Wednesday, July 16th
It all started around the year-end of 1998, when the decision was taken to let me go to Japan for the First International Shogi Forum. This was somewhat a surprise to me because originally Shogi Belgium had decided to enter Belgian shogi star Hans Secelle. Unfortunately, Hans couldn't make it this time, so I had to start preparing for one of the biggest shogi events in European history.
My preparations for the tournament were a complete disaster, and I was playing like a 16 kyu. This was probably caused by the workload I was getting from my employer. Oh well, it wasn't the first time I played badly and I'm sure it will not be the last time. My experience has learned me however that if I take a couple of weeks vacations before a big tournament like the European Championships, I can play a lot better. So, I decided to take 3 weeks of vacation: 1 week before and after the FIST. This was a good decision because my workload rose to ridiculous levels just before the holidays.
Only a few weeks before the FIST, Eric Cheymol and me arranged to travel together. I didn't worry too much about the practical side of the trip to Japan, because Onogi san, as always, arranged everything with the outmost care.
So on the 16th of June at 13.45 I left for the train station in Gent to catch the 14:15 to Brussels. In Brussels I hopped on the High Speed Train to Paris-Charles De Gaulles airport where Eric had agreed to meet me around 17:30.
So, around 18:30, Eric, Carl-Johan Nilsson (whom I met at the ANA check-in) and myself decided it was not very wise to wait any longer for any other players and we advanced to the terminal. One person we were still expecting to show up was European Champion Boris Mirnik, travelling from Berlin. Boris was rather lucky that the ANA flight was delayed by 20 minutes because his connecting flight was delayed as well. But, you need a little luck now and then.
The flight, although very long (12 hours), went as well as can be expected.
Eric, Boris and myself slept as much as possible and read something.
Carl-Johan decided to study shogi with The Art of Shogi by Tony Hosking.
Thursday, July 17th
We arrived somewhat before 15:00 local time in Narita airport, Japan.
Unfortunately, we had to wait a long time for permission to enter the country. Also it took us some time to find our luggage. Given these circumstances I was very glad to see a representative from the NSR that had waited for us for more than an hour. Thank you very much ! We received bus tickets for the ANA hotel in Tokyo to leave at 16:15 and it was on that same bus that we met Larry, Ray and Marco. Because of the rain and the multiple traffic jams, we arrived around 19:00 at the ANA hotel. In the hotel lobby Kiyoshi Onogo san and also our friends Toyokazu Miyamoto, Taketoshi Toyoda and Teruo Shinato greeted us.
After we got the paper work behind us Toyokazu took us to a nice sushi bar close to the hotel. One of my first encounters with real Japanese food and I must say I liked every bit of it. That is to say, I didn't try the special dish prepared with fish stomach...
Back at the hotel, we played a few games of shogi and tried in vain to understand the ongoing final Meijin sen game Sato Meijin versus Tanigawa. We analyzed like crazy, but we still couldn't find a decent move to play. It makes you wonder ! Sato did find the right moves and we could see him win his title for a second consecutive year on the hotel television.
After 22 hours of travel and a few days without a good night of sleep, I was glad to see my bed...
Friday, July 18th
We got up rather early to visit the Shogi Kaikan (NSR) building. Toyokazu was so kind to be our guide through the center of Tokyo and we managed to arrive at the Shogi Building. Mr. Onogi was also present there and he helped me find the complete collection of Habu's Brain. Besides the books, we also bought clocks, shogi sets, etc. We then decided to play some shogi on the second floor. I was not impressed by the way I played because I could only score 2-2 against 2-dan players. It was not the opening or the middle game that was bad, more the endgame that troubled me a lot. Interestingly, again it was the double-ranging rook games I lost. Once my secret weapon, I didn't have 'it' anymore ! I played some very interesting games though and perhaps they put me back on track for the next couple of days. Joined by Taketoshi, we got back to the hotel around 15:30 to join the opening ceremony and the pairings.
The participating 32 players were first split up into 4 geographical zones to prevent players who know each other to play against each other in the first round. Based on that, a random pairing was done to divide the participants in 8 groups of 4 persons.
