From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 17 sep 1998 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 755, September 16th 1998) It does not often happen that Habu loses on both the front and the back page of Shukan Shogi (these are the two pages where the most important results are being given). This week is such a week. On the front page the report about the first game of the Oza that Habu lost to Tanigawa and on the back page the loss of Habu in the second game of the Ryu-O challenger match. Let's begin with the first game of the Oza match: Black: Habu, Oza White: Tanigawa, Challenger 46th Oza-sen, Game 1, September 10th 1998 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 A couple of years ago, Habu and Tanigawa met so many times in title matches that there were people (like me) hoping that they would not meet for a while. This indeed happened, since this is the first meeting between the two since Tanigawa beat Habu in the Meijin title match more than a year ago. Habu has been dominating the Oza for years, winning the last fourteen title match games. However, Tanigawa is in good form and comes into this match with eight consecutive wins. This could be a very closely fought match. 2.P8c-8d 0/0 3/3 3.S7i-6h 0/0 0/3 4.P3c-3d 0/0 0/3 5.P6g-6f 1/1 0/3 6.S7a-6b 0/1 1/4 7.P5g-5f 2/3 0/4 8.P6c-6d 0/3 9/13 9.G6i-7h 3/6 0/13 10.S6b-6c 0/6 0/13 11.S3i-4h 0/6 0/13 12.S3a-4b 0/6 5/18 13.G4i-5h 3/9 0/18 14.P4c-4d 0/9 6/24 15.K5i-6i 4/13 0/24 16.S4b-4c 0/13 2/26 17.P2g-2f 3/16 0/26 18.P7c-7d 0/16 8/34 19.G5h-6g 50/66 0/34 20.R8b-4b 0/66 18/52 Yodofuribisha, which seemed to have been prepared by Tanigawa. Still, in this first game this strategy does not seem to be paying off. 21.K6i-7i 6/72 0/52 22.N8a-7c 0/72 18/70 23.S4h-5g 2/74 0/70 24.G4a-5b 0/74 12/82 25.P2f-2e 7/81 0/82 26.B2b-3c 0/81 0/82 27.P3g-3f 0/81 0/82 28.K5a-6b 0/81 9/91 29.B8h-7g 1/82 0/91 30.G6a-7b 0/82 29/120 31.K7i-8h 4/86 0/120 32.N7c-8e 0/86 62/182 33.B7g-8f 7/93 0/182 34.P4d-4e 0/93 2/184 35.N8i-7g! 56/149 0/184 Good counter by Habu. Normally, the exchange of the attacking knight against the defending knight should benefit white, but in this case Habu correctly judges that the knight in hand has much more potential for black than it has for white. Alternatives are 35.L9h and 35.K9h, but Habu thought that these moves were "dangerous". 36.P9c-9d 0/149 2/186 36.Nx7g+ Bx7g N*8e B8f P6e looks dangerous, but after K8i black's position is allright. The knight drops on 6d and 5e are too dangerous for white. Tanigawa is forced to switch to a slower pace, illustrating that his opening strategy has not been successful. 37.N7gx8e 8/157 0/186 38.P8dx8e 0/157 0/186 39.B8f-7g 0/157 0/186 40.S4c-4d 0/157 1/187 41.P1g-1f 0/157 0/187 42.G7b-7c 0/157 14/201 43.S6h-7i 14/171 0/201 44.P1c-1d 0/171 8/209 45.K8h-8i 3/174 0/209 46.K6b-7b 0/174 1/210 47.R2h-4h 31/205 0/210 48.B3c-2b 0/205 17/227 49.P2e-2d 18/223 0/227 50.P2cx2d 0/223 0/227 51.P4g-4f 0/223 0/227 52.P4ex4f 0/223 3/230 53.S5gx4f 0/223 0/230 54.P*4e 0/223 2/232 55.S4f-5g?! 15/238 0/232 It seems Habu passed up a good opportunity here: 55.P*4c Rx4c N*5e Sx5e Sx5e P5d S*3b R4b Sx2a+ B3c Sx6d Gx6d P6e and the difference in king position looks like giving black the advantage. Habu had seen this, but: "I did not have much confidence in this position". Tanigawa: "I was bothered by this a little bit, but I had no choice". Who was right? With 55.S5g the game again switches to a slower pace, but this time it is Tanigawa who seems to be helped by that. 56.R4b-4a 0/238 1/233 57.N2i-3g 2/240 0/233 58.P5c-5d 0/240 27/260 59.P*4f 22/262 0/260 60.P4ex4f 0/262 17/277 61.S5gx4f 0/262 0/277 62.P9d-9e 0/262 0/277 63.S7i-8h 9/271 0/277 64.R4a-8a 0/271 5/282 65.P*2c 6/277 0/282 66.B2b-3a 0/277 4/286 67.P6f-6e 3/280 0/286 68.P*4c 0/280 0/286 69.P6ex6d 4/284 0/286 70.G7cx6d 0/284 0/286 71.N*5g? 1/285 0/286 This is a clear mistake. Correct was 71.P*6e Gx6e N*5g G6d S4e. This sacrifices a pawn for an extra move. Usually this is easy to judge, but in this case it would have been black's final pawn. Habu did not like that and thought he could weather the storm. It is not easy after this, but Tanigawa now gets the clear initiative and he is one of the players who is most dangerous in a situation like that. Habu should have sacrificed his last pawn here. 72.P7d-7e 0/285 1/287 73.P*6e 0/285 0/287 74.G6d-7d 0/285 0/287 75.P7fx7e? 2/287 0/287 After this Habu's position becomes very critical. The way to keep it close was 75.P2b+. Then 76.P*7f Bx4d Px4d +Px3a P8f Px8f P*8g Sx8g N*7e Gx7f Nx8g+ Gx8g and black survives the white attack and has a lot of weak points in white's campt to work with. Also, 75.Bx2b Px7e Gx7e P*7f G7d and S4e gives black good chances of counterattack with the two attacking bases on 6d and 7e. After 75.Px7e white gets a very strong and perhaps even winning attack. However, time is running out and things are far from easy. 76.G7dx7e 0/287 3/290 77.P*7f 1/288 0/290 78.P*6f 0/288 0/290 79.G6gx6f 4/292 0/290 80.G7ex6f 0/292 0/290 81.B7gx6f 0/292 0/290 82.P8e-8f 0/292 0/290 83.P2c-2b+ 0/292 0/290 84.N*7d 0/292 0/290 85.B6fx4d 1/293 0/290 86.P4cx4d 0/293 0/290 87.