From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 6 mar 1997 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 676, March 5th 1997) Well, my subscription problems have been solved, so it should not be a problem to bore you for at least another half a year with these articles :-). This week not much interesting stuff in Shukan Shogi. Shukan Shogi opens with the final of the television quick shogi tournament of Tokyo Television. This is one of the two big television tournaments here in Japan (the other one of course being the NHK tournament). This year's final was between Murayama (8-dan) and Tamura (4-dan). Murayama has not had much to smile about this season. He missed the challengership of the Osho-sen by losing three games in a row, where only one win would have clinched it. He also does not have a good season in the A-class and is in serious danger of relegation (actually, he lost to Shima last monday and is now officially relegated to B1). In short, he really needed the win to save something of his season. On the other hand, Tamura is a rookie pro who has already made a name for himself as a unbelievably quick player. Normal games often do not take him more than half an hour to complete. In a way it was no surprise to see him in the final of a quick play tournament, but he still had to beat Katsuura (9-dan), Kobayashi (8-dan), Tanaka Torahiko (9-dan), Tamura (8-dan) and Nakahara (Eisei 10-dan) to get to the final. Indeed, no small feat. However, in the game it was mostly Murayama who dictated the pace. Of course figuratively speaking, since Tamura kept his habit of playing often long before the 30 second byoyomi was over. Usually, professionals even take the full 30 seconds for a forced move to get ideas for future plans. For a short while it seemed that Tamaru would be able to get back in the game, but in the end Murayama managed to press his advantage home. This was Murayama's first title in a tournament where all professionals participate and he should be very pleased, even though it will not ease the pain of Monday's relegation much. As for Tamura, I am sure that in the future we will see him in the final stages of quick play tournaments often. In Shukan Shogi also a two page article on the computer Shogi championships. There does not seem to be much in it that you could not have read in the article I sent to Shogi-L, except for one small thing. I forgot to mention that among the tournament participants were also father and son Ameno. The father had entered the tournament for three years, but now the son (17 years old) also had made his own program. Not much Habu news this week, but he did play in the first class of the Ryu-O tournament. His convincing victory seemed to indicate that he was back in top form, but in the Ryu-O game he lost to Murayama and it will now be very tough to get to a rematch with Tanigawa. In the Red League of the Oi, Abe beat last year's challenger Fukaura. Fukaura is now 0-2 and needs a miracle to get another shot at the Oi title this year. In the Kisei the eight players who will play a knock-out to decide the challenger of Miura are now known. They are Nakahara, Habu, Moriuchi, Yonenaga, Yashiki, Tanigawa, Goda and Fujii (who was very lucky to qualify with a 