Doitsuyama

You are right of course, I have the same data here with me... I was fooled by the Kyokai site which states that Tochitenko's highest rank was Ms8... Shows me not to trust too much what the site tells.

Well, it's difficult to tell. The Kanji in question can be read Muko and Mukai. So I thought that Kitazakura fought under his real name, which is quite the norm. I think it is rather unusual to take his real name in Kanji as Shikona with a different reading; so maybe there is an error on the Kyokai page... So I still rather think the name is Mukai, not Muko, because the shikona are always accompanied with readings in Hiragana, so they should be far less error prone than the readings of the real names, which can be quite the task even for native Japanese.

I believe it should be Mukai, not Muko according to Masumi Abe. Look here: http://www.banzuke.com/98-3/msg00627.html Well, there is some danger. Makushita Tochitenko got a 4-3 at Ms9 last basho, so he is getting closer. If he should manage to get into Juryo, he would easily surpass Kotokanyu as his Hatsu dohyo was Haru 1982, more than 20 years ago! That would be a record hard to beat. He got 35 at February, 19th... His highest rank until now has been Makushita 8 in Natsu 1998.

Nice article, but a bit too much on the negative side. It is a bit tweaking the facts to illustrate only the own viewpoint. Of course no word is said about Takanohana, who obviously was Sumo's golden boy since mae-zumo. He was poised to set all records and thus take popularity of Sumo to new heights. And yet he had to wait for the Yokozuna promotion until achieving two consecutive zensho yusho, with seven yusho in total before getting promoted to Yokozuna. This of course is more than the five yusho of Musashimaru... It is true that the five yusho at Ozeki level are a record, shared with Takanohana, but Takanohana had two more yusho below the Ozeki rank.

I welcome your comments wholeheartedly as ever. My views: Kyokush

I voted for Musashimaru because he simply was the strongest rikishi lately and I didn't hear of an injury... As to going on quotes here are my (pre-basho) y

The numbers from Makususuchi for points gained and lost aren't corresponding to an ELO-based system at all. They are just following a linear function to the rating difference... See how a correct formula could look like here: How does the rating formula work? For example rating differences from Yokozuna down to Juryojiri you could get a feel by looking at my ratings of Sekitori since 1989: Doitsuyama's Osumo ratings in Heisei (since 1989)

Well, where there is a game, I'd probably be in... But since I have compiled strength ratings for the sekitori since 1989 (see my Webpage; Haru 2002 is not compiled so far) I'd like to say something about the quality thing. I presume by the title "Quality" that the quality indicator should give an idea of the strength of the rikishi. One basic principle on such schemes is that the calculated strength should be the same if you win against an Ozeki and lose against a M7 or vice versa. As Kofuji already pointed out this isn't the case with your quality index. (This flaw holds true for the Bench Sumo quality index as well of course). The solution is to deduct points for a loss whether against a higher ranked or a lower ranked rikishi, but not arbitrarily! The idea behind a sound strength calculation scheme is that in principle each bout has a fixed value, for example 15 points. So the sum of points gained and lost should be always the same. Unfortunately it's not possible to implement this by just adding or subtracting points depending of the rank of the opponent, but it is a start. So a win against an Ozeki could bring 13 points, a loss would cost 2 points. A win against against a Juryo rikishi ranked between J9 and J13 would give 2 points, a loss would cost 13 points. Of course this system has its flaws too but it would be much better than the original quality values. To the playing format: I assume the team should stay fix over the basho. Then I can't see a sensible scoring format like in Sekitoto, because of all the scoring factors which are day-independent (like KK, MK, sansho(?), yusho (?)).

I'm pretty sure he fought under the shikona Oso while in Makushita before changing it to Musoyama with the Juryo promotion. Another funny coincidence: Musoyama seems to have been destined for Musashigawa beya since his birth. His first name (or second in Japanese ;-) ) is Takehito 武人, which has the kanji for "warrior" and "person". 武 (take) is the same kanji as Mu in Musashigawa...

Well, in fact I found it surprising that Tokitsuumi was promoted only to M4w and frost bird Shimotori only to M12e... Takanonami or Buy

I bet Canada were very small favorites in Curling compared to Sweden against White Russia (or Belorus or whatever it is in English). Since the Czech lost to Russia 0:1 my predicted final Sweden-Czech proved to be a perfect jinx. So I boldly predict now that the US team will win against Germany tonight.

