From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 17 apr 1997 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 682, April 16th 1997) Habu: "Eh.. Eh... Ah! What? It's not mate! How awful!" Tanigawa: "Awful by me too." The player's slightly embarrassed reaction says it all. A rare mutual oversight decided the first game of the Meijin match in favour of Tanigawa. Here is a more detailed event of what happened in game 1: Black: Tanigawa, Ryu-O White: Habu, Meijin 55th Meijin-sen, Game 1, April 10th & 11th 1997 Furigoma decided that Tanigawa could start the match with black. A couple of years ago there was talk that Habu could even mesmerize the pawns thrown to decide black and white, but lately he seemed to have lost that ability :-). 1.P7g-7f 2.P3c-3d 3.P2g-2f 4.P4c-4d 5.S3i-4h 6.S3a-4b 7.P5g-5f 8.P5c-5d 9.G4i-5h 10.S7a-6b It was expected that Habu would play ranging rook, but Habu decided to play Yagura. It was a year and three months ago that Habu and Tanigawa last played the Yagura opening against each other. 11.S7i-6h 12.G6a-5b 13.P3g-3f 14.G5b-4c 15.G6i-7h 16.G4a-3b 17.K5i-6i 18.K5a-4a 19.P4g-4f 20.P8c-8d 21.P2f-2e 22.S4b-3c 23.S4h-4g 24.P8d-8e 25.S6h-7g 26.B2b-3a 27.N2i-3g 28.P7c-7d 29.P9g-9f 30.N8a-7c 31.P6g-6f The sealed move. 31.S6f also seems possible, but after P6d P5e P6e the silver has to retreat to 5g which is not something one would like to do. 32.P6c-6d 33.G5h-6g 34.S6b-6c 35.B8h-7i 36.B3a-4b 37.B7i-6h 38.K4a-3a 39.K6i-7i 40.K3a-2b 41.P4f-4e Tanigawa: "If I allow white to attack first, I have no faith in the position, so I pushed on". Now the fight starts. 42.P4dx4e 43.N3gx4e 44.S3c-4d 45.S4g-4f 46.P6d-6e The classic counter pawn push. The whole board will now be the battleground. 47.P6fx6e 48.N7cx6e 49.S7g-6f 50.P8e-8f 51.P8gx8f Interestingly enough, the same position already occured in a game between the same two players. In November 1988 Habu had black against (at that time) Meijin Tanigawa. 52.B4bx8f? Almost ten years ago, Tanigawa played 52.P*8e, which is much better. After Px8f P2d Bx2d P3e Rx8e P*8h white had a good position and went on to win the game from there. 53.B6hx8f 54.R8bx8f 55.P2e-2d 56.P2cx2d 57.P*2c A severe attack. If Kx2c then P*2e Px2e P*2d Kx2d B*4a and the attack only becomes stronger. Taking with the gold is also not very attractive. In the analysing room some people already wondered if the game was over. However, even at this level the game is never that simple... 58.G3bx2c 59.S6fx6e 60.P*6f 61.G6g-7g 62.R8f-8e 63.N*1e This knight drop is always a problem if the pawn is not pushed to 1d. However, also good seems 63.P*2e Px2e Rx2e P*2d Sx5d (Sx5d N3c+ and Rx8e). 64.S4dx4e 65.B*4a 66.B*3b! A great fighting move and the only defense that keeps Habu's position together (at least for the time being). 67.B4ax6c+ 68.N*6g 69.G7gx6g 70.P6fx6g+ 71.G7hx6g 72.R8ex6e 73.S*4a?? A horrible mistake. Tanigawa: "I thought I was threatening an easy mate, but after having dropped the silver I realised that it wasn't mate at all". 74.R6ex6c?? Habu is victim to the same illusion. Both players had plenty of time here (Tanigawa 25 minutes and Habu more than 90 minutes). Actually Habu took 15 minutes to play this move. His shallow analysis: Sx3b+ Kx3b B*4a K3a N*2c and a quick mate. However, after N*2c K2b G*3b K1b Nx1a+ Kx1a G2b Kx2b Rx2d K3a there is no mate. There are actually quite a few variations that seem to lead to mate in this position, but none does. For example, Sx3b+ Kx3b Nx2c+ Kx2c N*1e K3c B*2b K3b and no mate. Conclusion: if Habu would have played 74.Rx6g+ instead of Rx6c, he would have won the game! 75.S4ax3b+ 76.K2bx3b 77.N1ex2c+ 78.K3b-4a 79.P*6d 80.R6cx6d 81.P*6e 82.R6dx6e 83.P*6f 84.R6e-8e 85.B*6c 86.S*5b 87.B6cx7d+ 88.R8e-8g+ Habu: "G*6i might have been better...". However, even if 88.G*6i then K7h B*8g K8h is no mate and black wins. 89.G6g-7g 90.S*8h Nothing helps. For example 90.G*6i Kx6i +Rx8i G*7i B*4g G*5h and black wins. 91.R2hx8h 92.G*6i 93.K7ix6i 94.+R8gx8h 95.S*3b 96.K4a-5a 97.+B7dx5b 98.K5ax5b 99.S3bx4c= Resigns Not an easy mate. Habu took three minutes before resigning to confirm the variations: a) 100.Kx4c N*5e Px5e G*4d Kx4d Sx5e and easy mate b) 100.K6a S5b= (S5b+ is also good) Kx5b G*5c Kx5c N*6e and mate c) 100.K6b N*7d K6c G*7c Kx7c S*6b and mate A hard blow to Habu who not only lost but also had his endgame confidence shaken. Let's see how he recovers in the second game on April 26th and 27th. In other Shogi news: 1) In the Kisei tournament Yashiki beat Yonenaga to get to the semifinals where he will meet another great veteran in Nakahara. Yashiki was the youngest Kisei title holder ever at 17, and he clearly wants another grand appearance. The other semifinal is between Moriuchi and Goda. 2) Morishita beat Maruyama in the white group of the Oi tournament to keep his chances of becoming the challenger of Habu alive. Both players now have a 2-1 score, trailing leader Goda (3-0). The game was an epic fight that took 17 hours. The first game ended in jishogi after 197 moves and Morishita finally won the second game after 141 moves at 3:08 in the morning. And some people do not consider this a real job :-). 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