From: Takako Noda JA2 SO-NET OR JP> Date: 8 mar 1997 Subject: "QUEST" Intermission INTERMISSION When I first learned shogi, the Tsukata Special was already a has-been. But people were still talking about it, and I often wondered what it was like. I could have heard commentaries and even seen diagrams of the system, but don't remember any because I could not understand it. My husband tells me that I never failed to doze off while watching the TV shogi tournament on those Sunday mornings. It was like a toddler placed on the top of a Nordic jump hill. All I could do was faint, more or less. In the meantime, the system got less and less talked about and now it's history. About a year ago I bought this book by Kiyokazu Katsumata, and the very first thing I read about was the Tsukata Special. The book, incidentally, seems to be called by pro players Katsumata-bon (=Katsumata book), which indicates it is also read by professionals. It was a great pleasure to learn what the Tsukata Special was all about in retrospect. The chapter also tells us what Tanigawa represented, or what his existence meant to the rest of the players, which elicited admiration in me, a die-hard Habu-fan. In rereading and translating it, I heartily enjoyed myself. If you shared an nth of the pleasure that I had, I'd be happily content. If you indulge me, I'll recapitulate the system here in my own humble words, though I'm far from those "strong" players. 1) To Gain A Pawn In Spite Of Everything P*2d upon seeing White's P-6d is a marker of the Tsukata Special, which means capturing a P on 6d at the expense of loss in deployment. P*2d right after exchanging Ps together with R-moves to and fro on the 2nd file is clearly redundant in deployment. But Tsukata decided it would pay, which was received in amazement by others. 2) S-7b As An Antidote To The Tsukata Special Rx6d could be a dangerous move in the sense that White can resort to a K-R fork anytime. But after White took $B#B (J by R, Black can avoid the K-R fork by taking S on 6b by R, a mate. After two moves later, White has R, B, and 3 Ps in hand while Black has R, S, and a P. As for threats of drops, White does have a weak spot for R drop: 8b or 8c, while Black is comparatively safe. That's why White's S-7b instead of the traditional S-6b, which invites R sacrifice, is a clever move against the Tsukata Special. The S-7b has become a standard move for White in the aigakari opening since then. 3)Tsukata Special Developed Into Hineri-Bisha Tsukata had a revised system in mind, as a variation, in which his N leaps on 7g, which ended abortive at Tanigawa's countermeasure of R drop in his own camp. When attacking forces dwindle away to a halt, the Tsukata Special forfeits its raison d'etre. Thus, Tsukata himself had to admit his system came to an end. But his concept of N-7g was succeeded into the Hineri-bisha, which is to be expounded in the latter half of the chapter.