From: Reijer Grimbergen <grimbergen <at> NICI <dot> KUN <dot> NL>
Date: 3 nov 1995
Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (No. 608, 11/1)

Sato-san wa tsuyoi! The result was of course already known, but playing
through the first game of the Ryu-O match I could only admire the strength
of the challenger. It was pretty much a flawless game and contrast to
common believe, this is a rarity, even in professional Shogi. Habu chose an
opening strategy that was a little dubious, pushing the edge pawn very
early. Actually, it was Sato himself who introduced this move in a Junisen
game in September. Sato won that game, and Habu seemed to think it was a
valid idea. Sato took two and a half hours for his reply, but found a
strategy where the white pawn move was virtually a lost move. Being white,
this can be important and in this game it was. Sato seemed to have a better
attack, but Habu started to use his magic again and the position got very
complicated. Finally, Sato managed to find a brilliant end game pawn drop
that was decisive in all variations. It was the only way to win and some of
the variations leading to a win were quite complex, one even leading to a
position where Habu could mate, but only with a pawn drop! After only 89
moves Habu resigned. A great win for Sato, but good or not, a win always
counts as one point. As I have read in the latest mail by Pieter, Habu has
risen to the occassion and already placed his counter punch. This Ryu-O
match might be going all the way...

The story on the back of Shukan Shogi (the top top stories are on the front
and back page) is the win of Maruyama over Fukaura in the second game of
the Shinjino tournament. This means that Maruyama has kept his chances
alive to become the first player ever to win the Shinjino two times in a
row. This game was a complex Yokofudori B3c system where Fukaura had the
upper hand for a long time. However, a mistake gave Maruyama the chance to
get back in and win the game. Again a high level game where one mistake
seemed to decide the outcome.

In the A-Junisen there was one game last week, the game between Kato and
Moriuchi. Both had a score of 2-2 so this was very important for both
players. The winner could still dream of becoming the challenger of Meijin
Habu but the loser would have to keep worrying about going down to B1. It
was Moriuchi who won this important game. Kato's Climbing Silver attack
never really materialised and Moriuchi forced a mistake by a clever and
unexpected rook drop. He is the one who can look up, while Kato is forced
to look down...

The only other shocking news in Shukan Shogi was the win of ladies 3-dan
Saida over 6-dan pro Ohno Yaichio (last year he visited Europe) in the
Gingasen. This tournament is a quick Shogi tournament on a commercial
television station that is now held for the fourth time after a couple of
years absence from the Shogi calendar. There is a big difference between
two day Shogi as in the Ryu-O and quick Shogi, even at professional level.
Saida played very well in the opening and early middle game, but after a
big mistake Ohno had several chances to win, but failed to take any of
them. If I am not mistaken, the Gingasen is played with 30 seconds byoyomi,
which is very severe.

Next week a report on the second game of the Ryu-O and the deciding game in
the Shinjino. Stay tuned...

Reijer Grimbergen
grimbergen <at> nici <dot> kun <dot> nl