From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 19 jul 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 849, July 19th 2000) This week in Shukan Shogi the first game of the Oi title match between Habu and Tanigawa. These two players are seeing a lot of each other lately, as they are also playing in the Kisei match and there is a good chance that they will meet in the Oza match as well. They are clearly the two players in great form at the moment, but in this first game of the Oi it seemed like Habu was a little bit in better form. He was lucky that an early oversight did not lead to disaster, but after that he played perfectly. Here is the game with comments: Black: Habu Yoshiharu, Oi White: Tanigawa Koji, Challenger 41st Oi-sen, Game 1, July 10th and 11th 2000 1.P7g-7f 1/1 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/1 5/5 3.P6g-6f 1/2 0/5 4.R8b-3b 0/2 21/26 5.S7i-6h 9/11 0/26 6.P3d-3e 0/11 7/33 7.S6h-6g 4/15 0/33 8.K5a-6b 0/15 8/41 9.B8h-7g 9/24 0/41 10.K6b-7b 0/24 3/44 11.R2h-8h 10/34 0/44 A surprise. This is the 105th game that Habu and Tanigawa have played against each other, but it is only the second time that the opening is Ai Furibisha. However, in a way it is also the second time in a row that this opening is played. In the final game of the Oi title match last year (Habu won 4-0 then), the opening was also Ai Furibisha. There Tanigawa played a fast climbing silver attack with S3c~S4d~S3e. Here, he opts for a slow approach. 12.P3e-3f 0/34 11/55 13.P3gx3f 3/37 0/55 14.R3bx3f 0/37 0/55 15.S3i-2h 3/40 0/55 16.P1c-1d 0/40 13/68 17.P8g-8f 16/56 0/68 18.G4a-5b 0/56 17/85 19.P8f-8e 21/77 0/85 Black wants to exchange pawns on the 8th file as soon as white blocks the sideways working of the rook. If white avoids this block, it will be more difficult to develop the silver. 20.R3f-3d 0/77 3/88 21.K5i-4h 11/88 0/88 22.S3a-3b 0/88 24/112 23.G6i-5h 15/103 0/112 24.B2b-1c 0/103 39/151 25.P6f-6e 26/129 0/151 26.N2a-3c 0/129 6/157 27.P*3g 27/156 0/157 28.P2c-2d 0/156 17/174 29.K4h-3h 52/208 0/174 30.P2d-2e 0/208 5/179 31.G4i-4h 1/209 0/179 32.S7a-8b 0/209 9/188 33.B7g-6f 14/223 0/188 34.G6a-6b 0/223 48/236 The sealed move. Both players have been very careful about developing their pieces. White has a pawn in hand and an active rook, but he has trouble with the development of his left silver, therefore the position is unclear. 35.P1g-1f 7/230 0/236 36.R3d-2d 0/230 17/253 37.S6g-5f 18/248 0/253 38.P2e-2f 0/248 10/263 39.P2gx2f 23/271 0/263 40.R2dx2f 0/271 0/263 41.P8e-8d 0/271 0/263 42.P8cx8d 0/271 2/265 43.R8hx8d 1/272 0/265 44.P*8c 0/272 0/265 45.R8d-3d?! 38/310 0/265 After a long, slow build-up, Habu decides to open the hostilities. He did not like 45.R8f R2d P*2g P4d N7g R3d P9f P4e P9e S4c as white has an extra pawn in hand and has also managed to develop the silver. Tanigawa agreed that this variation is not bad for white. 46.P4c-4d 0/310 31/296 47.P1f-1e 59/369 0/296 A change of plan. At first, Habu thought that he could play 47.Bx4d here as it attacks the rook. However, after 47.Rx2h+ Kx2h G4c, black loses material. Habu is lucky that his oversight is not leaving him with a bad position. 48.G5b-4c 0/369 22/318 49.R3d-3f 1/370 0/318 50.R2fx3f 0/370 55/373 51.P3gx3f 0/370 0/373 52.R*6i 0/370 0/373 This double attack on bishop and knight looks really good for white. However, with the wall silver on 8b and the bad position of the white gold on 4c, things are not so easy. 53.P1ex1d 4/374 0/373 54.P*1h 0/374 0/373 55.L1ix1h 14/388 0/373 56.R6ix8i+ 0/388 1/374 57.P*2g! 4/392 0/374 Strong defence. Black plays a defence only move just after white won material. This usually is a sign of trouble, but here white has no good way to continue his attack. 58.B1c-3a 0/392 0/374 59.P6e-6d 0/392 0/374 Black attacks on the famous weak point of the white castle: "the rabbit ear". 60.B3a-4b 0/392 1/375 No choice. 