December 1995
RIF Central Committee and Jönköping´s Renju Club wish you
A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Renju Year
If you have Microsoft Windows 95 Internet Explorer 2.0 you are able to choose this page and then you will see the message scrolled and you will also hear the message after some time:
A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Renju Year
December, 22, 1995
On the 21st of December the Second European Championship has been finished. Unfortunately, only 14 participants took part in that tournament. In spite of the little number of players the tournament has been held by the Swiss System in 9 rounds as it was declared before.
The list of total results is as follows:
1. Aleksandr Klimashin (Russia) - 6.5 2. Mikhail Kozhin (Russia) - 6.5 3. Vladimir Semionov (Russia) - 5.5 4. Stepan Peskov (Russia) - 5.5 5. Vladimir Filinov (Russia) - 5 6. Pavel Salnikov (Russia) - 5 7. Ants Soosyrv (Estonia) - 5 8. Bjorn Wallgren (Sweden) - 5 9. Rickard Johannesson (Sweden) - 5 10. Viktor Aleksandrov (Russia) - 4.5 11. Feliks Degtiar (Byelarus) - 3 12. Goran Holgersson (Sweden) - 3 13. Andrej Pavinich (Russia) - 2.5 14. Oleg Ermakov (Byelarus) - 1
Preparations are made to arrange an Internet renju game between World Champion and Japanese Meijin Norihiko Kawamura and from several World Championships experienced Aldis Reims from Riga in Latvia. Two possible days are discussed: 7th or 14th of January.
How the game will be played is not yet decided. If it possible to make it they will play in "real-time".
December 19, 1995
Here are the standings thus far, along with the status of each player. Pool Name W L T Best Games Remaining ---- ---------------- --- --- --- ---- -------------------------- a * Reims 10 1 0 11 a21 a ? Laibini 9 2 0 10 a32 a ? Terekhov 7 1 0 11 a21* a26* a32* a62* a Frid 5 4 0 8 a26 a62 a76 a Li 3 8 0 4 a45 a Pedersen 2 9 0 3 a45* a Sheffi 0 11 0 1 a76* b * Sinyov 11 0 1 11.5 b * Demidov 10 1 1 10.5 b Tibaldi 6 6 0 6 b Lipsits 6 6 0 6 b Pingel 6 6 0 6 b van Dijk 2 10 0 2 b Xie 0 12 0 0 c * Alexandrov 9 0 1 9.5 c * Barth 8 2 0 8 c Gurckis 4 4 1 5.5 c15* c Rognlie 4 6 0 4 c Chen 3 6 0 4 c15 c Radkov 0 10 0 0 Pool B is done. Sinyov and Demidov will advance. Pool C is effectively done. Alexandrov and Barth will advance. Pool A is still being fought over. Reims will advance regardless of remaining games outcomes. Laibini might advance, if Terekhov loses 2 or more games, or if Reims loses his remaining game, or Terekhov loses 1 games, and Laibini wins his remaining game. All three could advance if: Terekhov and Laibini are tied after all is said and done. Remaining games in pool a: Reims-Terekhov Frid-Terekhov Terekhov-Laibinis Pedersen-Li terekhov-Frid Sheffi-Frid Remaining games in pool c: Gurckis-Chen
On Nov 10-21 Mr Jan Palmgren and I were in Beijing, China. We met a lot of Renju enthusiasts and the lasting impression is that China will become an important Renju nation in the future. Even if we did not take part in any tournament, we played quite many friendship games with the Beijing players.
Nowadays it is quite cheap for Swedish people to go to China. The cost for airplane ticket and lodging in a nice hotel for 11 days is about 900 US $.
When we arrived we met Mr Na Wei, his wife Hana and some other Renju players. We agreed that a lot of our time would be used to give the Chinese players dan/kyu-titles. Every evening two or more players came to our hotel and they were given the same dan/kyu tests as we have in Sweden. Early we realized that they were quite strong players but that they also lacked theory knowledge. The results of the tests varied from 10-kyu to 2-kyu.
Some days we took a trip to some schools where Renju are played by the pupils. In one school "Spring River School" 300 children played Renju. There are 20-30 schools of that kind. There are also evening- and weekendschools for Renju.
At a 32-players Women tournament we watched Gang Zhou winning the final over her younger sister Gang Tao. Those girls played very impressive and my opinion is that they can get good results in the 1st Women World Championship in 1997.
Renju in China is grooving all the time because of the work of Mr Na Wei and his Renju friends. Two persons are working full time with Renju. The Beijing club is the strongest for the time being. Other Clubs are situated in Shanghai and some other eight cities.
