From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 24 jul 1997 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 696, July 23rd 1997) After the fireworks of the first three games of the Kisei-sen between Miura and Yashiki, the fourth game was kind of a disappointment. Miura's opening was a failure and when he tried to force the issue he only made things worse. A concentrated Yashiki did not give him another chance. Here is how it went in more detail: Black: Yashiki, Challenger White: Miura, Kisei 68th Kisei-sen, Game 4, July 15th 1997 1.P2g-2f 1/1 0/0 2.P8c-8d 0/1 1/1 3.P2f-2e 0/1 0/1 4.P8d-8e 0/1 0/1 5.G6i-7h 0/1 0/1 6.G4a-3b 0/1 0/1 7.P2e-2d 6/7 0/1 8.P2cx2d 0/7 0/1 9.R2hx2d 0/7 0/1 10.P*2c 0/7 0/1 11.R2d-2f 0/7 0/1 12.S7a-7b 0/7 0/1 13.P1g-1f 1/8 0/1 14.P1c-1d 0/8 1/2 15.S3i-3h 0/8 0/2 16.P6c-6d 0/8 1/3 17.P7g-7f 1/9 0/3 18.P8e-8f 0/9 0/3 19.P8gx8f 0/9 0/3 20.R8bx8f 0/9 0/3 21.P*8g 0/9 0/3 22.R8f-8b 0/9 0/3 23.P3g-3f 1/10 0/3 24.P3c-3d 0/10 0/3 25.P3f-3e 1/11 0/3 Thus far in this match all games have been won by white. Therefore, Yashiki's choice of opening would be very important. In game 2 he played Hineribisha and was surprised by a great new move of Miura. This time he chooses Aigakari with the P3e attack, a speciality of Nakahara. 26.P3dx3e 0/11 0/3 27.S3h-3g 0/11 0/3 28.B2bx8h+ 0/11 11/14 29.S7ix8h 0/11 0/14 30.S3a-2b 0/11 0/14 31.P*3d 1/12 0/14 32.S7b-6c 0/12 1/15 33.S3g-4f 0/12 0/15 34.G6a-5b 0/12 2/17 35.K5i-5h 1/13 0/17 36.P7c-7d?! 0/13 1/18 This is quite unusual. Miura aims for a right side king strategy, fearing that the pawn on 3d will become a base for attack after the normal K4b. The right side king has been played in this kind of position only two times before: Nakahara-Takahashi (54th A-Junisen) and Namekata-Horiguchi (43rd Oza-sen). 37.G4i-3h 7/20 0/18 38.N8a-7c 0/20 1/19 39.P9g-9f 20/40 0/19 40.P9c-9d 0/40 1/20 41.S4fx3e 8/48 0/20 42.K5a-6b 0/48 11/31 43.N8i-7g 32/80 0/31 44.P9d-9e? 0/80 60/91 Miura's opening strategy has been a failure. The only possible other move seems to be 44.R8a, but after 45.P8f followed by 47.S8g (if white plays 46.Rx8f he will lose the rook after 47.P*8e) and a later N8e, black has a clear advantage. After long thought, Miura decides on 44.P9e, but this attack backfires on him. 45.P8g-8f 44/124 0/91 46.P9ex9f 0/124 7/98 47.P7f-7e! 9/133 0/98 48.P7dx7e 0/133 4/102 Or 48.P9g+ Lx9g P*9f Lx9f Lx9f Px7d Sx7d P*7e S6c P*9g and the pawn on 7e will be a great attacking base. 49.P*9d! 2/135 0/102 Suddenly white is in big trouble. After 50.Lx9d, 51.B*9c is too severe to be allowed. 50.P*8d 0/135 45/147 Even though this move is admitting that he failed, I was tempted to give it an exclamation mark. Instead of rushing into the sword by playing something like 50.P*3f Lx9f P*9b Rx3f B*5d R5f P*7f N8e Nx8e B*9e, Miura digs in, hoping his opponent will make a mistake in the attack. Unfortunately for him, Yashiki plays an impeccable game after this and also never gets in time trouble. 51.L9ix9f 11/146 0/147 52.P*9b 0/146 3/150 53.S8h-8g 9/155 0/150 54.B*5d 0/155 38/188 55.R2f-5f 15/170 0/188 56.N7c-6e 0/170 15/203 57.P8f-8e! 9/179 0/203 More or less the deciding move. The professionals in the press room expected the slower S4f followed by S5e, but Yashiki goes straight for the kill. White can not take this pawn: 58.Px8e B*9e K7b P*7d Sx7d Rx5d Px5d B*7c and white has no defence. 