From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 5 mar 1996 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 625, March 6th 1996) This week's main event was of course the last round of the A-class Junisen. Four players were still in with a chance to become the challenger of Meijin Habu: Morishita (6-2), Moriuchi (6-2), Yonenaga (5-3) and Tanigawa (5-3). In danger of accompanying Ariyoshi to B1 were Kato (3-5), Takahashi (3-5) and Nakahara (3-5). Because of a kind invitation by Mr. Ono Yaichio (6-d), I was able to see the events from the analysing room. When I arrived at the Shogi Kaikan at four o'clock in the afternoon, there were already quite a number of fans assembled to get a good seat for the explanation by the professionals that started at 6.30. There would be about 500 people watching. When I entered the analysing room, there were already quite a number of professionals analysing the games. At that point it seemed that Kato had a very good position against Morishita (surprisingly so), Nakahara was a little better against Takahashi, but the other games were still unclear. The game between Tanigawa and Shima had not really started yet and my personal judgment of the games Moriuchi-Murayama and Yonenaga-Ariyoshi was that Murayama was a little better and it was unclear whether Ariyoshi's attack was strong enough. In reality, Murayama's attack turned out to be unreasonable and was stopped by Moriuchi, leaving him a gold up. Ariyoshi's attack was one of desperation and was countered strongly by Yonenaga. Interesting detail from a psychological point of view: Yonenaga offered Ariyoshi the higher seat which is meant for the senior player. This seat is for Ariyoshi if you look at age, but clearly for Yonenaga if you look at Shogi achievement. By generously offering the seat to Ariyoshi, Yonenaga might have lessened Ariyoshi's fighting spirit a little... The first game to finish (21.47) was the game between Nakahara and Takahashi. Nakahara gradually increased his advantage and even though in the end it seemed that Nakahara was just in time, his victory was never in doubt. This meant that Nakahara would play in the top class again next year which is of course where he belongs. Takahashi had to wait for the result of the crucial game between Morishita and Kato. Morishita was hanging in there and even though Kato's advantage was still clear, the analysing professionals were no longer talking "hissho" (certain win) anymore. Meanwhile, Tanigawa seemed to have made a mistake against Shima and Yonenaga was going in for the kill against Ariyoshi. Yonenaga won at 22.40 and Shima won at 23.11. At this point the professionals seemed to lose interest in Moriuchi's game and focus all on Morishita's brave efforts to stop Kato, who was nearing byoyomi. However, a long day with his back against the wall was taking his toll and a little after midnight Morishita missed his chance to punish Kato's questionable byoyomi moves. A couple of minutes after Murayama resigned Kato finally finished off Morishita's king and Moriuchi had become the challenger of Habu. It was now about half an hour past midnight and still about 100 people were watching the explanation by Ishida. The Meijin-sen will be Moriuchi's first title match. Therefore there is a vast difference in experience between him and Habu. On the other hand, he has been playing with Habu since they were kids, so that might be an advantage. I think Moriuchi is the best challenger to have an exciting Meijin match. This week there is little other news: Yashiki beat Takahashi to get the last remaining spot in the Kisei knockout. Match-ups: Nakahara-Miura, Yonenaga-Sato, Yashiki-Minami and Fujii-Tanigawa. Interestingly enough, these are all young stars against veteran title-holder games. Can the big guns stop the storming youths? Reijer -- Dr. 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