From: Takako Noda JA2 SO-NET OR JP> Date: 30 jan 1997 Subject: "QUEST" Masuda's Ishida-ryu (9) Masuda's Ishida-ryu (9) The diagram is from a C2 Jun-i Sen in '95 played by Hiroshi Okazaki(4 dan) and Takeshi Kawakami(4 dan), on August 29. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 +--------------------------------------------+ White in hand: | wL | wN | | wG | | | | | wL | a +------------------+ +--------------------------------------------+ | B | | | wK | wS | | | | wG | | | b | | +--------------------------------------------+ +------------------+ | | wP | wP | wP | wP | wS | wN | wP | wP | c +-------------------------------------------- | wP | | | | | | wR | | | d +--------------------------------------------+ | | | | bP | | wP | wP | bP | | e +--------------------------------------------+ | bP | | bP | | bP | | | bR | | f +--------------------------------------------+ | | bP | bN | bS | bS | bP | bP | | bP | g +--------------------------------------------+ Black in hand: | | bK | bG | | | | | | | h +------------------+ +--------------------------------------------+ | B | | bL | | | | | bG | | bN | bL | i | | +--------------------------------------------+ +------------------+ Diagram: (b)Okazaki vs (w)Kawakami, up to (b)R-2f >From the Diagram: (from white) S-5b; P-1f, P-5d; P-1e, P-8d; S5g-6f, P-1d; Px1d, Lx1d; P*1e, Lx1e; Lx1e, P*1d; P-5e, Px1e; Px5d, P*5c; Px5c+, Sx5c; B*2a Tateishi-ryu was a darling system for those who were fed up with the Ibisha Anaguma, as if it were elixir of shogi, for a limited time. But not anymore. Why? The answer is the right Gold of the Ibisha, which just stays there, as in the Diagram above. In response to White's P-3f, Black can safely answer with Px3f. Even if White then drops B at 4d so that his R can proceed to 3f, there will be no space for its promotion. With nothing to worry about in his territory, Black can then apply pressure toward the White's King-head. Fearing that he might be suffocated into a slow death, Kawakami made rather desperate moves along the first file, which only handed Okazaki an opportunity to lead the game in his favor and eventually to a victory. Moves afterwards: (from white) Nx2e; Rx2e, B*1f; Bx3b+, Bx2e; +B-4c, L*5b; +Bx3d, Bx3d; R*3a, R*6i; N*7e, Rx4i+; L*8c, K-9c; Lx8a+, The standard formation of the Tateishi-ryu now seldom appears in professional games, for the furi-bisha player does not push up his Pawn to 4e, unless he makes sure that the opponent shifts the right Gold to 5h. The system may have baffled ibisha players at first, but they no longer appear to be caught off base these days. Rather, the system itself seems to be fully analysed and dealt with. Another factor which made the Tateishi style less popular is that furi-bisha lovers of today are not intimidated by the ibisha-anaguma like they used to. Instead, they regard the once dreaded water-tight formation as something vulnerable enough to be broken down through the far right attack. Now it looks like the system is in danger of getting obsolete. The current records of ibisha anaguma vs furi-bisha games show that furi-bisha players invariably attack along the far right file. This must be correlated with the recent trend of the rising furi-bisha popularity. It can be recapitulated that furi-bisha players of today just stick to the very basics, and don't resort to a surprise attack. The advent of the Tateishi-ryu gave another choice for the fourth-file Rook players to keep the left Silver in its original position, at 3a, so that they can move the Pawn to 4e for the Tateishi formation when possible. However, those attack-oriented furi-bisha, like the third-file Rook Ishida-ryu, the fifth-file Rook, or the opposing Rook (mukai-bisha), seem to be dormant at the moment. Both Masuda-shiki and Tateishi-ryu are regarded nowadays just as a possible strategy in quick games. (END OF THE CHAPTER "MASUDA-SHIKI ISHIDA-RYU") >From the translator(ess?): Thanks for reading my faulty translation. I might add that it was not a word-on-word type of translation, and I tried to convey the content as truthfully as I could, often at the risk of being too wordy and redundant. I hope it was not too hard on your patience. If you have any questions and/or comments, I could relay them to the original author, Mr. Katsumata. I'm sure he'll welcome any feedback. Warning: This is not the end of my translation. I'll resume soon, with the chapter "Tsukata Special" .