From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 12 mar 1997 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 677, March 12th 1997) This week Shukan Shogi opens with the final round of the A-Junisen class that was played last week on Monday. This day was named: "Shogi's longest day", both referring to the fact that games usually start at around 9 in the morning and finish well after midnight, but also to the importance of the games being played. Being able to call yourself an A-class professional gives a lot of prestige and it is no wonder that the last months there were rumours that Yonenaga and Nakahara would retire if they would be relegated from this class. Yonenaga managed to get safe before the final round, but Nakahara, like last year, still had a chance to go down on the final day. Also, for the first time there was extended TV coverage of this day (more than 6 hours of television), illustrating the growing popularity of Shogi in Japan. Actually, I think it is better to have a TV program on this than on a title match. The final round of the A-class has five games to watch and analyse, while a title match has only one. Also, it seems a waste of time to have a TV program on the first day of a title match game, which is usually rather boring. So, I was very happy when Ono (6-dan) invited me to come and watch the action at the Shogi Kaikan. When I arrived at about 5 in the afternoon there was already quite a lot of excitement on the boards. Mori and Morishita really went at each other early, probably triggered by the fact that the result would not have much consequence for either of them (Mori already relegated, Morishita out of the challenger race). Mori managed to win this game quite early, at around 8 o'clock, and therewith departed gracefully from the A-class. The next game that was decided was between Shima and Murayama. Shima won this game, and thereby both decided Murayama's faith (he was relegated with Mori) and made certain that Nakahara would play for at least another year. This was a great come-back for Shima, who started with four losses, but won four of the last five games to save his spot in the A-class once again. This made the games Nakahara-Sato and Kato-Moriuchi relatively unimportant (the winners could only improve their next year's ranking), but both veterans proved that they could save their place in the A-class without the help of Shima and won. Kato beat Moriuchi in a very slow pace game that was suddenly over. Nakahara beat Sato very convincingly. Moriuchi's loss meant that Tanigawa was certain to play Habu for another title. However, he was of course unaware of the results of the other games, and played full force against Yonenaga. Both players wearing formal kimono to mark the importance of the occasion. Early in the evening it became clear that Tanigawa had a better position and even though Yonenaga did his best to turn it around, Tanigawa only increased his lead to win comfortably. Yonenaga, probably aware of the fact that the TV broadcast was until midnight, played on until 12 minutes before 12. At that moment Kato and Moriuchi were still not finished, so his resignation was a great service to the TV viewers. In B2 and C1 class also the final round last week. B2 seemed to be the most exciting of all, with six players still with a chance to promote. However, there was no real drama here. Maruyama and Nakamura had their promotion chances in their own hands and did not make a mistake. Maruyama beat Azuma to finish with a fine 9-1 record and Nakamura made his come-back in B1 after only one year absence with a win over Suzuki. Too bad