From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 26 apr 1996 Subject: Meijin match game 2 HABU MESMERIZES OPPONENT AGAIN!!! Yesterday the second game between Habu and Moriuchi was played to a finish. On the first day, Moriuchi (with black) opened with P7f and rather to my surprise Habu replied with P8d. Until very recently Habu repeatedly expressed that he thought white had a difficult time against the Yagura and that this was one of the major reasons for the Ranging Rook boom lately. However, this game did not become an orthodox Yagura after all. Habu chose Right Side Fourth File Rook together with a castle that is normally used in Aigakari games only (G3b-G5b-S4c-B3c-S5d). Perhaps there are some recent professional games with this strategy, but at the moment I have no idea if this is Habu's original idea. As it turned out, it did not work very well for him and Moriuchi (this time sealing the move on the first day) got a very good position straight from the opening. Habu exchanged a rook for two silvers, but in this position this was desperation rather than good style, since his position was very badly defended against rook drops. "A won game is like a devil" is a famous Shogi proverb and Moriuchi was finding this out again the hard way. Instead of winning a gold back with a simple rook drop he tried to be over-subtle and bring his second (outplaced) rook into play. Ill-advised, because he finally had to give up this rook in a position where this was extremely dangerous and gave Habu an opportunity to reactivate a promoted silver at the same time. It would have been better if the rook could have helped out defensively. Still, the position remained very complicated until right at the end. Moriuchi seemed to have a few other chances, but in byoyomi (again) he could not do better than make a hisshi. In return, Habu pulled out a brilliant 20+ move mate, sealing his victory. So, two great fights, but also two losses for Moriuchi who now has the huge task to beat Habu 4-1 in the rest of the match. Next game: May 9th & 10th. Reijer -- 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