From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 2 oct 1998 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 757, September 30th 1998) Shukan Shogi did not come until Wednesday and I had a busy week, so this is a bit late. To top it off, our mail server crashed and ate all my mail of the last 24 hours. If you sent me any mail during this time, do not wait for a reply :-). Most prominent this week the second game of the Oza-sen, which was a very good win for Tanigawa. He took a 2-0 lead with this game, but in the meantime has lost the third game, so Habu is still alive. Here is game two with some comments: Black: Tanigawa, Challenger White: Habu, Oza 46th Oza-sen, Game 2, September 21st 1998 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P8c-8d 0/0 0/0 3.G6i-7h 4/4 0/0 4.G4a-3b 0/4 3/3 5.S7i-6h 3/7 0/3 6.P3c-3d 0/7 1/4 7.P6g-6f 0/7 0/4 8.S7a-6b 0/7 1/5 9.P5g-5f 0/7 0/5 10.P5c-5d 0/7 1/6 11.S3i-4h 1/8 0/6 12.K5a-4a 0/8 1/7 13.K5i-6i 0/8 0/7 14.S3a-4b 0/8 0/7 15.G4i-5h 1/9 0/7 16.G6a-5b 0/9 1/8 17.S6h-7g 3/12 0/8 18.S4b-3c 0/12 1/9 19.B8h-7i 0/12 0/9 20.B2b-3a 0/12 0/9 21.P3g-3f 2/14 0/9 22.P4c-4d 0/14 1/10 23.G5h-6g 3/17 0/10 24.G5b-4c 0/17 4/14 25.B7i-6h 26/43 0/14 26.P7c-7d 0/43 8/22 27.K6i-7i 7/50 0/22 28.P9c-9d 0/50 4/26 29.K7i-8h 30/80 0/26 30.P9d-9e 0/80 5/31 31.P2g-2f 7/87 0/31 32.S6b-7c 0/87 5/36 33.P2f-2e 25/112 0/36 34.P7d-7e 0/112 19/55 35.P7fx7e 21/133 0/55 36.B3ax7e 0/133 0/55 37.P6f-6e 0/133 0/55 38.K4a-3a 0/133 17/72 39.S4h-5g 1/134 0/72 40.K3a-2b 0/134 0/72 41.S5g-6f 0/134 0/72 42.B7e-4b 0/134 0/72 43.B6h-4f 1/135 0/72 44.R8b-9b 0/135 0/72 45.N2i-3g 13/148 0/72 46.P6c-6d 0/148 68/140 47.P6ex6d 12/160 0/140 48.S7cx6d 0/160 1/141 49.P*6e 0/160 0/141 50.S6d-7c 0/160 0/141 51.P1g-1f 1/161 0/141 52.P1c-1d 0/161 17/158 53.P*7e 21/182 0/158 54.P*7d 0/182 12/170 After some early struggles, this is where the game really begins. It looks like white has the initiative here. Tanigawa has chosen an uncharacteristic defensive position. 55.P7ex7d 4/186 0/170 56.S7cx7d 0/186 0/170 57.P*7e!? 0/186 0/170 A brave pawn sacrifice. Tanigawa plays to contain white's pieces. Again, this is more like Oyama than Tanigawa. 58.S7dx7e 0/186 0/170 59.S6fx7e 0/186 0/170 60.B4bx7e 0/186 0/170 61.S7g-6f 0/186 0/170 62.B7e-4b 0/186 0/170 63.S*8c!? 1/187 0/170 Tanigawa must have felt that there was nothing else after 54.P*7d. This silver is going to pick up a lance, but it will stuck in the corner of the board. The problem with this position is that white has three pawns in hand and so has a very strong looking edge attack. Tanigawa has decided that stopping this easy attacking plan is the top priority here. 64.R9b-9c 0/187 0/170 65.S8c-8b= 0/187 0/170 No choice. The natural 65.S7d+ (to play B8b+ next) gives black major problems after 66.P3e!. This counter is very important in this game. 66.R9c-8c 0/187 1/171 67.S8bx9a= 0/187 0/171 68.P8d-8e 0/187 3/174 69.G6g-7g 2/189 0/174 70.P8e-8f? 0/189 10/184 A natural move that Habu regretted very much. The idea is 71.Px8f S*7e Sx7e Bx7e S*6f Bx6f Gx6g Rx8f, but black can counter strongly in this variation. Instead of 70.P8f, again 70.P3e would have been best. It takes some courage to play this move that weakens white's king position. After 70.Bx3e black can no longer play S8b+ and the silver will be stuck on 9a forever. And after 70.P2d Sx2d L*2g Px3f white has good chances to contain black's attack. It is interesting that in this game Tanigawa could play a dangerous looking move that contained Habu's attack and played it (S*8c). On the other hand, Habu passes up the chance to play a dangerous looking containment move. Did courage win this game for Tanigawa? 71.P8gx8f 1/190 0/184 72.S*7e 0/190 0/184 73.S6fx7e 21/211 0/184 74.B4bx7e 0/211 0/184 75.P2e-2d! 0/211 0/184 Black ignores the white promotion threat and goes for the attack. Well timed, but the situation is not as clear as Habu feared. 