From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 9 sep 1998 Subject: These weeks in Shukan Shogi (no. 751, 752 & 753) (LONG) I am back from a great holiday in Holland and there is a pile of Shogi and non-Shogi to catch up on. Since most of the tournaments developed over the weeks I was away, I decided to just give a digest of the three Shukan Shogi I missed and start my normal weekly reports again with no.754, the issue that arrived last Monday. First I will give the results of the tournaments and then I will give games 4 and game 5 of the Oi match between Habu and Sato with comments as given in Shukan Shogi. Tournament results: =================== A Junisen: ---------- "What's wrong Habu?" is a headline in Shukan Shogi after he dropped his third straight game in the A-class, virtually giving up the chance of becoming Meijin this year. In the third round Habu lost against Morishita against whom he had an overwhelming score of 25 wins and only 6 losses. Habu seemed to have the early lead, but Morishita is famous for his defensive skills and did not break under the pressure. When Habu tried to force the issue Morshita was quick to take advantage and when Habu missed a good move in a difficult position it was Morishira who won the game. He is now 2-1 and set for another run at the Meijin title. The player he is chasing is Moriuchi, who beat Maruyama to stay undefeated after three games. It was a tough game for Moriuchi, who had to come back from behind after Maruyama played the opening best. However, Maruyama does not seem to be in the shining form of earlier in the season, since he allowed Moriuchi back in the game and ended with a blunder that allowed Moriuchi to mate quickly. It was a small comfort that his position was probably already lost then. Probably the unhappiest player in round three was Inoue. He lost to Tanigawa, but that was very unlucky. Inoue had the early lead, but Tanigawa managed to get back into a very difficult and close endgame. Tanigawa attacked strongly and at some point Inoue had nothing more than sennichite. However, Tanigawa thought he was winning and attacked. That should have been a big mistake, but Inoue did not find the winning variation and lost. Inoue is now 0-3 and has to be very careful not to drop out of the A class in only his second year. Tanigawa now has two wins from two games and will be looking for a return match with Sato. B1 Junisen ---------- In B1 round four was played. Leader Goda played Minami, who is looking for a come-back to the top class. He started badly with two losses, but because of his high ranking there would have still been chances had he won this game. However, Goda outplayed him in a position that looked very dangerous for both players. Goda managed to make his own king safe and then won quickly in attack. The game was over in only 85 moves and Goda remains on top of the class with a perfect score from four games. He is followed by four players on 3-1: Nakamura, Tanaka, Aono and Kamiya. Nakamura played an interesting game against Tamura. Both players like unorthodox opening play, so the middle game position looked very unusual. It is interesting that Nakamura managed to get a big positional advantage after switching back to a more orthodox piece configuration. Tamura is still looking for his first win, but this year only one player will be relegated from B1, so he is not in dire trouble yet. B2 Junisen ---------- B2 is usually a class where half of the players fight for promotion and the other half fights to avoid relegation. There are only few players who are in the safe middle, so most games have something at stake. In the early