From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 4 aug 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 851, August 2nd 2000) This summer Tanigawa and Habu see more of each other than they see their wives, playing games in the Oi title and the Kisei title. Last week they played the second game of the Oi title match. Tanigawa won convincingly, levelling the match. Here is the game with comments: Black: Tanigawa Koji, Challenger White: Habu Yoshiharu, Oi 41st Oi-sen, Game 2, July 26th and 27th 2000 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/0 2/2 3.P2g-2f 4/4 0/2 4.P4c-4d 0/4 2/4 5.P2f-2e 6/10 0/4 6.B2b-3c 0/10 2/6 7.S3i-4h 1/11 0/6 8.P9c-9d 0/11 3/9 9.P9g-9f 14/25 0/9 10.R8b-4b 0/25 7/16 Habu and Tanigawa are playing a double title match (Kisei and Oi), so they are seeing a lot of each other. It must be hard to come up with a new opening idea every time if you have almost no time to prepare between two games against the same opponent. This time Habu plays Shikenbisha. This game will now have a similar development to game 1 of the Kisei match, but there Tanigawa played with the white pieces. 11.K5i-6h 5/30 0/16 12.S7a-7b 0/30 5/21 13.K6h-7h 2/32 0/21 14.S3a-3b 0/32 7/28 15.P5g-5f 2/34 0/28 16.S3b-4c 0/34 5/33 17.G4i-5h 19/53 0/33 18.P6c-6d 0/53 6/39 19.S4h-5g 10/63 0/39 20.K5a-6b 0/63 32/71 21.P3g-3f 22/85 0/71 22.K6b-7a 0/85 9/80 23.P8g-8f 12/97 0/80 24.G4a-5b 0/97 33/113 25.K7h-8g 4/101 0/113 26.P7c-7d 0/101 3/116 27.S7i-7h 0/101 0/116 28.P8c-8d 0/101 8/124 29.R2h-3h 37/138 0/124 30.R4b-3b 0/138 6/130 31.P6g-6f 2/140 0/130 32.K7a-8b 0/140 26/156 33.G5h-6g 3/143 0/156 34.G5b-6c 0/143 4/160 35.S5g-6h 33/176 0/160 36.B3c-5a 0/176 62/222 37.P4g-4f 35/211 0/222 38.L1a-1b 0/211 3/225 39.K8g-9h 21/232 0/225 40.S4c-5d 0/232 26/251 41.S7h-8g 35/267 0/251 42.P4d-4e?! 0/267 23/274 Habu prepared this attack, timing it just when the black gold on 6i is undefended. However, the general opinion in the press room was that this attack was an overplay and after the game Habu agreed. 43.P5f-5e! 16/283 0/274 Not 43.Px4e R4b R4h Rx4e and white gets the advantage. 44.S5dx5e 0/283 27/301 45.P4fx4e 0/283 0/301 46.P*4f 0/283 0/301 47.G6i-5h 39/322 0/301 Black's position looks to be in ruins, but the threat of killing the silver with P*5f is big. White has to fight with everything he has to avoid a simple loss of material. 48.P9d-9e 0/322 34/335 49.P9fx9e 2/324 0/335 50.R3b-4b 0/324 0/335 51.N2i-3g 3/327 0/335 52.P3d-3e? 0/327 6/341 Perhaps already the decisive mistake. This pawn sacrifice looks like a normal tesuji, attacking the head of the knight. However, as the game develops, this attack turns out to have no significance. 52.P3e only gives black an extra pawn which will be very important later on. White should have played 52.P8e immediately. Then, after 53.Px8e Bx9e P*9f Bx6h+ G6gx6h S5f R4h P4g+ Gx4g S*5i R5h Sx6h+ Rx5f P*8f Sx8f G*7h white has a reasonable looking attack for the sacrificed material. 53.P3fx3e 25/352 0/341 54.P8d-8e 0/352 6/347 An alternative is 54.Lx9e, but after 55.P*9f P*3f P*5f Px3g+ Rx3g Rx4e Px5e B1e R5g Rx3e but even though white has managed to develop his major pieces, the material loss is more significant. 55.P6f-6e 2/354 0/347 56.P5c-5d 0/354 8/355 57.P*5f 1/355 0/355 58.P8ex8f? 0/355 57/412 Here Habu misses his last chance to keep the fight interesting. He had planned 58.Bx9e, but did not like the position after 59.P*9f Px8f Px9e Px8g+ Kx8g S*4i R4h Sx5h+ Rx5h P4g+ R1h P*8f Kx8f P*8e K7g +Px3g Px5e Rx4e P*8c. White would like to take this pawn with the silver, but Sx8c fails to B*3d. After Kx8c P*8d K7c Habu did not think he could win. However, this line is superior to the game variation. 59.S8gx8f 0/355 0/412 60.B5ax9e 0/355 0/412 61.S8fx9e 5/360 0/412 62.L9ax9e 0/360 0/412 63.P*9f 0/360 0/412 64.L9ex9f 0/360 0/412 65.P*9g 0/360 0/412 66.P*8f 0/360 0/412 67.P*8g! 31/391 0/412 There it is. The extra pawn that Habu gave Tanigawa on move 52 is now coming back to haunt him. This drop where the opponent wants to drop completely kills Habu's attack. 68.P8fx8g+? 