From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 17 dec 1997 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 717, December 17th 1997) Last week was a Junisen week. There were games in the A, B1, B2 and C1 class and the battle for promotion and for avoiding relegation is starting to heat up with all classes well over the half way mark. In the A-class, by far the most prestigious one, there were three games last week: Morishita (4-1) - Nakahara (3-2), Sato (2-3) - Inoue (3-2) and Yonenaga (2-3) - Takahashi (0-4). The game between Morishita and Nakahara was of course the most important one, since a Morishita win would make take him one step ahead of Habu, who still has to play Shima, while a Nakahara win would keep his hopes alive of yet another Meijin title (Nakahara already has 15!). After a small mistake by Nakahara it was Morishita who got the lead, but it was only after Nakahara made a mistake in a very complicated endgame that Morishita could get his fifth win. If Habu beats Shima, the A-class will be a two horse race in the remaining three rounds, since Sato beat Inoue to get both players to 3-3. It was a very tough game where both players had chances to win in the endgame. The game ended at half past one in the morning, and the post mortem analysis went on for more than three hours. For Sato this was a big win that takes him out of the danger zone, while Inoue still has to worry about relegation. Three wins out of nine games is almost certainly not enough to stay in this very strong class this year. Because of that, the loss suffered by Yonenaga against Takahashi was a big one for the former Meijin. Considering his bad position in the league, he will also need a least four wins to make sure of his position next year. With Habu in the next round and only two wins so far, he is in big danger of going down to B1. Still, there was not much he could do against the strong Takahashi play. B1 shows a typical pattern this year. One players wins almost every game and is certain of promotion a couple of rounds before the end, while the other players fight for the second ticket to the A-class. This year Maruyama is unstoppable. He beat Tamaru to get to 9-0 and only needs one more win out of the remaining three games to clinch promotion. For the second place there are only three players left. Minami lost a big game against Aono, which means he has promotion no longer in his own hands. Murayama, without playing, saw Minami drop back to the same score he has (6-3) and can now make a come-back to the A-class after a one year absence by winning his three remaining games. The third player with a good chance of promoting is Nakamura, who won a losing position against Kobayashi and is now also 6-3. In B2 the thus far winless Waki beat leader Hatakeyama. This means that after seven rounds there are no players with a perfect record. The winners of the games Goda-Nakagawa and Tsukada-Ono would take the lead, since all four players were at 5-1 before the sixth round. Goda had prepared very well, since Nakagawa was beaten almost straight from the opening and now has his chances in his own hands. Tsukada lost his second game in a row to make his immediate return to the B1 class doubtful. The fourth player with a 6-1 score is Kamiya, who beat Urano to get his sixth straight win after losing in the first round to Nakagawa. In C1 the game between co-leaders Suzuki and Sensaki was the most importan game of the seventh round. Both players like to play at a fast pace, especially Suzuki, so it was not a big surprise that the game was over before eight in the evening. It was Sensaki who won and because Nakata was beaten by Yashiki, Sensaki now only needs one more win to promote to B2. Nothing lost for Suzuki, who is still the only player with one loss in this class. There are four players with two losses: Nakata, Hiura (who beat Kobayashi), Ryu-O challenger Sanada (who beat former Kisei Miura) and Kitahama (who won against Ishikawa). It is interesting that Kisei Yashiki won his fourth straight game and still has a tiny chance to promote to B2. To do so, he needs a lot of luck and a win against Suzuki in the next round. There were also some other games, the most important game being played in the Kio tournament. Here Maruyama played Izuka in the losers second chance to decide which player would definitely drop out of the race. Surprisingly, it was Izuka who won after a position which Maruyama thought was a win turned out to be a lot more difficult that expected. Maruyama had chances to win, but could not find the narrow path to victory and has to wait a little longer before his first appearance in a title match. In the A group of the Kisei leagues, Habu won against rookie Kimura and is now 1-1. Since there are only three games in these small leagues, this was a vital win for Habu in his quest to regain one of his titles. It must have been a big relief, since Habu made a big mistake in the opening and had to come Habu-like from behind in the endgame. Takahashi needed 231 moves to defeat Sensaki in a double entering king game to start the D league with a win. That's all for this week, Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Electrotechnical Laboratory 1-1-4 Umezono Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp WWW: http://www.etl.go.jp:8080/etl/suiron/~grimberg Tel: +81-(0)298-54-3316 Fax: +81-(0)298-54-5918