From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 19 oct 1999 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 811, October 20th 1999) Suzuki played the first title match game of his life and it will not have been a pleasant experience. In the first game of the Ryu-O match against Fujii he did not get a chance to show how good he is. Fujii outplayed him in opening, middle game and endgame and won comfortably in only 66 moves. Here is the game with comments: Black: Suzuki Daisuke, Challenger White: Fujii Takeshi, Ryu-O 12th Ryu-O sen, Game 1, October 14th and 15th 1999 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 Suzuki opens the game in his first title match game ever. He already announced that he would play Furibisha in every game, so this is no surprise. The question was what Fujii would do. 2.P3c-3d 0/0 6/6 3.P6g-6f 6/6 0/6 4.P8c-8d 0/6 6/12 Even though both players are Furibisha specialists, Fujii also has a high winning percentage with Ibisha Anaguma. Since his Ai-Furibisha winning rate is not as high as Suzuki's, Fujii choice for Ibisha is not too surprising. 5.R2h-6h 5/11 0/12 6.S7a-6b 0/11 5/17 7.K5i-4h 19/30 0/17 8.K5a-4b 0/30 10/27 9.S3i-3h 8/38 0/27 10.K4b-3b 0/38 4/31 11.K4h-3i 0/38 0/31 12.G6a-5b 0/38 35/66 13.S7i-7h 25/63 0/66 14.P5c-5d 0/63 4/70 15.G6i-5h 5/68 0/70 16.S6b-5c 0/68 7/77 17.P1g-1f 3/71 0/77 18.B2b-3c 0/71 17/94 19.B8h-7g 36/107 0/94 20.K3b-2b 0/107 19/113 21.P4g-4f 6/113 0/113 22.P4c-4d 0/113 18/131 23.P6f-6e 10/123 0/131 24.P8d-8e 0/123 28/159 25.P7f-7e 31/154 0/159 This is a well-known plan. Black wants to play R6f-R7f to get into the Ishida formation. 26.G5b-4c 0/154 53/212 27.P3g-3f? 17/171 0/212 Underestimates the subtleties of this position. Black is given only one chance for R6f, but does not take it. After the correct 27.R6f P5e B5i (not R7f S5d which is bad for black) G5d N7g the chances are equal. 28.R8b-7b! 0/171 22/234 The power of this must have been overlooked by Suzuki. If now R6f, then P7d is a strong attack, giving black not time to get to 7f. 29.S7h-6g 59/230 0/234 A change of plan, but this is rarely good. 30.G4a-3b! 0/230 40/274 Good play. If 30.L1b, then the king is too vulnerable after 31.R8h R8b P8f Px8f Rx8f. 31.N2i-3g 1/231 0/274 32.P7c-7d 0/231 5/279 33.P7ex7d 13/244 0/279 34.R7bx7d 0/244 0/279 35.R6h-7h 8/252 0/279 36.S5c-4b 0/252 21/300 Completes the rock defence around the king. White is ready for the decisive battle. 37.G5h-4g? 28/280 0/300 Again Suzuki does not take the only one chance to play the plan he is intending. Even though his position is also very dangerous after 37.N2e B2d G4g Rx7g+ Rx7g P4e, waiting with N2e makes things worse. 38.P8e-8f 0/280 41/341 39.P8gx8f 1/281 0/341 40.N8a-7c 0/281 0/341 41.N3g-2e? 45/326 0/341 42.N7cx6e! 0/326 9/350 Fujii shows in this game why he is the titleholder. Suzuki did not consider anything but B2d. Fujii has correctly judged that he can get a decisive attack even if he gives up the bishop for the knight. 43.B7g-6h 3/329 0/350 44.R7dx7h+ 0/329 1/351 45.S6gx7h 0/329 0/351 46.P*8g! 0/329 4/355 47.P1f-1e 15/344 0/355 Having to allow the tokin attack is painful but there are no alternatives. 47.Sx8g fails to R*8h, and 47.B7i to R*7f P*7g Rx8f and there is no defence against P8h+ next. Suzuki desperately tries to find an attack. 48.P8g-8h+ 0/344 4/359 49.S7h-6i 0/344 0/359 50.+P8hx8i 0/344 0/359 51.P1e-1d 18/362 0/359 52.P1cx1d 0/362 0/359 53.P*1b 0/362 0/359 54.L1ax1b 0/362 0/359 55.P*1c 0/362 0/359 56.L1bx1c 0/362 9/368 57.N2ex1c+ 0/362 0/368 58.N2ax1c 0/362 0/368 59.L*1h 0/362 0/368 Last try. 60.N*2a 0/362 0/368 Fujii does not even use any time to defend. 61.R*6a 34/396 0/368 62.P4d-4e 0/396 31/399 63.R6ax6c+ 6/402 0/399 64.P*6g 0/402 34/433 Fujii has taken his time for the last two moves. Giving Suzuki not a glimmer of hope is his priority here. 65.P*1e 1/403 0/433 66.N1c-2e 0/403 0/433 Resigns 8/411 0/433 Time: 06:51:00 07:13:00 A little early to resign, but Suzuki is not the type of player to wait for the axe to fall. There is nothing left to play for after 67.B5i Px4f or 67.Px1d P*1g Lx1g Nx1g+ Lx1g P*1f (if Lx1f then R*1i). A crushing defeat for Suzuki, giving him the dubious honour of being the loser of the shortest Ryu-O title match game ever. He will have to pick himself up and show his real strength in the second game or Fujii will be in the driver's seat for a defence of his title very early. In other shogi news: ==================== 1) In the A-class Junisen Nakahara and Moriuchi played each other in their fourth round game. Their performance so far was a mirror image, with Nakahara winning his first game and then losing two, while Moriuchi lost in the first round and then won two. This pattern was extended, since Moriuchi won this game in superior style. First, he perfectly judged a rook exchange that looked very bad for him as actually very favourable. This he converted into a winning position that was nicely decided by a lance drop in front of a pawn. Moriuchi is now back in the challenger race with a 3-1 record, while Nakahara has to start worrying about relegation (and possibly early retirement) at 1-3. 2) A painful defeat for Shimizu in the Ladies Oi match against challenger Usui. She was not able to convert a great position and lost in the endgame. This means that instead of the match being over, Usui has suddenly a chance to get into this match again. She needs both of the remaining games for her first title, though. 3) Yauchi has a mountain to climb for her second straight Ladies Open Tournament victory after losing game 1 to Ishibashi. It is the first time that in the best-of-three final neither Shimizu nor Nakai is playing. Ishibashi managed to convert a good position in a difficult endgame with both players in byoyomi. She needs now one more win from two games to add the Ladies Open crown to her Osho title. That is 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