stages it is a matter of keeping up with the group winning all games or avoiding to get in the group with only losses. After round two 11 of the 24 players had two wins. After round three there are only six left: Naito (who beat Kodama), Fujii (beat Izumi), Tosa (beat Nakagawa), Waki (beat Tomioka), Sensaki (beat Hatakeyama) and Kitahama (beat Manabe). This is an interesting group of leaders. Fujii and Sensaki were kind of expected to fight for promotion, but veteran Naito (58) was expected to slowly slide down after relegating from B1 last year. Also, Tosa's victory over promotion favourite Nakagawa was a major upset. Not when looking at the game, since Tosa played very well and finished the game very quickly. Of the five games played in Tokyo, this game was finished first. Waki is making a very good comeback this year after losing most of his games last year and barely avoiding a relegation marker. Finally, newly promoted Kitahama is doing well for the second year in a row, which is a first in his (still young) career. He seems to save his best shogi for the junisen again, since he is only 7-5 for the season so far. C1 Junisen: ----------- C1 is a class where every year three strong players from C2 enter and only two players promote, so this is a class that effectively becomes harder every year. The only way to be certain of promotion here is to win all games, but often strong players beat each other and once in a while 8-2 is even enough to promote. After the third round there are only four players with a perfect score: Suzuki (who beat Hatakeyama), Kanzaki (against former last year's Ryu-O challenger Sanada who is now 0-3), Ogura (who took a long time to get out of C2, but now in his second year in C1 seems to have found his way again) and newly promoted Sato (who beat Sakurai). All are strong players, but it is doubtful that one of them will win all his games with so many strong opponents to come. Furthermore, Suzuki is ranked at number seven in C1, but all six top seeds in the class have a 2-1 score, waiting for him to make a mistake. This could be as early as the next round, when Suzuki and Ogura will face each other. Kanzaki seems to have the easiest schedule of the leaders, but even he has to face Suzuki, Ogura and Sato in the latter rounds. No predictions from me for this class until the very last rounds.... C2 Junisen ---------- With 47 players and only three promotion spots, the C2 class is very tough. Many young, strong players and with two losses out of ten games you are almost always out of the promotion race and sometimes even one loss is too much for promotion. Keeping a perfect record is therefore vital for that mental edge that is a necessity for winning close games. After three rounds, there are eleven players left without a loss: Sugimoto, Matsumoto, Kimura, Namekata, Hirafuji, Kosaka, Chuza, Ino and Naganuma have three wins and Katsumata and rookie Sato have two wins. Kimura and Tamura played a shoot-out endgame where Tamura had a bishop plus three silvers and three generals and looked to be mating. After the obvious starting sacrifice, the usual lightning speed Tamura suddenly sank into deep thought. After 50 minutes (!) he realised that there was no mate and that he would lose. "By pure coincidence it was no mate" (Kimura). A lucky win for Kimura, but these also count... Tamura went straight to a bar in Shinjuku to forget the game, but by coincidence was joined a little later by rookie Takano, who blew a won game against Kitajima by choosing the only variation by which he could be mated. Rumour has it that this bar was not a fun place to visit that night... Ryu-O ----- As already