| Quest of the lost systems |
|
|
| Chapter Two: Furibisha |
| Section 5: Masuda-shiki Ishida-ryu |
Masuda's Ishida-ryu: the 6th game (5)
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
+--------------------------------------------+ White in hand:
| wL | wN | | | | wG | | wN | wL | a +------------------+
+--------------------------------------------+ | B |
| | wR | wG | | | wK | wS | | | b | |
+--------------------------------------------+ +------------------+
| wP | | wP | wS | wP | wP | | wP | wP | c
+--------------------------------------------
| | | | wP | | | wP | | | d
+--------------------------------------------+
| | wP | bP | | | | | | | e
+--------------------------------------------+
| | | bR | | | | | | | f
+--------------------------------------------+
| bP | bP | | bP | bP | bP | bP | bP | bP | g
+--------------------------------------------+ Black in hand:
| | bS | bG | | | | bS | bK | | h +------------------+
+--------------------------------------------+ | B |
| bL | bN | | | | bG | | bN | bL | i | |
+--------------------------------------------+ +------------------+
The diagram above is from the 6th game of the meijin-sen (held on 3 &
4 June, 1971), where Oyama, the White player, just moved his Gold to 7b,
a wary positioning. After this, too, Oyama made every effort not to let
out any loose ends, from which the furi-bisha side could open hostilities.
After the Diagram: (from Black)
P-9f, P-9d; S-7g, K-3a; P-1f, P-1d; S-6f, S-3c;
S-5e, P-5d; S-4f, G-4b; N-7g, K-3b; P-5f, S-4d;
P-2f, G-7a; P-3f, G-6a;
The two moves, G-7a and G-6a from above, speak loudly that the player
is Oyama. So far, Oyama seems to have effectively blocked Masuda's attack.
Then after this: (from Black) P-6f, R-8d, B*6g. The elaborate procedure
follows after this, which makes us admire Masuda's talent, but the Bishop
drop in his own territory cannot be a very good idea, because in this case,
it was only to pry open the deadlock on his part. Even if we can't say which
side is leading at this stage, or make a judgement as to the quality of
the whole game, it is clear that Masuda's typical dynamism failed to surface
in this game. So, this game tells us that Black is likely to walk into a
deadlock when White plays very cautiously. Sennichite, or repetition of
moves, is what Black wouldn't welcome, so gradually, this strategy got less
and less popular when playing black. Rather, it got to be a white player's
tactic.
