From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 18 sep 1997 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 704, September 17th 1997) Habu has won the second game of the Oza title match to take a 2-0 lead against challenger Shima. Again the victory was by the narrowest of margins, but Shima now has the almost impossible task to win all three of the remaining games. Here is the game with some comments: Black: Shima Akira, Challenger White: Habu Yoshiharu, Oza 45th Oza-sen, Game 2, September 12th 1997 Like in the first game, Shima started this game wearing his trademark Armani suit instead of the formal kimono which is the custom in professional title matches. Shima was clearly tense for this important game that he had to win to stay in this match. 1.P7g-7f 1/1 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/1 1/1 3.P2g-2f 1/2 0/1 4.P4c-4d 0/2 1/2 5.P2f-2e 3/5 0/2 6.B2b-3c 0/5 1/3 7.S3i-4h 0/5 0/3 8.R8b-4b 0/5 1/4 The Shikenbisha (Fourth File Rook), which Habu often chooses with white these days. 9.K5i-6h 0/5 0/4 10.S7a-7b 0/5 2/6 11.K6h-7h 0/5 0/6 12.P9c-9d 0/5 0/6 13.P5g-5f 3/8 0/6 14.P9d-9e 0/8 2/8 Shima likes to play the Ibisha Anaguma against Shikenbisha, so Habu chooses a strategy devised by Fujii (6-dan) to set up a quick attack against the Anaguma. 15.G4i-5h 1/9 0/8 16.G4a-5b 0/9 3/11 17.S4h-5g 20/29 0/11 18.S3a-3b 0/29 7/18 19.B8h-7g 0/29 0/18 20.P6c-6d 0/29 4/22 21.K7h-8h 6/35 0/22 22.P7c-7d 0/35 1/23 23.P6g-6f 0/35 0/23 24.N8a-7c 0/35 6/29 25.G5h-6g 2/37 0/29 26.P4d-4e 0/37 1/30 27.G6i-7h 37/74 0/30 28.S7b-6c 0/74 6/36 More natural is of course 28.G5b-6c, but Habu is planning to keep his king on 5a while attacking. If so, the gold on 5b defends better against a black counterattack. 29.L9i-9h 4/78 0/36 Brave decision. Shima plays the anaguma despite the fact that Habu is preparing for it. 30.N7c-8e 0/78 53/89 Starting a strong attack against the black king. Of course it is unclear if this attack is strong enough, since it does not use any general. 31.B7g-8f 42/120 0/89 32.P6d-6e 0/120 3/92 33.P5f-5e 0/120 0/92 34.B3cx5e 0/120 8/100 35.P2e-2d 1/121 0/100 36.P2cx2d 0/121 1/101 37.R2hx2d 0/121 0/101 38.P7d-7e 0/121 79/180 Played after long thought, but without reaching a conclusion. Both Habu and Shima, as well as the commentators have no idea who is better here. 39.P*5d 71/192 0/180 Many choices... 39.Bx7e, 39.Px7e and 39.S6h are other candidate moves. Which is better is anybody's guess. 40.S6cx5d 0/192 30/210 41.B8fx7e 1/193 0/210 42.G5b-4c 0/193 11/221 43.R2d-2h 22/215 0/221 44.R4b-6b 0/215 23/244 It looks like Habu is better now he has switch the rook to the important 6th file, but things are still very difficult. 45.G6g-5f 30/245 0/244 46.B5e-3c 0/245 0/244 47.P*5e 1/246 0/244 48.P*7d 0/246 10/254 49.B7ex5c+ 8/254 0/254 50.G4cx5c 0/254 0/254 51.P5ex5d 0/254 0/254 52.G5cx5d 0/254 1/255 53.P*5e 1/255 0/255 54.P6ex6f 0/255 4/259 55.S5gx6f 1/256 0/259 56.B*3i 0/256 5/264 57.P5ex5d? 2/258 0/264 Looks good, but is a mistake. Better is 57.R6h. Habu planned to play 58.P*6g, but after 59.Rx6g P9f Px9f P*6e S7g Gx5e Gx5e Bx5e S*5c it is black who comes out on top. Also 58.G5c P8f B2d R6g B4h+ Px8e +B5h P*6h and it seems that black is better. 58.R6bx6f 0/258 17/281 59.G5fx6f 2/260 0/281 60.B3ix6f+ 0/260 0/281 61.S*7g 0/260 0/281 62.P9e-9f! 0/260 0/281 Overlooked by Shima? This nasty move threatens mate: Px9g+ Lx9g Lx9g+ Nx9g +Bx7g etc. Habu's attack now gets decisive strength. 