From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 30 jul 1996 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no.646, July 31st 1996) Indeed more time this week and Shukan Shogi also arrived in time for a change, so here is a more detailed description of what happened last week in the professional scene: In the Oi-sen Fukaura finds his first title match to be a tough one, which happens to most players in their debut on a grand stage like this. A two day game takes some getting used to and Fukaura has not been able to adapt well enough to the change of pace. Of course he is playing the best player in the known universe, and that might also have something to do with losing the second game in the Oi match as well. Habu played a new move in the well-known Bishop Exchange Climbing Silver, a move he probably discovered after studying his second game from the Kisei match against Miura. To illustrate the vast difference between the attitude of chess and shogi professionals Shukan Shogi contemplates a while on the courage of Habu to play a new move in a title match. Kasparov would fall off his chair from laughter if he was asked if playing a new move in a world championship match was a bit risky. Anyway, Habu gave the only correct answer: "It would also have been brave if I had not played that move". However, the move was interesting at best and if Fukaura had not been a little overanxious to bring a promoted lance into the attack, the outcome of the game would have been very much in doubt. As it turned out, his attack did not lead to mate and Habu's did, and the game ended in only 83 moves. Next game August 6th & 7th. Good news for people like me who think that Tanigawa deserves a chance to prove that his crushing defeat in the Osho match in January was a fluke. Tanigawa beat Mori in the semi-final of the Oza tournament and will now meet Shima to fight for the right to challenge Habu. Go Tanigawa! All the rest is Junisen news, because last week complete rounds in the B1, B2 and C2 classes were played. In B1 the third round was played and as usual this class is already looking very tight. The difference between winning and losing a single game is often the difference between keeping hope for promotion alive and fear for relegation. Pre-season favourites Takahashi (very unfortunate relegation from the A class last year) and Tanaka (who was the only one to challenge Mori for second place last year) did not make a mistake and won. Tanaka beat Tsukada, who now surprisingly is the only player in B1 who has yet to win a game. Still early days, of course, but his early middle game mistake and his season's results so far (three weeks ago he was 0-5) are cause for alarm. The happiest man in B1 was probably Tamura. Being from the Kansai area, he does not often have to play in the Tokyo Shogi Kaikan, but ending a nine month losing streak there is certainly cause for celebration. In B2 Goda, the favourite for getting a consecutive promotion, had a very tough game against Manabu. However, he came from behind to win the game and is still in the race. All other favourites won, except for Nakamura, who lost to Kamia. In C2 the pressure is, as always, immense. Sometimes a 9-1 score is not enough for promotion and no less than 10 players get a relegation marker and three relegation marks means more or less the end of a player's professional career. This year Namekata and Fukaura are the big favourites for promotion. Fukauara's game was postponed because of his Oi game, but Namekata had to play Naganuma and won miracuously. Naganuma had the edge in the opening and after another mistake by Namekata he had a big lead. However, when it was time to cash in, he wavered. He had a choice between two easy looking attacks and picked the wrong one. After that, he still had good chances to win, but it was Namekata who scored the point at 1:19 in the morning after a gruelling 154 moves. With luck like that and a rather easy looking schedule, I think Namekata will promote this year. There were no big upsets in this round. Surprising were the wins by Miyata, who for the first time in nine years started his Junisen season with two wins and Kanki, who does not seem to be ready to give up his life as a professional shogi player yet (he might consider pursuing a career as a television comedian) and also won his second game in a row. Also, all the newly promoted 4-dans won their games, albeit that Chuza had to drag his first Junisen win from the gates of hell. His opponent Kase had him hisshi and when Chuza was desperately checking Kase's king, Kase failed to find the way out and let himself be mated. 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