From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 29 may 1997 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 688, May 28th 1997) For the first time this Meijin match a really tight battle in the fourth game. Here is an idea of what happened: Black: Habu Yoshiharu, Meijin White: Tanigawa Koji, Challenger 55th Meijin-sen, Game 4, May 19th and 20th 1997 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P8c-8d 0/0 5/5 3.S7i-6h 7/7 0/5 4.P3c-3d 0/7 6/11 5.S6h-7g 14/21 0/11 6.S7a-6b 0/21 5/16 7.P5g-5f 1/22 0/16 8.P5c-5d 0/22 6/22 9.S3i-4h 3/25 0/22 10.S3a-4b 0/25 2/24 11.G4i-5h 20/45 0/24 12.G4a-3b 0/45 11/35 13.P6g-6f 4/49 0/35 14.K5a-4a 0/49 20/55 15.G5h-6g 4/53 0/55 16.P7c-7d 0/53 11/66 17.G6i-7h 12/65 0/66 18.S6b-5c 0/65 42/108 The first step to the dangerous Quick Attack Yagura. Dangerous for both sides, that is. 19.K5i-6i 33/98 0/108 20.P5d-5e 0/98 19/127 21.P5fx5e 9/107 0/127 22.B2bx5e 0/107 4/131 23.B8h-7i 6/113 0/131 24.B5e-2b 0/113 56/187 25.B7i-4f 42/155 0/187 Habu regretted playing this move, feeling that he had to play too defensively after this. However, neither he or Shukan Shogi give an alternative. 26.S5c-6d 0/155 30/217 27.P*5f 67/222 0/217 28.N8a-7c 0/222 9/226 29.P3g-3f 4/226 0/226 30.R8b-5b 0/226 27/253 31.S4h-5g 28/254 0/253 32.P*5e 0/254 4/257 33.R2h-5h 3/257 0/257 34.P5ex5f 0/257 42/299 35.S5gx5f 13/270 0/299 36.P*5e 0/270 5/304 37.S5f-4e 4/274 0/304 38.S4b-3c 0/274 0/304 39.P3f-3e 2/276 0/304 40.P3dx3e 0/276 0/304 41.B4fx3e 0/276 0/304 42.S3c-4d 0/276 13/317 43.S4ex4d 0/276 0/317 44.P4cx4d 0/276 0/317 It now has become even more unclear why Habu regretted B4f, because he has come out of the opening with an advantage. White's bishop on 2b is not working and that is crucial in this type of quick fight Yagura. Still, Habu has to be very careful. 45.P7f-7e! 52/328 0/317 Great move. White wants to play S*5f as soon as possible, so a natural move like K7i is very dangerous. Instead, Habu pushes his own castle pawn on 7f to screw up white's attacking formation. 46.S6dx7e 0/328 19/336 47.S*8c 12/340 0/336 48.R5b-5d 0/340 18/354 49.P*7f 7/347 0/354 50.S7e-6d 0/347 1/355 51.S8cx7d= 0/347 0/355 52.G6a-6b 0/347 13/368 53.P6f-6e 30/377 0/368 54.N7cx6e 0/377 45/413 55.S7g-6f 1/378 0/413 56.S*5f 0/378 1/414 57.R5h-3h? 35/413 0/414 A mistake that gives Tanigawa the opportunity to strengthen his attack. Better would have been 57.S7dx6e Sx6e Sx6e Sx6e N*4f and after both R7d S*7e R7b N7g or R5b P*5d black has the better position. 58.P*3d 0/413 42/456 59.B3e-2f? 31/444 0/456 Habu clearly underestimates Tanigawa's next move. This makes things worse. Better would have been B6h as will be explained below. 60.B2b-3c! 0/444 0/456 This looks slow, but gives Tanigawa the upper hand. The king now has an escape route and the white bishop comes into play. 61.P*5h 23/467 0/456 One of the extra advantages of B3c is shown after 61.Gx5f Px5f S7dx6e Sx6e Sx6e R5e S*6f Rx6e Sx6e P5g+. Black now would like to play the counterattack R*8a, but after P*5a there is no follow-up. By the way, this variation is also the reason why Habu's B2f was not good. If the bishop would have been pulled back to 6h, white can not promote the pawn on 5g and white's attack becomes much more difficult. 