for Tosa and Goda, who both also had a 8-2 record, but were positioned below Nakamura. In C1 also no surprises. Nakagawa had to beat Horiguchi to go to B2 together with the already promoted Abe and he did. Nakagawa spent a long time in C2, but like so many others, it seems much easier to promote from other classes. Exception is perhaps Yashiki, who promoted from C2 very quickly, but now has spent quite a long time in C1. By the way, last weekend on Igo-Shogi weekly there was a glimpse at the money leaders in professional Shogi. I was hoping that there would be a complete list in Shukan Shogi, but there wasn't. Perhaps in Shogi Sekai? Anyway, here are the top three in 1996 (game fees only): 1.Habu 161,450,000 Yen 2.Tanigawa 50,690,000 Yen 3.Moriuchi 33,980,000 Yen So Habu earned more than three times what any other profesional made! Finally, the Kio match was decided last week. Morishita is becoming a sad figure in professional Shogi. He has been the challenger in Meijin, Ryu-O, Kisei and Kio, but still has no major title to his name. In this Kio match he again got a lot of chances to win in all games, but failed to take any of them. So a comfortable-looking title defence for Habu with 3-0, but here you can see that it was all far from easy: Black: Habu, Kio White: Morishita, Challenger 22nd Kio-sen, Game 3, March 7th 1997 1.P7g-7f 2.P8c-8d 3.G6i-7h 4.G4a-3b 5.S7i-6h 6.P3c-3d 7.P6g-6f 8.S7a-6b 9.P5g-5f 10.P5c-5d 11.S3i-4h 12.S3a-4b 13.G4i-5h 14.K5a-4a 15.K5i-6i 16.G6a-5b 17.G5h-6g 18.S4b-3c 19.S6h-7g 20.B2b-3a 21.P3g-3f 22.P4c-4d 23.B8h-7i 24.P7c-7d 25.S4h-3g 26.B3a-6d 27.B7i-6h 28.G5b-4c 29.K6i-7i 30.K4a-3a 31.K7i-8h 32.K3a-2b 33.S3g-4f 34.P8d-8e 35.N2i-3g 36.S6b-5c 37.P2g-2f 38.S3c-2d 39.P1g-1f 40.P1c-1d 41.R2h-5h 42.P4d-4e 43.N3gx4e 44.S5c-4d 45.P6f-6e 46.B6d-7c 47.R5h-1h 48.S4dx4e 49.S4fx4e 50.N*3c 51.P4g-4f 52.N3cx4e 53.P4fx4e 54.B7c-3g+ 55.S*4d 56.N8a-7c 57.P3f-3e 58.G4cx4d 59.P4ex4d 60.P3dx3e 61.P5f-5e 62.+B3gx5e 63.G*5f 64.+B5ex4d 65.R1h-4h 66.+B4d-3c 67.R4h-4a+ 68.P8e-8f 69.P8gx8f 70.P*8g 71.K8hx8g 72.P*8e 73.P*4d 74.P8ex8f 75.S7gx8f 76.S*9e Here Morishita has a big advantage. 77.P*8e 78.S9ex8f 79.B6hx8f 80.R8bx8e 81.P9g-9f 82.S*6i 83.G7h-7i 84.S*7h 85.G7ix7h 86.R8ex8f 87.K8gx8f 88.S6ix7h+? This is a mating threat (P*8e, K8g, G*8h, K9g, B*8f) but white would have won quickly had he played 88.Sx7h= instead. This does not threat mate, but leaves black without a defence. Habu planned to play 89.N*3d 90.K1b 91.P1e after that, but then 92.B*5i decides the game. If now, 93.G7g then Bx7g+ leads to mate and if 93.S*6h black has used up a silver he needed for his own mate and then Sx6g+ wins. However, Morishita is still winning. 89.P*8e 90.G*5a 91.+R4ax3b 92.+B3cx3b 93.R*8b 94.B*4b 95.P*5c 96.R*8h? A mistake, if Morishita had played 96.P*8a 97.Rx8a+ and then 98.R*8h he would have won this game. If 99.G*8g then 100.B5c and if 99.N*8g then also B5c S*6d Px6d +Rx5a +B4b and black can not give the rook. Morishita had seen P*8a, but he thought he had no time for this and would put the gold on 5a in too much danger. 97.G*8g 98.R8hx8i+ 99.S*4c 100.B4bx5c The winning chances are gone, but 100.N*9d 101.K9e 102.+Rx8g might have made it more difficult for Habu. White wins after 103.Sx3b+ Kx3b B*4c K3c, but after 103.N*3d 104.K1b 105.Sx3b+ there seems to be no win for Morishita. For example: 106.+R8f K8d +Rx8e K7c +Rx8b Kx8b and there is no mate. 101.S*6d 102.B5c-6b 103.S4cx3b+ 104.K2bx3b 105.B*4c 106.K3b-2b 107.N*3d 108.K2b-1b 109.S6dx7c+ 110.P*8c 111.P7f-7e 112.N*9d 113.K8f-7f 114.P7dx7e 115.K7fx7e 116.+R8ix8g 117.+S7cx6b Resigns -- 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