63.P9gx9f 4/264 0/281 64.P*9g 0/264 0/281 65.L9hx9g 16/280 0/281 66.L9ax9f 0/280 0/281 67.P*9h 0/280 0/281 68.L9fx9g+ 0/280 0/281 69.P9hx9g 0/280 0/281 70.P*9f 0/280 0/281 71.L*5c 0/280 0/281 72.P*5b 0/280 2/283 73.L5cx5b+ 5/285 0/283 74.G6ax5b 0/285 1/284 75.R*9a 0/285 0/284 76.L*6a 0/285 1/285 77.S7gx6f 10/295 0/285 78.B3cx6f 0/295 5/290 79.G*7g 0/295 0/290 80.P9fx9g+ 0/295 4/294 81.N8ix9g 0/295 0/294 82.P*9f 0/295 1/295 83.B*7c! 2/297 0/295 Good fighting move. 83.Rx9f+ Nx7g+ Gx7g Bx7g+ Kx7g G*6g K8f S*7g K9e G*8d is mate. This bishopdrop defends the square on 8d, giving black a chance for entering king. 84.K5a-4b? 0/297 1/296 A mistake, which almost costs the game. Habu would have given Shima no chance if he would have played 84.S*6b Bx6b+ Gx6b Rx9f+ Nx7g+ Gx7g Bx7g+ Kx7g S*6f Kx6f G7c and the black king is mated (K5g B*3i or K7g G*6g K8h B*7g K9h G*9i or P*6e Lx6e K5f G*6f). 85.R9ax9f+ 1/298 0/296 86.N8ex7g+ 0/298 0/296 87.G7hx7g 0/298 0/296 88.B6fx7g+ 0/298 1/297 89.K8hx7g 0/298 0/297 90.S*6f 0/298 0/297 91.K7g-8f 1/299 0/297 92.S*7g 0/299 0/297 93.K8f-8e 0/299 0/297 94.G*8d! 0/299 2/299 Habu uses his final two minutes to avoid the last trap. 94.G*8b is an attractive move (95.Bx8b+ G*8d), but white would suddenly lose after 95.P5c+!. After 96.Kx5c B*7a or 96.Gx5c B*5a followed by B8b+, the black king can escape to safety. Another big mistake would have been 94.G*7b?, since black would win after 95.+R9b Gx7c +Rx5b Kx5b G*5c K4a B*5b K3a N*4c Sx4c B4a+ Kx4a Rx2a+. Like in the first game, Shima is a little unlucky that there is still a way to win and that Habu finds it. 95.B7cx8d+ 0/299 0/299 96.P8cx8d 0/299 0/299 97.K8e-9d 0/299 0/299 98.L*8a 0/299 0/299 99.G*5c 0/299 0/299 100.G5bx5c 0/299 0/299 101.P5dx5c+ 0/299 0/299 102.K4bx5c 0/299 0/299 103.B*7a 0/299 0/299 104.K5c-5d 0/299 0/299 105.K9d-9c 0/299 0/299 106.G*9a 0/299 0/299 Resigns 0/299 0/299 Time: 04:59:00 04:59:00 There are two mating threats: G*8c and G*9b K9d G8c K9e G*9d. This can only be defended by G*8b, but after G*9b Kx8d P*8c black is still mated. In other shogi news: 1) Kato continues his great run in the A-Junisen. His latest victim was Nakahara. Kato now has three wins from three games and is the only one with that score in the top class. Only Morishita can get the same score if he beats Moriuchi. Kato was one of the players expected to struggle to keep his place this season, but instead he has every chance to become the challenger of Tanigawa. There was one other game in the A-Junisen. Shima beat Takahashi to get to 2-1. Takahashi is now 0-3 and has to fight hard to stay in the class he just promoted back in to. 2) In C2 the three leaders after three rounds did not make a mistake in the fourth round. Sensaki beat Kobayashi, I.Nakata beat Miura and Suzuki beat Nishimura. Only two players will promote, and with only Hiura, Ishikawa and Hatakeyama on 3-1 I think the leaders have a good chance to fight it out until the end. 3) Morishita and Waki qualified for the best eight in the Kio tournament. Morishita was last year's challenger so he was expected to win against Fukuzaki. Waki, on the other hand, caused a major upset by knocking Tanigawa out of the tournament. Morishita now faces Izuka and Waki plays Minami for a spot in the final four. 4) There are two new professionals. Sato Shinya was already sure of promotion two rounds before the end. He was joined by Masuda Yuji, who lost his last three games, but saw his rivals fail and still secured promotion. Sato Shinya (yet another Sato in the professional ranks :-) ) is probably best known to Japanese viewers as the time keeper in the NHK tournament. I remember some other NHK timekeepers who made it to the professional ranks (Kitajima for example). Maybe a lucky job? I do not know much about Masuda and his promotion interview does not give much clues. He said he was not very happy about his promotion after losing three games (outrageous!!) and that he wants above all to take a vacation. He also does not seem to have any hobbies, so maybe we have another Miura here! 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