+P2bx3a 0/293 0/290 88.P8fx8g+ 0/293 1/291 89.G7hx8g 0/293 0/291 90.B*5i 0/293 3/294 91.P*8c 3/296 0/294 92.R8ax8c 0/296 1/295 93.P*8d 0/296 0/295 94.R8cx8d 0/296 0/295 95.S*7e 0/296 0/295 96.R8dx8g+ 0/296 0/295 97.S8hx8g 0/296 0/295 98.G*7g 0/296 0/295 99.G*8h 1/297 0/295 100.B5ix4h+ 0/297 1/296 101.G8hx7g 0/297 0/296 102.R*4i 0/297 0/296 103.K8i-9h 0/297 0/296 104.G*8i 0/297 0/296 105.G7g-7h 0/297 0/296 106.G8ix9i 0/297 0/296 107.K9h-8h 0/297 0/296 108.R4i-8i+ 0/297 0/296 109.K8h-7g 0/297 0/296 110.+B4h-5i 0/297 0/296 111.G*6h 0/297 0/296 112.P*8f 0/297 1/297 113.S7ex7d 0/297 0/297 114.P8fx8g+ 0/297 0/297 115.K7g-6f 0/297 0/297 116.S6cx7d! 0/297 0/297 At a glance it looks like Habu has done it again. Black's king looks reasonably safe for the moment and white's king seems to be in all sorts of danger. Tanigawa has calculated this accurately, though, and already knows he is going to win by one move. If he would have played 116.+Px7h? here, Habu would really have managed to turn around the game after 117.R*7c K8a Sx6c+ Gx6c B*7b K8b Bx6c+ and black wins. 117.N*6d 1/298 0/297 118.K7b-8c 0/298 1/298 119.R*8a 0/298 0/298 120.K8c-9b 0/298 0/298 121.N6d-7b+ 1/299 0/298 122.+P8gx7h 0/299 0/298 Resigns 0/299 0/298 Time: 04:59:00 04:58:00 Now the dragon on 8i is working in defense, while 122.+Px7h is threatening mate (after S*7g). Best defense is 123.B*8h, but after +Rx8h Rx8h+ B*9c R*7e (R*8d Bx8d +Rx8d S*7g) Bx7e Px7e G*7f Kx7f S*6g Gx6g R*8f +Rx8f +Bx8f also leads to mate. A great start for Tanigawa, starting this short match with a white win. Ending Habu's winning streak in the Oza will help in the psychological battle. Game two is now already a vital game for the title holder. In other shogi news: ==================== 1) As already mentioned above, Habu also features negatively in the second important game of the week: the second game of the Ryu-O challenger match against Fujii. Habu suffered a convincing loss in this game and I guess Terao was right when he pointed out that Fujii is in great form these days. He even surpassed Goda on the season's ranking with a score of 22-5. In the meantime this is 23-5 or even better, since Fujii also won game 3 and is the challenger of Ryu-O Tanigawa. 2) In C2 round four was played and there are now seven undefeated players left. Sugimoto, Kimura, Namekata and Chuza have 4-0 scores and Katsumata, Ino and rookie Sato have 3-0 scores. 44-year old Ino is thus far the surprise among the leaders, but all others are very much capable of keeping their perfect score until the very end. 3) Minami, Shima, Fujii and Sato Yasumitsu have reached the quarterfinals of the Kio tournament. Shima beat Nakahara in a very interesting endgame and now faces Minami, who beat Kiriyama. The other known quarterfinal is between Fujii and Izuka. Maruyama and Sato have to wait for the result of the games Kobayashi-Tanigawa and Namekata-Goda respectively. 4) Nakamura beat Yonenaga with some very pretty endgame tactics to secure his ticket for this year's Osho league. He joins Sato Yasumitsu, Tanigawa, Maruyama, Nakahara, Morishita and Yashiki. They will play a round robin tournament to decide the challenger of Osho Habu. 5) There are two new professionals. Yamamoto Shinya and Nakao Toshiyuki were the surprising new 4-dans after the final round of the 23rd 3-dan league. Both were a point behind the two leaders with two rounds to play, but managed to win their final games and saw their rivals lose. From the interviews in Shukan Shogi one gets the impression that both are not very happy about the realisation of their dream. Yamamoto admitted to dropping in a deep shogi depression after losing the deciding game for promotion two years ago. He had more or less stopped studying shogi after that and was seriously looking for other work. Last time around he barely managed to scrape out the kachikoshi he needed to stay in the league (as a 26-year old he had to get a majority of wins or he would have been forced to retire). Nakao (23) is only a little more happy. Being the big outsider at the start of the day, other people had to tell him that he was the one that was promoted after the final round. Even then there was no smile. Maybe the surprise of promotion after starting with three losses was too much for him... Violent emotions for the leader until the final round Imaizumi. After losing the decisive game against Nakao he fled the Shogi Kaikan in tears. All three ended 12-6, but Imaizumi's bad result last time cost him promotion. -- 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