From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 6 may 1999 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 787, May 5th 1999) This week in Shukan Shogi the third game of the Zen Nihon Pro Tournament match. Moriuchi had to win this game to keep the match alive after big defeats in game 1 and game 2. He did not even get close. Desperately seeking a win, he picked a dubious opening, added some mistakes of his own and was downed quickly by Maruyama's perfect play. Here is the game with comments: Black: Maruyama, 8-dan White: Moriuchi, 8-dan 17th Zen Nihon Pro Tournament, Game 3, April 29th 1999 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P8c-8d 0/0 0/0 3.P2g-2f 0/0 0/0 4.P8d-8e 0/0 0/0 5.B8h-7g 0/0 0/0 6.P3c-3d 0/0 0/0 7.S7i-8h 0/0 0/0 8.B2bx7g+ 0/0 0/0 9.S8hx7g 0/0 0/0 10.S3a-2b 0/0 0/0 11.S3i-3h 1/1 0/0 12.S2b-3c 0/1 1/1 13.G6i-7h 1/2 0/1 14.S7a-7b 0/2 0/1 15.P9g-9f 1/3 0/1 16.P9c-9d 0/3 1/2 17.P3g-3f 0/3 0/2 18.G4a-3b 0/3 5/7 19.P4g-4f 0/3 0/7 20.S7b-8c 0/3 3/10 21.S3h-4g 0/3 0/10 22.S8c-8d 0/3 0/10 23.G4i-5h 0/3 0/10 24.K5a-4b 0/3 0/10 25.P6g-6f 0/3 0/10 26.G6a-5b 0/3 0/10 27.K5i-6h 1/4 0/10 28.K4b-3a 0/4 5/15 29.N2i-3g 15/19 0/15 30.P4c-4d 0/19 10/25 31.P2f-2e 5/24 0/25 32.G5b-4c?! 0/24 41/66 Moriuchi's choice of opening is very suspect. The combination of the aggressive Bogin and the quiet finishing of the Yagura castle has a bad reputation among professionals. "I have never seen a reasonable win by white" (Aono, 8-dan), "I will never ever play this" (Sensaki, 7-dan). It remains unclear why Moriuchi picked this opening. In this game it also leads to a quick disaster. 33.R2h-2i 2/26 0/66 34.P7c-7d 0/26 15/81 35.P4f-4e 16/42 0/81 36.P7d-7e? 0/42 1/82 A change of plan, but not good. Moriuchi should have been patient and play 36.Px4e. Then after 37.Nx4e S4d P2d Px2d Rx2d P*2c R2i P7e P*4f S5e white threatens P*4d to win the knight. It still seems that black has the better chances, but that would at least have made a fight of it. It is very likely that Moriuchi tries to force something by the aggressive 36.P7e, but it explodes in his face. 37.P4ex4d 15/57 0/82 38.S3cx4d 0/57 0/82 39.P2e-2d 0/57 0/82 40.P2cx2d 0/57 0/82 41.S4g-5f 0/57 0/82 42.P7ex7f? 0/57 36/118 Also bad. This gives black the extra pawn he needs to blow up white's position. 42.P6d was the only move to stay in the game. 43.S7gx7f 0/57 0/118 44.S8d-7c 0/57 0/118 45.P*2c! 34/91 0/118 In the press room the expected variation was 45.P*4e S3c B*4f or B*6a, but Maruyama picks a more aggressive attack. This is indeed much better. The black knight comes into play, while the white silver on 7c remains in a pitiful spot. 46.G3bx2c 0/91 5/123 47.P*2e 0/91 0/123 48.P2dx2e 0/91 5/128 49.N3gx2e 0/91 0/128 50.B*3h 0/91 13/141 A desperate attempt. 50.P*2d P*4e S3c Nx3c+ is too good for black. 51.R2i-2f 31/122 0/141 52.B3h-4i+ 0/122 3/144 53.P*4e 10/132 0/144 54.S4d-3c 0/132 0/144 55.N2ex3c+ 0/132 0/144 56.G4cx3c 0/132 2/146 57.B*7a 16/148 0/146 58.R8b-5b 0/148 1/147 59.R2f-2i! 1/149 0/147 This ends all hopes for Moriuchi. 59.S*4c looks very good, but after 59.Gx4c Rx2c+ G3c +R2i S*3h white can still fight. 60.N*3g 0/149 13/160 It is painful to have to drop the knight here, but there is nothing else. After 60.