Internationally, the Chinese players plan to join the 1st World Team Championship and the 1st Youth World Championship. I am sure that the strongest Chinese players must take part in international tournaments in order to get stronger.
Besides all Renju we had the opportunity to visit the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, each of them breathtaking.
When we returned home, some people asked me how the Chinese food was. My answer was simply: "Peter Jonsson + 5 kilograms, Jan Palmgren + 4 kilograms".
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Peter Jonsson
General Secretary of RIF
Mr Na Wei has already written a book on Renju in Chinese. Here you can see the first page.
December, 9, 1995
You can get some photos from Linköping Open from below:
Tournament winner Ando Meritee
Rickard Johannesson and Ants Soosorv
Jonas Frid (Swedish representative in e-mail WC ) and Göran Holgersson
Björn Wallgren and Tord Andersson
Photo on many players on many boards
December, 5, 1995
The semifinal stage of the 10th tournament for the St.Petersburg Cup is finished. Forth time one after the other Viktor Aleksandrov and Pavel Sal- nikov will struggle for the title of the Cup Winner in the 4 games match. The final games dates are: 9.12 and 23.12. The results of the previous stages of that tournament are as follows: Quarterfinal matches: 1. Vladimir Filinov - Kirill Moiseev - 3:0 2. Viktor Aleksandrov - Aleksandr Klimashin - 3:1 3. Vladimir Semionov - Andrej Mishin - 3:0 4. Pavel Salnikov - Aleksandr Ozhinsky - 3:0 Semifinal matches: 1. Viktor Aleksandrov - Vladimir Filinov - 2.5:0.5 2. Pavel Salnikov - Vladimir Semionov - 3 : 1
December, 4, 1995
On December 2/3 in Riga was held first part of Baltic Championship Final tournament. 10 best players of Baltic States played first 4 rounds from 9.
Situation of tournament after rounds 1-4:
1.-2. Gatis Gurtskis LAT 4.0 (SOO 1,MAT 1,DRE 1,AND 1) Aldis Reims LAT 4.0 (MER 1,BAL 1,VEI 1,SOO 1) 3. Ando Meritee EST 3.0 (REI 0,DEM 1,MAT 1,BAL 1) 4.-5. Yelena Balanova LAT 2.0 (AND 1,REI 0,DEM 1,MER 0) Ants Soosorv EST 2.0 (GUR 0,DRE 1,AND 1,REI 0) 6.-10. Arnis Veidemanis LAT 1.0 (DRE 1,AND 0,REI 0,DEM 0) Raimonds Dreimanis LAT 1.0 (VEI 0,SOO 0,GUR 0,MAT 1) Andris Andersons LAT 1.0 (BAL 0,VEI 1,SOO 0,GUR 0) Valery Matyuk LAT 1.0 (DEM 1,GUR 0,MER 0,DRE 0) Alexei Demidov LAT 1.0 (MAT 0,MER 0,BAL 0,VEI 1)
Most interesting results:
ROUND1. Reims won Meritee as black in I4. Gurtskis won Soosorv as black in I6. Balanova won Andersons in I10 as black.
ROUND2. Veidemanis lost against Andersons, Reims in a long game as white won Balanova in D3. Gurtskis won Matyuk in I12 as black.
ROUND3. Reims won Veidemanis in I1 in 16 moves with white stones. Meritee (white) in a very long game tricked Matyuk in I3. Andersons didn't realize probably winning situation against Soosorv and lost.
ROUND4. Meritee(white) easy won Balanova in I3. Demidov won Veidemanis (!!!) and Dreimanis won Matyuk (!!!). Reims won by white Soosorv in I10. Gurtskis won Andersons in a long game.
Rounds 5-9 will be played on January 20/21. Two best players from this tournament will play Baltic "Meijinmatch" from 4 games in Tallinn (February/March).
In Division B first tournament won Vairis Mutsenieks (LAT). Players in Division B play 2 tournaments and player with best total result will get a place in next year's Final tournament without qualification.
Contents: 1. Results from Linköping Open. 2. 1996 Tokai regional championship qualification final. 3. Announcement of 21st VCF contest from Japan.
With this tournament it is decided which 5 players from Sweden that are qualified to play in European Championship in December in S:t Petersburg.
It is
A) The 2 finalists in the Swedish Cup:
Ingvar Sundling and Stefan Karlsson.
