From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 23 jul 1999 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 798, July 21st 1999) This week in Shukan Shogi a lot of important games with the first game of the Oi title match between Habu and Tanigawa and games in all Junisen classes except for C1. The first game of the Oi match was a very good game that was won by a whisker by Habu. Playing through it almost made me give up on the game: it is too difficult for mere mortals (^-^). Here is the game with some comments: Black: Tanigawa Koji, Challenger White: Habu Yoshiharu, Oi 40th Oi-sen, Game 1, July 13th and 14th 1999 1.P7g-7f 1/1 0/0 Habu comes into this game without a win in an official tournament game in more than three months, while Tanigawa is in great form with a five game winning streak, including a three game sweep of the Kisei match. Before the game, Tanigawa was considered to be the favourite in this match. 2.P3c-3d 0/1 2/2 3.P2g-2f 3/4 0/2 4.P8c-8d 0/4 2/4 5.P2f-2e 1/5 0/4 6.P8d-8e 0/5 1/5 7.G6i-7h 0/5 0/5 8.G4a-3b 0/5 3/8 9.P2e-2d 2/7 0/8 10.P2cx2d 0/7 1/9 11.R2hx2d 0/7 0/9 12.P8e-8f 0/7 3/12 13.P8gx8f 0/7 0/12 14.R8bx8f 0/7 0/12 15.R2dx3d 20/27 0/12 16.B2b-3c 0/27 12/24 17.R3d-3f 34/61 0/24 18.S3a-2b 0/61 18/42 19.P*8g 25/86 0/42 20.R8f-8e 0/86 1/43 There it is again. The R8e variation of the Yokofudori. Habu shows that he is still confident he can win with this opening against Tanigawa, despite losing both of the previous games they played with it (one time with black and one time with white). 21.R3f-2f 0/86 0/43 22.K5a-4a 0/86 21/64 23.K5i-6h 21/107 0/64 24.S7a-6b 0/107 25/89 25.S3i-3h 6/113 0/89 26.G6a-5a 0/113 11/100 27.P3g-3f 7/120 0/100 The K6h-P3f shape is a relatively new idea against the R8e variation. 28.P7c-7d 0/120 21/121 29.N2i-3g 13/133 0/121 30.N8a-7c 0/133 22/143 31.P4g-4f 69/202 0/143 32.P5c-5d 0/202 59/202 33.B8hx3c+ 56/258 0/202 The sealed move at the end of the first day of play.In a new variation like the R8e Yokofudori there are a lot of possibilities that can be explored and this explains why the pace of this game is quite slow. 34.N2ax3c 0/258 2/204 35.S7i-8h 2/260 0/204 36.P5d-5e 0/260 23/227 37.P6g-6f 20/280 0/227 Stops N6e. 38.P5e-5f!? 0/280 28/255 A good counter, but... 39.P5gx5f 0/280 0/255 40.P7d-7e?! 0/280 0/255 This is not the best move. Tanigawa expected P*5e Px5e P*5f G6g Rx5e which is better. "I should have thought a little longer about P*5e" (Habu). 41.P*2c! 45/325 0/255 Strong move that seems to give black the advantage. 42.S2bx2c 0/325 85/340 Not good is 42.S3d B*2c and black wins. 43.P*2d 0/325 0/340 44.S2c-1b 0/325 0/340 45.P3f-3e 2/327 0/340 46.P*3f 0/327 1/341 47.R2fx3f 23/350 0/341 48.B*1d 0/350 7/348 49.R3f-2f 2/352 0/348 50.R8e-8d 0/352 0/348 A little painful to have to retreat this rook, but after immediately P*3f P3d, the white king on 4a is too close to the black attack. 51.P1g-1f 34/386 0/348 Threatens to win the bishop. In the press room the general idea was that black had the better position. This turns out to be a little optimistic. 52.P*3f 0/386 11/359 53.N3g-4e 1/387 0/359 54.N3cx4e 0/387 0/359 55.P4fx4e 23/410 0/359 This move was criticised by the visiting professionals. However, Tanigawa felt that after 55.P1e Px3g+ Px1d +Px3h Gx3h S*5g K7i N*5d the white attack is more dangerous than expected. Indeed, after Px4e Nx6f G6g N5h+ black's wall silver on 8h makes it very hard to defend. In the post mortem both players also looked at 55.P1e Px3g+ Px1d +Px3h Px4e +Px4h Px1c+ N6e Px6e S*6f P2c+ but it is hard to say who will win this mating race. The position turns out to be very deceiving. Black seems to have the upper hand, but it is impossible to find a variation to get a clear advantage. Tanigawa is trying so hard to find things that are probably not there, that he gets into time trouble. 56.P3f-3g+ 0/410 23/382 57.P1f-1e? 10/420 0/382 Too preoccupied with the bishop. Black should have played 57.Sx3g B4g+ S4h P*2e Sx4g Px2f B*5e P2g+ Bx1a+ +P3g S5h and even though white has the strong N*4f, black has good chances for counter attack with L*5e. "After playing Px4e I should have chosen this variation" (Tanigawa). He himself thought after the game that 57.P1e was the losing move. 58.B1d-4g+ 0/420 8/390 59.S3hx4g 2/422 0/390 60.+P3gx4g 0/422 0/390 61.B*5e 0/422 0/390 62.N*6d 0/422 20/410 63.P4e-4d 5/427 0/410 64.N6dx7f 0/427 24/434 65.K6h-7g 0/427 0/434 66.P4cx4d 0/427 1/435 67.P*4b 3/430 0/435 68.G5ax4b 0/430 1/436 69.B*9e 14/444 0/436 70.R8d-7d 0/444 2/438 71.N*5d! 2/446 0/438 This move shows that the game is far from over. Habu thought he was winning, but after this move he was no longer sure. Meijin Sato agreed: "I have no idea who is winning". 72.S*6h! 0/446 24/462 After 72.Rx5d B5ex7c+ Sx7c Bx7c+ the threat +Bx6c is very nasty. 