From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 21 sep 1999 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 807, September 22nd 1999) For some reason there is almost three weeks between the first and the second game of the Oza match, so no report on the second game in Shukan Shogi yet. Instead, Shukan Shogi open with the A class Junisen, where three third round games were played last week. The most interesting one on paper was the game between Tanigawa and Habu. Both had 1-1 scores going into this game, so for both players it was vital to win to keep their chances of challenging Meijin Sato alive. In this R8e Yokofudori game, they followed their second game of the Oi match for a while and after that the game went along the lines of a game between Morishita and Sato Shuji. However, it seemed that both players were unaware of that, since they both played a dubious move that was also played in that game. Post-mortem analysis had showed improvements for both sides at these moments, but neither Tanigawa nor Habu seemed to know this analysis. Both mistakes kind of outweighed each other, so the game stayed close for a long time. Finally, it was Tanigawa who made one mistake that is often decisive in the R8e Yokofudori. Goda finally got his first victory in the A-class. After two losses, he beat leader Tanaka Torahiko more or less straight from the opening. Tanaka is famous for his opening inventions, but this time he made a mistake early and Goda kept the lead until the endgame. There he almost gave it away with a bad mistake, but Tanaka failed to take advantage. Goda back to 1-2 and Tanaka to 2-1. Relegation worries for both players far from over. Moriuchi beat Morishita at his own game. In the middle game Moriuchi moved his king out of the Yagura and placed it on 5h. There it seemed very vulnerable and most of the commentators did not think Moriuchi could survive. However, some brilliant defending (usually Morishita's specialty) showed that the king could survive the attack after which the counterattack quickly decided the game. Moriuchi is now 2-1, while Morishita drops back to 1-2. In C1 Round 4 was played. After round 3 there were 7 undefeated players, but after this round only 3 remain: Suzuki Daisuke, Kubo (4-0) and Kobayashi Hiroshi (3-0). Suzuki is riding the wave of his amazing Ryu-O run, but again he had to work very hard to get the point. In a double Anaguma game, Kodama had pinned almost all of his opponent's pieces in the corner of the bear. In the late middle game he allowed Suzuki to break free and this was all the new star needed. Playing fast as usual, the game finished at 20:00, despite taking no less than 187 moves. Kubo kept pace with Suzuki by beating Namekata, who was also unbeaten before round 4. Kubo had some problems in the middle game, but when Namekata replied too passively to a violent attempt to break free, Kubo quickly took over the initiative and won from there. Kubo is having a great season so far with a winning percentage only second to Maruyama. Even though the Junisen season is still long, it seems that he has easier opponent's than Suzuki. No report on the win of Kobayashi against Ishikawa. Since Kobayashi has played only three games, has a bad Junisen position and still some tough opposition to play, Shukan Shogi might not take him seriously as a promotion candidate yet. I tend to agree. Some smaller news this week: Goda won the Ginga-sen, a cable TV tournament by beating Tanigawa in the final. The games in this tournament do not even count as official tournament games, so that says enough about its status. Still, Goda will feel good about getting a good result after quite a long slump in which he lost the Kisei title and both of his first games in the A class Junisen. There was also a small report on the entrance exam of the Shoreikai. 47 children did the exam which consisted of playing among themselves (a losing record would mean flunking the exam) followed by three games against current Shoreikai members (winning at least one game would mean passing the entrance exam). In the end 20 children from 9 to 19 passed the exam. Niwa, who reached the semi-finals in the Shogi Forum in June, passed the exam by beating his Shoreikai opponents 2-1. Fujimori, the 12-year old son of a two times runner-up in the amateur meijin and the ladies professional presenting the NHK tournament, also passed with a very good score of 4-2 (against other entrants) and 2-1 (against Shoreikai players). The two most notable entrants are probably 19-year old Tateishi, who started Shogi only three years ago and cleared the very tough entrance exam for 1-kyu (just barely with 3-3 and 1-2). At that age it is almost impossible to make the professional ranks with the tough age limits the Shoreikai has. Skipping 5 ranks (most enter the Shoreikai at 6-kyu) is a good start though. Finally, there seems to be another special talent this year. 9-year old Toyoshima is by far the youngest of the players who made the Shoreikai this time. He might become the Habu of the 21st century. However, the Shoreikai is an extremely tough competition. After all, on average only 4 of the 20 players will eventually make it to 4-dan... 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