+B3h black plays the same variation as in the game and then white can not even make a position in which it appears he might have had some chances to attack. 61.R2ix2c+ 2/151 0/160 62.G3cx2c 0/151 3/163 63.S*4c 0/151 0/163 64.R*2h 0/151 3/166 65.S5f-6g 16/167 0/166 66.R5b-9b 0/167 0/166 67.B7ax5c+ 0/167 0/166 68.K3a-2b 0/167 0/166 69.G*8c 1/168 0/166 70.G2c-3c 0/168 3/169 71.G8cx9b 0/168 0/169 72.L9ax9b 0/168 0/169 73.P3f-3e 1/169 0/169 74.S7c-6d 0/169 8/177 75.P3ex3d! 1/170 0/177 A picture perfect ending to a great game by Maruyama. This bishop sacrifice has been calculated till the end. 76.S6dx5c 0/170 0/177 77.P3dx3c+ 0/170 0/177 78.N2ax3c 0/170 0/177 79.G*3b 1/171 0/177 80.K2b-1b 0/171 0/177 81.P*2d 0/171 0/177 82.R2hx2d+ 0/171 0/177 83.S4c-3d+ 0/171 0/177 Resigns 0/171 1/178 Time: 02:51:00 02:58:00 With a nice silver sacrifice Maruyama ends the game and the match. 84.+R2i P*2d P*2b +S2c Px2c R*2b is mate, so Moriuchi resigned. With this win, Maruyama took the Zen Nihon Pro title to get his first professional tournament victory in a tournament where all professionals participate (he won the Shinjin-O title before). His play in this match was outstanding and he seems to have taken his shogi to a new level. Moriuchi looked helpless in this match, even though good results in the Kisei and the Ryu-O indicate that he is actually in good form. Maruyama's appearance in one of the seven big title matches seems to be very near now. Will 1999 become his year? In other shogi news: ==================== 1) Tanigawa blocked Habu's route to another title by beating him in the semi-final of the Kisei challenger tournament. Habu had thus far stayed away from the trendy R8e variation in the Yokofudori, but in this game he decided to give it a try. It might be a one time experiment, since he got in a bad position quickly against one of the specialists Tanigawa. It actually got quite close in the end, but the post mortem analysis could not come up with a real way for Habu to get out of trouble. It is strange that the final of the Kisei challenger tournament will now be played between two players who have taken quite a beating lately: Moriuchi and Tanigawa. Tanigawa might still bounce back from two terrible defeats in the Meijin match, while Moriuchi should try and forget the horrible experience of the Zen Nihon Pro Tournament as soon as possible. 2) We have three more players who qualified for the challenger tournament of the Ryu-O. Meijin Sato used more than half of his available 5 hours to play one move in the R8e variation of the Yokofudori, but this deep calculation payed off against Takahashi. A brave attack instead of defending against a Takahashi attack that looked very dangerous finally got him the win and another shot at the title he won six years ago. Group three is probably the easiest group to qualify from, since it has only 14 players and two spots in the challenger tournament. Inoue and Hatakeyama Mamoru used this to their advantage. Inoue beat Ito Hatasu, who quickly shot himself in the foot with a dangerous edge attack. Hatakeyama had to work a little harder against Namekata, but here also it was Hatakeyama with the early lead, which he kept until the end with some subtle defensive play. 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