From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 19 feb 1999 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 776, February 17th 1999) This week the fourth game of the Osho title match between Habu and Morishita. Habu won, taking a comfortable 3-1 lead. Since blundering away the first game Habu has come back strongly. Three complicated games all went his way. Morishita now has a mountain to climb to get to his first title. Here is game 4 with comments: Black: Morishita, Challenger White: Habu, Osho 48th Osho-sen, Game 4, February 9th and 10th 1999 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P8c-8d 0/0 5/5 3.S7i-6h 2/2 0/5 4.P3c-3d 0/2 2/7 5.P6g-6f 0/2 0/7 6.S7a-6b 0/2 3/10 7.P5g-5f 2/4 0/10 8.P5c-5d 0/4 5/15 9.S3i-4h 3/7 0/15 10.S3a-4b 0/7 8/23 11.G4i-5h 3/10 0/23 12.G4a-3b 0/10 3/26 13.G6i-7h 5/15 0/26 14.K5a-4a 0/15 1/27 15.K5i-6i 1/16 0/27 16.G6a-5b 0/16 14/41 17.S6h-7g 9/25 0/41 18.S4b-3c 0/25 3/44 19.B8h-7i 1/26 0/44 20.B2b-3a 0/26 4/48 21.P3g-3f 3/29 0/48 22.P4c-4d 0/29 3/51 23.G5h-6g 18/47 0/51 24.P7c-7d 0/47 12/63 25.S4h-3g 5/52 0/63 26.B3a-6d 0/52 24/87 27.B7i-6h 7/59 0/87 28.G5b-4c 0/59 7/94 29.K6i-7i 1/60 0/94 30.K4a-3a 0/60 2/96 31.K7i-8h 2/62 0/96 32.K3a-2b 0/62 32/128 33.P1g-1f 14/76 0/128 34.P8d-8e 0/76 53/181 35.P2g-2f 40/116 0/181 36.S6b-7c 0/116 9/190 37.S3g-4f 19/135 0/190 38.P7d-7e 0/135 3/193 39.P7fx7e 3/138 0/193 40.P4d-4e 0/138 1/194 41.S4f-3g 1/139 0/194 42.B6dx7e 0/139 0/194 43.P*7f 41/180 0/194 44.B7e-6d 0/180 18/212 45.P2f-2e 5/185 0/212 46.S7c-6b 0/185 6/218 47.P4g-4f 7/192 0/218 48.P4ex4f 0/192 5/223 49.B6hx4f 1/193 0/223 50.B6dx4f 0/193 8/231 51.S3gx4f 0/193 0/231 52.P*4e 0/193 0/231 53.S4f-3g 27/220 0/231 The end of the first day. Again a position is reached that is already known and which was undoubtedly studied by both players. 54.S6b-5c 0/220 3/234 55.P7f-7e 7/227 0/234 56.P5d-5e 0/227 22/256 57.P5fx5e 15/242 0/256 58.S5c-4d 0/242 16/272 59.P5e-5d 27/269 0/272 60.G4cx5d 0/269 29/301 61.B*6a 29/298 0/301 So far the development was exactly the same as in the third game of the 1993 Osho match between Tanigawa and Murayama. There it followed 61.P7d G6d P2d Px2d P*2e Px2e N1g. Also possible is 61.P2d Px2d P7d G6d B*6a instead of playing B*6a right away as Morishita played here. Black aims at P*5b next. 62.P*5b?! 0/298 53/354 "Drop where your opponent wants to drop". Habu considered the well-known 62.B*9d Bx9d+ Px9d B*6a exchange. This seems to give white an extra move with the edge pawn. However, with the pawn on 9d it is hard to catch the black bishop on 6a, since B*9b followed by R6b is not possible because black can play Bx9d+. With the pawn still on 9c, Morishita has to do something against B*9b~R6b. Still, it seems that black can wriggle its way out of trouble, so B*9d might be better than P*5b after all. 63.P7e-7d 29/327 0/354 64.G5d-6d 0/327 9/363 65.R2h-5h 15/342 0/363 66.B*4c 0/342 51/414 This is not where one wants to use the bishop. Habu did not like 66.S5c P7c+ Nx7c P*7b followed by Bx5b+. After B*4c it is not that easy for black, but Morishita seems to have the better play. 67.P*5d? 34/376 0/414 "The first move a professional looks at", as Inoue 8-dan commented. However, this natural move is bad. It will soon become clear why 67.R5i as an extra preparation move would have been much better. 68.G6dx7d 0/376 12/426 69.P*7b 12/388 0/426 70.P*7f! 0/388 1/427 "An unexpectedly severe move" (Morishita). He intended to play 70.S6h, but after P8f Px8f P*8e Px8e N7c the attacking base on 7f is a big problem. Morishita had no choice but to change his plans and give white a silver in hand. 71.S7gx7f 26/414 0/427 72.P*7e 0/414 1/428 73.S7f-6e 0/414 0/428 74.G7dx6e 0/414 9/437 75.P6fx6e 0/414 0/437 76.S*6i 0/414 2/439 This is the reason why 67.R5i was better. Suddenly Morishita's king position is looking very weak. Still, the game is far from over. 77.R5h-5i 5/419 0/439 78.S6ix7h+ 0/419 0/439 79.K8hx7h 0/419 0/439 80.G*5a 0/419 0/439 81.P7b-7a+ 0/419 0/439 82.G5ax6a 0/419 0/439 83.+P7ax6a 0/419 0/439 84.P3d-3e?! 0/419 4/443 Aims at Px3f Sx3f P8f Px8f Rx8f with an attack on king and silver. However, this is an overplay that gives Morishita chances against the white king. 85.G*7g 5/424 0/443 86.P3ex3f 0/424 2/445 87.S3gx3f 0/424 0/445 88.B*2h 0/424 6/451 89.L1i-1g 5/429 0/451 90.B2h-4f+ 0/429 2/453 91.P*3g? 18/447 0/453 Another natural move costs Morishita the game. 91.S*3g was the correct defence. Then 92.+B5e G*6f +B5d P*3d (that is why 84.P3e was not good) Sx3d Rx5d Bx5d B*7a and black is suddenly winning. After 92.