I was glad to see that I had a good chance of reaching the second round because the only other really strong player I had to face there was Larry Kaufman. This was very nice, but I had no illusions of getting any further than the second round. With 4 six dan, 5 five dan and 6 four dan players, it would be difficult to make a real impression.
In the evening, we were all invited to attend the Forum's Eve festival. Clearly, upon arriving I immediately saw that something special was going on. We received the welcome word from Tatsuya Futakami and the representative of the Embassy of France in Japan. Also notably was the presence of His Imperial Highness, Prince Tomohito of Mikasa. It was difficult to remember all the people that attended the Eve's festival, but luckily, Eric took some notes and wrote down most of the names: Yoshiharu Habu, Yasumitsu Sato, Koji Tanigawa, Makoto Nakahara, Kunio Yonenaga, Teruichi Aono, Yaichio Ono, Toshiyuki Moriuchi. Also, I talked to Mr. Ito, who visited Hans Secelle and Eddy Verhaeven more than 10 years ago. Good things are often remembered and I was glad I could tell Mr. Ito that I heard Hans talk about him and his visit to Belgium.
Fully convinced that I was going to be knocked out of the tournament I asked Yoshiharu Habu if he would be so kind to sign the first book of his series the next day. I was happy to hear his affirmative reply. (In perfect English I might add !)
Another thing I enjoyed a lot that night was the traditional Japanese drum concert and the excellent food that was served for the walking dinner.
I really should remember to bring a couple of hundred name cards the next time around...
Saturday, July 19th
Now things started to get a bit tense as we were playing the First International Shogi Tournament that day. I was feeling a bit nervous, but in my case this is usually a good sign.
The bus took us to the tournament hall in the morning where His Imperial Highness, Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, again attended the opening ceremony.
Around 10 o'clock we advanced to the tournament hall. 16 tables were arranged each time for 3 persons: the players and an attendant who wrote down the game scores and did the furiguma.
At 11 o'clock in the morning my first game against Larry started. Larry had jokingly said before that whatever happened in that game, we wouldn't play again until the finals. Well, it couldn't have gotten a lot closer than what happened in the tournament. Here's the game with some comments :
[Sente "Casters Matt, 3 dan"]
[Gote "Kaufman Larry, 5 dan"]
[Date "1999/06/19"]
[Country "Japan"]
[Event "FIST"]
[Round "A1"]
[Result "0-1"]
1.P7f P3d 2.P6f P8d 3.S7h S6b 4.R6h P5d 5.K4h K4b 6.K3h K3b 7.K2h B3c
8.P1f K2b 9.B7g S5c 10.S3h G6a-5b 11.G6i-5h L1b 12.P6e P4d 13.P4f K1a
14.P3f S2b 15.S6g G3a 16.P5f G5b-4b 17.G4g P8e 18.S6f G4b-3b
19.N3g P7d (A) 20.P5e Px5e 21.Sx5e P7e (B) 22.P'5d Px7f 23.B6f S4b
24.Sx4d P'5b 25.Sx3c+ S4bx3c 26.N4e S2d 27.B5e P7g+ 28.Nx7g R8d
29.Bx9a+ P'7f (C) 30.P'7h Px7g+ 31.Px7g P8f 32.L'2f Px8g+ 33.+B5e +P7h
34.Rx7h R8i+ 35.R4h +Rx9i 36.Lx2d Px2d 37.P7f +R6i 38.P5c+ Px5c
39.Nx5c+ S'6f 40.+Bx6f +Rx6f 41.S'4c P'5f 42.Sx3b+ Gx3b 43.S'4a (D) G3a
44.G'3b Gx4a 45.Gx2b Kx2b 46.B'4d B'3c 47.Bx3c+ (E) Nx3c
48.R8h (F)P5g+ 49.R8b+ S'3b 50.+N4c +Px4g 51.Sx4g S'3g 52.Kx3g N'2e 0-1
(A) This is a position I have encountered many times before in Europe. I really like to play
against an anaguma castle.
(B) It looks a bit dangerous, but this move I have also encountered many times before...
(C) This looks very nasty, but I have a material advantage at this point. Now it's just a matter
of keeping my positional play intact.
