From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 3 sep 1997 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 702, September 3rd 1997) Again a very good win by Habu in the fifth game of the Oi-sen to beat Sato Yasumitsu 4-1 and defend his title. Sato was expected to put up more of a fight, but as he said: "It was very painful that I could not win with black". The fifth game is the third game Sato lost with the black pieces: Black: Sato Yasumitsu, Challenger White: Habu Yoshiharu, Oi 38th Oi-sen, Game 5, August 28th and 29th 1997 1.P7g-7f 2/2 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/2 1/1 3.P2g-2f 3/5 0/1 4.P4c-4d 0/5 1/2 5.P2f-2e 4/9 0/2 6.B2b-3c 0/9 1/3 7.S3i-4h 0/9 0/3 8.R8b-4b 0/9 1/4 For the first time in this match a Furibusha game. The convincing win in the third game seems to have given Habu confidence. He has played Furibisha often enough, but he is not a Ranging Rook player by nature. 9.P5g-5f 3/12 0/4 10.S7a-7b 0/12 16/20 11.K5i-6h 2/14 0/20 12.K5a-6b 0/14 13/33 13.K6h-7h 0/14 0/33 14.K6b-7a 0/14 0/33 15.G4i-5h 11/25 0/33 16.P9c-9d 0/25 11/44 17.S4h-5g 14/39 0/44 18.S3a-3b 0/39 2/46 19.P6g-6f 38/77 0/46 20.P9d-9e 0/77 34/80 21.P6f-6e 4/81 0/80 22.R4b-6b!? 0/81 40/120 Interesting idea. Habu did not like his position if he would allow black to play B6f followed by N7g, so he chose this counter attack against the advanced pawn on 6e. Black still manages to make a high position on the 6th and 7th files, so it is unclear whether white's plan is actually working. 23.S7i-6h 26/107 0/120 24.P6c-6d 0/107 42/162 25.P6ex6d 5/112 0/162 26.R6bx6d 0/112 0/162 27.S6h-6g 2/114 0/162 28.R6d-6b 0/114 18/180 29.P7f-7e 8/122 0/180 30.S3b-4c 0/122 43/223 31.G6i-6h 14/136 0/223 32.P8c-8d 0/136 21/244 33.S6g-7f 17/153 0/244 34.S7b-8c 0/153 6/250 35.G5h-6g 12/165 0/250 36.G6a-7b 0/165 3/253 37.P3g-3f 43/208 0/253 The sealed move. Morishita expected P1f or P8f first. Especially P8f would have been a good move. 38.K7a-8b 0/208 1/254 39.P1g-1f?! 1/209 0/254 Here P8f would definitely have been better. 40.G4a-5b 0/209 19/273 41.S5g-6f 16/225 0/273 42.G5b-6c 0/225 23/296 Habu was not very happy with his position here. However, he finds an ingenious gold manoeuvre to mess up black's position. 43.P*6e 12/237 0/296 44.P7c-7d 0/237 4/300 45.P7ex7d 4/241 0/300 46.G6cx7d 0/241 0/300 47.P*7e 0/241 0/300 48.G7d-8e! 0/241 0/300 Sato did not give this move much thought, but now regretted not having played P8f earlier to prevent it. This weird looking gold move give white good fighting chances. 49.G6h-7g 27/268 0/300 50.G8ex7f 0/268 30/330 51.G7gx7f 0/268 0/330 52.L9a-9b 0/268 0/330 53.P8g-8f? 38/306 0/330 A mistake which gives white the advantage. It is hard to start fighting if your king looks unsafe, but that is what Sato should have done. Referee Kiriyama (9-dan) gave the following variation: 53.G*6d B4b (S*5b then G7d) S5e P*7c Sx4d S5b B5e! and now white can not win the gold with P*6c because the bishoppin makes G7d possible. Sato has a classic style of shogi and that now works against him. He underestimated two unnatural looking goldmoves and is now in trouble. 54.P*7c 0/306 0/330 55.P1f-1e 29/335 0/330 Black has nothing to do. 56.K8b-9a 0/335 0/330 57.K7h-8g 0/335 0/330 58.B3c-4b! 0/335 22/352 Great move. The plan is P5d followed by P*6d and it is surprisingly hard to defend against that. After 59.P5e white also plays P5d and after 59.R5h the rook is on a very awkward spot with possible bishopdrops on 6i and 4i. 59.B8h-7i 27/362 0/352 60.P5c-5d 0/362 9/361 61.P2e-2d 2/364 0/361 62.P*6d! 0/364 2/363 Ignores the faraway pawnpromotion and goes directly for the black king. 63.P2dx2c+ 32/396 0/363 64.P6dx6e 0/396 0/363 65.S6fx6e 29/425 0/363 66.P*6d 0/425 4/367 67.+P2c-3b 0/425 0/367 68.B4b-5c 0/425 1/368 69.R2h-2c+ 3/428 0/368 70.P6dx6e 0/428 52/420 71.