From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 11 aug 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 852, August 9th 2000) This week in Shukan Shogi the final game of the Kisei match between Tanigawa and Habu. Tanigawa came to the game better prepared, but Habu found the difficult solution to Tanigawa's new opening move over the board and won without much trouble after that. Here is the game with comments: Black: Tanigawa Koji, Kisei White: Habu Yoshiharu, Challenger 71st Kisei-sen, Game 5, July 31st 2000 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 This is a big game and not only because the Kisei title holder will be decided. For Tanigawa it means the difference between becoming Honorary Kisei (five Kisei titles) and being without any title at all. For Habu it would be the first time in three years to hold five of the seven major titles. The furigoma gave Habu white and recently this is no longer considered to be a disadvantage. Especially in this title match Habu will not have been unhappy with the outcome of the pawn toss, as all four previous games have been won by the player with the white pieces... 2.P3c-3d 0/0 1/1 3.P2g-2f 2/2 0/1 4.P8c-8d 0/2 1/2 5.P2f-2e 1/3 0/2 6.P8d-8e 0/3 1/3 7.G6i-7h 0/3 0/3 8.G4a-3b 0/3 1/4 9.P2e-2d 2/5 0/4 10.P2cx2d 0/5 1/5 11.R2hx2d 0/5 0/5 12.P8e-8f 0/5 3/8 13.P8gx8f 1/6 0/8 14.R8bx8f 0/6 0/8 15.R2dx3d 2/8 0/8 16.B2b-3c 0/8 0/8 17.R3d-3f 18/26 0/8 18.S3a-2b 0/26 2/10 19.P*8g 7/33 0/10 20.R8f-8e 0/33 4/14 21.R3f-2f 1/34 0/14 22.K5a-4a 0/34 5/19 23.K5i-6h 1/35 0/19 24.P7c-7d 0/35 15/34 25.S3i-3h 6/41 0/34 26.N8a-7c 0/41 3/37 27.P4g-4f 4/45 0/37 28.S7a-6b 0/45 2/39 29.P3g-3f 4/49 0/39 30.G6a-5a 0/49 1/40 31.N2i-3g 3/52 0/40 32.R8e-5e 0/52 77/117 This is a plan by Matsuo (4-dan). There are a number of alternatives here. Meijin Maruyama preferred 32.P5d, but Sato showed in the second game of the Meijin match that Bx3c+ Nx3c P6f effectively takes the sting out of the white center attack. Other moves that have been tried here are 32.P7e and 32.P*8f. 32.R5e is a new idea, showing the richness of the R8e Yokofudori. Normally, one would think twice before putting the rook in the diagonal of the bishop, but in this position it is alright: 33.Bx5e Bx5e P6f (if S8h then B*4d and white wins) Bx6f N7g P7e G6g B4d R2e P3e and white has a strong attack on the head of the knight. 33.P3f-3e?! 53/105 0/117 White's plan is to play P7e followed by N6e next to aim at the weak points 5g and 7g. Therefore, black usually defends 5g with 33.G4h or 33.G5h. However, Tanigawa has prepared a very sharp new move to counter R5e. Because this pawn blocks the line to the rook, black now threatens to take the white rook on 5e as a bishop move to 4d is not effective anymore. 34.R5ex3e 0/105 34/151 35.B8hx3c+ 1/106 0/151 36.N2ax3c 0/106 1/152 37.P*3d 49/155 0/152 38.R3ex3d 0/155 3/155 39.B*5f 0/155 0/155 40.R3d-6d! 0/155 20/175 Bad luck for Tanigawa that his new move fails because of this deeply calculated rook move. This is a very hard move to play, as every player of the R8e Yokofudori wants to put this rook on 5d, attacking the head of the black king with N6e next. Also, with a knight in hand, a future N*6d is very nasty. Why R6d is good will become clear later. 41.P*3d 46/201 0/175 42.B*4d 0/201 2/177 43.P3dx3c+ 2/203 0/177 44.B4dx2f 0/203 0/177 45.+P3cx3b 0/203 0/177 46.K4ax3b 0/203 0/177 47.B5f-4e 11/214 0/177 Here is the point of 40.R6d. White threatened to play 47.P*3f and black has to defend against this. If the white rook would have been on 5d, this defence would have attacked the white rook at the same time. 48.B2f-3e! 0/214 27/204 Habu is a master of the shogi zugzwang. Here black has no good moves. 48.N*5f does not work because of R6e and 48.N*3d is pointless after S3c. "Having no pawns in hand was a problem until the end" (Tanigawa). 49.S7i-8h 9/223 0/204 Here Habu had worried about 49.N*8c Bx4f Nx9a+ R4d L*4h, which still seems good for white, but would give black more chances than the game. 50.B3ex4f 0/223 3/207 51.S8h-7g 1/224 0/207 52.R6d-4d 0/224 31/238 Probably 52.R2d is a little better, but Habu advantage does not change. 