From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 8 oct 1997 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 707, October 8th 1997) Last week was quite busy for Sato Yasumitsu and Tanigawa Koji. Sato had to play two vital games. One in the A class Junisen and a game in the Kio tournament to reach the quarterfinals. The most important one was of course the game in the A-class against Yonenaga. After a bad start with two losses, Sato badly needed a win to stay out of relegation trouble and to keep some slim hopes of becoming the challenger of meijin Tanigawa. To emphasize that, Sato played the game in formal kimono, which is usually only used in title matches, but recently also has become fashionable in very important non-title match games like games to decide promotion in the Junisen. Wearing kimono this early in a tournament is as far as know without precedent in modern shogi (somebody out there correct me if I am wrong). Yonenaga played the game very sharply and when he trapped a promoted bishop he thought he had won. However, in this sharp position he had overlooked one very unlikely move which Sato had found and which decided the game almost immediately. Both players are now at 1-2. Unfortunately for Sato he lost the Kio game against Goda, so he is now out of that tournament. The second game in the A-Junisen was between the promoted players Inoue and Takahashi. Inoue is a rookie, while Takahashi has some considerable experience in the A-class. However, Inoue started well with two wins against one loss (one win was against Habu), while Takahashi started by losing his first three games. It was a big surprise when Inoue choose Furibisha in this important game, but he had prepared well. Inoue had an advantage from the early middle game that become quite big after a mistake by Takahashi. After that, Inoue missed an opportunity to win quickly, but winning slowly is also an art that shogi professionals have mastered. Inoue now on 3-1, which means that he is almost safe from relegation and still has every chance of challenging Tanigawa. Takahashi is now at the bottom of the scoring table with four straight losses and will have to pull out something special to avoid relegation. As said, Tanigawa also had a busy week. The trip to Australia to play the first game of the Ryu-O match against Sanada resulted in rescheduling a later game in the Osho league against Moriuchi. This meant that both Moriuchi and Tanigawa had to play two Osho league games in a week. Moriuchi had an easy game against Murayama, who resigned in the middlegame, which very much surprised everyone, including Moriuchi. Taniagawa had a tougher game against Maruyama, but he continued showing good form by beating him convincingly. Furthermore, in the game against Moriuchi he showed his great endgame skill by combining some nice attack and defense. Tanigawa now has two wins and looks very much on his way to another encounter with Habu. In the ladies professional scene 17-year old Yauchi seems to be the frontrunner of the new teenagers. She currently plays Shimizu in both the Ladies Oi tournament and the Ladies Open tournament. In the first game of the Oi match she allowed Shimizu to come from behind, but this time there was now escape for Shimizu. After six straight losses against Shimizu, Yauchi finally managed to beat her. This is of course a big psychological thing, but it also means that the score in the Oi match is now tied at 1-1 and that Yauchi is still very much in it. Unfortunately for her, she did not fare that well in the Ladies Open Tournament where Shimizu took the first game of the best-of-three match. So, Shimizu in the driving seat here for her fifth victory in this tournament sponsored by Shukan Shogi. More next week, Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Electrotechnical Laboratory 1-1-4 Umezono Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp WWW: http://www.etl.go.jp:8080/etl/suiron/~grimberg Tel: +81-(0)298-54-5919 Fax: +81-(0)298-54-5918