From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 10 sep 1997 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 703, September 10th 1997) When I saw the first game of the Oza-sen between Habu and Shima, I thought Shima had completely screwed up and lost badly. However, nothing could be further from the truth. The game actually was decided by one pawn on two occasions. Here is the game with some extra comments: Black: Habu Yoshiharu, Oza White: Shima Akira, Challenger 45th Oza-sen, Game 1, September 3rd 1997 1.P7g-7f 1/1 0/0 2.P8c-8d 0/1 0/0 3.S7i-6h 1/2 0/0 4.P3c-3d 0/2 0/0 5.P6g-6f 1/3 0/0 6.S7a-6b 0/3 0/0 7.P5g-5f 2/5 0/0 8.P5c-5d 0/5 0/0 9.S3i-4h 1/6 0/0 10.S3a-4b 0/6 1/1 11.G4i-5h 2/8 0/1 12.G4a-3b 0/8 0/1 13.G6i-7h 1/9 0/1 14.K5a-4a 0/9 0/1 15.K5i-6i 2/11 0/1 The Yagura opening does not come as a surprise, with both players being experts in this type of opening. The mindsets for this match: Shima: "The theme of this Oza match will be whether a ordinary person can beat a special person or not". Habu: "I am not a special person and Shima is not a ordinary person. The theme of this Oza match will be how I can resist Shima's exquisite opening play". 16.G6a-5b 0/11 1/2 17.S6h-7g 7/18 0/2 18.S4b-3c 0/18 0/2 19.B8h-7i 0/18 0/2 20.B2b-3a 0/18 0/2 21.P3g-3f 1/19 0/2 22.P4c-4d 0/19 0/2 23.G5h-6g 0/19 0/2 24.P7c-7d 0/19 1/3 25.S4h-3g 7/26 0/3 26.B3a-6d 0/26 13/16 27.B7i-6h 3/29 0/16 28.G5b-4c 0/29 0/16 29.K6i-7i 4/33 0/16 30.K4a-3a 0/33 0/16 31.K7i-8h 1/34 0/16 32.P8d-8e 0/34 1/17 33.S3g-4f 50/84 0/17 34.S6b-5c 0/84 3/20 35.N2i-3g 0/84 0/20 36.K3a-2b 0/84 0/20 37.P2g-2f 1/85 0/20 38.S3c-2d 0/85 0/20 39.P1g-1f 0/85 0/20 40.P1c-1d 0/85 0/20 41.R2h-5h 3/88 0/20 42.B6d-7c 0/88 26/46 43.P5f-5e 3/91 0/46 44.P5dx5e 0/91 0/46 45.S4fx5e 0/91 0/46 46.R8b-5b 0/91 0/46 47.S5e-4f 6/97 0/46 48.R5b-5a 0/97 1/47 49.P9g-9f 38/135 0/47 50.P9c-9d 0/135 2/49 51.P*5e 31/166 0/49 52.P*5d 0/166 3/52 53.P1f-1e 1/167 0/52 54.P1dx1e 0/167 0/52 55.P5ex5d 0/167 0/52 56.S5cx5d 0/167 0/52 57.P*5e 1/168 0/52 This is a very modern opening line. White is prepared to sacrifice the bishop against a silver to stop black's attack and leave him without pawns in hand. Shima has some experience with this line of play. He played it against Moriuchi in this year's Ryu-O tournament and he also played it in the game against Goda in the final of the Oza challenger tournament. 58.S5dx5e 0/168 0/52 59.S4fx5e 0/168 0/52 60.B7cx5e 0/168 0/52 Not 60.Rx5e?? because of Rx5e Bx5e S*3a! and black wins. 61.S*4f 7/175 0/52 62.P*5d 0/175 1/53 63.S4fx5e 0/175 0/53 64.P5dx5e 0/175 0/53 65.R5h-2h 0/175 0/53 66.P1e-1f 0/175 2/55 67.B*6b 0/175 0/55 Here Goda played 67.P4f which turned out to be not so good. Habu decides to follow the line that Moriuchi played. 68.R5a-3a 0/175 12/67 69.B6hx2d?! 0/175 0/67 Played in no time, so obviously a prepared move by Habu. Moriuchi settled for the more natural 70.B8d+ and after 71.P1g+ 72.R5h 73.S*7c 74.+B8c the game became a long struggle that Moriuchi eventually won. However, analysis showed that 73.S*6i should have given Shima the advantage. Habu's bishop sacrifice is a very speculative move and is not very likely to be the final word in this position. 70.P2cx2d 0/175 63/130 71.P2f-2e 0/175 0/130 72.P2dx2e? 0/175 0/130 A mistake. 72.P1g+ is better. After that, 73.R5h moves the black rook from the dangerous second file, so this is better for white. Habu intended to push on with 73.Px2d, but after +Px2h Lx1a+ P*2c! which defends effectively against L*2e, there is no good way for black to continue the attack. Habu had not seen this move. Shima saw it, but calculated deeper and reached the wrong conclusion that black was still better. 