From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 23 mar 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 832, March 22nd 2000) Although there is no official holiday, the professional season ends on March 31st and most players will have almost no games in April. This week the final Junisen division ended, but Shukan Shogi first focuses on the third game of the Kio title match between Habu and Moriuchi. A very important game, as the winner would go 2-1 up with only two to play. Again it was Habu who showed how strong he is when the pressure is on. This time perfect defence against Moriuchi violent attack got him the victory. Here is the game with comments: Black: Habu Yoshiharu, Kio White: Moriuchi Toshiyuki, Challenger 25th Kio-sen, Game 3, March 11th 2000 1.P7g-7f 1/1 0/0 2.P8c-8d 0/1 0/0 3.S7i-6h 1/2 0/0 4.P3c-3d 0/2 0/0 5.P6g-6f 1/3 0/0 6.S7a-6b 0/3 0/0 7.P5g-5f 1/4 0/0 8.P5c-5d 0/4 0/0 9.S3i-4h 2/6 0/0 10.S3a-4b 0/6 0/0 11.G4i-5h 0/6 0/0 12.G4a-3b 0/6 0/0 13.G6i-7h 3/9 0/0 14.K5a-4a 0/9 0/0 15.K5i-6i 0/9 0/0 16.P7c-7d 0/9 0/0 17.G5h-6g 6/15 0/0 18.G6a-5b 0/15 1/1 19.S6h-7g 2/17 0/1 20.S4b-3c 0/17 0/1 21.B8h-7i 1/18 0/1 22.B2b-3a 0/18 0/1 After Kakugawari and Yokofudori, the third game starts with a Yagura opening. The Yagura is not so often seen in title matches these days. It is believed that black can get a small both significant advantage in almost all variations. Players with the white pieces therefore prefer the R8e Yokofudori, which promises them a 54% winning chance. 23.P3g-3f 0/18 0/1 24.P4c-4d 0/18 0/1 25.S4h-3g 6/24 0/1 26.B3a-6d 0/24 1/2 27.B7i-6h 0/24 0/2 28.G5b-4c 0/24 0/2 29.K6i-7i 1/25 0/2 30.K4a-3a 0/25 0/2 31.K7i-8h 2/27 0/2 32.P9c-9d 0/27 0/2 33.P1g-1f 1/28 0/2 34.K3a-2b 0/28 22/24 35.P1f-1e 6/34 0/24 The first point of the game. Black spends two moves to extend the pressure on the edge, giving white time for the first attack. Even though attacking is easier than defending, it seems that black can afford to be a little passive in this position. Both players have experience with this position, because so far it has been following their game in the A class Junisen two years ago, which ended in sennichite. 36.P8d-8e 0/34 7/31 37.P2g-2f 9/43 0/31 38.S6b-7c 0/43 1/32 39.S3g-4f 3/46 0/32 40.P4d-4e 0/46 0/32 41.S4f-3g 9/55 0/32 42.S7c-8d 0/55 2/34 43.P2f-2e 24/79 0/34 44.S8d-9e 0/79 1/35 Moriuchi had already announced that he would go for an all-out attack to put pressure on Habu in this pivotal third game. The bogin is the most aggressive way to play this position. 45.P4g-4f 4/83 0/35 46.P4ex4f 0/83 4/39 47.B6hx4f 0/83 0/39 48.P8e-8f 0/83 1/40 49.P8gx8f 2/85 0/40 50.P*8e 0/85 8/48 51.P8fx8e 23/108 0/48 52.N8a-7c 0/108 0/48 53.K8h-7i! 5/113 0/48 "An early escape is worth eight moves". Habu shows great defensive judgement here. 53.P8d looks like the natural reply, but after 54.N8e S6h Rx8d P*8g P*8f Px8f Sx8f P*8g Sx8g+ Gx8g P*8f Gx8f Bx8f P*8g B6d black is in trouble because of the exchange of the defending gold. 54.P7d-7e 0/113 16/64 White has no pawns, so it is hard to continue the attack. This is a desperate attempt to give the attack more power. 55.P9g-9f! 20/133 0/64 This is the problem. The white silver, supposed to be attacking, becomes the victim of attack. 56.P7ex7f? 0/133 79/143 This saves the silver, but correct would have been 56.Sx9f. After 57.Lx9f Bx4f Sx4f P9e P2d Sx2d P*4d G4c-4b S*4c Px9f B*6a L*4a is a strong defence and good for white. There are a lot of different variations possible here, so this is not a definite conclusion, but it seems that Sx9f was Moriuchi's best chance. 57.S7gx7f 20/153 0/143 58.S9e-8f 0/153 8/151 59.P*7d 17/170 0/151 60.B6dx4f 0/170 9/160 61.S3gx4f 1/171 0/160 62.N7cx8e 0/171 0/160 63.P*8g 5/176 0/160 64.N8e-7g+! 0/176 20/180 Good try. Natural is 64.P*7g G8h N9g+ Nx9g Sx8g+ Sx8g Rx8g+ Gx8g S*7h K6h B*7i Kx7g Sx6g+ Kx6g Bx4f+, but after S*3g the route of the black king to the other side of the board is wide open. White has not enough pieces to stop the entering king. 65.G6gx7g 14/190 0/180 Not 65.Nx7g P7e Px8f Px7f N8e S*7g and black is in trouble. 