Flohru

Are you referring to size or weight? Harumafuji was rather light for sure, but certainly not small, while Takakeisho is small, but not particularly light. And the combination of small (= under 1,75 m) and bulky (= over 140 kg) seems to be a rather good way to avoid the injury man, at least if you look at the careers of recent examples like Takekaze, Toyonoshima or Yoshikaze.

In which Kaio would have been in the yusho race if not for his day 1 loss against .... Aminishiki!

Well, "closer call" in the sense that this is the only one out of the 11 cases since 1980 in which arguably the K (or joi rikishi) could have been denied a Sekiwake spot in the Ozdem scenario (thus the only example that could be used to substantiate your argument). In any case I agree that there is no clear evidence against your opinion as well; the good thing is that we will know for sure in a couple of weeks. If you are right, hats off to you, but I really cannot see it.

The problem is that there is not a single more recent case to prove that claim. After looking at all (11) cases of extra Sekiwake slots created for demoted Ozeki after 1980: There were always one, two or three kk Sekiwake and/or a Komusubi/joi rikishi with double digit wins (only once less than 11) involved. In 10 of the 11 cases there could have been no argument at all about the need of an extra Sekiwake slot, while the only closer call was Musoyama (K1e, 10-5) being promoted to a fourth Sekiwake position on the Hatsu 2000 banzuke that already saw two incumbent Sekiwake and Takanonami being demoted from Ozeki. But then a 10-5 is still way better than a 8-7..

True, but then again in your two cases the rest of the joi was pretty easy to arrange while this time it is going to be a mess even if they decide to promote Hokutofuji. :) Not sure if this is taken into account, however (possibly it is not); I am looking forward to Pierre's final assessment!

Well there are lots of cases where potential Sekiwake promotees (e.g. a K with an 8-7 record) were denied because there was no room (e.g. both Sekiwake kk), just to avoid the extra slot. The main question imo is not whether they would be willing to not promote Abi to Sekiwake (they sure would), but whether they are willing to deny Hokutofuji a sanyaku spot...

Hi Achiyama, There is a mistake in the day 7 results, I'm afraid. I selected Endo and thus should receive 22 points. Thanks!

Mitakeumi Chiyotairyu Yutakayama Daiamami Kizakiumi Jokoryu Shiraishi Ichiki Irie Terasawa Homarefuji Tokisakae Ito Sakurai Motobayashi ALT Daishomaru Tokushino TB Ishiura Aozora

No game announcement for Nagoya, so possibly SG and PTYW will not run this time... :( Hopefully this is a one-time kyujo and Itachi will be back soon!

Day 1 (and so on): Kizakiumi (Alternate Daiamami) => Thanks, Wakatake!

Day 1 (and so on): Kizakiumi

1. A 2. B 3. A 4. B 5. B 6. A 7. A 8. B 9. A10. A11. A12. B13. A14. A15. B16. B17. B18. B19. B20. B21. A

Thanks Itachi for all your work! With the yusho and a new personal record score I guess that I should not complain. Nevertheless with Kotodairyu blowing my long-desired 15-kk-lineup in his final bout, this somehow feels bad. Anyway, more work to do, so see you next time!!

I agree that the sub should be used to fill the highest unoccupied point slot in case the rikishi he was originally substituting returns. It makes no sense that the sub only kicks in again, if he is free and another rikishi goes kyujo, but not to fill other slots already available.. I guess this is difficult to automatize and would have to been done manually, though?

Thanks, Profo! It has been nearly four years since my last yusho in this classical game, so I'm relived to end the drought! Also, I am glad to see that one of the rare x-picks made the difference.. Thanks also to Asojima for his work.