From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 6 oct 1999 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 809, October 6th 1999) This week in Shukan Shogi the third game of the Oza title match between Habu and Maruyama. A close game where Maruyama outplayed Habu when he had enough time to calculate all variations, but in the end had to bow to Habu's perfect endgame play, even in byoyomi. Here is the game with comments: Black: Habu, Oza White: Maruyama, Challenger 47th Oza-sen, Game 3, September 29th 1999 1.P2g-2f 0/0 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/0 0/0 3.P7g-7f 1/1 0/0 4.P8c-8d 0/1 0/0 5.P2f-2e 2/3 0/0 6.P8d-8e 0/3 0/0 7.G6i-7h 1/4 0/0 8.G4a-3b 0/4 0/0 9.P2e-2d 2/6 0/0 10.P2cx2d 0/6 1/1 11.R2hx2d 0/6 0/1 12.P8e-8f 0/6 1/2 13.P8gx8f 2/8 0/2 14.R8bx8f 0/8 0/2 15.R2dx3d 2/10 0/2 16.B2b-3c 0/10 1/3 17.R3d-3f 4/14 0/3 18.S3a-2b 0/14 1/4 19.P*8g 1/15 0/4 20.R8f-8e 0/15 1/5 21.R3f-2f 1/16 0/5 22.K5a-4a 0/16 2/7 23.K5i-5h 3/19 0/7 24.S7a-6b 0/19 2/9 25.G4i-3h 2/21 0/9 26.P7c-7d 0/21 13/22 27.P3g-3f 18/39 0/22 28.G6a-5a 0/39 48/70 29.N2i-3g 4/43 0/70 30.P*2e! 0/43 50/120 A new and strong move by Maruyama. Driving back the black rook followed by switching the white rook from the right to the left side of the position is a strong but risky plan. If white can make it work, black is in serious trouble. 31.R2f-2i 17/60 0/120 32.P*8f 0/60 0/120 33.P8gx8f 93/153 0/120 34.R8ex8f 0/153 0/120 35.S3i-4h 3/156 0/120 36.N8a-7c 0/156 50/170 37.P3f-3e 29/185 0/170 38.R8fx7f! 0/185 64/234 An important follow-up to the previous plan. Having the bishop taken instead of taking the bishop is risky, but it seems like black is unable to exploit the "sente" situation. If white plays the "safe" 38.Bx8h+ Sx8h Rx7f S7g R2f P*2g move order, the improvement of the black silver position from 7i to 7g gives black a satisfactory position as well. 39.B8hx3c+ 42/227 0/234 40.S2bx3c 0/227 0/234 41.R2ix2e 9/236 0/234 No choice. Black wants to avoid the switch R2f, because this would force him to drop a pawn in front of the rook (P*2g), since his position is much more vulnerable to rook drops. 42.S3c-2b! 0/236 21/255 Great play. An amateur would be scolded for playing the silver to 3c and back, losing a pawn in the process. The strange thing about shogi is that this move is very good here. The white threat P*8h forces black to play the following defence: 43.R2e-2i 26/262 0/255 44.P*2h 0/262 9/264 45.G3hx2h 4/266 0/264 Black wants to play 45.Rx2h, but this fails to 46.P*3f N2e B*5e and after P*7g Bx2h+ Gx2h R8f white has the clear advantage. The rook in hand is a big plus, while black has no attack with the two bishops. It is clear that Habu has lost the opening, but it is hard to find the move that caused the problem. There is still much to explore in this opening... 46.R7f-2f 0/266 0/264 47.P*2g 8/274 0/264 48.R2f-8f 0/274 1/265 49.S7i-8h 1/275 0/265 50.P*3f 0/275 10/275 51.N3g-2e 1/276 0/275 52.R8f-8e?! 0/276 2/277 Both players have spent a lot of time in the early middle game and time pressure is starting to be a factor. Thus far, Murayama played a flawless game. However, here 52.B*5e looks better. After 53.P*8g R8e, it is impossible to defend against the threat Bx2h+ Rx2h G*3g and black's position falls apart. Habu also thought that this would lose quickly for him. Still, 52.R8e can hardly be called a bad move. Forcing black to use the bishop in hand to defend a pawn is a move typical of Maruyama's style. 53.B*4f 1/277 0/277 54.N2a-3c 0/277 4/281 55.N2ex3c+ 0/277 0/281 56.S2bx3c 0/277 0/281 57.N8i-7g 1/278 0/281 58.R8e-4e 0/278 5/286 59.P5g-5f 0/278 0/286 60.B*9d? 0/278 7/293 Maruyama starts to lose his way. Here 60.S4d P3d P5d would have kept the advantage. 61.K5h-6i 6/284 0/293 62.N*7e 0/284 0/293 63.K6i-5h 5/289 0/293 64.S3c-4d 0/289 5/298 65.P*7f 3/292 0/298 66.S4dx3e 0/292 0/298 67.B4f-5g 1/293 0/298 68.P*8g 0/293 1/299 69.S8h-7i 0/293 0/299 70.B9dx7f 0/293 0/299 71.P*3c 1/294 0/299 72.G3bx3c 0/294 0/299 73.N*6h 0/294 0/299 74.B7f-9d 0/294 0/299 75.P*7f 0/294 0/299 76.N7ex6g+ 0/294 0/299 77.G7hx6g 0/294 0/299 78.P7d-7e 0/294 0/299 79.B5g-6f 0/294 0/299 80.S3e-4d 0/294 0/299 81.N*8f 1/295 0/299 82.B9d-8c 0/295 0/299 83.R2i-3i 1/296 0/299 84.R4e-3e 0/296 0/299 85.P*3g 0/296 0/299 86.P8g-8h+ 0/296 0/299 87.S7ix8h 0/296 0/299 88.P*8e 0/296 0/299 89.P3gx3f 0/296 0/299 90.R3e-3d 0/296 0/299 91.P*8d 2/298 0/299 92.B8c-9b 0/298 0/299 93.N7gx8e 0/298 0/299 94.N7cx8e 0/298 0/299 95.P7fx7e 1/299 0/299 96.P6c-6d 0/299 0/299 97.N8f-7d 0/299 0/299 98.S6b-6c? 0/299 0/299 The losing move. If white plays 98.P6e, then there will always be the counter N*6f and black has to be very careful. 