From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 25 feb 1999 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 777, February 24th 1999) After losing most games in the A class Junisen, there were again questions about Habu's form. However, lately he seems to be getting back some of the magic he is famous for. In the first game of the Kio title match a bad looking position magically turned into a favourable one, giving Habu the perfect start against Meijin Sato to get his ninth consecutive Kio title. Here is the game with some comments: Black: Habu, Kio White: Sato Yasumitsu, Challenger 24th Kio-sen, Game 1, February 13th 1999 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 Again Sato is challenging Habu for a major title. After three Ryu-O matches, two Oi title matches and one Osho title match, they now meet for the first time in a one day title match. Except for the first title match between these two, Meijin Sato has lost all of them and his score against Habu is 17 wins and 30 losses. Data shows that the winner of the first game in the Kio wins the match 80% of the time. Therefore, this is a big game for Sato, especially since Habu seems to have an iron grip on the Kio title, aiming for his ninth consecutive victory. 2.P3c-3d 0/0 1/1 3.P2g-2f 1/1 0/1 4.P8c-8d 0/1 0/1 5.P2f-2e 1/2 0/1 6.P8d-8e 0/2 0/1 7.G6i-7h 1/3 0/1 8.G4a-3b 0/3 0/1 9.P2e-2d 2/5 0/1 10.P2cx2d 0/5 0/1 11.R2hx2d 0/5 0/1 12.P8e-8f 0/5 0/1 13.P8gx8f 0/5 0/1 14.R8bx8f 0/5 0/1 15.R2dx3d 0/5 0/1 16.N2a-3c 0/5 0/1 17.K5i-5h 5/10 0/1 18.K5a-6b 0/10 1/2 19.R3d-3f 2/12 0/2 20.S3a-4b 0/12 1/3 21.G4i-3h 1/13 0/3 22.K6b-7b 0/13 1/4 23.S3i-4h 1/14 0/4 24.G6a-6b 0/14 5/9 25.P9g-9f 1/15 0/9 26.S7a-8b 0/15 2/11 27.N8i-7g 11/26 0/11 28.R8f-8d 0/26 4/15 29.P7f-7e 27/53 0/15 30.R8d-2d 0/53 4/19 31.P*2g 0/53 0/19 32.P*8d! 0/53 7/26 This move was prepared by Sato. It looks like the waste of a good pawn, since white has been to all the trouble of exchanging pawns on the 8th file. However, Sato wants to build a position with the silver on 8c. This is a formation that Morishita played with white against Sato in the Osho league in December. However, in that game the black pawn was dropped on 8e and as soon as the white rook was no longer defending 8d, the attack P8d Sx8d P*8e S9c became a big problem for white. Sato undoubtedly studied this game deeply and concluded that the position with the silver on 8c is good, but that it needs the pawn on 8d. 33.R3f-7f 11/64 0/26 34.S8b-8c 0/64 2/28 35.S7i-6h 0/64 0/28 36.P1c-1d 0/64 13/41 37.P1g-1f 5/69 0/41 38.P9c-9d 0/69 6/47 39.P6g-6f 6/75 0/47 40.P5c-5d 0/75 7/54 41.P6f-6e 5/80 0/54 42.P5d-5e 0/80 4/58 43.S6h-6g 4/84 0/58 44.B2b-1c 0/84 3/61 45.P3g-3f 11/95 0/61 46.S4b-5c 0/95 3/64 47.S4h-3g 8/103 0/64 48.G3b-4b 0/103 3/67 49.B8h-9g 16/119 0/67 50.G4b-5b 0/119 7/74 51.S3g-2f 1/120 0/74 52.R2d-5d 0/120 30/104 53.N2i-3g 9/129 0/104 54.P6c-6d 0/129 4/108 Sato has achieved everything that he aimed for. White's position looks very solid, a good time to start the attack. Habu seems to be in trouble here. 55.P1f-1e 33/162 0/108 Leads to a violent exchange, but black has no choice. After 55.Px6d P*6e Nx6e Sx6d P*6f G5b-6c followed by P7d, white is better. 56.P6dx6e 0/162 4/112 57.P1ex1d 0/162 0/112 58.B1c-3a 0/162 1/113 59.P*6f 0/162 0/113 60.P7c-7d 0/162 17/130 61.P6fx6e 3/165 0/130 62.P7dx7e 0/165 0/130 63.B9gx7e 1/166 0/130 64.S8c-7d 0/166 6/136 65.B7ex8d! 4/170 0/136 Strong move. "This bishop has nowhere to go, so I thought this move was not possible" (Sato). Habu has judged that pulling back the bishop is bad and decides to sacrifice it for a silver and attacking chances. 66.P*7e 0/170 34/170 67.B8dx7e 7/177 0/170 68.S7dx7e 0/177 0/170 69.R7fx7e 0/177 0/170 70.G6b-7c 0/177 0/170 Feels bad, but 70.P*7d R8e P*8c R8i gives up all the pawns in hand and is "uninteresting" (Sato). 71.R7e-7f 3/180 0/170 72.S5c-6b 0/180 0/170 73.P6e-6d 5/185 0/170 74.R5dx6d 0/185 10/180 75.S*6e 1/186 0/180 76.R6d-8d 0/186 11/191 77.P*8e 4/190 0/191 78.R8d-8c 0/190 0/191 79.P*7d 14/204 0/191 80.G7c-6c 0/204 0/191 81.P*6d 0/204 0/191 82.G6cx6d 0/204 3/194 83.S6ex6d 0/204 0/194 84.B3ax6d 0/204 0/194 85.G*6e 0/204 0/194 86.P*6f 0/204 4/198 Sato has patiently defended for a while, but now sees his chance to counter. 87.Rx6f S*7e and 87.Sx6f B*8i are both bad for black, so he has to move forward. 