From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 14 jan 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 822, January 12th 2000) It is unusual to have a two day title match in the weekend, but this year's first game for the Osho title between Habu and challenger Sato was played on the 8th and 9th of January. This meant that Shukan Shogi was not able to report on the game as it is printed on Saturday morning. So, we have to wait another week for comments on a very interesting looking game (which Habu won after being in trouble for a long time). This week's issue of Shukan Shogi opens with the challenger final of the Kio tournament between Moriuchi and Shima. Shima was the one still standing after the second chance round and therefore had to beat Moriuchi twice in a row to challenge Habu. His chances did not look very good before the game, with Moriuchi already beating Shima earlier in the tournament, extending his advantage in mutual games to a Habu-like 12-2. However, this time was different with both players giving their best in an extremely difficult Kakugawari game. Even the commentator for Shukan Shogi apologises for nothing being able to understand what was going on in the game. In the end it was Shima who won, making a deciding game on January 14th necessary. The first Junisen game of the year was an A-class encounter between Morishita and Tanaka. Both players had a 3-3 score going into this game and especially Tanaka really needed the win with games with leaders Maruyama and Moriuchi still to play. Tanaka said that he wanted to play like he had already lost these two games, but his positive play was not enough to beat Morishita. With some horrible looking, but actually brilliant defending (Morishita's speciality), Morishita survived the problems Tanaka had put in the position. It took a long time after that for the game to end, but Morishita never gave Tanaka another chance. If Tanaka really loses the remaining two games and relegates back to B1, he might think about the mate he missed against Kato in round 4.... In the Kisei leagues, two games were played in group C. Habu and Sato played a preliminary of their Osho match in which both players showed their opening preparation by following a game between Fujii and Takahashi for a long time. Habu seemed to have studied this the deepest, since he had an improvement of Fujii's play, which was almost immediately followed by a Sato mistake. Habu now is the first to qualify for the Kisei knock-out finals as the winner of group C. Sato now has two losses, but still has a small chance to sneak into the next round. Maruyama beat Matsumoto in the other game in group C, which means that Sato can still qualify if he beats Maruyama and Habu beats Matsumoto in the final game. In the top group of the preliminaries of the Ryu-O tournament, last year's challenger Suzuki Daisuke continued his good play in the Ryu-O tournament by beating Mori Keiji in the first round. Only a small mistake by Mori in the development of his pieces was enough for Suzuki to win convincingly. He will now play Habu next and surprisingly that will be the first time they will play an official tournament game. In the other game in group 1, Maruyama beat former Ryu-O challenger Sanada. The R8e Yokofudori showed its teeth again, with Sanada being the one regretting a small mistake. 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