76.P2cx2d? 0/211 34/218 Only this is the decisive mistake. The best fighting chance was 76.Sx2d. Habu did not want to play this move because after 76.Sx2d S8b+ R8d S*8e B3i+ black could take with the rook on 2d. However, after Rx2d Px2d Sx8d P*7f Gx7f P*8g Kx8g R*4i white has the double threat of Rx8i+ and Rx4g+ (forking king and bishop). Because of this, black can not take the silver on 2d and has to play R1h after B3i+. Now there is a big difference between the white king position here and the white king position in the game. It seemed Habu only looked at 76.Sx2d S8b+ R8d S*8e Rx8e Px8e B3i+ Rx2d Px2d P*2c which is bad for white. 77.P*2c 1/212 0/218 78.G3bx2c 0/212 10/228 79.S9a-8b+ 1/213 0/228 80.R8c-8d 0/213 0/228 81.S*8e 1/214 0/228 82.B7e-3i+ 0/214 0/228 83.R2h-1h 19/233 0/228 84.R8dx8e 0/233 5/233 85.P8fx8e 0/233 0/233 86.N8a-9c 0/233 0/233 87.R*7b 3/236 0/233 The king looks very naked against this rook drop that both attacks and defends. All because of 76.Px2d. 88.S*3b 0/236 9/242 This is not a solid defense, but white has no choice. If 88.S*4b then B6d is too strong. 89.B4f-7c+ 24/260 0/242 90.N9cx8e 0/260 5/247 91.G7g-8f 3/263 0/247 92.P*7g 0/263 6/253 93.N8ix7g 8/271 0/253 94.N8ex7g+ 0/271 8/261 95.G7hx7g 0/271 0/261 96.P*7f 0/271 1/262 97.G7gx7f 0/271 0/262 98.N*8d 0/271 0/262 99.G7f-8e! 8/279 0/262 Cool move. After 100.+B6f K9h S*7g black looks in trouble, but then +Bx8d! kills white's attack (if +Bx8d then Rx7g+). 100.P*7f 0/279 11/273 101.L*7i 2/281 0/273 102.+B3i-6f 0/281 17/290 103.K8h-8g 0/281 0/290 Resigns 0/281 0/290 Time: 04:41:00 04:50:00 After 104.+Bx9i Gx8d, 104.P7g+ Lx7g or 104.S*8h Rx8h white can not continue his attack. In other shogi news: ==================== 1) Another big win for Tanigawa this week. This time he beat Moriuchi in the A Junisen to become the only undefeated player. Tanigawa is now 3-0, while Moriuchi falls to 3-1. The other game played was between Shima and Maruyama. Shima has tried everything in the past against Maruyama, but he can not find a way to win against him. Shima lost his eight straight game against Maruyama and now has to worry about relegation again at 1-2. Maruyama on the other hand climbs back to 2-1 and can aim at challenging Sato. 2) In B1 Goda won again to make it five straight and to take the sole lead in this class. Goda already has a game in hand, because there is only one player on 4-1: Tanaka Torahiko. Impressive stuff and it seems that this year we will again have a player who promotes in his first year. Fukuzaki and Tamura lost their fifth game in a row and now seriously need to worry about the single relegation spot this year. 3) In B2 a great round for Fujii. He beat Azuma himself to go to 4-0 and saw how almost all of his fellow leaders lost. Kitahama (against Tomioka), Sensaki (against Ono) and Waki (against Awaji) all fell back to 3-1 and only veteran Naito kept up with Fujii's pace by beating Ishida. 4) A good start for Morishita in the Osho league. It was seven years since he managed to qualify for the league, almost as long ago as opponent Yashiki, who was in this league six years ago. Morishita will probably have been very happy that he won this game. Yashiki did everything right until the very end of the game where Morishita's tough defending finally got to him. 5) A great start for Ladies Oi Yauchi in the Oi title match against Shimizu. Shimizu is almost unbeatable this year and is looking to take back her full title set. However, it is clear that Yauchi is not going to hand over her title without a fight. The first game was an epic struggle in which the outcome was only clear when Shimizu's king was mated. Great fighting shogi and we might have a very interesting match here. More next week, Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Complex Game Lab Electrotechnical Laboratory 1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp URL: http://www.etl.go.jp/etl/suiron/~grimberg/ Tel: +81-(0)298-54-3316 Fax: +81-(0)298-54-5918