From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 21 jan 1999 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 772, January 20th 1999) This week in Shukan for the first time since November 15th a title match game. The first game of the Osho match between Habu and Morishita was played last week. Considering the long build-up to this match, the game was a serious disappointment. Habu played a big blunder in the early middle game and lost quickly in only 62 moves. Here is how it went: Black: Habu, 4K White: Morishita, Challenger 48th Osho-sen, Game 1, January 11th and 12th 1999 1.P2g-2f 0/0 0/0 The first title match game of the new year. Morishita is making another attempt at winning his first title, after failing in the Ryu-O, Meijin, Kisei and Kio (twice). Being a challenger in five different title matches is remarkable, proving that Morishita is strong all through the year and in all kinds of tournament systems. Morshita, at age 32, is also trying to become the only titleholder in his 30s. Will he be able to finally beat Habu, against whom he has an abysmal 7-25 record? 2.P8c-8d 0/0 5/5 3.P2f-2e 3/3 0/5 4.P8d-8e 0/3 0/5 5.G6i-7h 1/4 0/5 6.G4a-3b 0/4 0/5 7.P2e-2d 3/7 0/5 8.P2cx2d 0/7 0/5 9.R2hx2d 0/7 0/5 10.P*2c 0/7 0/5 11.R2d-2f 0/7 0/5 12.S7a-7b 0/7 6/11 13.K5i-5h 11/18 0/11 14.P1c-1d 0/18 17/28 15.P7g-7f 39/57 0/28 16.P6c-6d 0/57 26/54 17.P3g-3f 47/104 0/54 18.P3c-3d 0/104 54/108 19.P*2d 32/136 0/108 This is an interesting idea, perhaps inspired by the Tsukada system, which in its primitive form has almost disappeared from the professional scene. There are only two previous game examples with this move, with black and white each winning one game. 20.P2cx2d 0/136 59/167 The other two games both continued with 20.Bx8h+ Sx8h B*1e R2h Bx2d. It is then a question whether the win of the pawn outweighs the disadvantage of having dropped the bishop. Morishita played Px2d: "I thought that dropping the bishop was uninteresting". 21.R2fx2d 1/137 0/167 22.S7b-6c 0/137 0/167 23.R2dx3d 54/191 0/167 24.B2b-3c! 0/191 7/174 Good move, not allowing the black rook to return to the second file. 25.R3d-3e 34/225 0/174 26.S6c-5d?! 0/225 5/179 Habu feared 26.Bx8h+ Sx8h N3c, which leaves the black rook in danger of being captured. This seems to better than 26.S5d. 27.R3e-2e 14/239 0/179 28.S3a-2b 0/239 42/221 29.S3i-3h 14/253 0/221 30.P6d-6e 0/253 9/230 31.N2i-3g 26/279 0/230 32.B3cx8h+ 0/279 21/251 33.S7ix8h?? 0/279 0/251 A terrible blunder. Habu completely overlooked the next move, which is amazing for a player of his caliber. Perhaps 31.N3g is the real mistake, but if Habu had realized here what would come next, he might still have had a chance to repair things. After 33.Gx8h P6f Px6f there is no problem for black. Also, 33.Gx8h P8f Px8f Rx8f B*6d is good for black. So, after 33.Gx8h instead of the natural Sx8h that Habu played without thinking, the position would still have been very complicated. 34.P6e-6f 0/279 1/252 So simple that it does not even deserve an exclamation mark. 35.P6gx6f 47/326 0/252 Habu only now realised the disaster. He can not allow Px6g+, since this will completely ruin his position and chances of winning the game. Painful as it is, he has to give up the rook. 36.B*3d 0/326 8/260 37.B*6g 3/329 0/260 38.B3dx2e 0/329 13/273 39.N3gx2e 0/329 0/273 40.R*2h! 0/329 70/343 Well calculated. 40.P*2d B*3e is far from clear. Morishita gives up the rook for two generals and a promoted pawn. An overwhelming material advantage, but it was necessary to calculate deeply that Habu has no nasty counter with the rook. 41.P*2g 14/343 0/343 42.P*3g! 0/343 0/343 43.G4i-3i 0/343 0/343 44.R2hx3h+ 0/343 0/343 45.G3ix3h 0/343 0/343 46.P3gx3h+ 0/343 0/343 47.S8h-7g 0/343 0/343 48.+P3h-3g 0/343 7/350 49.P7f-7e 22/365 0/350 Aiming at P7d Px7d B*6d. 50.+P3gx3f! 0/365 11/361 Great move by Morishita. He now gets a vital pawn in hand and at the same time defends against Habu's plan. After 51.Px7d Px7d B*6d G*7c Bx5c+ G6c black loses the bishop. 51.P*3d 12/377 0/361 52.P*2d 0/377 13/374 53.P3d-3c+ 0/377 0/374 54.N2ax3c 0/377 1/375 55.N2ex3c+ 0/377 0/375 56.G3bx3c 0/377 0/375 57.B6g-7f 0/377 0/375 Desperate. 57.Bx5d Px5d N*5c is the threat. 58.K5a-4b 0/377 2/377 This ends all black's attacking hopes. Morishita: "Here I realised I would win". 59.K5h-6h 15/392 0/377 60.