From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 11 jun 1996 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 639, June 12th 1996) Of course the most important news in these week's Shukan Shogi is the defence of the Meijin title by Habu. Let's look at game 5 and Shukan Shogi's comments: Black: Habu Yoshiharu, Meijin White: Moriuchi Toshiyuki, Challenger 54th Meijin match game 5, June 3rd and 4th 1996 1.P-2f P-8d 2.P-2e P-8e 3.G-7h G-3b 4.P-2d Px2d 5.Rx2d P*2c 6.R-2f S-7b 7.P-9f P-1d 8.S-3h P-6d 9.P-7f P-3d 10.R-3f Bx8h+ This is the first time in this match that the Ai-gakari is being played. Still, it seems this move has been prepared by Moriuchi. He took only 15 minutes to play it, even though (as far as I know) this is not a variation that is often played. 11.Sx8h B*2h 12.Rx3d N-3c If 12... Bx1i+ then 13.P*2b L*3c 14.Px2a+ Lx3d 15.+Px3a Gx3a 16.B*3c is very dangerous for white. 13.L-1h Sx6c 14.P-1f S-5d 15.P-1e B-1i+ 16.L-1g +B-1h 17.B*7g?! Critized by Mori on television. He said that 17.B*6f would have been better to drop a lance on 8d later. Shukan Shogi does not comment on this move. 17... S-2b 18.Px1d +B-4e 19.R-3f +Bx3f End of the first day. Habu took 50 minutes to seal his move, but this was clearly not because his next move is so difficult :-). 20.Px3f N-2e 21.P-1c+ Lx1c 22.Lx1c+ Sx1c 23.L*5f L*4d! 24.K-6i?! A position for professionals to study further. After the game Habu said that it might have been better to take the silver on 5d after all, but no variations are given. In the game, white now gets the upper hand. 24... P*3g 25.Nx3g Nx3g+ 26.B*1e K-5b 27.Bx3g S-4e 28.B-6f G-6b 29.K-7i G-6c 30.S-7g S-2d 31.B-2f P-6e! The last couple of moves look a little like a stand-off, but actually Moriuchi has been preparing his position for a final attack, while Habu can only wait to see where the axe will fall and strengthen his king position to keep his hope of winning the game alive. 31... P-6e is a very good move. If 32.B-7e then 33... Sx3f 34.B-3g P-7d wins the bishop. Habu has to sacrifice one of his bishops... 32.B6fx4d Px4d 33.N*7e G-6d 34.Bx4d G-4c 35.B-2b+ S-3c 36.+B-2a N*2f "I thought it was easy to win" Moriuchi said after the game about this position. Therefore, in true professional style, he takes the shortest route to endgame. Amateurs who do not like to take risks in a position like this, might also try 36... P-7d 37.L*8c R-6b 38.Lx8a+ Px7e or 36... N*7a (to defend against L*8c). These moves are also winning. 37.P-4f Nx3h+ 38.Px4e R*1i? Played in no time, but this is a serious mistake. White overlooks black's reply which slows downs white's attack. After 38... +Nx4i followed by 39... R'5i, white's attack is one move quicker, which is the difference between an easy victory and a very complicated endgame. 39.L*3i! As is Habu's style, he plays the endgame flawless from here on. 39... +Nx4i 40.N-8c+ R-6b No choice. If 40... Rx8c, white's king is in grave danger without the defensive power of the rook on the second rank. However, on 6b, the rook will also come under attack. 41.S*4a Kx4a 42.+Bx4c Rx3i+ Moriuchi used 26 minutes for this move, more than half of his remaining time, desperately trying to read the variations to mate. It seems there is no way white can be two moves quicker than black. 43.+Bx3c S*6i? Played in only 5 minutes and it seems here that Moriuchi thought this move was a mating threat. The hisshi variation 43... S*9g 44.Lx9g S*9i is winning because white has no mate, but Moriuchi was afraid that he would be mated after all. 44.Lx5c+ Habu takes 18 minutes to find that S*6i is not a mating threat and plays his own hisshi. Habu's magic saves him again. 