Shogi Game 26 (amateur - professional, professional annotation).

From 1-st until 4-th April the Shogi professionals Murooka Katsuhiko and
Sato Yasumitsu (both 5-dan) visited Heidelberg, Germany. Apart from playing
Chess, their hobby (Murooka has 2100 ELO, Sato 2000) and sightseeing they
also engaged in some Shogi handicap games (non-simultaneous, no time limits)
at my place. Co-founder of "Shogi Deutschland" vice-consul Sakamoto Tomio
(3-dan ama) beat Sato with a rook handicap, a fantastic result for a
non-simultaneous game against a top-professional. Unfortunately, I could
only keep the score of one game and was already engaged in writing down
the game that another co-founder, John Kenney, played against Murooka.
This game is detailed below with comments by Murooka.

   Pieter Stouten <stouten@embl-heidelberg.de>
   Archived 14-th April 1991. Corrected 19-th April 1991.

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Black: John Kenney (5-kyu ama); White Katsuhiko Murooka (5-dan pro).
Heidelberg, Germany, 3-rd April 1991. Handicap: four piece.

1.-- S6b  2.P1f G3b  3.P1e S2b  4.L1g (A) P5d  5.R1h S5c  6.P3f S4d
7.S3h G6b  8.N3g P2d  9.P2f G2c  10.S2g(B) P3d  11.P7f K4b  12.P4f
S5e(C)  13.P4e P7d  14.P1d(D) Px1d  15.Lx1d P'1c  16.Lx1c+ Sx1c  17.P5f
S4f  18.P4d P5e(E)  19.S3h P3e  20.Px4c+ Kx4c  21.P'4g S5g+  22.S6h(F)
+Sx6h  23.Gx6h Px3f  24.N4e G3d(G)  25.P4f P'4d(H)  26.Bx5e N7c 27.P'3e
Gx3e  28.S'3b!! K5d  29.Sx2a+?(I) P'1d  30.N3c+ P6d  31.P'1e P3g+  32.Sx3g
P'3f  33.S4h S'2g  34.N'6f K6c  35.R1g Gx2f  36.Nx7d G5c  37.Rx2g Gx2g
38.S'4b G5d  39.B6f R'7i  40.G6i Rx8i+  41.Bx9c+ N'7g  42.Resigns.

A: Better is direct 4.R1h, followed by an exchange of pawns and N1g later.
B: The attacking plan S2g .. S1f is too slow.
C: 12... S5e is the only move to avoid black's P5f.
D: 14.G4h is better. It protects the pawn and the knight.
E: White can win a piece with e.g. 18... Px4d 19.Bx4d G5c 20.Bx1a+ Sx3g+.
   However, the resulting position would be very dangerous and therefore
   I played 18... P5e.
F: 22.S6h is the best move.
G: 24... G3d is necessary, otherwise S'1b follows.
H: 25... L'5a would have been better, but I underestimated John because of
   his opening play and thought I could get away with 25... P'4d. I did not
   expect his strong combination on move 27 and 28.
I: 29.Sx2a+ does not lose, but it throws away most of the advantage. Not
   promoting with the threats S1b+ and S3b= is much more severe.