1-2 score in the D-group). A very strong knock-out indeed with a lot of interesting games. That was about it as far as this week's Shukan Shogi is concerned. For once I want to keep my promise and give you the second game of the Kio as I promised last week. Here it is: Black: Morishita Taku, Challenger White: Habu Yoshiharu, Kio 22nd Kio match game 2, February 20th 1997 1.P7g-7f 2.P8c-8d 3.S7i-6h 4.P3c-3d 5.P6g-6f 6.S7a-6b 7.P5g-5f 8.P5c-5d 9.S3i-4h 10.S3a-4b 11.G4i-5h 12.G4a-3b 13.G6i-7h 14.K5a-4a 15.K5i-6i 16.P7c-7d 17.G5h-6g 18.G6a-5b 19.S6h-7g 20.S4b-3c 21.B8h-7i 22.B2b-3a 23.P3g-3f 24.P4c-4d 25.S4h-3g 26.B3a-6d 27.B7i-6h 28.G5b-4c 29.K6i-7i 30.K4a-3a 31.K7i-8h 32.P9c-9d 33.S3g-4f 34.P9d-9e 35.N2i-3g 36.N8a-7c 37.R2h-3h 38.K3a-2b 39.P2g-2f 40.S3c-2d 41.P1g-1f 42.N7c-8e 43.S7g-8f 44.R8b-8a 45.P1f-1e 46.S6b-5c 47.P6f-6e 48.B6d-8b 49.B6h-5g 50.P6c-6d 51.P6ex6d 52.B8bx6d 53.P*6e 54.B6d-7c 55.N3g-2e 56.R8a-6a This is not a very nice move to play, but Habu had no choice. 56.P4e is answered by B6f, 56.Nx9g+ by Sx9g P8e P3e and 56.S4b by L1g and white is again stuck for moves. Habu has lost the opening battle here. 57.P3f-3e 58.P3dx3e 59.N2ex1c+ 60.S2dx1c 61.P1e-1d 62.S1c-2d 63.P1d-1c+ 64.L1ax1c 65.P*1d 66.L1cx1d 67.L1ix1d 68.P*6f 69.G6gx6f 70.N*4e A good move to try and stay in the game. It considerably slows down the black attack. 71.B5g-6h 72.P*1c 73.S4fx3e 74.P1cx1d 75.S3ex2d 76.P2cx2d 77.S*5b 78.N4e-3g+ 79.R3h-1h 80.+N3g-2g 81.R1hx1d 82.S*2c 83.R1d-1f? Here Morishita misses a good chance to win. 83.Rx2d Sx2d Sx6a= and either take the silver on 2d on the next move or pull back the silver (S5b=). Also, 83.Sx6a= Sx1d S5b= would have been stronger than pulling the rook back. 84.P*1e 85.R1fx1e 86.B7c-3g+ With the nasty threat +B4h next. Now black suddenly needs to hurry. 87.S5bx6a= 88.+B3g-4h 89.L*6g 90.L*1d 91.R1e-3e 92.P*3d 93.R3e-3f 94.+N2gx2f 95.R3f-4f 96.+N2f-2e 97.P*3f 98.N2a-3c 99.P5f-5e 100.P5dx5e 101.G6fx5e 102.P*5d 103.G5e-6d 104.S5cx6d 105.P6ex6d 106.N3c-4e 107.S*5i 108.+B4h-3i 109.P6d-6c+ 110.N4e-5g+ 111.S6a-5b+ 112.P4d-4e 113.R4f-6f 114.+N5gx6h 115.S5ix6h 116.B*4d 117.N*7g 118.+B3ix6f 119.L6gx6f 120.R*1h 121.+P6c-5c 122.G4cx5c 123.+S5bx5c 124.B4dx5c 125.R*5a 126.B5c-4b 127.R5ax5d+ 128.S*6i 129.G*7i 130.S6ix7h+ 131.G7ix7h 132.G*4c 133.+R5d-5b 134.P*5a 135.+R5b-5f 136.P7d-7e 137.P7fx7e 138.B4b-3c 139.B*7c 140.+N2ex3f 141.N7gx8e 142.P8dx8e 143.S8f-7g 144.P*7f 145.S7gx7f 146.+N3fx4g 147.+R5fx4g 148.N*5e 149.+R4g-2g 150.P*6g 151.S6h-7i 152.G*6i! Looks weak, but is actually strong. Morishita thought this amounted to a pass (not playing a move at all) and thought he could win easily from here. Not so.... 153.+R2gx1h 154.L1dx1h+ 155.N*1e? Throws away the game. 155.P*1d is winning. If Sx1d then N*2f, but if white leaves the pawn, S*1c is very severe. If white just plays defense P*1b, then he is out of pawns and black can decide between Sx8e, R*5h or R*4a. White has no attack without the pawn. 156.R*3h 157.N1ex2c+ 158.G3bx2c 159.N*1e 160.G6ix7i 161.K8hx7i 162.P*7g 163.N8ix7g 164.N*5f 165.S*3a 166.K2bx3a 167.B7c-6d+ 168.S*5c 169.P*3b 170.K3a-2b 171.S*3a 172.K2b-1c 173.N1ex2c+ 174.K1cx2c 175.G*2b 176.K2c-1d 177.R*1f 178.N*1e 179.R1fx5f 180.S5cx6d Resigns 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