62.B3c-2d 0/467 4/460 63.S7dx6e 12/479 0/460 64.S6dx6e 0/479 3/463 65.S6fx6e 0/479 0/463 66.S5fx6e 0/479 0/463 67.S*2e 1/480 0/463 68.S6e-5f 0/480 23/486 69.S2ex2d 10/490 0/486 70.P2cx2d 0/490 0/486 71.N*6f 18/508 0/486 72.R5d-5b 0/508 3/489 73.N6f-7d 0/508 0/489 74.G6b-5c 0/508 9/498 75.B*7a 1/509 0/498 76.S*4i 0/509 7/505 77.R3h-4h 2/511 0/505 78.S5fx6g+ 0/511 0/505 79.G7hx6g 0/511 0/505 80.S*5f 0/511 0/505 81.S*6h 2/513 0/505 82.S5fx6g+ 0/513 4/509 83.S6hx6g 0/513 0/509 84.S*5f 0/513 0/509 This looks a little like sennichite, but actually Tanigawa has swapped his silvers for golds, making his attack stronger and Habu's defense more difficult ("without a gold there is no defense"). After this, even though it seems still problematic to win, Habu never gets a chance to get back into it. 85.S*6h 0/513 0/509 86.G*3h 0/513 2/511 87.R4hx3h 2/515 0/511 88.S5fx6g+ 0/515 2/513 89.S6hx6g 0/515 0/513 90.S4ix3h+ 0/515 0/513 91.N7d-6b+ 3/518 0/513 92.R*3i 0/518 1/514 93.K6i-7h 15/533 0/514 94.P*7g 0/533 1/515 95.K7hx7g 4/537 0/515 96.R3i-7i+ 0/537 0/515 97.G*7h 0/537 0/515 98.S*6h 0/537 1/516 99.K7g-6f 0/537 0/516 100.R5bx6b 0/537 0/516 101.B7ax6b+ 0/537 0/516 102.G*6e 0/537 0/516 And one of the easiest resignation diagrams in this meijin match. After 103.Kx6e G6d K6f either N*7d or N*5d is mate. Resigns 0/537 0/516 Time: 08:57:00 08:36:00 Therefore Tanigawa is now two up with three to play and Habu now has to use all the magic he has got to defend the Meijin title. The writing is on the wall, though. In Shukan Shogi's MVP poll, Tanigawa beat Habu by 30 votes out of 1124 to win the MVP title after 5 years of Habu domination. The Fresh Star vote went to Suzuki, who convincingly beat Fujii. There was no question who would win the women's MVP. Shimizu got 1040 votes out of a possible 1124. The next meijin game has already started. It is another bishop exchange game that can be followed on the mainichi Web pages: http://www.mainichi.co.jp/tokusyuu/meijin/meijin-frame.html In other Shogi news: a) Morishita won a vital game against Hatakeyama in the white group of the Oi league. This means that Morishita, now at 3-1, still has some hope of catching up with leader Goda (4-0) in the final round. However, Goda has to play Ono in the final round, who is only 1-3. This means that the chances for Goda are even better than those of Sato Yasumitsu (4-0) in the red group, who has to play rival Nakamura (3-1) in the final round. b) Abe beat Nakahara to reach the quarterfinals of the Oza challenger knock out. All quarterfinal match ups are now known: Goda-Minami, Abe-Morishita, Fukaura-N.Hatakeyama and T.Tanaka-Shima. "Tiger" Tanaka (9-dan) is the oldest player at 40. Shogi is a young men's game... c) In the fifth group of the Ryu-O, the final between Nakata (5-dan) and Matsumoto (4-dan) was played. Matsumoto won, which means he will enter the knock-out tournament to decide the challenger of Tanigawa. It also means that Matsumoto in his second year as a pro, promoted for the second time to a higher ryu-o group next year. I don't know if the URL was mailed earlier, but for those of you who can read Japanese, the home page of Kindai Shogi is worth checking out: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~wa9t-nkn/ The links there also led me to the homepages of Tanaka Torahiko (9-dan) and the homepage of Mushano (6-dan), respectively at: http://www.kiwi-us.com/~h_kawai/shogi/tiger/ http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~sw6k-msyn/ 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