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 Post subject: Fujitsu on the Horizon
Post #1 Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2024 9:20 am 
Gosei

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I suppose anyone from the UK is certainly aware of the Post Office scandal. This isn't quite your usual Software Engineering disaster tale, the sort you might expect to giggle about during a computer science lecture as you naively think that you'd never do something that bad yourself. No this is a lot worse, https://www.private-eye.co.uk/special-r ... n-the-post offers a pretty good read if you have a cup of coffee handy, we don't recommend tea whilst reading this one.

Fujitsu of course sponsored Go in Europe to quite some degree. The Fujitsu Grand Prix ran from 1988->1999 , they also sponsored some big annual elite KO tournaments at the EGCC. But what induced them to sponsor Go in Europe though? Was this down to a local connection in the UK (particularly at the end of the 80s they had a large acquisition there) or was it more a kind of global outreach on their part, offering a little encouragement to Europe on top of their existing sponsorship in Japan?

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 Post subject: Re: Fujitsu on the Horizon
Post #2 Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2024 10:47 am 
Oza

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Fujitsu first became interested in sponsoring go through Ikeda Toshio of Ikeda rules fame. He worked as a hardware engineer for them. But the direct incentive for the Fujitsu Cup is said to be that the Japanese had a big shock when the Ing Cup was planned for Beijing. They supposedly rushed to find co-sponsors, who included the Yomiuri and the Ministry of Education, and the event got off the ground a few months before the much more lucrative Ing Cup. They didn't just reach out to Europe - it was worldwide, including South America. They were investing heavily overseas at the time. As for Britain, they took over ICL shortly after (about 1990) and they essentially also took over Siemens in Germany. If the press allegations are true, it's a shame they didn't also invest in better programmers, or avoided programmers who knew how to put back doors in the system

Incidentally, I think some UK players worked for ICL, no?

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 Post subject: Re: Fujitsu on the Horizon
Post #3 Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2024 11:53 am 
Lives with ko

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John Fairbairn wrote:
Incidentally, I think some UK players worked for ICL, no?


Indeed, and I think the annual Bracknell tournament was held at their premises for quite some years.

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 Post subject: Re: Fujitsu on the Horizon
Post #4 Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2024 4:07 pm 
Gosei

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Wasn't that Furze Platt but with Hitachi Europe ...

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 Post subject: Re: Fujitsu on the Horizon
Post #5 Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2024 5:33 am 
Lives with ko

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Javaness2 wrote:
Wasn't that Furze Platt but with Hitachi Europe ...


I think they were two different tournaments: the Bracknell tournament was held from 1979 until 1994 at the main Bracknell premises of ICL...and the Furze Platt tournament started around 1992 and was held at the Maidenhead HQ of Hitachi until 2020 (and renamed the Maidenhead-Hitachi tournament in 2010).

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 Post subject: Re: Fujitsu on the Horizon
Post #6 Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2024 2:22 am 
Gosei

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Oh yes you're right. I see in the the Ranka 1986 it clearly mentions ICL as the home of Bracknell Go Club. Given the size of those software companies, I don't imagine it is particularly likely that one of them was working on Horizon.

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