From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 16 oct 1998 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 759, October 14th 1998) Yesterday the first game of the Ryu-O match was played in New York. Because of the time difference there is no result yet, but the big question is: will Tanigawa lose his seventh (!) straight game? Losing six official tournament games in two weeks must give Tanigawa something to think about. The two most important losses were of course in the Oza title match that started so well for him. After two wins it seems that the match was all but over. However, after the disaster in game 4, where Tanigawa could not convert an overwhelming position, odds are now very much in Habu's favour, despite the 2-2 score. Here is what happened in game 4: Black: Tanigawa, Challenger White: Habu, Oza 46th Oza-sen, Game 4, October 6th 1998 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P8c-8d 0/0 1/1 3.P2g-2f 2/2 0/1 4.G4a-3b 0/2 3/4 5.G6i-7h 0/2 0/4 6.P8d-8e 0/2 3/7 7.B8h-7g 0/2 0/7 With his second chance to win the Oza title, Tanigawa goes to one of his specialties, the Kakugawari (Bishop Exchange). He is almost invincible in this opening. 8.P3c-3d 0/2 0/7 9.S7i-8h 1/3 0/7 10.S3a-4b 0/3 1/8 11.B7gx2b+ 1/4 0/8 12.G3bx2b 0/4 0/8 13.S8h-7g 0/4 0/8 14.S7a-6b 0/4 3/11 15.S3i-3h 1/5 0/11 16.P6c-6d 0/5 1/12 17.P4g-4f 3/8 0/12 18.S6b-6c 0/8 2/14 19.S3h-4g 1/9 0/14 20.G2b-3b 0/9 1/15 21.P1g-1f 6/15 0/15 22.P1c-1d 0/15 3/18 23.K5i-6h 4/19 0/18 24.S6c-5d 0/19 10/28 25.G4i-5h 4/23 0/28 26.K5a-4a 0/23 10/38 27.P3g-3f 3/26 0/38 28.K4a-3a 0/26 1/39 29.N2i-3g 3/29 0/39 30.P4c-4d? 0/29 15/54 A bad mistake. The scary thing about shogi is that a natural looking move in the opening can lead to a quick disaster when played at the wrong time. Here is an example of this. The correct move would have been 30.G5b. 31.L1i-1g 56/85 0/54 32.S4b-3c 0/85 30/84 33.R2h-1h 3/88 0/84 34.S3c-2d 0/88 4/88 35.P4f-4e 9/97 0/88 Now white problems become very clear. If 36.Px4e then B*4d, so white cannot take this pawn. 36.S5d-4c 0/97 18/106 Painful. 37.B*5e! 50/147 0/106 Strong. White has to keep on putting his pieces on hopeless squares to stay alive. 38.R8b-4b 0/147 50/156 39.P2f-2e 48/195 0/156 40.S2d-1c 0/195 23/179 41.B5ex6d 10/205 0/179 42.G6a-5b 0/205 1/180 43.P4ex4d 1/206 0/180 44.S4cx4d 0/206 1/181 45.P*4e 0/206 0/181 46.S4d-3c 0/206 18/199 47.K6h-7i 1/207 0/199 With simple moves, Tanigawa has forced all the white pieces on bad squares where it is very hard to get away from. Now white has no moves to improve his position, black calmly castles his king. 48.S3c-2b 0/207 10/209 49.K7i-8h 2/209 0/209 50.G5b-4c 0/209 11/220 51.P9g-9f 2/211 0/220 52.P9c-9d 0/211 26/246 53.R1h-4h 7/218 0/246 54.G4c-5d 0/218 4/250 55.B6d-4f 0/218 0/250 56.B*2f 0/218 10/260 57.R4h-1h 1/219 0/260 58.P*4d 0/219 1/261 59.P4ex4d 2/221 0/261 60.N2a-3c 0/221 0/261 61.P5g-5f 35/256 0/261 62.G5dx4d 0/256 12/273 63.S4g-3h 1/257 0/273 64.G4d-5d 0/257 1/274 65.P*4g 2/259 0/274 66.K3a-2a 0/259 3/277 67.P5f-5e 4/263 0/277 68.G5d-6e 0/263 0/277 69.P5e-5d 1/264 0/277 70.P5cx5d 0/264 5/282 71.P1f-1e 0/264 0/282 72.P1dx1e 0/264 0/282 73.P3f-3e 0/264 0/282 74.P*4e 0/264 3/285 75.B4f-6h 1/265 0/285 76.R4b-4d 0/265 0/285 77.P*5c 1/266 0/285 78.S1c-1d 0/266 3/288 White has to allow black to make a promoted pawn near his king. This ensures black strong attack later on. White has to hurry to make any kind of fight of it. 79.P5c-5b+ 0/266 0/288 80.P3dx3e 0/266 0/288 81.G5h-4h 14/280 0/288 82.N3cx2e 0/280 1/289 Black still has an overwhelming position, but white somehow has managed to wriggle some of his pieces free and take some initiative. There are no comments for the black moves up to this point, but it seems like black might have had some way to attack earlier. 83.N3gx2e? 1/281 0/289 This is a mistake that makes the position more interesting for white. After Lx1e black could have won quickly, even though the variations are a bit difficult: a) Sx1e Nx2e Bx4h+ Bx3e or b) Nx1g+ Lx1d Rx1d S2g +Nx2g Rx1d Lx1d R*6a both are winning for black. Tanigawa: "There were many possible moves and I got confused". 