58.N6ex7g+ 0/179 7/210 59.G7hx7g 0/179 0/210 60.B5d-6e 0/179 0/210 61.R5f-2f 8/187 0/210 62.R8b-8a 0/187 5/215 63.P8ex8d 24/211 0/215 Of course white can not take this pawn because of B*9e. What follows is a king chase from left to right and back again. 64.K6b-5a 0/211 4/219 65.N*8c 15/226 0/219 66.K5a-4b 0/226 6/225 The spot white did not want to go to in the first place. Now also the pawn on 3d and the silver on 3e are playing a role in black's attack. 67.N8cx9a+ 9/235 0/225 68.R8ax9a 0/235 2/227 69.P8d-8c+ 1/236 0/227 70.B6ex8c 0/236 21/248 71.N2i-3g 11/247 0/248 72.N*8e 0/247 2/250 73.G7g-7h 3/250 0/250 74.N8e-9g+ 0/250 0/250 75.L*3c 4/254 0/250 76.N2ax3c 0/254 4/254 77.P3dx3c+ 0/254 0/254 78.S2bx3c 0/254 0/254 79.P*3d 11/265 0/254 80.S3c-2b 0/265 1/255 81.N3g-4e 2/267 0/255 82.+N9gx8g 0/267 1/256 83.P3d-3c+ 13/280 0/256 84.S2bx3c 0/280 2/258 85.N4ex3c+ 2/282 0/258 86.G3bx3c 0/282 0/258 87.P*3d 0/282 0/258 88.P*3g 0/282 0/258 89.P3dx3c+ 13/295 0/258 90.K4b-5a 0/295 0/258 91.B*7c 1/296 0/258 92.K5a-6a 0/296 0/258 93.B7cx9a+ 1/297 0/258 94.P3gx3h+ 0/297 0/258 95.N*7c 0/297 0/258 96.K6a-6b 0/297 0/258 97.S*7a 0/297 0/258 98.K6bx7a 0/297 0/258 99.R*8a 0/297 0/258 Resigns 0/297 0/258 Time: 04:57:00 04:18:00 Black has taken his time on the vital moves (79.P*3d, 83.P3c+ and 89.Px3c+) to make sure that his attack is winning and that he can ignore white's desperate attempts at counterattack. A perfect game by Yashiki, but it is a little disappointing that the excitement of the first three games was lacking in this one. So, after winning the Zen Nihon Pro Tournament last year, Yashiki now has definitely ended a slump after becoming the youngest title holder at 18, seven years ago. Now all he has to do is finally climb out of the C2 Junisen class. In other Shogi news: 1) Goda has beaten Morishita in the semi-finals of the Oza challenger tournament. It is the third time this year that he is within one win of becoming the challenger for a major title. After losses in the Kisei and the Oi, will he be able to beat Shima in the final and challenge Habu? 2) Kato defeated A-Junisen rookie Inoue to get his second victory in this tough class. I was almost sure that Kato would have a tough time staying in the A-class this year, but for the time being he leads the pack. Still, Mori started with two victories last year and still was relegated to B1... Morishita also got his second straight win. He had a very tough game against Takahashi, but pulled out a brilliant defensive move that confused the issue and finally gave him the victory. 3) In C1 Miura and Yashiki did not play, but all other games of round two were played. Taki has the dubious honour of being famous for his early resignations, but in the game against Suzuki he surprised everyone by resigning as early as move 49. His position was definitely not good, but far from hopeless. Suzuki thus got his second win rather easy. Other players with two wins are Sensaki, both of the Nakata's, Sanada and 67 year old veteran Sekine. If Miura wins his delayed game, he will also have two wins. 4) In the Ryu-O challenger tournament rookie Kondo continues his great run by beating Namekata in a game that could have gone either way. Kondo, the winner of the lowest group, now has reached the best eight and will have to play Sato Yasumitsu next. 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)298-54-5918