reported by Noda-san, the challenger final of the Ryu-O tournament is being played between Habu and Fujii. Fujii so far has a great season with an overall record of 19 wins and 5 losses. Habu, on the other hand, is struggling a little bit (meaning being very good instead of brilliant). In the A-class junisen he started with three losses and can all but forget about another Meijin crown this year. Habu is "only" 10-6 for the season. Of course Habu has the experience to play well when it really matters and it shows in the Ryu-O. He beat both Goda and Maruyama on his way to the final and it must be said that he won those games with very impressive shogi. Fujii had more trouble to reach the final against Yashiki. Yashiki was leading all the way, but overlooked a develish attacking move by Fujii which turned the tables. Oi-sen ====== Oi-sen game 4: -------------- In the fourth game of the Oi match Habu stretched his lead to 3-1. It was a very short game (only 73 moves) where Sato made the one mistake that is often enough to destroy a complete position in the risky Yokofudori opening. Habu now needs only one win from three games to defend his Oi title. Here is game four with some comments. Black: Habu Yoshiharu, Oi White: Sato Yasumitsu, Challenger 39th Oi-sen, Game 4, August 17th and 18th 1998 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/0 15/15 Sato takes a long time for his first move. For some professionals this might be an indication that they are still unsure of what to play. In Sato's case, these fifteen minutes were only used to get himself in the right mental state for the violent strategy he is about to chose. 3.P2g-2f 2/2 0/15 4.P8c-8d 0/2 0/15 5.P2f-2e 4/6 0/15 6.P8d-8e 0/6 0/15 7.G6i-7h 1/7 0/15 8.G4a-3b 0/7 0/15 9.P2e-2d 3/10 0/15 10.P2cx2d 0/10 0/15 11.R2hx2d 0/10 0/15 12.P8e-8f 0/10 0/15 13.P8gx8f 1/11 0/15 14.R8bx8f 0/11 0/15 15.R2dx3d 1/12 0/15 16.B2b-3c 0/12 5/20 Sato has chosen the B3c variation of the Yokofudori (Side Pawn). This is not the quickest variation in this opening, but neither player will make a classic castle around the king, so disaster can strike at any move. 17.R3d-3f 16/28 0/20 18.K5a-5b 0/28 10/30 19.R3f-2f 41/69 0/30 20.S3a-2b 0/69 2/32 21.K5i-5h 1/70 0/32 22.G6a-7b 0/70 56/88 23.P*8g 48/118 0/88 24.R8f-8e 0/118 9/97 This is a rather new idea, introduced by Chuza (4-dan) in his C2 Junisen game against Matsumoto last year. Chuza won this game and since then R8e has been picked up by some other young players. Especially Nozuki (4-dan) has tried this plan a couple of times. However, usually it is played with the king on 4a instead of 5b. Sato will have studied the position and decided that K5b might be a subtle improvement. In any case, the aim of R8e is the same: white threatens to play P*2e and has the move P7d without blocking the rook. Black has no direct attack against the white position, so Habu chooses to quietly develop his pieces. 25.B8h-7g 24/142 0/97 26.P7c-7d 0/142 53/150 27.S7i-6h 23/165 0/150 28.N8a-7c 0/165 22/172 29.G4i-3h 31/196 0/172 30.S7a-6b 0/196 60/232 31.S3i-4h 3/199 0/232 32.P9c-9d 0/199 0/232 33.P1g-1f 7/206 0/232 34.P1c-1d 0/206 27/259 35.P9g-9f 8/214 0/259 36.P7d-7e?! 0/214 14/273 Sato: "There was no more waiting move". If this is the only move, white's position might be suspect, since Habu can strongly counter here. 37.P1f-1e! 79/293 0/273 Strong attack. After 38.Px1e P*1b Lx1b Bx3c+ Nx3c B*2a white is in big trouble. 38.P*2e 0/293 50/323 A well-known tesuji. By sacrificing a pawn, the black rook is forced to a square where it is under attack in the above variation after Nx3c, so black has no time to play B*2a then. 39.R2fx2e 57/350 0/323 40.P1dx1e 0/350 3/326 41.R2e-2f! 0/350 0/326 Patient move. Now P*1b is a threat again. 