44... Sx7h+ 45.Kx7h +R-4h Miraculously, 45... S*6i is no mate: 46.K-8h +R-4h 47.K-9g G*8f 48.Px8f G*8g 49.Kx8g B*7h 50.K-9h!! (50.K-9g Bx9f+ 51.L*9e Kx9e 52.P*9d and mate) Bx8i+ 51.K-9g and no mate. 46.G*6h S*6i 47.Kx6i G*5h Moriuchi used his last minute before going into byoyomi for this move, but the damage has already been done. 47... +N-5i looks a little better, but this also does not seem to lead to mate. 48.K-7h Gx6h 49.K-8h Gx6g 50.P*6h Gx7g If 50... B*7i then 51.K-9h +Rx6h 52.S*8h and black wins. 51.+Bx7g S*6f White has managed to get out of the hisshi, but was forced to give black too much material. Still, it took Habu 10 minutes to figure it all out: 52.S*4b Rx4b 53.+Lx4b Kx4b 54.R*1b resigns Not an easy mate and I doubt that Moriuchi saw all the variations in less than one minute. Still, Habu can be trusted in these positions: a) 54... P*3b 55.S*3c Kx3c (55... K5a 56.R-1a+ K-6b 57.+R-7a) 56.+Bx6f Px6f 57.S*4d etc. b) 54... S*3b 55.S*3c K-5a 56.S*6b Kx6b 57.Rx3b+ S*5b (57... P*5b 58.S*5c Kx5c 59.+R-4c) 58.S*5c Kx5c 59.S-4d+ K-6c 60.+Rx5b Kx5b 61.S*5c K-6c 62.Sx6d+ and mate. Comments after the game: Habu: "In this series my endgame was allright, but in the opening and middle game I was often in big trouble. Moriuchi was well-prepared. In this game I thought it was all over at the evening break." Moriuchi: "I had no problem with the pressure or the two day game system. However, with the long thinking time it was sometimes difficult to find the balance between variations I could think about and need not think about. But in this game I was just careless. I thought it was easy to win." Shukan Shogi: "Moriuchi was a strong challenger and was in command in most of the games of this match. Still, Habu's endgame is too strong for anybody." Other Shogi news: It seems like the other professionals are taking turns in having a go at Habu. After Morishita (Meijin), Goda(Oi), Sato (Ryu-O), Mori (Oza), Miura (Kisei), Takahashi (Kio), Tanigawa (Osho) and Moriuchi (Meijin), Habu will again see a new face in the Oi match. In the Oi Fukauara won the decisive game in the red group against Kansaki, while his rival Goda lost to Takahashi. He will now play Maruyama, who already was the winner in the white group, for the right to challenge Habu. For both players this would be their first appearance in a title match. Fukaura is a little more experienced in big tournaments; he already won the Zen Nihon Pro tournament once by beating Yonenaga. By the way, it was the first time since 6 years that no play-off was necessary in either of the Oi leagues. In the B1 junisen the first game was played. Inoue, newly promoted, had a good start by beating Ariyoshi, who blundered in the endgame. Takahashi seems to have recovered from the shock of dropping out of the A-class because he did not give Kobayashi much chance in their game. "Tiger" Tanaka played a very wild opening against Fukuzaki and was also successful. Minami was crushed by Naito after a mistake in his calculations and finally Aono won a fierce game against Tamaru in which the kansosen (post mortem analysis) could not clearly show where the game had been decided. One interesting incident this week. On June 5th a game between Kushida and Tamura was played for the Zen Nihon Pro tournament. Even though in this tournament both players have 3 hours, Kushida and Tamura like to play very quickly (Kushida once was the winner of the NHK quickplay tournament) and dumped about fifty moves on the board within the first five minutes of the game. At that time Ueno (1-kyu Shoreikai), who was in charge of the game recording and time keeping, had completely lost track of the move order and felt that he had to call a "matta" (wait). He stopped the game until he had the notation correct. This was the first time an extroadinary thing like this happened during a professional game. 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