72.S*6h is a very good move, putting a lot pressure on black. From now on, he has to play his attack very carefully or he will be mated with the pieces he gives white. It seems that this moves is just enough for white to win. 73.G7hx6h 5/451 0/462 74.N7fx6h+ 0/451 0/462 75.P2d-2c+ 7/458 0/462 76.S1bx2c 0/458 0/462 77.N5dx4b+ 0/458 0/462 78.K4ax4b 0/458 0/462 79.K7gx6h 1/459 0/462 80.N*7f 0/459 3/465 81.K6h-7g 2/461 0/465 82.P9c-9d 0/461 1/466 83.P*4c 4/465 0/466 84.K4bx4c 0/465 3/469 85.B5ex7c+ 7/472 0/469 86.S6bx7c 0/472 0/469 87.N*5e 0/472 0/469 88.K4c-5b 0/472 1/470 Now it is clear that the white king can escape. 89.S*4c 7/479 0/470 After 89.N*6e Px9e or 89.Bx7c+ B*6h K7h Nx8h+ Kx8h S*7g white wins. In the end, the game is decided by the fact that the black bishop on 9e is needed in defence and can therefore not be used to give the attack the final push it needs. 90.G3bx4c 0/479 2/472 91.N5ex4c+ 0/479 0/472 92.K5b-6a 0/479 0/472 93.+N4c-5b 0/479 0/472 94.K6a-7a 0/479 1/473 Resigns 0/479 0/473 Time: 07:59:00 07:53:00 If this first game is an indication of what is too come, we will have a very close match between these two rivals. Despite being only 94 moves long, this game was decided by a very small margin. How big will winning with white be for Habu? In other Shogi news: ==================== 1) A big upset in the A class of the Junisen! Veteran Tanaka Torahiko, who in my opinion had no chance of staying in the top class, defeated Tanigawa in their first round game. Not only did he win, he was in control almost the entire game. Tanigawa struggled desperately to get out of the tight grip Tanaka held over the position, but all to no avail. A great performance by Tanaka, who now has every chance to keep his spot among the shogi elite. 2) B1 might be a very tight race this year. In the past there was usually one player who won almost all his games and the fight would be for the second promotion spot. However, this year there is no big favourite for promotion. Senzaki is the youngest player in the class at 29, but I do not think he is ready yet to promote straight to the A class. He lost against Minami and the fact that Shukan Shogi does not give any comment on the game seems to indicate that it was not a very eventful game. The two undefeated players after round three are Inoue and (surprisingly) Kiriyama. 51 year old Kiriyama beat 53 year old Mori after Mori made a big mistake in the endgame. Inoue had a lucky escape against Aono. After a check there were two possible king moves: one was winning and one was losing. Aono picked the wrong one... 3) In B2 Tsukada did not have to play in round 1, but he more than made up for it in round two. The game against Izumi lasted until the early morning hours after ending in sennichite twice. The first replay started at 22:14, while the second replay started at 2:10 in the morning. This was especially hard on the time keeper Tajima, who slowly turned green from exhaustion. Izumi showed the most backbone by winning the third game. He now has two straight wins, together with six other players. Among them strong promotion favourites like Fujii, Miura and Fukaura. The hopes of Nakagawa and Hatakeyama are almost completely gone after losses against Arimori and Tanaka Kaishu. 4) In C2 class the second round was played. At such an early stage in a 45 member class, it is a question of who can keep his winning streak, since losing a game this early almost certainly means another year in the bottom class. After round 2 there are still 11 players with two wins. One of them is Nozuki, who disposed of Ino in no time. A little after three in the afternoon the game was over, after skipping the middle game and going from opening straight into the endgame. Surprising losers in the second round were Matsumoto, who lost against Kosaka after taking a winning position too lightly and Sato Shinya, who again lost to Kinoshita after his defeat in the Ryu-O tournament last week against the same player. 5) Maruyama is the first one to reach the semi-finals of the Ryu-O tournament. With his 12th consecutive win of this season, he beat a struggling Goda. Goda played a dubious new opening idea in the R8e Yokofudori, which he seemed to have found after game 2 of the Kisei match against Tanigawa. He allowed a bishop to promote by taking a lance in the corner. This bishop would be difficult to bring back into play, and Goda's compensation would be that he would have time to build a strong attack. It looked dangerous, but Maruyama played flawless and showed that the attack is not strong enough. In the Ryu-O challenger tournament also a win for Hatakeyama Mamoru, who beat Kubo in a close game that seemed to be going Kubo's way for a long time. Hatakeyama now has to play Moriuchi next for a place in the semi-finals. 6) Fukaura won the 18th Hayasashi Shin-ei Sen by beating Kitahama in the final. This tournament is a quick play television tournament. Only players under 30 and with a grade lower than 7-dan can participate. Fukaura also won this tournament in 1993, so he now joins Waki, Moriuchi and Sato Yasumitsu as the fourth player to win the tournament twice. 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