According to NSR(in Japanese), the following players were awarded for the fiscal year 2005(April 1, 2005 through March 31, 2006). The prize-giving committee from sponsors of shogi title matches have defined the prize winners except for Most frequent player, Winningest player, Highest winning percentage, and Highest winning number in a row award which automatically depend on the records for the term.
* Most valuable player award --- Yoshiharu Habu(3 crowns)
--> Although Habu lost Kio, he has still 3 titles which is the biggest number among all the professional players.
* Valuable player award(newly created prize this time) --- Toshiyuki Moriuchi(Meijin,Kio, Akira Watanabe(Ryuo)
--> Moriuchi defended Meijin and took Kio from Habu. Watanabe defended Rhuoh.
* Fighting-spirit award --- Yasumitsu Sato(Kisei)
* New Face award --- Shinya Sato(5 dan)
--> He's granted the highest winning percentage award as well.
* Most valuable lady player award --- Rieko Yauchi(Joryu Meijin)
--> Yauchi took Joryu Meijin from Shimizu for the first time of her life.
* Impressive lady player award --- Ryoko Chiba(Joryu Osho)
* Special award --- Nobody entitled
* Most frequent player award --- Yoshiharu Habu, 62 games
* Winningest player award --- Akira Watanabe, 41 victories
* Highest winning percentage award --- Shinya Sato, 78.7%
* Highest winning number in a row award --- Yoshiharu Habu, 18 wins in a row
* Tokyo shogi press club award --- Shoji Segawa(4 dan)
* Kozo Masuda award --- Hitoshige Awaji(9 dan), 'Itte son Kakugawari Senpo(Bishop exchange with 1 move behind)
--> Late Kozo Masuda(9 dan) is famous as an innovator in the opening. He made lots of new joseki sequences. This prize is to be granted to a player who made innovation in the opening.
* Kozo Masuda special award --- Taku Morishita(9 dan), Morishita System
Is the Kozo Mazuda award given for innovative playing or for doing theoretical work, i.e. writing opening books? if the former, are there any gamescores of Hitoshige Awaji on the net?
I'm still very confused about the point of Itte son Kakugawari Senpo; if it's so good to have the rook pawn back on the 4th rank, why can't white just skip this move in the normal development and then be the first to attack?
cheers,
Andi
Posted by: cangaru | April 17, 2006 at 09:34 PM
It's the former. Writing opening books is not necessary. As a matter of fact, I was surprized that Awaji was awarded. I don't know his gamescores is available on the Net.
It's impossible to stay Rook Pawn on the 4th rank in the normal development. This is a good question and I will make a new entry to answer it with some diagrams.
Posted by: takodori | April 18, 2006 at 09:38 AM