From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 15 dec 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 870, December 13th 2000) This week in Shukan Shogi the fifth game of the Ryu-O match between Fujii and Habu. It was a short game, but it was actually quite interesting. Fujii again got the early lead, but he threw it all away in two consecutive mistakes. After this, Habu won with some nice endgame play. Here is the game with comments: Black: Fujii Takeshi, Ryu-O White: Habu Yoshiharu, Challenger 13th Ryu-O sen, Game 5, December 5th and 6th 2000 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/0 1/1 3.P6g-6f 5/5 0/1 4.P8c-8d 0/5 2/3 5.P1g-1f 7/12 0/3 6.P1c-1d 0/12 4/7 7.R2h-6h 2/14 0/7 8.S7a-6b 0/14 7/14 9.S3i-3h 7/21 0/14 10.K5a-4b 0/21 4/18 11.S7i-7h 23/44 0/18 12.K4b-3b 0/44 2/20 13.P4g-4f 15/59 0/20 14.P5c-5d 0/59 16/36 15.K5i-4h 1/60 0/36 16.G6a-5b 0/60 12/48 17.K4h-3i 3/63 0/48 18.S3a-4b 0/63 32/80 19.B8h-7g 8/71 0/80 20.P8d-8e 0/71 4/84 21.K3i-2h 1/72 0/84 22.P7c-7d 0/72 11/95 23.S7h-6g 53/125 0/95 24.S4b-5c 0/125 26/121 25.P9g-9f 15/140 0/121 26.P9c-9d 0/140 34/155 27.L9i-9g 33/173 0/155 28.S6b-7c 0/173 18/173 29.P5g-5f 45/218 0/173 30.G4a-4b 0/218 22/195 31.G6i-5h 48/266 0/195 32.P6c-6d 0/266 13/208 33.G5h-4g 5/271 0/208 34.S7c-8d 0/271 40/248 The Bogin is a rarity at this level, as it is generally believed that the Ibisha side can not get any advantage from it. All of the Ibisha attacking strategies have been analysed extensively, so it is interesting to see what Habu has come up with. Maybe it is just that he wanted to play a quick attacking system again, as the slow game has lead to disaster every time. 35.R6h-7h 3/274 0/248 36.P7d-7e 0/274 3/251 37.B7g-5i 6/280 0/251 38.R8b-7b 0/280 23/274 39.B5i-4h 8/288 0/274 40.P7ex7f 0/288 16/290 41.S6gx7f 0/288 0/290 42.P6d-6e 0/288 0/290 This seems like a perfectly natural position, but it is actually quite rare. Almost the same position occurred in the 1972 Meijin match between Oyama and Nakahara, but with the white gold on 4a. In that game Oyama managed to activate his pieces very well and scored a convincing victory. Fujii has also some experience with this type of position. In his game against Iizuka the colours were reversed and the left lance was still on its original square. Fujii lost that game, but he thought that not having the lance in the diagonal of the bishop was an important improvement. This game shows that he might be right. 43.P5f-5e 1/289 0/290 44.B2bx5e 0/289 5/295 45.S7f-6g 1/290 0/295 46.R7bx7h+ 0/290 8/303 This rook exchange seems to be good for black, as the silver on 8d is an idle piece (often a problem in the bogin). However, after 46.P*7f G5f B2b Sx7f black has the advantage. 47.S6gx7h 0/290 0/303 48.P6ex6f 0/290 0/303 After 48.R*7i S6g Rx8i+ S5f the difference between the two silvers on 5f and 8d is too big. Combined with the stronger king position this position is much better for black. 49.R*6a 40/330 0/303 One of the signs that the Furibisha side has a good position: dropping the rook in the opponent's camp before the Ibisha side can do the same. Here the general feeling was that Fujii had again won the opening. However, things are not so easy here... 50.R*7i 0/330 28/331 51.S7h-7g 1/331 0/331 52.P6f-6g+ 0/331 1/332 53.B4hx8d 57/388 0/332 54.R7ix8i+ 0/388 33/365 55.R6ax6g+? 0/388 0/365 Looks natural, but Fujii underestimated Habu's reply. Better was 55.S7f N*5g G4i-4h (or Gx5g) B7c Bx7c+ Nx7c Rx9a+ B*3i K1h. This looks a little dangerous, but actually the black attack is stronger than the white one. 56.P1d-1e! 0/388 4/369 Habu does not hesitate. This edge attack is very strong. 57.+R6g-6a? 24/412 0/369 In two moves, Fujii's position drops from good to losing. Realising that his previous move was a mistake, Fujii rushes into the attack. Of course, 57.Px1e P*1g Lx1g N*2d was bad, but after 57.S6h (suggested by Senzaki) Px1f +R6a (P*1h B6d is good for white) P*6g! (not P1g+ Lx1g P*1f Lx1f Lx1f P*1g Lx1g+ Kx1g and the black king is hard to mate on the edge) and the position is still difficult. 58.B5ex7g+ 0/412 6/375 This free silver helps a lot. 59.