B) Qualified because of Linköping Open :
Tord Andersson, Göran Holgersson and Rickard Johannesson.
Some of the qualified players have problems to go and probably the Swedish representatives will be Göran Holgersson, Rickard Johannesson, Björn Wallgren and Bengt Asplund.
26th Nov, 1995 @ Hamamatsu
Shinichi Ishitani (8 dan) 3-0 Takeo Miyoshi (8 dan) 2-1 Tsuyoshi Ohta (5 dan) 1-2 Shuichi Saito (5 dan) 0-3
Top two persons were qualified for the final three games match which will be held on 21st Jan, 1996.
21st VCF(Victory of Continuous Four) contest will be held on "Renju Sekai", which is a monthly Renju magazine in Japan, in April 1996. We call for new, interesting and artificial VCF problems from all over the world.
The contributed problems ought to meet the following restrictions:
1) Black stone must be placed on the center of the board. 2) If the problem is intended to win of black, the number of black and white stones in the problem must be the same. Whereas if the problem is intended to win of white, the number of black stones must be the number of white stones plus one. 3) Each problem must have a title. One contributor can send more than one problem.
Contributor is requested to send problems and their answers to Tsuyoshi Ohta by e-mail, ohta@cs.inf.shizuoka.ac.jp, by January 31, 1996. We are looking forward to your problems!
21th VCF contest committee
Tsuyoshi Ohta Research Assistant Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Information, Shizuoka University, 3-5-1 Johoku, Hamamatsu, 432 JAPAN E-mail: ohta@cs.inf.shizuoka.ac.jp Tel: 81-53-478-1238 Fax: 81-53-475-4595
November 18, 1995
If you have at least Netscape 1.1 or an equal browser you can now
see
the list of countries withing RIF also in four tables:
Members and Connection Men within RIF
E-mail addresses within RIF
Telephone numbers and Fax numbers within RIF
Mailing addresses within RIF
November 16, 1995
From Nick Alexandrov today I received information about a new Web-page called WinFive. On this page you can play gomoku on line with a computer. A shareware MS-Windows version is available from this page. This is the first text when you check the page: "WinFive(TM), also known as Go-Moku or Rengi is an ancient game of strategy. This version of WinFive(TM) uses a highly sophisticated computer algorithm making it very hard to beat. The algorithm has been developed by Alexander Sidorenko. This is the best algorithm ever implemented on a computer. The interface has been developed by Leon Charny." I have not tested the program yet myself. I will try but as usual I have very little time to do it. However, if you do it, please, let me know about your opinion. You will find the page on this URL-address:
http://cad.bu.edu/personal/leon/winfive/
November 14, 1995
Now you will find all 3 Meijin-Final games with comments to all 3 games by Aldis Reims from the links below.
Japanese Meijin Final Games with links to
photos of players (quicker loading).
Japanese Meijin Final Games with
photos of players.
November, 12, 1995
All games were played November 11th - November 12th.
November 11, 1995
Nihon Renju Sha, the incorporated body, had been managed as the derector general was Mr. Shigetaro Mikami for a long time. But the growth of renju in the world was rapid and changing to use any medium(computer, network, etc.), Mr. Mikami retired voluntarily , hoping to gather the young power that cope with the world renju situation.
After that, Mr. Yoshimi Hayakawa who is the vice-president of RIF and familiar to the fan of renju in the world, have taken up his post as the derector general of Nihon Renju Sha.
We think that we must strengthen the Hayakawa organization as soon as possible, and cope with the world's Renju which continue to spread all around the world.
Please, expect to new Hayakawa executive organization.
1st November, 1995
Nihon Renju Sha, the incorporated body.
(translated by Nishizono)
I, Hayakawa, took up my post as the derector general of Nihon Renju Sha, the incorporated body.
This year is 13th from visit to Sweden putting up "Spread Renju to the world". The speed of spreading Renju is ten years earlier than my biggining plan. I'm now little puzzeled.
I and Mr. Masao Mitsumori 9-dan have been to Peking in China to spread Renju, 7th-10th Oct. Renju had great popularity in China. There are 260 players gathering to open guidance. We prepared only 50 texts only from Japan.... We suprised again that the leader said there are 900 persons who wanted to look to me for guidance!
They could use every technique, and very strong. We authorized one 1-dan, one 2-kyu , two 3-kyu ..(cut after)... But if they understand the opening pattern, Dan player will be over 50 players at once. They will appear to the world's stage, I think it is not so far.
The day after the open guidance, we were showed the elementary school which used Renju to school work. This elementary school had 630 students, and ALL students played Renju as school work. The rule is RIF rule, we felt intensity from them.
