From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 19 dec 1995 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no.615, 20/12) This week's top story is naturally Habu's victory in the Ryu-O match against Sato. Now I've seen the complete game, I have to revise my opinion a little. Just as the NHK broadcast finished last week, Habu made an important mistake in the endgame by dropping a silver in defence. At the time I could not see the significance of this move, since it seemed very solid. However, Shukan Shogi explained that this defensive move gave Sato the opportunity to get back into the game. Actually, he could have won it if he had not made a mistake of his own in byoyomi. After that, Habu had no problems anymore. In C2 the seventh round was played. After six rounds, Kitahama was the only player with a perfect score. He was followed by Sensaki, Hirafuji, Nakata, Oshima and Kitajima with 5-1. Of course the most important game was between Nakata and Hirafuji. Nakata won this crucial game, keeping chances of promotion in his own hands. The other players also won, except for Kitajima who lost to Hatakeyama. Kitahama is a strong favourite to promote now, but none of the four leaders has a difficult schedule in the remaining three rounds, so it will be close until the end. In the Kio challenger knock-out, Takahashi reached the final by beating Murayama. Murayama now has to play Shima in the losers knock-out. The winner of that game plays Takahashi and has to win twice to become the challenger of Kio Habu. In the A-junisen Tanigawa beat Yonenaga to join leaders Morishita, Moriuchi and Murayama at 4-2. Nakahara beats Kato to get to 3-3. Kato is now in serious trouble at 2-4. In dire trouble is Ariyoshi, who lost again, this time to Shima. Ariyoshi now has 6 straight losses and winning all three remaining games may not be enough to save his position. Shima still has to be careful with a low ranking and a 3-3 score. Then some news that was not yet in Shukan Shogi: Habu has gained the right to challenge Tanigawa again for the Osho title. He beat Ariyoshi in the last round of the Osho league, while his only remaining rival Nakahara lost to Moriuchi. Habu has again a chance to make the Seven Crown Dream come true. My prediction: I feel it is almost impossible for a player of Habu's calibar to lose a title match twice in a row. He will win and make history. Again I saved the most important news for last. If you are interested in professional Shogi news, check out my homepage. All the latest scores, updated from Japanese newspapers and Shukan Shogi. The address: http://www.etl.go.jp:8080/etl/suiron/~grimberg Enjoy! Reijer -- Dr. Reijer Grimbergen ElectroTechnical Laboratory Palcious Tsukuba 302 1-1-4 Umezono 1-24-8 Ninomiya Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305 JAPAN 305 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp Tel: 0298-59-1606 WWW: http://www.etl.go.jp:8080/etl/suiron/~grimberg Tel: +81-(0)298-54-5080 extension: 67431 Fax: +81-(0)298-58-5918