It sure was a close finish for the Finns (could it have been ever closer at the end?), but not with the Austrians. They even fell back behind the surpisingly strong Slovenians. To your satisfaction Hannawald wasn't so strong today, but the German team showed (not for the first time) that it indeed has four good jumpers. Finally I think the Czech team will again make it in the hockey competition. Maybe we saw the final matchup against Sweden yesterday?

Before the basho my yusho favorites were Musashimaru, Kaio and Tochiazuma. Here are the result of some rating calculations of me (don't take the numbers too serious...): 2442 Musashimaru 2400 Tochiazuma 2396 Kaio 2365 Chiyotaikai 2332 Kotomitsuki 2311 Asashoryu 2304 Musoyama 2294 Wakanosato As we all know by now, Musashimaru had to reveal that his injury was worse than thought and had to retreat from the tournament. Asashoryu and Wakanosato made good bouts, but lost several close ones so they are out of the yusho race too as well as Musoyama. Kaio has lost two but still is in the race because he has to face all three 8-0 rikishi starting tomorrow with Kotomitsuki. The other two will likely be on days 13 and 14. Of course one has to re-estimate the strengths of the rikishi after such results as happened this basho. Here are some interim ratings: 2448 Tochiazuma 2421 Chiyotaikai 2406 Musashimaru 2388 Kotomitsuki 2386 Kaio 2323 Wakanosato 2289 Musoyama 2279 Asashoryu Remarkable that Tochiazuma and Chiyotaikai are rated even higher than Musashimaru. In fact, 2448 is a clear Yokozuna rating... For example, Wakanohana's highest rating ever was 2421. Of course, Konishiki's highest rating ever was 2458 and he didn't get a tsuna, but this possibly would have been better for Wakanohana too. As events are developing now, we really could be watching the beginning of a new era - Tochi-Taikai-Mitsuki-jidai? They are all three born in the year 1976 and thus the youngest in Makuuchi except Asashoryu, Aminishiki and Miyabiyama so there is a lot of future time left in them. Well, in any case the next basho has to stimulate Sumo interest in Japan again when the three 76'ers have left their markings on the dohyo and the two Yokozuna Musashimaru and Takanohana will return.

Yokozuna Musashimaru has not recovered in time from his cartilage surgery after Kyushu 2001 on the left wrist and Musashigawa oyakata announced his kyujo starting tomorrow. Kaiho will get a fusenhai win (and move 3-2 lifetime against the Yokozuna...).

Kotoseiya really is having a run in the Sumo Game. He is even having more points than my opponents had; my opponents had 63 points and he is clearly the only one in that region with 64 points. As I am not scoring too well this basho with 57 points I have to be lucky with a total of 3-5 so far, three tie-breaks and all won...

The letter in front of the number is a code in which country the note was printed. Sorry, but I didn't find a list of codes with corresponding countries in the net. Since all (not so many) notes in my wallet have the letter X, I assume X ist for "Made in Germany".

I read an article in my newspaper referring to the finnish school system: http://www2.tagesspiegel.de/archiv/2001/12...ws-4415509.html Another article is really funny: http://www2.tagesspiegel.de/archiv/2001/12...-mn-559570.html Sorry, both articles are in German. I would advise (especially) the finnish readers to try and read the second one to get a good laugh.

Well, I'll be banished from this forum if I tell the solution, but let me assure you that there is no cheat to trick you, just simple geometry...

I don't understand how one can possibly say that Toki and Takanotsuru have a similar style. I had the opportunity to watch some bouts of Takanotsuru in the stream from the NSK site and everyone would tell after two seconds at the latest that this is not Toki. Takanotsuru's style is very much yotsu-sumo, he is going for the belt at once; a move Toki wouldn't do whatsoever. In fact, the style between those two sekitori is as different as it can be...

Hmm, I'm not sure you got the point of my remark. I didn't mean that Germany is no team to worry about (it may be true though), but that Germany doesn't have to qualify as host country for 2006... So there won't be any qualification group with Germany.

Hello Yuichi, nice forum you are running so far. Only one comment for now: You won't have to worry about having Germany in the qualification group for 2006. I'm positively sure about that ;-)