I felt actualy that we must not stand idle. When I felt it , I agreed to be the derector general. Now I am making contact to all friends of similar tastes all over Japan, and I start to make active organization.
Mr. Masao Mitsumori, Mr. Toshiro Sawai and Mr. Goro Sakata, who are famous in the world, are vice derector general to make agreement smoothly. Mr. Shin-ichi Ishitani, Mr. Hiroyuki Tatsutomi, Mr. Norio Nishizono, Mr. Hideki Nara, Mr. Kazuto Hasegawa and other person who had been to forreign countries, took the post of main charge in Renju Sha. So I think that they will play the important parts to contact to you all over the world.
September of next year(1996) is the 30th anniversary of our incorporated body. I think that we held any event that you expect. Please wait a little to organize well the Hayakawa organization in Japan. After that, we will start to take an active role in Japan and world's Renju.
KANPAI(bottoms up) ! Renju the hobby.
1st November, 1995
Nihon Renju Sha, the incorporated body.
Yoshimi Hayakawa the derector general.
Head office :
Kyoto branch:
(translated by Nishizono)
Norihiko Kawamura won also the 3rd game in the Japanese Meijin-Final. Therefore he won the whole match and he is still Meijin till he will be challenged next year. All three games and comments by Aldis Reims to game 1 and 2 you will now find on the
Today only 2 full games are presented but the page will soon be updated with all three games and with more comments.
Japanese Meijin Final Games with links to
photos of players (quicker loading).
Japanese Meijin Final Games with
photos of players.
November 6, 1995
New page with links to all results from different tournament.
October 30, 1995
Results from Baltic Championship Qualification Round in Riga.
October 29, 1995
October 28, 1995
During the RIF General Assembly in Tallinn in August (#19) Mr Hayakawa spoke about the new opening rules for the Meijin-Sen. The new rule is as follows:
"In starting the game the tentative Black plays all the first three moves" (two for black and one for white)i.e. he decides which of the 26 patterns that will be used.(Instead of #12.2-12.4 in the official rules of RIF). "Then the tentative White decides which of the players that will play as Black and as White in the game" (White has the right to change sides).This is the same as #12.5 in the official rules of RIF and the following opening rules are also the same as before.
Some important players have said that they want to change the rule of RIF to be the same as was tested in the Meijin-Sen tournament mentioned above. The organizer of the European Championship Pavel Salnikov even wanted to use these rules in the EC in December. However in big international tournaments we have to use the current official rules. We have the same situation in the World Team Championship Tournament in April-May 1996.
Only the General Assembly of RIF can decide to change the rules. If several member-countries within RIF want to change the rules it is possible to arrange an extra General Assembly during WC-team championship in April-May 1996. Then the new rules could be used in tournaments arranged after the Team World Championship.
What is the reason for the suggestion to change the opening rule?
Today it is possible for a player to study only 13+1 opening
patterns for example all 13 indirect openings and 1 direct opening.
In the long run this will not develop the theory of renju.
For example today the openings D3, D8 are therefore not played so often.
With the new rule all players must study all 26 openings.
What will be the problems if we change the rules?
It is always difficult to inform about changes of the offical rules and
it is good if the offical rules will be firm during a long period without
being changed. This gives a solid impression.
Any RIF member-country but also any individual player that have comments to the proposal may send the comments to Tommy Maltell. After some time I will give these thoughts to Central Committee to decide wheater we should arrange an extra General Assembly or not.
Offical RIF terminology is as follows:
Direct opening 3 = D3
Indirect opening 1 = I1
Please, do not use the words
Vertical (V) instead of Direct (D) or
Diagonal (D) instead of Indirect (I).
There are three encyclopedias, collections of games, in renju.
As you have maybe seen on the Web-page of RIF one of them is the program "Database" from Oleg Stepanov from Russia with more than 13000 games in a DOS-program. A free version with more than 1000 games played by strong players you can get from the RIF Web page. Info: If you install the free program, press F1, F8, F3 and browse with the arrrow keys between the games.
Now inside the version 4.2 with 13000 games is also a playing program. According to Oleg Stepanov it has a fast and deep algorith.
Actually I do not have the price for the full version but if you want
to subscribe on updates every month the cost is 5$ per month in advance.
You can get more information from Oleg Stepanov with e-mail address:
And@tuman3.ioffe.rssi.ru
There are two more encyclopedias. On the New Web-page about Encyclopedias you are able to read about all three encyclopedias.
