From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 22 oct 1996 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 658, October 23rd 1996) Whoever thinks that Shogi (or any other chess game) does not make great TV, d id not watch the end of game 1 of the Ryu-O title match live on Japanese television saturday morning. The opening game of a long anticipated match between a Tanigawa in top form and an uncharacteristically vulnerable Habu gave the viewers all they could have hoped for. A very close endgame that was decided after 134 move battle that ended with both players in byoyomi. Those who took the trouble to visit the game live in Los Angeles got their money's worth. Habu played fourth file rook and seemed to have the lead in the early middle game against Tanigawa's unfinished anaguma. However, when time was running out, Habu switched to defence to consolidate his lead, but he was never completely able to kill all of Tanigawa's threats and it looked like Tanigawa got back in the game. However, in the end, Habu pulled out some of his endgame magic and won the game by one move. Shukan Shogi has no analysis yet of this complex game, and on TV Takahashi 9-dan also did not seem too sure about who made what mistake where (even though he did critize a defensive gold drop on 4f by Tanigawa), so we will have to wait another week for the final word on this game. For the many fans of Tanigawa this game ended in a disappointment, especially because Habu was playing white. Tanigawa now has to win the second game to have a good chance of winning this match. In other Shogi news, Kato beat Nakahara in the A-Junisen. Both players are now at 2-2, within one point of the three leaders Moriuchi, Morishita and Tanigawa. Even though Shukan Shogi writes that both veterans kept their hopes to become the challenger of Habu alive, I think that they will not catch up with this trio of top guns. I think the challenger will be one of these three players and with Moriuchi-Tanigawa coming up in the next round, things will become a little clearer after that. In the Osho league Murayama scored his second win by beating Fujii, who drops back to 1-1. The Osho is the only tournament where Murayama ever challenged the title holder (he lost 4-0 to Tanigawa in a match that was much more even than the score indicates), so he seems to like this tournament system. In the Kio tournament, Kobayashi beat Kamia and Moriuchi beat Shima to reach the final four. Morishita already reached the semifinals and the last quarterfinal will be between Nakahara and Takahashi, last time's challenger. In the Shinjino tournament, usually won the most talented young professionals, Fujii beat Maruyama in the first game of this best-of-three match. He needs now only one more win to get his first crown and deny Maruyama winning this tournament three times in a row. Finally, Shimizu resisted the challenge of pupil Ishibashi in the ladies Oi by winning game four, finishing the match at 3-1 and defending her title. More next week, 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