Then, I meet Kunio Yonenaga. Teruichi Aono reminds me of his trip in Lille and Yaichio Ono of his simultaneous games in Paris. I meet again Toshiyuki Moriuchi who travelled several times in France to play in the Avoine chess tournament. Many other shogi professionals attend the ceremony. This evening is a good place for exchanging visiting cards, if only you didn't forget to take them with you, did you Matt ? I made about fifty of them before the trip, and a couple of them remain after the journey !
In the morning of saturday 19 june, I really realize the importance of this festival in the Tokyo cultural life : much more than a tournament for amateurs, the FIST is organized like a major event : His Imperial Highness, Prince Tomohito of Mikasa discourses in the tournament opening ceremony. The scope of this event is international : the most famous French daily newspaper, Le Monde, publishes an article in the first page of his 24 june issue, a few days after the end of the festival.
Preliminary games are scheduled at 11h in the morning. In each group, player number 1 plays against number 2, and number 3 plays against number 4. The winners play together, so do the losers. The player with 2 wins is automatically qualified, the player with 2 losses is automatically eliminated. The two players with one win and one loss play a play off game, even if they already played together previously.
I belong to an easy group, my both games finish rapidly, I have then the possibility to watch the other games. Almira learned the shogi rules in Paris only a month before the beginning of the festival, she belongs to a difficult group : she plays against Les Blackstock, 3 Dan and George Fernandez, 4 Dan. Despite her lack of shogi experience, she plays very well, her high level chess practice helps her a lot.
In an other group, Matt Casters has a big advantage in his first game against Larry Kaufman but doesn't succeed in getting the full point. After the preliminary rounds, the strong Japanese representative Takahiro Hayashi, 6 Dan and only 22 years old shows that he is the favorite of the tournament. Among the 8 members of the european geographical zone, 6 go through the preliminaries.
The playing conditions are exemplary, about the level of professional games : the playing area around each table is delimited by white chains to prevent the spectators to disturb the players, a scorekeeper near each board writes down the moves for you. And in the final, the players don't even press the clock, a timekeeper does it for them. These high quality playing conditions are of the same level of professional games. Even Reijer regrets not to have travelled to Europe to get the qualification place for The Netherlands.
In the end of the afternoon, the 8th finals are being played over the board, I lose the game against Boris Mirnik, the current european champion. Boris never beat me before ! My play lacks of inspiration over the shogi ban. Matt creates the surprise by beating the 6 Dan Brasilian representative.
In the end of this first day, only 8 players stay in the race for the title with Matt Casters whose happyness shines on his face. Toshio Miyata, 7 Dan pro invites us, Matt and I, to spend the evening with him. During my first trip in Japan, I already apreciated his company and his happyness. We go for diner in a yogitori bar, it is a small restaurant, typically Japanese where many people sit down to eat various kebabs. It is really good, try it yourself. Then we visit Toshio Miyata's dojo. He pairs us against strong players : the first game is very fine for me, I manage to win a yokofudori game against a 5 Dan. If only I had the same inspiration in the afternoon ! Then I am paired with a 4 Dan young lady whose play is wild. Her determination gets the better of the complications in our two games. Then I meet a very young 5 Kyu pro from the shoreikai. He is really strong, I can not build anything decisive enough against him. Matt already used all his luck of the day, losing all games but keeps all his hopes for the games of the next day.
Playing a blitz game in Toshio Miyata's club against
a shoreikai 5 kyu pro young player
with Terao Manabu watching the game :-)
The sunday 20 june begins with the quarter finals : Matt wins against the Philippines female representative and Larry Kaufman wins against Boris Mirnik. In the semi finals, Larry wins against Kenji Niwa, a 5 Dan and 11 years old young boy and Matt can do nothing against the best player of the tournament Takahiro Hayashi. Matt finshes equal third in the tournament. To award this performance, Tatsuya Futakami, 9 Dan offers him a diploma during the closing ceremony of the tournament. The final sees the victory of Takahiro Hayashi against Larry Kaufman in a very tough game.
On this sunday, old friends come to see us in the tournament hall : Shuji Takahara, Tomohiko Ueda and Teruyoshi Hayamizu. I only regret not to have enough time to spend with each of them. Many events are held in the same time and it is very difficult to see everything : a shogi computer championship with the best computer programs, a rapid game between Yasumitsu Sato, Meijin and Yoshiharu Habu, 4 titles, simultaneous games between professionals and amateurs. There is even some shogi conferences.
Monday 21 june morning is free ! We use this time to visit one of the most famous place in Tokyo : the iris gardens near the Yoyogi park. Numerous painters and photographers take images from the iris in flower. After a fast visit of the Meiji shrine, we go back by foot to the hotel just in time for the departure to the Embassy of France.
The Embassy of France in Tokyo is a very nice place : Japan offered this domain to France in 1929 after the destruction of the previous Embassy. The building has been reconstructed in 1950, the sun shows the best from the domain, after the first four rainy days of our journey in Tokyo. During all the afternoon, I feel at home : I have many possibilities to speak my mother language, a Japanese recites French poetries and French songs accompagnied by a Japanese female pianist. Joël Lautier plays simultaneously against the best shogi players : Yasumitsu Sato, Yoshiharu Habu and Toshiyuki Moriuchi. Joël manages to win all three games, this gives the possibility to the Nihon Shogi Renmei chairman, Tatsuya Futakami to explain us the two meanings of the word "campai", the first one suits very well to the glass of Champagne, the second one means "total defeat" and applies very well to the result of the simultaneous chess games of this afternoon. This simultaneous is the result of Jacques Pineau's effort. Jacques lives in Japan for 14 years, he is a strong chess player himself and trains Yasumitsu Sato, Yoshiharu Habu and Toshiyuki Moriuchi in his chess club in Asaka. This friendly encounter between the best chess French player and the best professional shogi players is unanimously appreciated and you can expect another friendly meeting next year.
This festival ends with a farewell party organized by the ISPS. The aim of the ISPS is the popularization of shogi all around the world. The presence of the ISPS members has been effective all along the festival. This is the last possibility to meet old friends like Ito san, 5 Dan who won every tournament in Europe in which he played about 15 years ago.
The organization of this first festival is a great succes which will help shogi to spread on a worldwide scale. The Nihon Shogi Renmei, with the help of numerous important organizations organized the biggest event ever with an active participation of amateur shogi players.
This festival materializes a new step of the shogi development. It gave us the possibility to know us better by putting some faces on the names seen on the shogi-l discussion list. Let's take an appointment for the next International Shogi Festival, for which the places will be more difficult to get !