October 24, 1995
There are 26 opening patterns of renju. From the Renju Opening Page you can find them all. For the most opening patterns you are also able to see the best and sometimes also some bad alternatives for the 5th move in the most usual variations.
October 22, 1995
The Swedish Magazine "Fem I Rad" No 2
1995 is now available
med svensk innehållsförteckning
with Table of contents in English.
Read here about latest news of European Championship in S:t Petersburg in December.
October 20, 1995
October 16, 1995
Click here if you want more information about this tournament.
October 15, 1995
The RIF Pages are now possible to see using "frames".You can only see the frames if you have Netscape 2.0. Click here if you want to see the RIF pages using Frames.
October, 9
1st game 8th of October in Kyoto 2nd game 22th of October in Kyoto 3rd game 5th of November in Kobe 4th game 19th of November 5th game 3rd of December
Japanese Meijin Final Games with links to
photos of players (quicker loading).
Japanese Meijin Final Games with
photos of players.
Russia is intending to organize the Fifth World Championship in Renju.
The 2nd European Championship
The 1st World Team Championship
October, 3
On the 7th of October Vice President of RIF Mr Hayakawa and former Japanese Meijin-finalist Mr Mitsumori will go from Japan to China to visit the Chinese Renjuplayers.
On the 10th-18th of November General Secretary of RIF Peter Jonsson and winner of Wettercupen Jan Palmgren will go from Sweden to China to visit the Chinese Renjuplayers.
October, 1
2 Chinese players and 2 Chinese organizers will visit Bryansk 1st League of Russian Championship on the 7th-14th November
September, 29
For example you can find new fax number to Estonia and Armenia
September, 19
September, 18
August, 18
List showing the places in next WC:
AT = A-Tournament:
Japan - Kawamura + 1
Russia - 2
Latvia - 1
Estonia - 1
Sweden - 1
Organizer - 1 (if the organizing country is not one
of the above mentioned countries that
already has a place)
The best in QT - 4 or 5
QT = Qualification Tournament
Japan - Hayakawa + 2
Russia - Sinyov + 1
Latvia - Gurtskis + 1
Estonia - 2
Sweden - 2
Belorussia - 3
Armenia - 1 (If they pay member-fee 3 QT)
Azerbaidjan- 1 (If they pay member-fee 3 QT)
All countries that will become members before next
WC have 3QT each if no WC
All other countries than members have 1QT
Denver Software has entered into a marketing agreement
with JC Research of San Jose, California, to market
the computer game " Renju For beginners". They will do
some modification to the game and repackage.
Tommy Maltell
August, 13
2. On another page you will find information about how to buy the book "Renju For Beginners". RIF will send this book without cost for the addressee to libraries around the world. However, we cannot send to all libries and to how many is not decided yet. The rest of the books will be sold to single players. If you have any good suggestions where to find a list to good libries for this purpose or if you know addresses to special libraries that you recommend, please, let me know.
3.Links to 4 future international tournaments in Renju:
4.Links to information about The Renju World Magazine No 19
Did you know that just before the World Championship of Arjeplog 1993 the General Secretary of RIF Peter Jonsson made a CD with 12 songs. The main song is "Renju is the game".
This CD is possible to order directly by sending 15 US $ in cash in a usual leter to
Peter Jonsson
Munkgatan 5
S-561 34 HUSKVARNA
SWEDEN
His telephone is INT +46 36 136735
If you are interested in more information about this CD you are also able to send e-mail to me
(Tommy Maltell) and I will give your questions to Peter.
July, 29, 1995
All news from World Championship in Tallinn, Estonia will be found on the WC Newspage.
July, 10
Results from Swedish Qualification Tournament before WC in Tallinn.
Jonkoping, July 8, 1995
Recently I received this message:
"Date: Thu, 6 Jul 95 20:50:51 +0400 Dear Tommy Very bad news. Nick Mikhailov died yesterday. Yours Respectfully Nosovsky" Nikolai Mikhailov from Tasjkent in Uzbekistan lived since some time in Moscow. Some weeks ago I heard that he had meningitis and was very ill at hospital. On the 12th of March this year he won the Third Open Russian Championship held in Elets. 1989 in the 1st World Championship in Kyoto he was No5 and the strongest player from USSR. 1993 in the 3rd World Championship in Arjeplog, Sweden he was No 9. Nick Mikhailov was a very nice man and he was much liked by many players because of his personal charm. All players within RIF have mourning. Tommy Maltell President of RIF