From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 7 aug 1996 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 647, August 7th 1996) After 168 days Habu has woken up from his seven crown dream, but for Miura the dream has only begun. In this week's Shukan Shogi there is of course a lot of attention for Miura stunning victory in the Kisei match over Habu. Actually, there is not much else this week, so let's have a look at the game: Black: H.Miura, challenger White: Y.Habu, Kisei 5th game 67th Kisei match, July 30th 1996 1.P2f A bad omen? Habu usually wins the furigoma on important moments... 1... P8d 2.P2e P8e 3.G7h G3b 4.P2d Px2d 5.Rx2d P'2c 6.R2h Unusual, since this rook normally goes to 2f, but Miura seems to have prepared this strategy. 6... P8f 7.Px8f Rx8f 8.P'8g R8b 9.S3h P3d 10.S2g B3c 11.S3f S2b 12.K6h K4b 13.G5h S6b 14.P9f P9d 15.P1f P1d 16.P7f R8d 17.B6f The point of black's strategy. After the exchange of bishops black has won a move. White has to exchange, because moving the rook would mean that white loses even more moves with this rook after R8f-R8b-R8d. 17... Bx6f 18.Px6f G5b 19.S8h P6d 20.K7i S6c 21.S4e S3c 22.S7g P7d 23.B'5f!? A key move in this game. It is very difficult to judge whether black can get this bishop to work, since it is dropped on an awkward square. Nakamura (8-dan) commented: "If this bishop can be made to work, black is better. If not, white is better". 23... P7e! Strong move. Now black always has to be careful playing Sx3d Sx3d Bx3d because of the strong counter B'4i. 24.Px7e P6e 25.Px6e N7c 26.G5h-6g P9e 27.Px9e B'4i The first move after the dinner break. Harada, 9-dan: "A hard fight filled with power; a good game. But I don't know who will win". Shukan Shogi judges this position as about equal. 28.P4f P4d 29.Sx3d Sx3d 30.Bx3d Nx6e 31.S6f P'9h?! Hard to see, but this is probably a mistake. After the game the players looked at 31... P4e 32.P'6d Rx6d 33.B4e P8f 34.Px8f P'8g which is unclear. 32.Lx9h S'7f 33.Gx7f Bx7f+ 34.P'6d! Great move to take the advantage. 34.+Bx6f is answered by 34... Px6c+ and 34.Rx6d by 34... S'6g. Black has managed to make the bishop work. 34... P'7g 35.Nx7g Sx6d 36.S'6g Nx7g+ 37.Gx7g +Bx7g 38.Sx7g N'6e Unfortunately for white 38... Rx8g+ fails to 39.Bx5b+ Kx5b 40.B'9f. This is another point of P'6d and also shows that the black bishop on 3d is very useful indeed. 39.S8f Nx5g+ 40.N'7f G'4c "Ganbaru", as the Japanese say. Translating is difficult, but in this situation it can be called "hanging in there". 41.Bx4c+ G3bx4c 42.P'6h P'7g 43.S'8i +Nx6g 44.Px6g B'3i? The final mistake. 44... P'6f was white's final chance. If then 45.B'5f then 45... B'5g 46.G6h Bx4f+ 47.Bx2c+ G3c is good for white and 45.Nx8d Px6g+ 46.K8h P'9f is still very difficult with both players in byoyomi. 45.Rx2c+ B5g+ 46.G'6h S'7h 47.Sx7h Px7h+ 48.Kx7h S'8i 49.K7g Sx7e 50.Nx8d Sx8f 51.Px8f P'7f 52.K8g +Bx8d 53.N'3d Resigns Because 53... K5a loses the horse after 54.R'8a and 53... Gx3d 54.S'4c Gx4c 55.R'4a leads to mate. Habu's comment: "I was aware of the fact that this day would come. Now it is there, of course, I feel unhappy." Miura's comment: "I never thought I could take a title from Habu-sensei. I think that I am a very weak titleholder, so I really want to study hard." Other Shogi news: the postponed game in C2 junisen between Fukaura and Kitajima has been won by Kitajima. Last year this would have been considered a major upset, but Kitajima has had a great season so far. He is 13-3 and Fukaura must have really feared this game. Now that he has lost it, he drops back to 1-1 and must work really hard to promote to C1 this year. Kitajima has won both of his first two games. In the Ryu-O there are only five potential challengers left. Moriuchi already qualified for the semis by beating Minami and Sato still has to play Hiura. Last week, two other games were played. Takahashi beat Inoue in a very tough fight that took 208 moves and Tanigawa beat Iizuka. Who will accompany Habu to Los Angeles in October? 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