History of European shogi championships

European shogi championships (ESC) are the annual events. The first ESC was held in 1985.

There were 24 European shogi championships from 1985 to 2008 years. Seven countries were the organizers of the main shogi events in Europe: Belgium – 7 times (1986, 1988, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2002), Great Britain – 5 (1989, 1991, 1992, 2000, 2001), Netherlands – 5 (1985, 1987, 1993, 1998, 1999), Czech Republic – 3 (2005, 2007, 2008),Germany – 2 (1990, 2004), Sweeden - 1 (2003), France – 1 (2006).

Champions and prize-winners (players)

15 players were the champions of Europe from 1990 to 2008: Mike Sandeman, David Murphy, Stephen Lamb, Tony Hosking (all – Great Britain), Reijer Grimbergen, Arend van Oosten (both - Netherlands), Shuji Takahara, Toyokazu Miyamoto, Yoshiyuki Uemura, Yuji Kikuta (all - Japan), Hans Secelle (Belgium), Boris Mirnik (Germany), Frederic Pottier (France), Artem Kolomiyets (Ukraine), Victor Zapara (Russia). Arend van Oosten won the first place 5 times, Reijer Grimbergen - 3 times, Boris Mirnik, Stephen Lamb and Artem Kolomiyets have two champion titles. But nobody can defend the title next year.

Players from Netherlands won ESC 8 times, Great Britain – 5, Japan – 4, Germany and Ukraine – 2, Belgium, France and Russia – 1 time all.

34* players became the prize-winners of ESC during 1985-2007. Arend van Oosten was on the podium 9 times, Reijer Grimbergen - 6* times, Boris Mirnik - 5 times, Mike Sandeman, Stephen Lamb and Eric Cheymol (France) – 4* times all, Tony Hosking – 3* times. There is no full data on ESC from 1985 to 1989 that's why some figures marked with (*). Below you can find prize-winners of 24 European shogi championships during 1985-2008 .

Comments to the table: P - total sum prize places, 1,2,3 - the number of first, second and third places for every player.

Players	Nat	P	1	2	3
van Oosten Arend	NL	9	5	2	2
Grimbergen Reijer	NL	6	3	2	1
Mirnik Boris	DE	5	2	1	2
Lamb Stephen	GB	4	2	2
Sandeman Mike	GB	4	1	2	1
Cheymol Eric	FR	4		2	2
Hosking Tony	GB	3	1	1	1
Miyamoto Toyokazu	JP	2	1	1
Uemura Yoshiyuki	JP	2	1		1
Kolomiyets Artem	UA	2	2
Schnider Gert	AT	2		1	1
Theeuven Marc	NL	2			2
Secelle Hans	BE	1	1
Murphy David	GB	1	1
Takahara Shuji	JP	1	1
Pottier Frederic	FR	1	1
Kikuta Yuji	JP	1	1
Zapara Victor	RU	1	1
Aaij R.	NL	1		1
Stouten Pieter	NL	1		1
Segers Hans	NL	1		1
Blackstock Les	GB	1		1
Hara Susumu	JP	1		1
Ichiyanagi Kei	JP	1		1
Angqvist Thore	SE	1		1
Tashiro Hideki	JP	1		1
Roevekamp Frank	DE	1		1
Wartlick Karl	DE	1		1
Yamamoto Katsura	JP	1			1
Trent Michael	GB	1			1
Fukumura Tsutomu	JP	1			1
Casters Matt	BE	1			1
Sams Richard	GB	1			1
Drechsler Jochen	DE	1			1

Champions and prize-winners (by countries)

The next table shows how many players from every country were the prize-winners (NP), total sum of prize places (P) and number the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places for every country.

Country	NP	P	1	2	3
Netherlands	6	20	8	7	5
Great Britain	7	15	5	6	4
Japan	9	11	4	4	3
Germany	4	8	2	3	3
France	2	5	1	2	2
Belgium	2	2	1		1
Austria	1	2		1	1
Ukraine	1	2	2
Russia	1	1	1
Sweeden	1	1		1

Champions and prize-winners of ESC from 1985 to 2008