84.B2fx4h+ 0/281 0/289 85.S3h-2g 0/281 0/289 86.+B4hx4g 0/281 2/291 87.N*3c 7/288 0/291 88.S2bx3c 0/288 0/291 89.N2ex3c+ 0/288 0/291 90.G3bx3c 0/288 0/291 91.B6hx3e 2/290 0/291 92.R4d-3d 0/290 0/291 93.B3e-5c+ 0/290 0/291 94.N*8f! 0/290 2/293 Sets up a strong counter attack. Objectively black might still be winning, but the position is now too close for black's comfort. 95.P8gx8f 0/290 0/293 96.P8ex8f 0/290 0/293 97.P*3e 0/290 0/293 98.+B4g-6i 0/290 0/293 99.+B5cx8f 0/290 0/293 100.R3dx3e 0/290 0/293 101.S2g-2f 0/290 0/293 102.N*7d 0/290 0/293 103.+B8f-9g 6/296 0/293 104.R3e-3i+ 0/296 1/294 105.P*2b 0/296 0/294 106.K2ax2b 0/296 1/295 107.+P5b-4b? 2/298 0/295 Under pressure from the clock (only two minutes left), Tanigawa makes a decisive mistake. Things could still have worked out well after 107.S*3a K2a Lx1e P*8f Sx8f Gx7f Lx1d is the vital position. Does white have a mate or not? Very hard to see with only a few minutes on the clock, but after +Bx7h Rx7h P*8g +Bx8g Gx8g Kx8g +Rx8i G*8h G*9g Kx9g N*8e K8g G*7g Sx7g Nx7g+ Kx7g B*5i S*6h S*8f K7f +Rx7h K6e +R7e K5d R*6d K5c Bx2f+ K4b black escapes and wins. 108.P*8f 0/298 0/295 109.S7gx8f 0/298 0/295 110.G6ex7f 0/298 1/296 111.S*3a 0/298 0/296 112.K2b-1c 0/298 0/296 113.L1gx1e 0/298 0/296 114.N7dx8f! 0/298 2/298 As so often, Habu is very cool under pressure. It looks like black is threatening mate, but Habu has just enough time to calculate that he can escape. 115.L1ex1d 0/298 0/298 116.K1c-2d 0/298 0/298 117.S*3e 0/298 0/298 118.+R3ix3e 0/298 0/298 119.S2fx3e 0/298 0/298 120.K2dx3e 0/298 0/298 121.R*3i 0/298 0/298 122.+B6i-3f 0/298 0/298 123.R1h-1e 0/298 0/298 124.K3e-4f 0/298 0/298 Resigns 1/299 0/298 Time: 04:59:00 04:58:00 A hard blow for Tanigawa, who was in complete control for most of the game, but could not finish the job. The momentum has now shifted to Habu, who after two losses in the first two games seemed to be dead and buried. A deciding game 5 is needed to name this year's Oza title holder. In other shogi news: ==================== 1) Tanigawa's second loss this week was also his second loss in the Osho league. After losing in the first round to Meijin Sato, Tanigawa now lost against Maruyama. Maruyama had the better position for a long time, but in the end it became very complicated and it was Tanigawa who made the decisive mistake in a position that could have gone either way. Maruyama now climbs back to 1-1 and still has a chance to become the Osho challenger this year. 2) In C2 the number of players is uneven, so an extra round has to be played among the players who do not have to play in one of the regular rounds. There were only five games played, but some very interesting ones. Leaders Katsumata and Ino (both 3-0) had to play each other. Ino is a veteran (44) and Katsumata is a young pro (29). Still, it was Katsumata who had to sweat for a long time after he made a serious error in the middle game that almost completely destroyed his attacking chances. However, his fighting spirit kept him in the game and in the end it was Ino who made a serious endgame mistake and lost. In one of the other games second year pro Chuza beat Ueyama to keep his perfect record and has now won five straight games. After a bad first year he is only in 30th spot in the class, so he will have to keep winning to be certain of promotion. 3) In the Kio Shima and Ryu-O challenger Fujii reached the semi-finals. Shima beat Minami and Fujii beat Izuka, who has a great record in the Kio, reaching the semi-finals himself last year. Shima and Fujii will play each other in the semi-final. 4) Shimizu won the second game of the Ladies Oi to equalize the match at 1-1. Yauchi again showed that winning the title last year was not a fluke, because Shimizu had to work very hard to win. In the end it was only one move that made the difference. This match might take all five games to decide a winner. More next week, Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Complex Games 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