+R6ax8a 0/412 0/375 60.P1ex1f 0/412 22/397 61.P*1h 0/412 0/397 62.P*7e! 0/412 12/409 Habu does not often get the chance to play these types of moves against Fujii, but this is a nice one. The bishop is blocked from the defence as 63.Bx7e fails to +B7f with double attack on 7e and 4i. Habu's attack is now in full flow and unstoppable. 63.+R8ax9a 16/428 0/409 64.+B7g-6f 0/428 7/416 65.P*5g 1/429 0/416 66.N*5e 0/429 5/421 67.G4g-4h 21/450 0/421 If black could have played 67.G5f here, things would still be interesting. However, the 68.+B6g L*2f +Bx4i Sx4i G*3h! Kx3h N4g+ is a nice mate. There is a big difference in being able to escape through 1g or not. 68.N5e-6g+ 0/450 0/421 69.L*5h 3/453 0/421 Dropping a piece in defence always makes a professional cry, but here there is no choice. +Nx5g next would already have been a mating threat (after S*3i). 70.S*5i 0/453 6/427 71.S*4g 13/466 0/427 This ends the game quickly, but after 71.N*2f Sx4h+ Gx4h G*5i white also wins. 72.S5ix4h+ 0/466 15/442 73.G4ix4h 0/466 0/442 74.G*8c 0/466 0/442 Resigns 1/467 0/442 Time: 07:47:00 07:22:00 The bishop has no place to go. Furthermore, with this bishop white has mate in one. An abrupt ending, but losing a full bishop and no attack to speak of, there is no hope for black. So Habu pulls one back, but his opening troubles continue as again it was Fujii who dictated the pace early on. Still, it must give Habu confidence that he can still crush his opponent in the endgame if he gets the chance. In other shogi news: ==================== * In the A class Junisen only one game was played last week, but it was a vital game for both players. Shima and Tanaka are both fighting relegation. Shima is actually bottom of the league with 1-4 and another loss would make things extremely difficult for him. On the other hand, Tanaka could get to relatively safe territory with a win that would get him back to 3-3. A loss, however, would put him in a relegation place as well. Tanaka's nickname is "Opening Edison" as he keeps inventing new opening strategies all the time. Against Shima he also surprised everyone with an interesting opening experiment in the Yagura. Unfortunately for him, he overlooked a very strange looking silver drop ("I thought: What the hell is that?" (Tanaka) ) that turned out to be very strong. If you play a very sharp opening, it can blow up in your face and that is what happened to Tanaka, who lost in only 62 moves. Shima is far from safe, but his situation is no longer hopeless. With games against relegation rivals Kato and Shima still to play, he has his A class spot in his own hands. * In the Kio-sen the challenger tournament is almost finished. There are only three players left with a chance to challenge Habu: Goda, Kubo and Maruyama. Goda had a lucky escape against Kubo in the winner's section of the tournament and reached the final there. Kubo thought he had calculated the endgame until the end, but a small oversight turned out to be the difference between winning and losing. Kubo now has to try his luck in the second chance round, where he will meet Maruyama to have another shot at Goda. Maruyama's results have not been impressive since he became Meijin, but he showed that he is on the way back with a victory over Tanigawa. It looked like he would win smoothly as he got a solid advantage early on. However, when he tried to strangle his opponent (as is his style), he could not quite make it work and in the end Tanigawa got a chance to win. However, in a complex endgame position Tanigawa made a mistake and lost quickly after that. The winner of the game between Maruyama and Kubo has to beat Goda two times in a row to become Kio challenger. * Tanigawa had a good start in the Kisei leagues with a win over Ariyoshi. For veteran Ariyoshi it is already an outstanding achievement that he survived the preliminary rounds to get this far, but in a group with Tanigawa, Fujii and Hatakeyama, his chances to advance to the final eight are very slim. He did not have much chance against Tanigawa and now needs to win his next game to stay in the tournament. 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