0/391 23/435 Better would have been 68.P*3f Px5e S*7h Px8f P*8g B7g Px3g+ Rx3g Rx4e and white at least has some play for the lost material. 69.K9hx8g 0/391 0/435 70.P*8f 0/391 0/435 71.K8gx8f 0/391 0/435 72.P*8e 0/391 0/435 73.K8f-7g 15/406 0/435 74.S*4i 0/406 0/435 75.R3h-4h 0/406 0/435 76.S4ix5h+ 0/406 0/435 77.R4hx5h 0/406 0/435 78.P4f-4g+ 0/406 0/435 79.R5h-1h 0/406 0/435 80.+P4gx3g 0/406 1/436 81.P9gx9f 1/407 0/436 82.G6c-7c 0/407 1/437 83.N8i-9g! 4/411 0/437 Tanigawa does not waste any time. He uses this defensive knight for a strong attack. 84.G7c-8d 0/411 6/443 No choice, but this has a nasty side effect. 85.P5fx5e 1/412 0/443 86.R4bx4e 0/412 4/447 87.P*4f 4/416 0/447 88.R4ex5e 0/416 0/447 Because of the gold on 8d, white can not play Rx4f as B*5g would be too severe. 89.G6g-6f 13/429 0/447 90.R5ex3e 0/429 12/459 91.B*5c 0/429 0/459 92.R3e-3c 0/429 0/459 93.B5cx6d+ 0/429 0/459 94.S7b-7c 0/429 0/459 95.+B6dx5d 4/433 0/459 96.+P3g-2h 0/433 0/459 97.N9gx8e 8/441 0/459 98.P*8f 0/441 5/464 Or 98.Gx8e S*9d and black wins quickly. 99.N8ex7c+ 14/455 0/464 100.N8ax7c 0/455 0/464 101.S*9e 5/460 0/464 102.R3c-3g+ 0/460 8/472 103.P*5g 1/461 0/472 104.+P2hx1h 0/461 0/472 105.S*9c! 4/465 0/472 Tanigawa is showing off his fabulous endgame skills. Of course, 105.Sx8d would have been more than enough to win. 106.K8bx9c 0/465 1/473 Habu chooses the long mate over the hopeless 106.K7a S9ex8d. 107.S9ex8d 0/465 0/473 108.K9cx8d 0/465 0/473 109.S*7e 0/465 0/473 Resigns 0/465 1/474 Time: 07:45:00 07:54:00 Mate after 110.K9c L*9d K8b G*8a K8c Sx7d Kx7d G7e K8c P*8d. Great game by Tanigawa, who made the brilliant Habu look like an average player. Habu's early attack was ill-advised, but Tanigawa needed perfect play to show this. This Oi title match might take a long time to finish... In other Shogi news: ==================== * The Ryu-O challenger tournament is nearing its climax. Last week Habu played Hatakeyama and Miura played Nakahara to join Sato and Tanigawa in the semi-finals. Habu had a very tough game where he fought Hatakeyama's Shikenbisha with the quick attack B6f~N7g followed by L9h and moving the rook behind this lance. Not a new plan, but it was a little frowned upon by the professionals until recently. Habu rushed his attack, giving Hatakeyama a clear advantage. However, Habu kept the position very difficult and in the end Hatakeyama got confused and lost the game. Miura had it a little easier against Nakahara. They played a very sharp game that Nakahara had especially prepared. However, Miura's over the board analysis turned out to be better than Nakahara's homework, as he found a move that Nakahara had overlooked. Nakahara soon followed with a bad mistake after which Miura won quickly. The Ryu-O now has a great semi-final line-up with the games Miura-Sato and Tanigawa-Habu (again!). Fujii is not likely to have an easy defence of his title, whoever the challenger may be... * The second round of the survival race in C2 was played last week. 13 of the 44 players remain without a loss. The brilliant Watanabe learned the hard way that even for a Habu type talent there will be some bumps in the road to stardom. Sato Shinya gave him a lesson in professional shogi by winning in only 77 moves. Another lesson in professional shogi was given by Yamamoto, who beat Ono Yaichio in only 52 moves in almost exactly the same way as he had beaten Tamura on July 6th in the Ryu-O challenger tournament. Ono clearly had not seen this game yet, or his prepared counter failed miserably. Yamamoto is in great form so far this season and is one of the 13 players with two wins in C2. The others are Maeda, Masuda, Nozuki, Matsuo, Chuza, Kobayashi Hiroshi, Naganuma, Toyokawa, Takada, Oshima, Anzai and Akutsu (the only rookie to start with two wins). Happiest man of the day was probably Iijima, who had not won a game since his professional debut in May. He won an up and down game against Takano and must be very relieved. More next week, Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Complex Games Lab Electrotechnical Laboratory 1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305-8568 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