From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 16 apr 1998 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 733, April 15th 1998) This week in Shukan Shogi of course the first game of the Meijin match between Tanigawa and Sato. A game that was played well by both players. Tanigawa had the edge after the opening, but almost gave it a way with a move that was overly subtle. After this, he was lucky that there was still a narrow path to victory. Here is how it went: Black: Tanigawa, Meijin White: Sato, Challenger 56th Meijin-sen, Game 1, April 9th and 10th 1998 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P8c-8d 0/0 11/11 3.P2g-2f 10/10 0/11 4.G4a-3b 0/10 6/17 5.G6i-7h 2/12 0/17 6.P8d-8e 0/12 1/18 7.B8h-7g 1/13 0/18 8.P3c-3d 0/13 0/18 9.S7i-8h 1/14 0/18 10.B2bx7g+ 0/14 2/20 11.S8hx7g 0/14 0/20 The Kakugawari (Bishop Exchange) opening comes as no surprise. In recent years Tanigawa has become one of the leading experts in this opening. The question was: what would Sato play against it? 12.S3a-4b 0/14 0/20 13.S3i-3h 7/21 0/20 14.S7a-7b 0/21 0/20 15.P9g-9f 16/37 0/20 16.S4b-3c 0/37 47/67 17.P4g-4f 7/44 0/67 18.K5a-4b 0/44 4/71 19.S3h-4g 12/56 0/71 20.P9c-9d 0/56 28/99 21.P3g-3f 27/83 0/99 22.S7b-8c 0/83 19/118 23.P6g-6f 30/113 0/118 24.S8c-8d 0/113 1/119 25.G4i-5h 31/144 0/119 26.P9d-9e 0/144 67/186 Sato chooses the aggresive Climbing Silver edge attack. One would think he played this to force Tanigawa, who is famous for his attack, in a defending position. However, this is not how it works out. 27.P9fx9e 22/166 0/186 28.S8dx9e 0/166 0/186 29.L9ix9e 0/166 0/186 30.L9ax9e 0/166 0/186 31.P*9g 3/169 0/186 32.S3c-4d 0/169 24/210 This is not a very convincing looking move. Still, it was often played by Moriuchi, 8-dan, and can therefore not be discarded so lightly. Sato has studied this position well and decided to give it a try. Still, this silver move gives black the possibility to set up his own attack. 33.P2f-2e 49/218 0/210 A Tanigawa-like move. Since this opens up the diagonal to the king, it is not a move that can be played easily. However, after the safer 33.P1f P*9h S8h L*9a there is no attack for black. The text move makes a counter attack much easier. 34.P*9h 0/218 62/272 Played after long thought. Sato probably underestimated the strength of P2e in his preparation. 35.S7g-8h 1/219 0/272 36.P8e-8f 0/219 2/274 37.P8gx8f 14/233 0/274 38.R8bx8f 0/233 3/277 39.S8h-8g 16/249 0/277 40.R8f-8b 0/249 78/355 41.S8gx9h 30/279 0/355 42.P*8h 0/279 8/363 43.P*8c 5/284 0/363 44.R8b-6b 0/284 2/365 White can not take the pawn because of B*9d. 45.G7hx8h 73/357 0/365 46.L*8d 0/357 3/368 47.S9h-8g?! 0/357 0/368 Better is the simple 47.G7h Lx8i+ Sx8i Lx9g+ K4h and black has a small, but clear advantage. For example, after R9b to bring the rook into play, black can play the tesuji P*9c. After Nx9c the rook is again blocked and after Rx9c black plays P8b+. 48.B*9i 0/357 29/397 49.G8h-9h 4/361 0/397 50.B9ix6f+ 0/361 0/397 51.P2e-2d 2/363 0/397 52.P2cx2d 0/363 1/398 53.R2hx2d 0/363 0/398 54.P*2c 0/363 5/403 55.R2d-2e 0/363 0/403 56.R6b-9b 0/363 31/434 57.K5i-4h 4/367 0/434 58.N2a-3c 0/367 7/441 59.R2e-2h 29/396 0/441 60.P*8f 0/396 8/449 61.S8g-9f! 15/411 0/449 Very strange looking move, but it is the only one in this position. After 61.S7h (which Tanigawa had originally planned) white can play 62.