From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 16 dec 1999 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 819, December 15th 1999) Last week there were games in three Junisen classes and Shukan Shogi focuses on the tough battles for promotion and relegation in A, B1 and B2. In the A class there were three games in round 6. Of course the game between leader Maruyama (5-0) and Morishita (2-3) was the centre of attention. Maruyama may be the best player of 1999, but Morishita had a surprisingly big lead in their encounters: 8-4. Both players have similar defending styles, but for some reason that works best for Morishita when they play each other. This game was no exception. In the R8e Yokofudori variation Morishita managed to promote a bishop and pull it back into his own camp, creating a very tough defensive position. This is the type of position in which Morishita is almost unbeatable. With some fine play, including a king move from 5h to 6g that is usually only played in handicap games, he slowly took away all of Maruyama's options. Maruyama finally had a choice between a quick death in a desperate attack or by slow strangulation. He chose the first option. So, the "Maruyama killer" strikes again and makes the Meijin challenger race very interesting. It is still a two horse race, but with Moriuchi and Maruyama way ahead with 5-1 scores, the chances are now exactly even with three more rounds to play. The game between Tanigawa (2-3) and Nakahara (1-4) was a very important game for the fight against relegation. If Nakahara would lose, his faith would almost be sealed considering his bad position in the A class. Tanigawa must have been surprised to find himself at the low end of the table. Things got worse for him, since he overlooked a brilliant Nakahara sacrifice which completely ruined his position. Nakahara almost threw away his advantage when he missed a defensive knightdrop that would have made his position completely safe. However, another good sacrifice gave his attack just enough strength to win the game. Both players now have a 2-4 score. Nakahara can still not breath easily, but he managed to stay close to his relegation rivals. The final A class game was between Habu and Tanaka. Habu has a surprisingly bad run in the A class this year and has no chance to challenge for the Meijin title with a 2-3 score. Tanaka, on the other hand, is doing well in his return to the A class with 3-2. One more win should secure his spot for next year. Getting this win against Habu would not be a big upset, since Tanaka took for consecutive wins into this game. Actually, Tanaka is the only player in the A class with a winning record against Habu. This time things were different, since Tanaka made an early mistake in a double anaguma game, being too subtle with a rook drop in his own camp which did not work well. Still, winning the game would have been very hard for Habu if Tanaka would not have blundered a little later. Instead of activating his pieces, Tanaka chose to make a tokin that was to far away from the king. In the end Habu took almost all of Tanaka's pieces to win the game. Both players are now back to 3-3 scores. Since all players in the A class have at least two wins, this 3-3 score is not enough to relax. The relegation battle in the A class will be very fierce this year... In B1 both leaders Kiriyama and Senzaki lost to make the promotion race a little bit tighter again. Senzaki did not have much of a chance against Takahashi, who controlled the Yagura game from the early middle game. Senzaki managed to keep it close, but Takahashi found all the right moves. Kiriyama lost to promotion rival Inoue, who now joins him and Senzaki at the top with a 6-2 score. There is nothing on the game between Inoue and Kiriyama, which probably means that it was very one-sided. The three leaders are followed by Aono, who is the only player at 5-3 after beating Fukuzaki. It is almost certain that two of these four will promote to the A class. The game between Inoue and Senzaki in the next round will be very important. In B2 the big game was between leaders Fujii and Abe. Again no detailed comments on the game, despite the fact that it must have been quite interesting. Abe seemed to be better until the endgame, where the Ryu-O managed to turn the tables and get the vital win. The other leaders Waki (against Nishikawa), Miura (against Hatakeyama) and Fukaura (against Ono) all won. Waki is keeping pace with those three big names, which is quite surprising. He can start to think about promotion to B1 with only three more rounds to play. He still has the tough hurdle Abe to take, though. Abe has a vital role in the promotion race, since he plays Fukaura next. There is still a lot to play for in B2. Fujii and Miura have it relatively easy from now and are my favourites for promotion. In the Osho league there was the big game between the two leaders Sato and Morishita. The winner of this game would secure at least a place in the play-off for challenging Osho Habu. It seemed that Sato was better all the time, but there was a point where Morishita missed a very good opportunity that might have given him the advantage. The position was probably not as good for Sato as everyone thought. However, Morishita also thought that his opening strategy had failed and this might have been the reason that he missed the right variation after which he lost quickly. In the other game Goda beat Kubo in a game he controlled for a long time but could have lost in the end after a careless attacking move. Goda now joins Maruyama and Morishita at 3-2 and can only hope for a mistake by Sato in the final round. In the Kisei leagues a big upset in group B where Tanaka Kaishu beat Moriuchi. 52 year old Tanaka beat his 29 year old opponent in great style and suddenly has a very good chance to advance to the knock-out challenger tournament. In a group with Izumi and Yonenaga, one more win might be enough to secure his place in the quarterfinals. 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