99.P3f-3e 0/299 0/299 100.S4dx3e 0/299 0/299 101.B6fx3c+ 0/299 0/299 102.R3dx3c 0/299 0/299 103.P*3d 0/299 0/299 104.R3cx3d 0/299 0/299 105.G*4e 0/299 0/299 106.P*3h 0/299 0/299 In byoyomi Maruyama chooses a useless pawn drop sequence that pretty much costs all his material. 107.R3ix3h 0/299 0/299 108.P*3g 0/299 0/299 109.R3hx3g 0/299 0/299 110.N*2e 0/299 0/299 111.R3g-3i 0/299 0/299 112.P*3h 0/299 0/299 113.R3ix3h 0/299 0/299 114.P*3g 0/299 0/299 115.R3h-3i 0/299 0/299 116.R3d-3a 0/299 0/299 117.P*3b 0/299 0/299 118.R3ax3b 0/299 0/299 119.P*3c 0/299 0/299 120.R3b-7b 0/299 0/299 121.G4ex3e 0/299 0/299 122.S6cx7d 0/299 0/299 123.P7ex7d 0/299 0/299 124.R7bx7d 0/299 0/299 125.P*7f 0/299 0/299 126.P6d-6e 0/299 0/299 127.G3ex2e 0/299 0/299 128.B9b-8a 0/299 0/299 129.N*5e 0/299 0/299 130.K4a-5b 0/299 0/299 131.S*7e 0/299 0/299 132.R7dx7e 0/299 0/299 133.P7fx7e 0/299 0/299 Resigns 0/299 0/299 Time: 04:59:00 04:59:00 With a gold and a silver behind and no attack, Maruyama throws the towel. Having found no good place to resign, the final position looks much worse than he deserved. Maruyama was dictating this game until time pressure forced a couple of vital mistakes. Even though things look bleak, he has black in the next game and is playing well. This match might not be over yet. In other shogi news: ==================== a) In B2 the number of players is uneven, so an extra round needs to be played to give the players with less games a chance to catch up. Therefore, there were only five game this time, with most attention focussed on the game between Miura and Fujii. Both have the same teacher (Nishimura) and both are favourites for promotion. For Miura winning was vital, since he had already lost in the third round against Abe. Fujii had won all his games so far, and his good Junisen position would give him a great promotion chance if he would win this difficult game. However, it was Miura who took the game. He first won the psychological battle when Fujii accepted a slightly inferior position by avoiding sennichite because of the differences on the clock. Miura exploited this fully and Fujii never really had a chance to win. Both players are now 4-1 and still keep good chances for promotion. They are one game behind leaders Abe (who beat winless Ono) and Urano (who did not play). Both leaders have a perfect 4-0 score, but still have to play each other. b) In C2 also a round to catch up, but there were no interesting games here, since none of the leaders had to play. Most games showed a big difference in strength, being finished well before the evening break. The only game which might have impact on promotion this year was the game between Kobayashi and Kitajima, both with only one loss. Kobayashi won, so he stays one game behind the leaders Sugimoto, Izuka, Yamazaki and Horiguchi. c) The Osho league this year looks very strong. Morishita, Maruyama, Sato, Tanigawa, Nakahara, Goda and Kubo will play for the right to challenge Habu. Last week the first two games were played. Morishita played Tanigawa and he must have felt less than confident, since he had lost their last five encounters. This time was different though, since he managed to stop Tanigawa's attack with some Morishita style defending. Sato also had a good start with some good defensive play against Kubo. Kubo seemed to have the overwhelming advantage, but Sato showed that the king of a Meijin lives longer. d) Shima is the first player to reach the semifinals of the Kio challenger tournament. He beat Inoue in 88 moves after some cool defending and a strong counter attack. In the Kio, reaching the semifinals means that there are two chances to become challenger, since there is a second chance round. This win is therefore very important for Shima. e) Kato Hifumi lost in the prerounds of the Kisei to Miura. Normally this would not be enough reason for long comments, but this meant that Kato has now lost 20 games in a row. This must be a record for an A class player, but I am beginning to wonder what the overall record for consecutive losses is. Anyone out there who knows, since Shukan Shogi does not say... 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