73.S*5b 16/191 0/130 74.G4c-4b? 0/191 26/156 This second mistake by Shima turns the dubious bishop sacrifice into a game winner. White should have played 74.S*2d Nx2e S*2c Sx4c+ Gx4c G*5c R6a! which stops the black attack. After Gx4c Rx6b there is no continuation and white threatens to launch a severe counterattack with P*2g Rx2g B*4i. Shima: "It seems I can make an entering king as well, doesn't it?". 75.N3gx2e 10/201 0/156 76.P*2d 0/201 35/191 77.B6bx4d+ 4/205 0/191 78.K2b-2c 0/205 0/191 79.P3f-3e 11/216 0/191 80.P3dx3e 0/216 2/193 81.P*1b! 3/219 0/193 Another one of those great Habu endgame moves. After the obvious 81.+Bx1a, white takes the silver on 5b and can escape with his king to the center of the board. Habu has exactly the two pawns he needs to play different line of attack. 82.L1ax1b 0/219 10/203 83.P*1c 0/219 0/203 84.N2ax1c 0/219 12/215 85.N2ex1c+ 6/225 0/215 86.L1bx1c 0/225 0/215 87.+B4dx3e 0/225 0/215 88.G3b-3c 0/225 0/215 89.P*2e! 4/229 0/215 And another great move that decides the game. Habu turns a knight into a silver which is just enough to give his attack decisive power. One has to feel a little sorry for Shima. Habu's attack again hangs on a single pawn. 90.P2dx2e 0/229 15/230 91.+B3ex2e 0/229 0/230 92.S*2d 0/229 0/230 93.N*3e 0/229 0/230 94.S2dx3e 0/229 0/230 95.+B2ex3e 0/229 0/230 96.P*2d 0/229 0/230 97.L1ix1f 17/246 0/230 98.L1cx1f 0/246 7/237 99.S*1e 7/253 0/237 100.N*2e 0/253 17/254 101.R2hx2e 2/255 0/254 102.P2dx2e 0/255 0/254 103.P*2d 0/255 0/254 104.K2c-2b 0/255 0/254 105.P*3d 1/256 0/254 106.G3cx3d 0/256 0/254 107.S1e-1d 0/256 0/254 108.G3dx3e 0/256 0/254 109.P2d-2c+ 0/256 0/254 110.K2b-2a 0/256 0/254 111.S1d-1c+ 0/256 0/254 Resigns 0/256 0/254 Time: 04:16:00 04:14:00 After the only defense 112.S*1a, black plays his last piece 113.N*2d to leave white without defense. The final position makes it look like there was a big difference in this game. However, on two occassions Habu just had the single pawn that was needed to keep his attack going which is more luck than ability. This game is a good illustration of the proverb: "A pawn is worth a thousand golds". In other shogi news: 1) Sanada pulled off another stunt in the Ryu-O tournament. When Kisei Yashiki won the first game of the three game mini match to decide the challenger of Ryu-O Tanigawa, it seemed clear that this was the end of Sanada's great run from the fourth Ryu-O group to the challengership. However, Sanada played a great game to level the match at 1-1. This means everything now will be decided in the third and final game, which will be played on the 22nd. Yashiki will certainly feel the pressure more than Sanada... 2) In B1 the fifth round was played and most of the attention was for the game between Maruyama (3-0) and Tanaka Torahiko (3-1). Tanaka played this game very well in his unusual opening style, but when it was time to cash in on his advantage, he missed a hidden hisshi and lost. Maruyama thus remains the only undefeated player and favourite to get to the A class in his first year in B1. His only remaining rivals seem to be Tamaru at 4-1 and Minami at 3-1. 3) Takahashi and Sato Yasumitsu have qualified for the Osho league which will start shortly. Takahashi beat Miura, who was 30 minutes late for the game, which gave him a time penalty of one and a half hour. This basically decided the game, because when Miura could have won the game, he did not have enough time to calculate the variations and made a big endgame mistake that cost him the game. Sato Yasumitsu played a good game against Morishita to bounce back from a 2-5 record in August. Strangely enough, this will be Sato's first appearance in the Osho league. 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