+B7c, black can play 93.+P7a, picking up the knight next. This leads to a difficult endgame with chances for both players. 92.P*3e 0/447 2/455 93.P*4g 3/450 0/455 94.+B4f-7c 0/450 0/455 95.S3f-2g 0/450 0/455 96.B4cx2e 0/450 3/458 97.S2g-3h 0/450 0/458 98.+B7c-8d 0/450 1/459 99.R5i-5f 3/453 0/459 100.B2e-3d 0/453 0/459 101.R5f-2f 7/460 0/459 102.R8b-7b 0/460 1/460 Resigns 12/472 0/460 Time: 07:52:00 07:40:00 Morishita took 12 minutes to resign. There is no good attack for black, while white has a devastating attack next with 103.P4f Rx4f P7f G7gx7f Rx7f Rx7f G*6f. Black can desperately defend with G*6f, but with such a big difference in king position Morishita judged that there was nothing left to play for. In the final position Habu is clearly winning, but this again was not an easy game. This was another record breaking victory for Habu. It was his 600th official win as a professional. He became the 20th player to achieve that, after Mori (9-dan) did the same in 1994. Against these 600 wins there are only 209 losses, a winning percentage of 74.1%, beating Oyama's previous record by 32 games. The 13 years and 2 months it took Habu is also the fastest pace ever, beating Tanigawa by almost 2 years. Another record for Habu that might not be broken for a very long time. In other shogi news: ==================== 1) No decision in the B1 Junisen yet. Tanaka Torahiko could have secured his come-back to the top class by beating Fukuzaki, but he failed despite having very good chances. With a score of 8-2 and only one game to play, he still remains in a very comfortable position. Only Goda (who beat Nakamura) also has 8-2. The other two players who still have a chance to promote are Minami and Aono, who both have 7-3 scores. Aono is ranked lower that Tanaka, so Minami is Tanaka's only remaining rival. A win by Tanaka or a loss by either Minami or Goda will seal it for Tanaka. On the other hand, Goda needs to win in the final game to be sure of promotion. At the other end of the table, Tamaru is the most likely candidate to be relegated to B2 with only 2 wins from 10 games. He needs to win his final game and either Mori or Kiriyama have to lose to save him from relegation. 2) In B2 veteran Naito crowned a remarkable come-back to B1 with his 9th straight victory. Being 59 years old and relegated from B1 last year, it was questionable if he would be able to hold his own against the young guns in B2, but he left no doubt that there is still a lot of good shogi in him. Ryu-O Fujii suffered a very painful loss against Nakagawa and now no longer has his chances of promotion in his own hands. Suddenly Sensaki is in the driving seat to get his second straight Junisen promotion. With a game against veteran Tanaka in the final round and probably on an emotional high after announcing his wedding to a Go professional last week, he is very much favoured to take the second promotion spot. 3) In C2 Namekata had to work very hard against Sato Shinya to finally clear the C2 class and promote to C1. Namekata is one of those players who is actually too strong for C2, but unable to get out of the class. Finally, in his 5th try, he made it with a perfect score of 9-0 and a game to spare. For rookie Sato this loss was hard to swallow. Not only did the loss mean that his own chances of promotion disappeared, but he had the better position until the very end. Only after midnight and in byoyomi he let the victory slip away. Second year pro Kimura is the second player to promote to C1. He has not wasted any time in the lowest Junisen division and seems a player with a lot of potential, holding his own against the top players in other tournaments as well. For Sugimoto the loss against Kimura was also a big blow. Sugimoto started with seven straight wins and a favourable Junisen ranking, but losses against Namekata and Kimura have made his promotion chances very small. For the final spot in C1 Sugimoto and Katsumata are the only two remaining candidates. Katsumata has lost only one game, but seems to have a tougher opponent in the final round than Sugimoto. Still, Katsumata should be the third player this year to promote. 4) In the Red Group of the Oi League, Shima showed his improved form of late by beating Meijin Sato. This will give him confidence for his final Junisen game in a couple of weeks, in which his position in the top class is at stake. For both players it is only the first game in the league, so no consequences yet for the challenger race. 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