53.G*3f 23/247 0/238 54.B4fx3g+ 0/247 2/240 55.S3hx3g 0/247 0/240 56.R*2i 0/247 0/240 57.B*1f 1/248 0/240 58.N*3c 0/248 9/249 59.G3f-3e 6/254 0/249 60.N3cx4e 0/254 2/251 61.G3ex4d 13/267 0/251 62.P4cx4d 0/267 0/251 63.S3g-4f 0/267 0/251 64.P*3d 0/267 7/258 65.S7g-6f 1/268 0/258 66.G*3c 0/268 9/267 Habu calmly has rebuilt his castle, shutting out the black bishop on 1f. White now has a winning advantage. 67.S6f-5e 3/271 0/267 68.P*2g 0/271 1/268 69.R*3i 2/273 0/268 70.R2i-2h+ 0/273 3/271 71.G4i-3h 1/274 0/271 72.B*4h 0/274 1/272 73.G3hx2h 2/276 0/272 74.B4hx3i+ 0/276 0/272 75.G2hx2g 0/276 0/272 76.R*4i 0/276 4/276 77.N*2e 2/278 0/276 78.N7c-6e 0/278 1/277 Elementary attack, but strong. 79.S5e-6f 0/278 0/277 80.R4ix4f+ 0/278 1/278 81.S6fx6e 0/278 0/278 82.+B3ix5g 0/278 0/278 83.K6h-7g 2/280 0/278 84.S*6i 0/280 0/278 85.N2ex3c+ 1/281 0/278 86.S2bx3c 0/281 0/278 87.G*6h 0/281 0/278 88.S6ix7h+ 0/281 1/279 89.G6hx7h 0/281 0/279 90.N*6f 0/281 0/279 Resigns 0/281 0/279 Time: 04:41:00 04:39:00 After 90.Px6f +Bx6f K8f P*8e K9f +Bx6e black can not defend anymore. In this game Tanigawa's opening preparation was superior, but Habu found a subtle counter over that board that Tanigawa had overlooked. So, Habu adds another title to his four crowns and Tanigawa sees all of his great shogi this season come to nothing as he loses his only title. Is Habu on his way to another seven crown dominance? In other shogi news: ==================== * Last week Tanigawa and Fujii played for the right to challenge Habu for the Oza title. Tanigawa was playing to meet Habu in three straight title matches, while Fujii was playing for his first challenge of Habu and his first challenge other than for the Ryu-O title. It was a nerve wrecking game as both players made a number of small mistakes in the very complicated positions. In the end it was Tanigawa who made the final mistake and Fujii went straight for the king and won. A little surprising that Fujii is going to be challenging Habu, but that promises to be an interesting match-up. Not only do they play for the first time on a big stage, but Fujii is one of the few players who has a winning record against Habu (4-2). The Oza match starts on August 29th. * In the Ryu-O tournament Miura and Sato played for a place in the best-of-three challenger final. Miura came into the game well-prepared as he used only 5 minutes for the moves that were played before lunch. However, Sato was not impressed and attacked strongly. It was always a case of whether his attack would be strong enough and for a long time the professionals in the press room thought it would not be good enough and that Miura's king could escape up the board into a safe entering king position. But Sato found a very nice pawn drop that looked pretty harmless, but was actually stopping the king from entering. It was still very difficult, but Sato managed to keep Miura's king out of his position and won. A very close game and Sato now returns to the challenger final for the first time in four years where he will meet the winner of the game between Habu and Tanigawa. * In the A class Junisen two games were played. Habu and Morishita played an old-fashioned Yagura quick attack where surprisingly the defensive player Morishita played the attacking side. Habu showed that he has no equal in his present form, as he won fairly easily after a Morishita mistake. A good start for Habu who now has two wins from two games in the A class, while Morishita drops to 1-1. In the other game Moriuchi and Shima played a wild game from the first couple of moves. Both players clearly were into this game, but it seems that Shima overdid it a little as he forced the position where this was not possible. In a position as unbalanced as that, this can quickly lead to disaster and that is exactly what happened. Moriuchi joins Habu with two wins, while Shima has now two losses and will fight against relegation again this year. 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