60.Px6d R*5a N*4a P*6c loses quickly. 61.P6dx6c+ 2/394 0/375 62.G6bx6c 0/394 0/375 63.P1d-1c+ 0/394 0/375 64.+R8i-6i? 0/394 5/380 The losing move. Tanigawa thought he was forcing Habu into P*6g or P*6h here, which would seriously weaken black's attack on the 6th file as there are no longer pawn drops possible. The game sequence without 64.+R6i would have been much better: 66.P5d P*1b P*3g Nx3g P*1g Lx1g N*2d R*2f and white has no pawns so it looks a little difficult to continue the attack. However, N4e looks very strong, so the position is still unclear. 65.B6f-7g! 10/404 0/380 Simple, but strong. Although this bishop is undefended here, white can not attack it without losing too much time. 66.P5c-5d 0/404 4/384 67.P*1b 7/411 0/384 68.P*3g 0/411 43/427 69.N2ix3g 5/416 0/427 70.N*2d 0/416 2/429 71.R*2b 11/427 0/429 72.N2dx3f 0/427 17/446 73.R2bx3b+ 3/430 0/446 74.P*1g 0/430 9/455 75.G5h-5i! 7/437 0/455 The reason why 64.+R6i was bad. This gold move makes black's king safe and attacks the white dragon at the same time. 76.+R6ix5i 0/437 2/457 77.B7gx5i 0/437 0/457 78.P1gx1h+ 0/437 0/457 79.+R3bx4c 3/440 0/457 80.+P1hx2h 0/440 1/458 81.K3h-4i 0/440 0/458 82.G*5a 0/440 2/460 83.S*5b 3/443 0/460 Resigns 0/443 0/460 Time: 07:23:00 07:40:00 White can try a number of checks after 83.Nx4h+, but they will all come to nothing. On the other hand, white's king can not be defended with the silver on 8b blocking the escape. A good start for Habu, but a close game that will not discourage Tanigawa much. He is black in the second game and will no doubt play his favourite Kakugawari opening, in which he is almost unbeatable. Other shogi news: ================= * The challenger final of the Oza title will be played between Tanigawa and Fujii. Fujii beat Sato Yasumitsu which was a surprise considering that he had a 2-9 score against Sato going into the game, losing their last 9 encounters! This game was different, though, as Fujii showed some nice defensive play that eventually killed all of Sato's attacking chances. In the end Fujii made it all look very easy, but getting past an opponent he has so much trouble with, will have made him very happy. Fujii has two Ryu-O titles under his belt, but so far has not challenged for any other title matches. He now needs only one more win to change that. However, if Fujii wants to challenge Habu, he has to beat the most difficult opponent possible, as Tanigawa is in brilliant form at the moment. Tanigawa beat Maruyama after Maruyama voluntarily weakened his king position to chase away an attacking silver. This backfired as Tanigawa was given the chance to wreck the four general anaguma that Maruyama had built. Positions where Tanigawa has a good attack are usually bad news for the opponent and that was no different for the new Meijin. I strongly favour Tanigawa to challenge for the Oza title, but maybe he will lose deliberately because he is tired of seeing the same face on the other side of the board all the time. * In the Kio tournament Nakahara crushed Manabe in only 69 moves to reach the best 16. His next opponent is Kubo, which is an interesting match-up between different generations. Kubo will undoubtedly put up more of a fight than Manabe. * Fukaura became the first player to win the Hayasashi Shin-Ei tournament three times. This tournament is the least important of the three television tournaments as it is open only to players younger than 30 and without a major title to their name. In the final Fukaura beat Kubo, who also lost the final of this tournament two years ago. Not much he could do about it, though, as Fukaura showed some perfect judgement in ignoring a strong looking attack. In 30 seconds byoyomi it is very difficult to judge the consequences in depth, but Fukaura's assessment of the position was spot on. 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