+P3fx4g 0/392 24/401 61.K6h-7i 0/392 0/401 62.P*6g 0/392 11/412 Resigns 25/417 0/412 Time: 06:57:00 06:52:00 Habu took 25 minutes before resigning. The variations 1) 62.N*4e Sx4e B*6c S5d R*4a K3b B7fx5d Px5d Rx6a+ K2c, 2) 62.Bx5d Px5d N*4e S*4d, and 3) P*3d Gx3d Bx6g P*3c followed by +Px5g, clearly show that white is much better, but he could have tried to play on for a while. Maybe he was too disgusted with himself about his early blunder to find the right mental attitide to continue fighting from a lost position. A dream start for challenger Morishita, being handed an easy win with white to start this title match. Will this be the confidence booster he needs to finally win a title? Other shogi news: ================= 1) Meijin Sato is the challenger of Habu in the Kio match that will start on February 13th. Sato also won the second game of the challenger final against Ryu-O Fujii. Sato had the early lead in the game, but for a moment it seemed that he would have to settle for sennichite. After repeating the moves twice, he decided to take his chances. This had a big psychological impact, because Fujii, who thought he had escaped with sennichite, almost immediately made a mistake that lost him the game. It is interesting that this will be Sato's first time to play in a one day title match (Kio, Kisei or Oza), after appearing in all the two-day title matches (Meijin, Ryu-O, Oi and Osho). I wonder if he will able to make the mental switch that a short title match requires. On the other hand, Habu is a specialist in these short matches, and has ruled the Kio for eight years now. 2) In the A class Junisen Shima got into deeper trouble. He lost against Moriuchi (for the 10th time, against only one win) in only 89 moves after overlooking a nasty dangling pawn attack. For Moriuchi this meant that with 5-1 he stays close to leader Tanigawa (5-0). Those two are the only players having a chance to challenge Sato. Shima not only lost his own game, but his main rival for relegation Inoue won against Kato Hifumi. Inoue suffered from a serious cold (like so many these days in Japan), but still managed to play very well. He was in control all through the game and it seemed that Kato, who is 99% safe from relegation, lacked the drive to play his best shogi. This must have been especially disappointing to Shima, who now is at the bottom of the league with a 1-5 score. Inoue improved his record to 2-4, which means that Shima has to win both of his last two games to avoid relegation to B1. It could be all over next round, when he has to play Inoue to survive. 3) In C1 round 8 was played and the situation has cleared up slightly. Of the six players with a 6-1 score after round 7, Suzuki and Sato Shuji dropped out of the lead by losing against Shiyoshi and Nakata Hiroki, respectively. For Sato this was the second loss in a row, which is a blow he will probably not recover from. His bad position in the class because of his promotion from C2 last year also does not help. Yashiki, Miura, Kansaki and Fukaura all won, and they will probably decide who will fill the two promotion spots. Former Kisei title holders Yashiki and Miura have their chances in their own hands. For Yashiki this should not be too big a problem with games against Maeda and Murooka still to play. Miura has bigger problems, with games against former Ryu-O challenger Sanada and Nakata Hiroki (against whom he has never won). Kansaki also has two strong opponents in Ogura and Sato Shuji. Fukuara has a much easier schedule with games against Sakurai and Ishikawa. My guess for jumping out of the "Piranha pool" (as C1 is sometimes referred to) is therefore Yashiki with either Miura or Fukaura. 4) Shimizu had a good start in the Ladies Meijin title match against Usui. Usui had prepared a rather dubious Hineribisha variation to surprise Shimizu, but it did not pay off. Shimuzi took a long time to find her way through the complicated variations, but calculated a one move win accurately. In the end it took only 76 moves. 5) Amateur star Endo beat 5-dan Anzai in a close game to beat a professional for the second time, thereby advancing to the third round of the sixth group of the Ryu-O preliminaries. This is the second year in a row for Endo to reach the third round, a remarkable achievement. His opponent in the third round is the lightning fast Tamura, who commented: "I will definitely not lose against an amateur". Therefore, an interesting game can be expected. 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