(D) Looking back, this is the move I regret the most. G'4c would have been a lot better.
Byoyomi and a lot of nerves are getting the best of me.
(E) Again, Bx6f, Bx6f would have been a lot better I guess.
(F) This is yet another lousy move. The rook is a strong defender and a weak attacker in this
position. Being in Byoyomi hardly seems to be an excuse now.
After 30.P'7h
After 43.S'4a (?)
OK, so I lost against Larry Kaufman, 5 dan. This is also what everybody expected that would happen, including myself. I was expected to win the next 2 games against Cho Ul Cha from Korea and Kisliuk Lev Ulianovich from Russia. Both were ranked 5 kyu and although they both did put up a good fight and I did not play my best games, I managed to win.
During the breaks between the games I had the chance to take a look at the other events that were taking place at the Shogi Forum : the computer shogi championships, the simultaneous play against shogi pros, the team shogi events, the blitz games amongst professional players and many more.
The 2nd round proved to be very difficult for me as I had to play Aoki Mikio, 6 dan from Brazil. It doesn't get a lot more difficult than this :
[Sente "Casters Matt, 3dan"]
[Gote "Aoki Mikio, 6dan"]
[Date "1999/06/19"]
[Country "Japan"]
[Event "FIST"]
[Round "8F"]
[Result "1-0"]
1.P7f P8d 2.P6f P8e 3.B7g S6b 4.R6h P6d 5.S7h S6c 6.K4h S5d 7.K3h P3d
8.K2h K4b 9.S3h P1d 10.P1f K3b 11.G6i-5h G6a-5b 12.P4f P7d 13.P5f P9d
14.G4g N7c 15.R6i P6e 16.Px6e Bx7g+ 17.Nx7g P8f 18.Px8f Rx8f
19.P'8g R8b 20.P3f B'3c 21.N3g P7e (A) 22.P5e Sx5e 23.Px7e (B) R8d
24.P6d S6f (C) 25.B'7d (D) P'6h 26.R5i Sx7e 27.Bx5b+ Gx5b 28.N4e B4d
29.G'6c (E) G4b 30.Nx5c+ P6i+ 31.+Nx4b Sx4b 32.R5b+ P'5a 33.+R7b N'2e
34.P2f (F) Bx2f (G) 35.G'2g B4d 36.P'2f P'6b 37.Px2e B'7f 38.Gx6b Rx6d
39.N'5f Bx4i+ 40.Nx4d (H) Px4d 41.Sx4i R6h+ 42.P'5h +P5i 43.Gx5a P'6b
44.B'4a K3c 45.+Rx7c P'5c 46.B5b+ +Px4i 47.P3e +Rx5h 48.K1g S'3b (I)
49.Px3d K2b 50.+Bx4b +Rx4g 51.B'3a K1b 52.N'2d (J) Px2d 53.+Bx3b G'2f
54.Kx2f Px2e 55.K3e 1-0
(A) Very nasty move ! Of course, it works both ways, as after Px7e, P'7f I can play P7d,
but white clearly gets to the goodies first. So I decided to play something different.
My knight survives a bit longer.
(B) Now the P'7f, P7d is a lot slower because the bishop line is closed.
(C) Here, Sx6d seems better although a bit slower.
(D) This move took me 10 minutes (out of 30) to play. The treat is again : P6c+. A more complex
follow-up was played in the game though.
(E) Now, the 5c square comes under heavy attack, with whites rook and bishop hardly playing at all.
(F) I didn't want to take any chances here because B'2g seems a bit nasty. (Although this is not mate)
(G) How about playing +P5i first ?
(H) Luckily this gives check !
(I) This is a mistake in byoyomi.
(J) I played the last 4 or five moves without thinking at all, so now I had to make sure that
white didn't have a mate. I needed 30 extra seconds to look for something.
So I sacrificed the night.
