From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 9 may 1997 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 685, May 7th 1997) The first week of May this country is pretty much closed for all business. One of the results was that I did not receive Shukan Shogi until yesterday, so this is a little late. I already reported the result of game 3 of the Meijin match in an earlier mail, so here I will only concern myself with game 2: Black: Habu Yoshiharu, Meijin White: Tanigawa Koji, Challenger 55th Meijin-sen, Game 2, April 26th & 27th 1997 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P8c-8d 0/0 2/2 3.G6i-7h 2/2 0/2 4.P8d-8e 0/2 13/15 5.B8h-7g 18/20 0/15 6.P3c-3d 0/20 1/16 7.S7i-6h 3/23 0/16 8.G4a-3b 0/23 7/23 9.S3i-3h 40/63 0/23 10.S7a-7b 0/63 22/45 11.P2g-2f 3/66 0/45 12.B2bx7g+ 0/66 15/60 13.S6hx7g 0/66 0/60 14.S3a-4b 0/66 0/60 15.P1g-1f 1/67 0/60 16.P1c-1d 0/67 20/80 17.P9g-9f 8/75 0/80 18.S4b-3c 0/75 30/110 19.P4g-4f 17/92 0/110 20.K5a-4b 0/92 4/114 21.S3h-4g 0/92 0/114 22.P9c-9d 0/92 15/129 23.G4i-5h 17/109 0/129 24.P6c-6d 0/109 43/172 25.K5i-6h 22/131 0/172 26.S7b-6c 0/131 11/183 27.P6g-6f 117/248 0/183 28.S6c-5d 0/248 3/186 29.S4g-5f 1/249 0/186 30.S3c-4d?! 0/249 40/226 This is almost exactly the same position as in the second game of the Zen Nihon Pro Tournament match between Tanigawa (then black) and Morishita. The difference is that in that game the silver was only played to 4d after black played his king to 7i and white played the gold to 5b. This turns out to be a big difference... 31.P2f-2e 24/273 0/226 32.S4d-5e 0/273 6/232 33.S5fx5e 8/281 0/232 34.S5dx5e 0/281 0/232 35.B*4e! 1/282 0/232 Great Habu move and already more or less decisive. With the gold on 5b this bishop would not be good, since promotion on 6c is not possible. 36.S5ex4f 0/282 126/358 Tanigawa, as is his style, decides to allow the bishop promotion and attack. He did not like the natural G5b S*7a R8d B7b+ B*5d +B8b. After that, white is almost forced to play L9c and can only wait what black is going to do. 37.P2e-2d! 53/335 0/358 Great timing and a move to remember. The point of this will become clear soon. 38.P2cx2d 0/335 0/358 39.B4e-6c+ 0/335 0/358 40.N2a-3c 0/335 44/402 No choice. Without the pawn exchange on 2d, white could have tried the violent S*4g G5h-6g B*3i R1h B4h+. However, with the white pawn on 2d, black can answer B*3i by Rx2d and has a clear advantage. 41.+B6cx6d 56/391 0/402 42.P8e-8f 0/391 12/414 43.P8gx8f 3/394 0/414 44.S*5e 0/394 0/414 45.+B6d-6e 29/423 0/414 46.N3c-4e 0/423 1/415 47.S*4h! 17/440 0/415 A good defensive drop. White's attack does not get of the ground and silvers and knight are in an awkward position. 48.B*9b? 0/440 40/455 The losing move. Tanigawa's last fighting chance is R6b. If black then chooses P*4g? Nx5g+ Sx5g Sx5g+ Gx5g Rx6e Px6e B*3i he will be in trouble. However, after both 49.+B3h and 49.Rx2d he keeps his advantage, even though his attack is not as strong as in the actual game. 49.+B6ex9b 17/457 0/455 50.L9ax9b 0/457 0/455 51.R2hx2d 3/460 0/455 52.P*2c 0/460 0/455 53.R2d-2e 0/460 0/455 54.S4f-3e 0/460 7/462 55.P3g-3f 21/481 0/462 56.S3e-4d 0/481 27/489 57.S4h-4g 8/489 0/489 58.P*8e 0/489 2/491 59.P*4f 2/491 0/491 60.P8ex8f 0/491 0/491 61.P*8h 0/491 0/491 62.B*3g! 0/491 0/491 A surprising sacrifice in a desperate attempt to confuse the issue. 63.P4fx4e 18/509 0/491 Most commentators expected that Habu would take the bishop here, which might to win as well. It seems that Habu has read the next variation pretty much until the end. 64.B3gx1i+ 0/509 0/491 65.P4ex4d 0/509 0/491 66.L*2d 0/509 0/491 67.P4dx4c+ 0/509 0/491 68.G3bx4c 0/509 0/491 69.P*4d! 0/509 0/491 The decider. If black takes the silver immediately, the horse on 5e becomes a great defender. 70.G4cx4d 0/509 3/494 71.R2ex5e 0/509 0/494 72.+B1ix5e 0/509 0/494 73.B*2b 0/509 0/494 74.G4d-5d 0/509 13/507 75.B2bx5e+ 2/511 0/507 76.G5dx5e 0/511 0/507 77.S*4d 0/511 0/507 78.P*4f 0/511 3/510 79.S*4c 5/516 0/510 Resigns 08:36:00 08:30:00 A little more quickly than expected, but Tanigawa's P*4f was clearly a "katachizukuri", i.e. making the position look like there was not too big a difference. After 80.K5a Sx5c+ or 80.K3a S3c+ there is no defense. Other shogi news: 1) Morishita won a tough game in the Zen Nihon Pro tournament to take a 2-1 lead. This 161 move game had some shifting chances, but in the end it was Morishita who held on to the victory by some nice attacking and defending moves. Morishita now only needs one more win to get his second Zen Nihon Pro Tournament victory. Last time was six years ago. 2) Sato Yoshinaru (7-dan) scored his first victory in the white group of the Oi league against Ono (7-dan). Both are now 1-3 and will have to play the prerounds again next year. 3) In group 1 of the Ryu-O Sato Yasumitsu beat Shima in a very tough game to advance to final. More importantly, he secured his place in the Honsen Tournament, which decides the challenger of title holder Tanigawa. In group 3 Abe beat Kato Hifumi to get to the final. He has also qualified for the Honsen Tournament. By the way, Habu lost against Yonenage in the second chance round, thereby losing his chance for a rematch against Tanigawa. Actually, he will now have to work hard to stay in the top group. 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)298-58-5918