42.S2b-2c? 0/350 70/396 After long thought Sato plays this bad move. The frightening thing about the Yokofudori is that after just this one bad move his position quickly collapses. The right move would have been 42.P*2d. Then 43.P8f R8d Px7e P*8e is probably good for white, so black has to choose the violent 43.Bx3c+ Nx3c N7g R8d Px7e B*5d P8f P*7f N8e Nx8e Px8e Rx8e N*6d Px6d B*7d B*6c Bx8e Bx8e R*8a B6c Rx9a+ B*4d and white also has a strong attack. The post-mortem analysis could not give a definitive judgment on this position, but it is clear that white has much better chances than in the game. 43.P*1b 40/390 0/396 44.P*2e 0/390 5/401 45.R2f-3f 10/400 0/401 46.L1ax1b 0/400 1/402 47.P*2b 17/417 0/402 Hard to deal with. 48.Bx2b Bx2b+ Gx2b R3a+ or 48.Gx2b Bx3c+ Nx3c (Gx3c P*2b) B*1a are both very good for black. Sato has no choice but to throw everything in attack. 48.P*3e 0/417 3/405 49.R3fx3e 1/418 0/405 50.P7ex7f 0/418 1/406 51.B7gx3c+ 1/419 0/406 52.R8ex3e 0/419 2/408 53.+B3c-6f 1/420 0/408 54.R*2f 0/420 28/436 Good try, trying to take the horse on 6f out of play, but not good enough. 55.B*1g! 15/435 0/436 Cool reply. This wins the rook on 3e and the game. 56.R2fx2i+ 0/435 29/465 57.G3h-3i 0/435 0/465 58.+R2ix1i 0/435 5/470 59.B1gx3e 0/435 0/470 60.P*3h 0/435 0/470 61.G3i-4i 10/445 0/470 62.L*3c 0/445 0/470 62.N*2g looks better, but after 63.Px2a+ P3i+ G5i +P3h P5f black has a winning position as well (for example L*6d +B7e). 63.P2bx2a+ 5/450 0/470 64.L3cx3e 0/450 0/470 65.+P2a-2b 0/450 0/470 66.+R1ix4i 0/450 3/473 67.K5hx4i 0/450 0/473 68.B*6i 0/450 0/473 69.+P2bx3b 4/454 0/473 70.S2cx3b 0/454 0/473 71.N*2d 3/457 0/473 72.N*2f 0/457 2/475 73.R*4b 1/458 0/475 Resigns 0/458 0/475 Time: 07:38:00 07:55:00 A very short game that clearly showed the danger lurking in the Yokofudori opening. Oi-sen game 5: -------------- Sato needed to win game five of the Oi-sen to stay in the match at 3-1 down and that is exactly what he did. The game look to be starting off quickly in a Shikenbisha position where Habu quickly pushed the pawn on the sixth file, but then the pace went down again and Sato got the better position. Habu's position then needed only one mistake to become critical and the following desperate attack turned out to be suicidal. So Sato is now back to 3-2, but still needs to win the two remaining games to take the Oi title from Habu. Here is the game: Black: Sato Yasumitsu, Challenger White: Habu Yoshiharu, Oi 39th Oi-sen, Game 5, August 27th and 28th 1998 1.P7g-7f 1/1 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/1 6/6 3.P2g-2f 2/3 0/6 4.P4c-4d 0/3 4/10 5.P2f-2e 2/5 0/10 6.B2b-3c 0/5 1/11 7.S3i-4h 0/5 0/11 8.R8b-4b 0/5 2/13 9.K5i-6h 3/8 0/13 10.S7a-7b 0/8 6/19 11.K6h-7h 1/9 0/19 12.K5a-6b 0/9 44/63 13.P5g-5f 4/13 0/63 14.K6b-7a 0/13 1/64 15.G4i-5h 40/53 0/64 16.P9c-9d 0/53 3/67 17.P9g-9f 1/54 0/67 18.P6c-6d 0/54 82/149 19.S4h-5g 13/67 0/149 20.S3a-3b 0/67 1/150 21.B8h-7g 49/116 0/150 22.P7c-7d 0/116 23/173 23.K7h-8h 10/126 0/173 24.N8a-7c 0/126 5/178 25.P6g-6f 5/131 0/178 26.R4b-6b 0/131 9/187 27.G5h-6g 52/183 0/187 28.P6d-6e 0/183 5/192 Habu opens the fight quickly. We are still a couple of hours away from the close of the first day. 29.G6i-7h 56/239 0/192 30.G4a-5b 0/239 40/232 It is a pity that white has to lose time playing this move, but there was no choice. After 30.P4e Px6e Nx6e Bx3c+ Nx5g+ +B5e black is threatening mate, so white can not take on 6g. Also, after 30.N8e B8f the pawn on 5c is undefended. 