87.G6ex6d 11/215 0/198 88.P6fx6g+ 0/215 0/198 89.G7hx6g 0/215 0/198 90.S*6i? 0/215 40/238 Somewhere Sato must have discovered a mistake in his calculations, since he used all but two minutes of his remaining time for this move. "Calculating the attack shows that I was clearly bad. I knew that S*6i was wrong, but I did not see anything else" (Sato). Alternatives were 90.S*7h and 90.B*7h. 90.S*7h seems bad after G6f B*6i K4h because black escapes on the right wing. After 90.B*7h black has the choice between defence (P*6h) and attack (N6e). Both players thought during the game that P*6h was winning for black, while N6e was risky. However, 91.P*6h B8g+ P7c+ Sx7c N6e S*6i K4h +Bx7f Nx7c+ Rx7c Gx7f R*5h K3i R5i+ K2h Rx7f and "if you look closely, I am losing" (Habu). Indeed, after the fork B*5d P*6c Bx7f white wins with S*1g Kx1g +Rx1i S*1h P*1f Kx1f Lx1d and mate. The right solution is the risky 90.B*7h N6e. Then B8g+ P8d! wins by one move. It seems that both players overlooked this move. After P8d, Rx8d P7c+ leads to mate while +Bx7f Px8c+ Kx8c Gx7f also wins for black since white can not keep making mating threats. Concluding: Sato should have tried 90.B*7h. 91.K5hx6i 4/219 0/238 92.B*8g 0/219 0/238 93.K6i-5h 1/220 0/238 94.B8gx7f+ 0/220 0/238 95.G6gx7f 0/220 0/238 96.R*7i 0/220 1/239 97.B*4a 8/228 0/239 98.G5b-5c 0/228 0/239 99.S*7c 11/239 0/239 100.N8ax7c 0/239 0/239 101.P7dx7c+ 0/239 0/239 102.R8cx7c 0/239 0/239 103.N*8d 0/239 0/239 104.K7b-6a 0/239 0/239 105.G6dx7c 0/239 0/239 106.S6bx7c 0/239 0/239 107.B*8c 0/239 0/239 108.K6a-5a 0/239 0/239 109.B4a-2c+ 0/239 0/239 This move defends against the mating threat S*6g Kx6g S*7h and threatens mate with R*6a. Black wins. 110.K5a-5b 0/239 0/239 111.R*7a 0/239 0/239 112.S*4i 0/239 0/239 113.K5h-6h 0/239 0/239 114.R7i-5i+ 0/239 0/239 115.K6h-7h 0/239 0/239 Resigns 0/239 0/239 Time: 03:59:00 03:59:00 A strange game where Sato's good position turned in a difficult one without a single bad move. Did Habu's magical powers extend to the middle game this time? In other shogi news: ==================== 1) In the Kisei tournament, three of the four Kisei leagues were played to a finish. In each group of four players, two players qualify for the knock-out tournament to decide the challenger of Kisei Goda. In Group A Habu needed to beat Hatakeyama Nariyuki to get to the next stage and he did. Former Kisei Miura was already qualified from this group, so the loss in the final game against Yashiki (also a former Kisei title holder) did not matter. In group B Namekata finished top of a very strong group with Ryu-O Fujii, Meijin Sato and Minami. Namekata is also leading the season's ranking with a score of 36 wins and only 9 losses. Still a long way to go to get to his first title match appearance. Namekata is accompanied by Meijin Sato, who beat Fujii. Fujii bows out of the Kisei without a single win. In group C no stunt by young Kimura. He lost to Yonenaga who will now enter the quarterfinals together with Tanigawa, who beat Nakamura. In group D Nakahara is already qualified and the final spot will be filled by either Moriuchi or Hatakeyama Mamoru. 2) In the White Group of the Oi leagues, Fujii and Takahashi continued their personal discussion about a certain opening position. For the third time in a row, both players chose the same position. This time Takahashi won even though he needed a little help by Fujii in the endgame. Bad results in the Junisen, Kisei league and now this loss seem to indicate a post title slump for Fujii. Will he be able to break out of that and still play a role in the Oi title challenge race? Also in the White Group, the game between C2 members Yagura and Kitajima was decided in Yagura's favour. With some nice endgame play he managed to transform his Mino castle in some kind of Anaguma and that was too much for Kitajima to break down. 3) In the 6th group of the Ryu-O tournament an interesting encounter between top amateur Endo and quick play expert Tamura. Just like last year, Endo managed to beat two professionals. Last year this meant that he went further in the tournament than Tamura, who lost in the second round against Kitajima. Tamura used some strong language to describe his disappointment over this, stating that he would never allow an amateur to get the better of him. This year he had to put his money where his mouth is and that is exactly what he did. A position that Endo thought was slightly better for him needed only one small error to turn into a disaster. Despite having an anaguma castle (Endo is also called "Mr. Anaguma"), he was then pushed off the board without a chance. 4) Challenger Usui made the Ladies Meijin title match interesting again by taking the third game and getting back to 2-1. Usui managed to get a strong attack and despite some nice defensive play Shimizu was not able to turn the tables. That Usui missed a mate in byoyomi was only a small spot on a perfect performance. This win will give Usui confidence and that is exactly what she needs, since she still needs to win both of the remaining games to win the title. That's all for this 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