From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 14 apr 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 835, April 12th 2000) This week in Shukan Shogi the first game of the first game of the Zen Nihon Pro Tournament final between Tanigawa and Okazaki. For Okazaki his first appearance on the big stage and he might have felt a little nervous before the game. During the game he seemed to be more concerned about keeping his position as safe as possible and that led to a short, one-sided game without any attacking chances. Here is the game with comments: Black: Okazaki Hiroshi, 5-dan White: Tanigawa Koji, Kisei 18th Zen Nihon Pro Tournament, Game 1, April 5th 2000 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/0 2/2 3.P2g-2f 1/1 0/2 4.P8c-8d 0/1 1/3 5.P6g-6f?! 7/8 0/3 This is Okazaki's first appearance in a tournament final and the pressure to win is completely on his vastly more experienced opponent. How would Okazaki try to make up for this difference? It seems like he decided to try and confuse Tanigawa in the opening. 5.P6f is an unusual move and only regularly played by Tanaka Torahiko. It is not a bad move, but it is a little defensive and to me this is an indication that Okazaki entered this game with the wrong mind set. 6.P8d-8e 0/8 5/8 7.B8h-7g 0/8 0/8 8.S3a-4b 0/8 0/8 9.G4i-5h 10/18 0/8 10.S7a-6b 0/18 2/10 11.G5h-6g 1/19 0/10 12.G4a-3b 0/19 2/12 13.S3i-4h 5/24 0/12 14.K5a-4a 0/24 6/18 15.P5g-5f 14/38 0/18 16.P5c-5d 0/38 9/27 17.S7i-8h 1/39 0/27 18.S6b-5c 0/39 16/43 19.S4h-5g 14/53 0/43 20.P5d-5e?! 0/53 15/58 A positive move that is typical of Tanigawa's style of play. However, it was probably better to wait a little longer, since this gives black a chance to untangle the knot of pieces on the king side a little. 21.P5fx5e 25/78 0/58 22.B2bx5e 0/78 0/58 23.P6f-6e! 0/78 0/58 This is the problem. The exchange of the bishop is better for black than it is for white, since black's bishop was badly positioned up to now. 24.B5e-3c 0/78 18/76 No choice. 24.Bx7g+ Sx7g only helps black. 25.K5i-6h 3/81 0/76 Not bad, but immediately 25.Bx3c+ Sx3c S7g can also be considered. 26.K4a-3a 0/81 3/79 27.K6h-7h? 1/82 0/79 This is not good. Here black should have exchanged the bishops: 27.Bx3c+ Sx3c S7g and it is hard to say who is better. Furthermore, if black avoids the exchange of the bishops, then 27.K7i followed by 28.G7h is the right way to move into the Yagura castle, as it defends the upper area of the king better. 28.P4c-4d 0/82 11/90 29.P3g-3f 3/85 0/90 30.S4b-4c 0/85 0/90 31.P2f-2e 1/86 0/90 32.P6c-6d 0/86 4/94 33.P6ex6d 0/86 0/94 34.S5cx6d 0/86 0/94 35.B7g-5i 0/86 0/94 36.G6a-5b 0/86 5/99 37.S8h-7g 1/87 0/99 38.G5b-6c 0/87 10/109 39.B5i-3g 9/96 0/109 40.G6c-5d 0/96 2/111 41.P1g-1f 3/99 0/111 42.P1c-1d 0/99 0/111 43.G6i-6h? 0/99 0/111 Okazaki did not want to put the king into the bishop's diagonal, but he should have been brave here. After 43.K8h P*5e G7h G4e R6h B4b B2h black still has good chances because black's castle is much stronger. Tanigawa actually thought that he had messed things up because of this. After 43.G6h it is actually white that has the better castle. 44.K3a-2b 0/99 0/111 45.P9g-9f? 1/100 0/111 Another mistake in the assessment of the position. This turns out to be a pointless waiting move. 46.P*5e 0/100 2/113 47.P4g-4f 2/102 0/113 48.P7c-7d 0/102 1/114 49.P*6f? 8/110 0/114 Already the fatal mistake. Okazaki should have played 49.P*6e here. After both 50.Sx6e P*6f S5f Sx5f Px5f P4e P6d S*6c and 50.S5c S7g-6f N7c P7e Nx6e S7f S6d Px7d P*7g Nx7g Nx7g+ G6gx7g black still has good chances. 