30.G4a-5b defends against this, so now white does threaten N8e followed by P4e. 31.K8h-9h 23/262 0/232 Sato style move. This blocks the lance and might be dangerous, but taking the king out of the bishop diagonal is more important. 32.S3b-4c? 0/262 28/260 A mistake that gives black the advantage. Better was 32.P9e Px9e N8e B8f P4e which leads to an unclear but violent fight after P5e Bx5e G5f Px6f Gx5e Px6g+. After 32.S4c the game returns to the piece development stage. 33.P8g-8f 7/269 0/260 34.P8c-8d 0/269 3/263 35.S7i-8h 0/269 0/263 36.S7b-8c 0/269 2/265 37.S8h-8g 1/270 0/265 38.G6a-7b 0/270 0/265 39.B7g-8h 30/300 0/265 40.P6ex6f 0/300 22/287 41.S5gx6f 0/300 0/287 42.P*6e 0/300 0/287 43.S6f-7g 4/304 0/287 44.G5b-6c 0/304 0/287 45.B8h-7i 1/305 0/287 46.R6b-2b 0/305 0/287 It is interesting that we now have reached a well-known position where black has won a move despite the bishop manoeuvre B7g-B8h-B7i. The reason is that black has managed to get his gold to 6g in the usual way, while in the normal joseki white plays P6e with the black pawn still on 6g so the gold takes a long route to 6g: P6e P6f Px6f G5g N7c Gx6f P*6e G6g is then the normal move sequence. It seems that Habu only after the game realised that he was an extra move behind here. Sato now has a small advantage, but is still far from winning. 47.P3g-3f 22/327 0/287 48.P5c-5d 0/327 30/317 49.B7i-4f 2/329 0/317 50.B3c-4b 0/329 2/319 51.P1g-1f 6/335 0/319 52.P1c-1d 0/335 9/328 53.P5f-5e 5/340 0/328 54.K7a-8a? 0/340 35/363 A big mistake that makes white's position critical. Much better would have been 54.Px5e Bx5e G5d B3g P3e to go after the blaack bishop. Post-mortem analysis did not reach a conclusion, but it was "100 times better than the game" (Habu). 55.G6g-5f 27/367 0/363 56.P7d-7e 0/367 17/380 57.P7fx7e 6/373 0/380 58.B4bx7e 0/373 0/380 59.P*6f 8/381 0/380 60.P8d-8e 0/381 2/382 61.P8fx8e 6/387 0/382 62.P9d-9e 0/387 1/383 63.P9fx9e 2/389 0/383 64.G6c-7d 0/389 2/385 65.P*7f 17/406 0/385 66.B7e-5c 0/406 1/386 67.K9h-8h 5/411 0/386 68.R2b-6b 0/411 14/400 69.P6fx6e 6/417 0/400 70.N7cx6e 0/417 2/402 Things do not seem too bad for white. He has been able to bring his rook back into play and has an attack that looks very promising. For example, 71.S7g-8f P*7g and white has good chances to win. 71.G5fx6e 5/422 0/402 72.G7dx6e 0/422 3/405 73.N*7e! 6/428 0/405 Nice counter. After 74.S7d P*6c white's attack would die and his king position would be too weak. 74.G6ex7e 0/428 33/438 Painful, but white has no choice. Still, this gold is defending vital squares, so white has no real hope of defending the position now. 75.P7fx7e 0/428 0/438 76.P5dx5e 0/428 0/438 77.P*6c 2/430 0/438 78.R6bx6c 0/430 0/438 Or 78.Gx6c P9d P*9b P2d and white is slowly squeezed to death. 79.P8e-8d 1/431 0/438 80.S8cx8d 0/431 8/446 80.S9b G*7d R6i+ R6h might prolong the agony a little, but one can not blame Habu for not playing this hideous looking move. 81.G*7d 0/431 0/446 82.R6c-6i+ 0/431 0/446 83.R2h-6h 3/434 0/446 84.+R6ix2i 0/434 0/446 85.R6h-6a+ 2/436 0/446 86.G*7a 0/436 0/446 87.P*8b 2/438 0/446 88.K8ax8b 0/438 4/450 89.P*8c 0/438 0/450 90.K8b-8a 0/438 0/450 90.Gx8c Gx8c Kx8c +R6c is easier for black. 91.+R6ax2a 6/444 0/450 Resigns 0/444 0/450 Time: 07:24:00 07:30:00 After 92.S8e Bx5e (threatening P8b+ G7bx8b Bx8b+ and mate) P*6d N*8d white has no more hope. A good win for Sato, but no smiles from him after the end of the game. He takes his responsibilities as a new Meijin very seriously and he is unhappy with his recent match results against Habu (4-1 losses in both last year's Oi and this year's Osho title matches). He is still 3-2 behind and needs to win the remaining games to win the Oi title. -- 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