+R2cx4c 3/431 0/420 72.B5c-6d 0/431 7/427 73.P*6c 7/438 0/427 74.R6bx6c 0/438 0/427 75.+R4cx6c 0/438 0/427 76.G7bx6c 0/438 0/427 77.S*7a 0/438 0/427 78.S*9c 0/438 3/430 79.R*6a? 7/445 0/430 The losing move. This does not threaten mate, so white has a very important extra tempo. The only move to stay in the game was 79.R*5b. Then after 80.S*8b 81.G*7b white loses if he plays 82.Sx7a Gx7a R*6i S*6h because he can not continue his attack. So he has to play 82.Sx7b Rx7b+ Sx7a +Rx7a S*8b +Rx2a. This variation looks like the actual game sequence, but there is a very important difference... 80.R*2h! 0/445 9/439 This threatens S*7h and at the same time defends the knight on 2a, thus forcing a rook exchange and thus wins another tempo for the attack. 81.G7f-7g 12/457 0/439 82.S*7b 0/457 1/440 83.R6ax2a+ 0/457 0/440 84.R2hx2a+ 0/457 0/440 85.+P3bx2a 0/457 0/440 The difference between this position and the position in the variation on move 79 is clear. Black does not have a dragon on 2a and so has no attack. 86.R*6i 0/457 3/443 87.K8g-8h 1/458 0/443 88.R6ix2i+ 0/458 5/448 89.+P2ax1a 0/458 0/448 90.B6dx1i+ 0/458 9/457 91.R*3b 1/459 0/457 92.L*6f 0/459 5/462 93.G6g-7f 15/474 0/462 94.P7c-7d! 0/474 2/464 Another good move. White threatens to make his position completely safe by 95.S8b Sx8b+ +Bx8b. If black allows that, he will lose by a wide margin. 95.N*5e! 1/475 0/464 Great fighting move. 96.N*6d! 0/475 7/471 The correct reply. If 95.Px5e?? then L*9d and black wins. 97.G7fx6f 3/478 0/471 98.+B1ix5e 0/478 6/477 99.G6fx5e 0/478 0/477 100.N*7f 0/478 0/477 101.K8h-7h 0/478 0/477 102.P5dx5e 0/478 0/477 103.P*6i 0/478 0/477 104.G*6a 0/478 0/477 105.R3b-3a+ 0/478 0/477 106.G6ax7a 0/478 0/477 107.+R3ax7a 0/478 0/477 108.S9c-8b 0/478 0/477 109.+R7a-4a 0/478 0/477 110.S*5h 0/478 0/477 Resigns 1/479 0/477 Time: 07:59:00 07:57:00 White is clearly not under threat. If black tries to run away by 111.K8g then Sx6i+ Bx1c+ +S6h is another mating threat and black has no defense. With this win Habu took his fifth consecutive Oi title and is now Lifetime Oi. As the two final games of the Oi illustrate, Habu is on his way to regain his invincible form of two years back. That he is still quite not there became clear when he lost the third game in the A-Junisen class against Inoue. Both players now have two wins and two losses. For Inoue this must be a happy surprise, because he himself expected to lose many games in his first time in the A-Junisen. However, strong wins against Nakahara and Habu have put him in the thick of the Meijin challenger race. In other Shogi news: 1) Yashiki showed his Ninja skills again in the first game of the best-of-three minimatch to decide the challenger of Ryu-O Tanigawa. Sanada seemed to have the best of the game, but Yashiki never showed any signs of being overly worried and was rewarded for his patience. Sanada made only one mistake, but that was enough to give Yashiki the win after a tough 133 move battle. Yashiki now needs only one more win from the next two games to become the challenger of Tanigawa. 2) In C2 the complete third round was played. It will take another couple of rounds to get a clear picture in this class with 49 players, but there are now seven undefeated players: S.Sato, Yagura, Namekata, Izuka, Katsumata and Toyokawa all have three wins and Ueyama has two wins from two games. Fukaura dropped back to 2-1 by losing against Kawakami. A bad start for rookie Nozuki, who lost his third game in a row. 3) Half of the quartefinalists of the Kio tournament are known. Last week Izuka was the first to reach the final eight and now he has been joined by Moriuchi (beating Urano), Minami (beating Kobayashi) and Nakahara (beating Tanaka Torahiko). 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)298-54-5918