49.P*6f is typical of Okazaki's passive play in this game. 50.P7d-7e 0/110 12/126 51.B3g-2f 8/118 0/126 52.P7ex7f 0/118 2/128 53.S7gx7f 0/118 0/128 54.P*7e 0/118 0/128 55.S7f-6e 7/125 0/128 56.S6dx6e 0/125 3/131 57.P6fx6e 1/126 0/131 58.S*7f 0/126 0/131 59.G6gx7f 5/131 0/131 60.P7ex7f 0/131 0/131 61.S5g-6f 0/131 0/131 62.P8e-8f 0/131 9/140 63.P8gx8f 0/131 0/140 64.B3c-4b 0/131 0/140 65.P*7e 1/132 0/140 66.G*5f? 0/132 11/151 Tanigawa uncharacteristically misses the shortest route to victory here. Best was 66.P*6d Px6d Gx6d P4e Gx7e Sx7e (Sx5e P7g+! also wins for white) Bx7e Px4d P*6g! and white wins quickly. 67.S*6g 0/132 0/151 68.N8a-7c 0/132 0/151 69.P4f-4e 6/138 0/151 70.G5dx4e 0/138 5/156 71.S*7d 3/141 0/156 This is the move that made Tanigawa actually fear that the tables were turned because of 66.G*5f. However, in the press room no defence for Okazaki was discovered, so things might not have been that bad. 72.G5fx6f 0/141 4/160 73.S6gx6f 0/141 0/160 74.G4e-5f 0/141 0/160 75.G*6g 0/141 0/160 76.P*8h 0/141 0/160 77.S7dx7c+ 4/145 0/160 77.Kx8h Rx8f P*8g S*7i is also winning for white. 78.R8bx8f 0/145 2/162 79.P*8g 0/145 0/162 80.G5fx6g 0/145 0/162 81.G6hx6g 0/145 0/162 82.G*7i! 0/145 0/162 Nice move that makes clear that white is still winning. 83.K7hx8h 0/145 0/162 If 83.Kx7i then Rx8g+ G*7h Px8i+ K6i P*6h and then Kx6h or Rx6h is followed by N*5f, while G6gx6h is followed by +R4g. 84.G7ix8i 0/145 0/162 85.K8h-9g 1/146 0/162 86.R8f-8a 0/146 0/162 87.P8g-8f 0/146 0/162 88.N*5d 0/146 0/162 89.K9g-8g 0/146 0/162 90.N5dx6f 0/146 0/162 91.G6gx6f 0/146 0/162 92.G8i-8h 0/146 2/164 93.R2hx8h 1/147 0/164 94.S*7g 0/147 0/164 Resigns 0/147 0/164 Time: 02:27:00 02:44:00 The threats Sx8h+, Sx6f+ and Rx8f are too much, so Okazaki resigned. This game had quite a number of mistakes, but in the end was decided by Okazaki's passive play. If he wants to have a shot at beating Tanigawa, he will have to play more positively in the rest of the match. It will be encouraging for him to know that he was given several chances to make a good fight of it in this first game. In other shogi news: ==================== * Moriuchi is the last to reach the semi-finals of the Kisei challenger tournament. Young Kimura finally was stopped after a great run in the Kisei this year. It looked like a solid victory for Moriuchi, but in the endgame Kimura had a chance to make it difficult. The semi-finals of the Kisei are Moriuchi-Sato Yasumitsu and Habu-Nakahara. Whoever wins, Tanigawa will have an extremely tough opponent to face! * In the white group of the Oi league, undefeated Yashiki and Morishita played their third round game against each other. The winner would take a major step forward to winning the group, meeting the winner of the red group next to decide the challenger of Habu. Yashiki had the best of the game, but in the end a careless attacking move let Morishita in, who won convincingly from there. In the red group leader Nakagawa lost to Nakata Isao, leaving both players with a 2-1 score. Nakagawa played the middle game too subtle, giving his opponent a good attack in the process. Nakagawa battled hard for a chance to turn the tables, but Nakata made no big mistakes after that. Both players were joined in the lead by Goda, who took a little revenge on Maruyama for losing the final game of the A-class and dropping to B1. Of course the importance of these two games is vastly different, but Goda will be happy with a good start of the new season after a year in which many things went wrong. Tanigawa can also get to 2-1 with a win over Minami, so the red group will be exciting to the end this year. 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)298-61-3316 Fax: +81-(0)298-61-5918