+Bx7f P4e Nx4e P*4f +Bx9h Px4e S3c and the position is unclear. Tanigawa's move is keeping the small advantage he got from the opening. 62.L9ex9f 0/411 6/455 63.P*6d! 0/411 0/455 This combination of S9f and P*6d shows Tanigawa's power to attack from any position. 64.P6cx6d 0/411 7/462 65.B*6c 0/411 0/462 66.P8f-8g+ 0/411 9/471 67.B6cx8a+ 2/413 0/471 68.R9b-9e 0/413 3/474 69.+B8a-6c 6/419 0/474 70.+P8gx9h 0/419 2/476 71.P9gx9f 2/421 0/476 72.R9e-6e 0/421 5/481 73.L*6h 10/431 0/481 74.S*6b 0/431 38/519 75.N8i-7g?! 14/445 0/519 A mistake that almost loses the game. The simple 75.Lx6f Rx6f +Bx6b Gx6b S*6g R6e N7g is much easier to win for black. 76.R6e-2e! 0/445 0/519 Great effort to turn things around. 77.P*2f! 21/466 0/519 The 21 minutes Tanigawa took for this move prove that he was surprised. Fortunately, his position is still good enough to have a way out. It seems like it is very dangerous for white to give up the rook in this position, but after 77.Rx2e Nx2e R*4a K3c it is surprisingly hard to mate the white king. Tanigawa is lucky here that the patient but slow move P*2f still wins. 78.S6bx6c 0/466 0/519 79.L6hx6f 0/466 0/519 80.R2e-5e 0/466 0/519 81.N*6g 3/469 0/519 82.R5e-5d 0/469 0/519 83.N6g-7e 4/473 0/519 84.S6c-5b 0/473 1/520 85.B*8a 0/473 0/520 86.S4d-5e 0/473 0/520 87.B8ax5d+ 8/481 0/520 88.P5cx5d 0/481 0/520 89.R*9a 1/482 0/520 90.B*7d 0/482 19/539 91.S*6c 4/486 0/539 92.G*5a 0/486 0/539 93.S6cx7d= 2/488 0/539 94.P7cx7d 0/488 0/539 95.P3f-3e 0/488 0/539 96.P7dx7e 0/488 0/539 97.P3ex3d 0/488 0/539 98.N3c-4e 0/488 0/539 99.P4fx4e 0/488 0/539 100.N*4f 0/488 0/539 101.N*2e 13/501 0/539 102.N4fx5h+ 0/501 0/539 103.S4gx5h 0/501 0/539 104.S*2d 0/501 0/539 105.N*3f 4/505 0/539 106.S2dx2e 0/505 0/539 107.P2fx2e 0/505 0/539 108.N*4f 0/505 0/539 109.B*1e! 10/515 0/539 The winning move. 110.P2c-2d 0/515 0/539 Also, 110.K5c B2f! and white can not defend. 111.N3fx2d 0/515 0/539 112.N4fx5h+ 0/515 0/539 113.K4hx5h 0/515 0/539 114.S5ex6f 0/515 0/539 115.N2dx3b+ 7/522 0/539 116.K4b-5c 0/522 0/539 117.P8c-8b+ 1/523 0/539 118.B*3f 0/523 0/539 119.G*4g 0/523 0/539 120.S*4i 0/523 0/539 121.K5h-4h 2/525 0/539 Resigns 0/525 0/539 Time: 08:45:00 08:59:00 White can not continue his attack and has no defence against black's attack. A good start for Tanigawa in pursuit of his sixth Meijin title. In other shogi news: 1) In the Oi league Sato had a very long battle with Shima. The first game between them ended in jishogi. The second game lasted until the early hours of the morning and was finally won by Sato. When the post mortem analysis ended it was near dawn (5:20 in the morning). A big win for Sato, who now is the only player with a 3-0 score in the red group and is followed by only one player with 2-1, Takahashi. 2) In the Ryu-O tournament Goda became the second player after Habu to qualify for the challenger knockout. He beat Ono (7-dan) in the semi-finals of the third knock-out group. 3) The promotions in the 1997-1998 season were as follows: 8-dan: Maruyama 7-dan: Abe, Tosa, Nishikawa, Izumi, Nakata Hiroki, Kamiya, Goda 6-dan: Takeichi, Fukaura, Sanada, Naganuma, Kitahama 5-dan: Okazaki 4-dan: Sato Shinya, Masuda, Takano, Yamazaki, Ina That's all for this 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)298-54-3316 Fax: +81-(0)298-54-5918