After 25.B'7d
After 34.P2f
After 49.Px3d
Needless to say I was very happy with this win. It looked like the day couldn't get any better when Toshio Miyata came to invite us to have something to eat and then go to his shogi-dojo. Toshio, thank you very much, we had a very good time ! I really liked the yogitori bar and although our host tried to have me eat some really weird food, I liked everything very much. I discovered that sake is really not that strong if you drink it after a couple of large beers :-)
That same evening we went to Toshio Miyata's shogi-dojo where we played shogi games until late at night. Although most of the games were very close I didn't manage to win a single game. It didn't matter to me that much. What I noticed immediately is that in the shogi-dojo, the players don't use clocks in their practice games. In Belgium, and I in guess in most parts in Europe, we play with clocks all the time and usually on a fast pace. I always thought that this was a very good way of learning to cope with time pressure during tournaments. However, now I have seen the difference : you can never blame time problems for any mistake you make. After a while you tend to play more accurately.
I would like to express my gratitude to Toshio Miyata for a wonderful evening. Also thanks to Terao Manabu for the translation during the evening and showing me a very neat nakabisha trick.
Playing a blitz game in Toshio Miyata's club against a strong
lady 4 dan player. The spectators are clearly amused
by the way I'm trying to cope with the pressure :-)
Sunday, July 20th
Now that I had reached the quarterfinals, I wanted to go as far as I could in this tournament. And things were looking good because I had to play a fellow 3-dan player Mrs. Suzuki. That didn't seem as impossible as beating a five- or six-dan player. However, I had to be careful as Mrs. Suzuki had previously beaten European Champion Boris Mirnik in the first round. From experience I know that this is not something that happens easily. Here's what happened :
[Sente "Suzuki Virginia Gonzaga, 3 dan"]
[Gote "Casters Matt, 3 dan"]
[Date "1999/06/20"]
[Country "Japan"]
[Event "FIST"]
[Round "QF"]
[Result "0-1"]
1.P7f P3d 2.P2f P4d 3.P2e B3c 4.S4h R4b 5.K6h K6b 6.K7h K7b
7.B7g K8b 8.K8h P9d 9.L9h S7b 10.K9i S3b 11.S8h G4a-5b 12.G7i P4e
13.P6f P4f 14.G5h P6d 15.Px4f Rx4f 16.P'4g R4b 17.G6g P7d 18.P5f G6c
19.B6h N7c 20.P2d Px2d 21.Bx2d Bx2d 22.Rx2d P'2c 23.R2h R4a 24.P3f P5d
25.P1f P1d 26.P1e N3c 27.Px1d P'1f 28.Lx1f B'4i (A)
29.P1c+ Lx1c 30.Lx1c+ Bx6g+ 31.+Lx2c Sx2c 32.Rx2c+ +Bx6f
33.S'5g (B) +B4d 34.P4f (C) N6e 35.N3g (D) Nx5g+ 36.Sx5g L'8d
37.P5e (E) +Bx5e 38.N'6g +B4d 39.+R3b S'5b (F) 40.P'5e Px5e
41.S6f G'5f 42.Sx5e Gx5e 43.Nx5e +Bx5e 44.G'4b Rx4b 45.+Rx4b Lx8g+
46.P'6f +Bx6f 47.L'7g +Lx8h (G) 48.Gx8h +B6g 49.L'7i S'6h (H)
50.R'1a P'4a 51.+Rx3c Sx7i= 52.R1h+ P'5h (I) 53.B'7h Sx8h+
54.Kx8h S'7i 55.Kx7i G'6h 0-1
(A) I believe black overlooked this fork.
(B) It seems a shame to put the silver in defense like this.
(C) The 4-e square is still overprotected so this seems way too slow.
(D) Surely P'6f is a lot better followed by Nx5g, Sx5g. It closes the bishop-line and gives a night in hand.
(E) It's a good idea to close the bishop line.
(F) This move seems a bit thick, but it gives me a very strong castle with little chances for black to attack.
(G) Perhaps N'9e is better
(H) Now it gets difficult to defend.
(I) Fortunately I didn't drop a ni-fu :-)
After 28... B'4i
After 45... Lx8g+
After 54... S'7i
With all the focus on this and the next game I had almost forgotten about the fact that Yoshiharu Habu had promised to sign my book. Fortunately Eric had already taken care of that. If only we could decipher what was written on the page !
