From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 4 dec 1996 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 664, December 4th 1996) This week there is not much news in Shukan Shogi, so let's take a closer look at the decisive fifth game of the Ryu-O. Comments are based on those of Sato Yasumitsu (8-dan) in Shukan Shogi. Mistakes are of course mine and not his :-). Black: Tanigawa Koji, Challenger White: Habu Yoshiharu, Ryu-O 5th game 9th Ryu-O match, Fukuoka-ken, Yanagigawa-shi, November 28th and 29th 1.P7f P3d 2.P2f P4d 3.P2e B3c 4.S4h R4b Habu's only win this match was in the first game in Los Angeles, where he played fourth file rook. He needed to win this game and tried the Shikenbisha again. 5.K6h S3b 6.K7h S7b 7.P5f P9d 8.G4i-5h P9e This early push of the edge pawn has become fashionable lately. The idea is to set up a quick attack if black chooses to play the anaguma. 9.S5g K6b 10.P3f K7a 11.P3e With the king still on 7a, Tanigawa chooses the quick attack. For his last two moves he used 65 and 95 minutes respectively, time that was clearly used to decide what type of game this was going to be. 11... Px3e 12.S4f P3f 13.P2d! Good move. After the normal 13.S3e P3g+ 14.Nx3g P'3f 15.P'3d B1e black gets a bad position (Sato). 13... Bx2d No choice. If white takes with the bishop, the 14.S3e is a sound attack. 14.R2f After only 27 moves the first day is over. Habu took 64 minutes to seal his move. 14... S4c The natural move, but the difficult 14... P4e 15.S5g B3c 16.Bx3c+ Sx3c 17.Rx2c+ R2b also looks strong (Sato). 15.Rx3f R3b 16.P'3d Rx3d 17.Rx3d Sx3d 18.Bx4d Now it becomes clear how well timed Tanigawa's attack was. With the king still on 7a, black can take on 5c with check. 18.... P'4e 18... R'2h also looks good, but Habu feared 19.Bx5c+ K8b 20.R'4d (Sato). 19.S3g Looks a bit strange, but is much better than the natural looking S5g, because it defends against a rook drop on 2h. 19.... P'3f? After the game this was the move that Habu regretted most. Much better is 19... R'4i 20.R'5i Rx5i+ 21.G6ix5i and if now the same variation as in the game 21... P'3f 22.S4h R'2g 23.R'2f Rx2f+ 24.Bx5c+ K8b 25.+Bx2f the loose silver on 7i is clearly a weak point. For example: 25... R'2h 26.Rx2g+ +Bx2g 27.P9f Px9f 28.P'9h Lx9h 29.R'9i and white has a good attack. So the best move for black is 20.R'2b, but after 20... G4a-5b 21.Rx2a+ Rx2i+ 22.Bx1a+ +Rx1i the position is unclear (Sato). Tanigawa himself did not have much faith in black's position after that. After 19... P'3f Tanigawa gets the advantage. 20.S4h R'2g 21.R'2f Rx2f+ 22.Bx5c+ K8b 23.+Bx2f P4f 24.Px4f R'2h 25.R'2g Bx4f 26.Rx2h Bx2h+ 27.R'4d P'4b 28.Rx3d +Bx2i 29.R3f +Bx1i 30.P'2b R'2i 31.Px2a+ L'8d 32.S8h N'2d 33.R'3i Rx2f+ 34.Rx1i N3f With this unusual use of a knight, Habu desperately seeks counterplay. 35.S5g P'3g 36.P9f! If there is a move in this game that brought Tanigawa the Ryu-O title than this is it. It took him 44 minutes to decide that this was the way to win, but it were 44 minutes well spent. The natural 36.N'5c is surprisingly hard after 36... G7a 37.Nx4a+ P3h+ (Sato). 36... Px9f Habu was clearly surprised by Tanigawa's move, because he took 53 minutes to decide that taking the pawn was the only way. The attack 36... P3h+ is just one move slow after 37.Px9e +R2h 38.B'5e! followed by N'7d. 37.P'9c Lx9c 38.P'9d Lx9d 39.P'9e Lx9e 40.N'9d K9b 41.+Px1a When I watched this sequence on television I thought that the game would soon be over and that Tanigawa would be the new Ryu-O before I had to go to Japanese class at 5:45. However... 41... B'7a! Brilliant defense, which complicates the position considerably. 41.L'9h P3h+ 42.Lx9f Lx9f 43.P'9c Nx9c 44.Lx9f +R2h 45.B'5e P'3g 46.L'9i +Rx1i? Misses his last chance to keep the Ryu-O title. If Habu had played 46... P'5d here, it would have become very difficult, because after 47.S'8b Px5e 48.Sx7a= Gx7a 49.B'4d G8a there is no win for black (Sato). Therefore, black has to move the bishop from the glorious square 5e. Tanigawa: "I was really afraid of that move". 47.S'8b +P4h 48.G5h-6h L'8e 49.Sx7c+ Sx7c 50.Bx7c+ G7b! Habu shows that he might be not in the form of his life, he still has the occasional endgame brilliance. This move deserved a better position to be played in. White is clearly lost after 50... P'7b 51.N8b+ Bx8b 52.Lx9c+ Bx9c 53.Lx9c+ Kx9c 54.N'8f Lx8f 55.P'9f. After G7b Habu still comes very close to mate himself. 51.+Bx7b Tanigawa took 7 minutes to decide that Habu had no mate. 51... +Rx6i 52.Gx6i P'7g 53.Nx7g Lx8g+ 54.Sx8g Lx8g+ 55.Kx8g R'8i 56.P'8h S'8f 57.Kx8f B5c 58.L'7e Rx8h+ 59.G'8g And after making a final stand, Habu resigned and Tanigawa was the new Ryu-O. -- 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