Richard West 2-kyu of Royston beat all 3 top Shogi (Japanese Chess) players in the Royston Shogi Tournament to win the 1994 title at the Coombes Centre in Royston on Saturday 10th September. Matty Miller 14-kyu of Cambridge won his 3 games in the lower section and retained his Junior title.
Roland Marounek travelled from Brussels to take the British Open Tori-Shogi Championship title out of Britain for the first time, finishing undefeated with 3 wins.
Matty and Roland also shared 1st place in the first Mini-Shogi Competition to be held in Europe, each scoring 19 points. Sarah Holland of Royston was 3rd with 15 points. Every entrant from both "big" tournaments competed, and played a total of 36 Mini-Shogi games between rounds! The introduction of the Mini-Shogi competition into the Royston Shogi Congress gave the juniors an opportunity to challenge the dan-players. The event was run as an all-play-all tournament of up to 2 games per pairing. Scoring was set at 2 points for a win, 1 point for a defeat and no points for an unplayed game. The juniors, therefore, had an advantage in being able to play more games between rounds. Also they could gain points by challenging the top players, even if they lost! Mini-Shogi has been popular at the Royston Shogi Club for some time and is now called "Royston" Shogi by some of the members of Shogi Brussels! Maybe other events can also incorporate a Mini-Shogi "free for all", between rounds.
Francis Roads (see Shoten issue 35), unfortunately, missed this year's Congress. He would have seen a 30% female entry, a 30% junior entry and the same photographer as last year from the local press. We may not get hoards of entrants at Royston, but we do try to spread Shogi knowledge as hard as we can.
Special thanks go to Richard West Ltd and Hitachi Data Systems for donating prizes, and to the members of the Royston Shogi Club for their help in staging the Congress. If you missed the 1994 Royston Shogi Congress, make a date in your diary for the next one in September 1995.
| 1994 British Tori-Shogi Championships |
| 1st - Roland Marounek - 3 wins |
| 1994 Royston Shogi Tournament |
| 1st - Richard West - 3 wins |
| 2nd and Junior - Matty Miller - 3 wins - promoted to 13-kyu |
| 1994 Royston Mini-Shogi Competition |
| Equal 1st - Roland Marounek and Matty Miller - 19 points |
| Round 1: | |||
| Richard West | vs | Anthony Denver-Fedder | 1-0 wo |
| Roland Marounek | vs | Phil Holland | 1-0 |
| Round 2: | |||
| Phil Holland | vs | Anthony Denver-Fedder | 0-1 |
| Roland Marounek | vs | Richard West | 1-0 |
| Round 1: | |||
| Roland Marounek | vs | Anthony Denver-Fedder | 1-0 |
| Phil Holland | vs | Richard West | 0-1 wo |
| Pos. | Player's name (Club) | Grade | Pl. | W. | SOMS | LASOMS |
| 1. | Roland Marounek (Belgium) | 15-kyu | 3 | 3 | 35 | 10 |
| 2. | Richard West (Royston) | 12-kyu | 3 | 2 | 37 | -1 |
| 3. | Anthony Denver-Fedder (Ashford) | 11-kyu | 3 | 1 | 37 | -4 |
| 4. | Phil Holland (Royston) | 15-kyu | 3 | 0 | 32 | 13 |
| Round 1: | |||
| Steve Cain | vs | Les Blackstock | 1-0 |
| Richard West | vs | Anthony Denver-Fedder (Bishop) | 1-0 nifu |
| Sarah Holland | vs | Naoki Collier (Rook+Lance) | 0-1 |
| Rachel Holland | vs | Matty Miller | 0-1 |
| Round 2: | |||
| Anthony Denver-Fedder | vs | Steve Cain | 1-0 |
| Richard West | vs | Les Blackstock (Bishop) | 1-0 |
| Rachel Holland | vs | Naoki Collier (2 pieces) | 0-1 |
| Sarah Holland | vs | Matty Miller (Lance) | 0-1 |
| Round 3: | |||
| Richard West | vs | Steve Cain (Lance) | 1-0 |
| Les Blackstock | vs | Anthony Denver-Fedder | 1-0 |
| Matty Miller | vs | Naoki Collier | 1-0 |
| Rachel Holland | vs | Sarah Holland | 0-1 |
| Pos. | Player's name (Club) | Grade | Pl. | W. | SOMS | LASOMS |
| 1. | Richard West (Royston) | 2-kyu | 3 | 3 | -7 | 8 |
| 2. | Matty Miller (Cambridge) | 14-kyu | 3 | 3 | 37 | 6 |
| 3. | Noaki Collier (Japan) | 10-kyu | 3 | 2 | 40 | -1 |
| 4. | Les Blackstock (London) | 3-dan | 3 | 1 | -3 | -5 |
| 5. | Steve Cain (London) | 2-dan | 3 | 1 | -6 | 4 |
| 6. | Anthony Denver-Fedder (Ashford) | 2-dan | 3 | 1 | -6 | 5 |
| 7. | Sarah Holland (Royston) | 15-kyu | 3 | 1 | 34 | 6 |
| 8. | Rachel Holland (Royston) | 15-kyu | 3 | 0 | 33 | 7 |
| Pos. | Player's name (Club) | Games | Wins | Points |
| 1=. | Roland Marounek (Belgium) | 11 | 8 | 19 |
| 1=. | Matty Miller (Cambridge) | 12 | 7 | 19 |
| 3. | Sarah Holland (Royston) | 13 | 2 | 15 |
| 4=. | Les Blackstock (London) | 7 | 6 | 13 |
| 4=. | Phil Holland (Royston) | 8 | 5 | 13 |
| 6. | Rachel Holland (Royston) | 8 | 1 | 9 |
| 7. | Richard West (Royston) | 4 | 4 | 8 |
| 8. | Anthony Denver-Fedder (Ashford) | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| 9. | Steve Cain (Belgium) | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| 10. | Naoki Collier (Japan) | 3 | 0 | 3 |
Email: Phil Holland <phil.holland@bcs.org.uk>