The big hall that had previously hosted 32 players now stood almost empty, as the semi-finals were about to take place. Only two tables remained in the big room with cameras pointed on them. At this point, I had nothing left to lose and certain players assured me that it would take nothing short of a miracle to win against one of Japan's strongest amateurs : Takahiro Hayashi, 6 dan. Needless to say I lost badly. Next time, I'm going to ignore the comments and focus on the game. I strongly believe that I did not play my best game against Hayashi san and that my biggest mistake was a lack of confidence.
After the semis I finally had the time to wander around a bit and watch the byoyomi game between Sato, Meijin and Habu, 4 crowns. A very exiting game that Habu won. Also the final between Larry Kaufman and Takahiro Hayashi was a nice thriller with good fighting chances for both sides. I would like to congratulate Takahiro Hayashi again for a nice tournament victory !
I would like to especially thank Tatsuya Futakami, president of Nihon Shogi Renmei for the diploma he awarded me during the closing ceremony of the tournament. Also the plaque and the shogi pieces will remain a pleasant reminder of this wonderful event.
That night we took our time to have dinner with a number of friends. The stress of the last days was finally taking its toll and I was starting to get very tired.
Monday, July 21st
That Monday we had nothing scheduled until 13:30 so we decided to visit Yoyogi Park, together with Lawrence Chai from Singapore and Wisit Ngaolertloi from Thailand. We took our time and the Japanese gardens were very nice. The sun was shining for the first time that week so we decided to walk our way back to the hotel. Because we almost lost our way we only made it back by 13:20. Just in time to put on a suit and prepare for our visit to the Embassy of France in Japan. A couple of vans picked us up around 14:00 and once there we had the chance to watch 3 exhibition games. Joël Lautier, one of the strongest chess players in the world, was playing western chess against Yasumitsu Sato (Meijin), Yoshiharu Habu (4 crowns) and Toshiyuki Moriuchi, 8 Dan. Fortunately for the French Ambassador, Mr. Lautier won all three games. It's a good thing that I am a Belgian because all Japanese speeches were translated in French. I also managed to ask Yoshiharu Habu what he had written in the first volume of Habu's Brain. He explained us the meaning of the expression "eight directions" : seeing everything and a totally calm mind. Very cryptic and that's the way it should be !
Later, Tatsuya Futakami explained us two meanings of the word campai by saying it means "cheers" but also "total defeat". He invited the Ambassador of France in Japan to organize the reverse event : to have a number of strong French chess players play a game of shogi against a strong professional shogi player. You can expect this meeting to take place next year in France.
The week in Japan ended with a very nice farewell party organized by the International Shogi Popularization Society (ISPS). We met a number of old friends and a lot of new ones. It was nice to see people you heard from and communicated with but never had a chance to meet. For example I had the chance to meet Toshiaki Tanigawa whose help for shogi in Europe is invaluable.
Taking part in the First International Shogi Forum and meeting with the ISPS has renewed my determination to put more efforts into Belgian and European shogi.
Around ten o'clock in the evening a number of shogi players decided that they wanted to party a bit longer and we headed for a karaoke-bar. I'm not going to say too much about the evening, except maybe that I'm not going to give up my career to become a singer. (And neither should Larry !)
We got back to the hotel well after 3 o'clock if my memory serves me well.
Tuesday, July 22nd
Getting up at 6 o'clock to pack was harder than I expected. Not because of certain circumstances the night before but because I had collected so many new things. I had to borrow a bag from Eric to be able to get everything back home.
I was happy to see certain other players at breakfast that morning because we left them in a club in "uncertain" conditions.
Around 7:15 it was time to say goodbye and take the bus to the airport and after a long flight we arrived in Paris with an hour delay, around four o'clock in the afternoon. I had a ticket on the High Speed Train for Brussels, which was leaving at 16:30, so I was lucky that the train had a delay. But, then again, you need a little luck now and then.
Conclusion
The First International Shogi Forum was a big success and I was very glad I could participate in this event. My gratitude goes to the Nihon Shogi Renmei for the kind invitation and especially Onogi san who has helped organize the tournament flawlessly. For me, the First International Shogi Forum unforgettable and I'm sure it will help spread shogi in the rest of the world.