66.S8fx7g+ 0/190 0/180 67.G7hx7g 0/190 0/180 68.P*4e 0/190 7/187 Better than 68.G*4g and black can choose between 69.B*7c or 69.K8h Gx4f B*7c. 69.S4f-3g! 4/194 0/187 Looks like the wrong direction of play, but this gives white no target for attack. If 69.S5g then 70.P5e is quite dangerous. 70.B*3i 0/194 12/199 71.R2h-5h 3/197 0/199 71.R2g B5g+ followed by P*4f is dangerous. 72.G*4g 0/197 1/200 73.R5h-7h 5/202 0/200 74.B3i-5g+ 0/202 6/206 75.K7i-8h 0/202 0/206 76.P*7e 0/202 0/206 77.S7fx7e 4/206 0/206 78.G4gx3g 0/206 5/211 79.N2ix3g 2/208 0/211 80.S*6h 0/208 6/217 81.S*7f! 5/213 0/217 The deciding move. 81.G7f? S7i= Rx7i +Bx7i Kx7i Rx8g+ is dangerous for black. 82.S6hx7g+ 0/213 3/220 83.R7hx7g 0/213 0/220 84.+B5g-6h 0/213 0/220 85.P7d-7c+ 0/213 0/220 86.R8b-8a 0/213 0/220 87.B*7b 2/215 0/220 88.+B6hx7g 0/215 3/223 89.K8hx7g 1/216 0/223 90.R*4g 0/216 1/224 91.N*6g 4/220 0/224 92.R8a-7a 0/220 3/227 93.B7bx6c+ 0/220 0/227 94.R4gx3g+ 0/220 0/227 95.S*6b 4/224 0/227 96.R7a-3a 0/224 0/227 97.G*4a 0/224 0/227 98.R3ax4a 0/224 1/228 99.+B6cx4a 0/224 0/228 100.G4c-4b 0/224 0/228 101.+B4a-7d 0/224 0/228 102.+R3g-3i 0/224 0/228 103.R*8a 0/224 0/228 104.+R3ix8i 0/224 0/228 105.K7g-8f 0/224 0/228 106.+R8ix9i 0/224 0/228 107.R8ax9a+ 0/224 0/228 Resigns 0/224 3/231 Time: 03:44:00 03:51:00 Moriuchi took 3 minutes to see that there was nothing left to play for. Even though white still has a complete castle, he has nothing but to resign. If he does not attack then S8d next will give black a completely safe entering king. However, white's only attack is 108.G*9e Px9e +Rx9e K7g, but then there is no more material to attack the king with. Habu takes a big step towards his tenth consecutive Kio title. Moriuchi needs to win both of the remaining games to get his first title. In other shogi news: ==================== * The last Junisen class to be decided was C2. Before the final round, there were seven players still with a chance to promote: Horiguchi (8-1), Sugimoto (7-2), Iizuka (7-2), Kitajima (7-2), Masuda (7-2), Nozuki (7-2) and Matsuo (7-2). Horiguchi, Sugimoto and Iizuka had their chances in their own hands, the others could only win and wait for the other results. Horiguchi was the first to clinch the coveted promotion to C1. After some early problems against Kubota, he managed to turn the tables with some nice middle game play and won from there. Sugimoto will have lost some sleep before the final game. He has been close to promotion for the past three years, and needed only one more win after seven games. However, two losses in a row suddenly had put his promotion in jeopardy. His game against rookie Nakao had a slow built-up, but when the fighting started Nakao played an interesting looking gold sacrifice that backfired. In the endgame Sugimoto failed to find the quickest way to win, but Nakao never managed to get back into the game. After the game Sugimoto claimed that he had felt no stress, but his wrinkled shirt was a tell-tale sign... Kitajima was the next player to win. He convincingly beat Ono to keep his promotion chances alive. Because of this result Masuda, Nozuki and Matsuo no longer had any promotion chances. Kitajima would only promote if Iizuka would lose against Toyokawa. Toyokawa had already scared Sugimoto by beating him in the previous round and again he was not playing to make friends. Iizuka wanted to win too badly and overplayed the position after which Toyokawa showed that Iizuka's attack lacked power. A nightmare for Iizuka, who lost three of the last four games where one win would have been enough for promotion. There was no post-mortem analysis in this game and Iizuka immediately went home. Kitajima naturally was all smiles when he heard the result. Joining Iizuka in a deep depression will be Nozuki, who had a very easy schedule but lost to Matsuura (total result 2-8) and Kanki (who ended at 3-7). A chance like that is not likely to come again soon. Masuda might be the third player in their drinking sessions, because he had a bad start with two consecutive losses which could not be fixed with eight consecutive wins. * The Kisei tournament is nearing its final stage with three of the four quarterfinals being played last week. The match up between Nakahara and Goda had some extra spice, as both were relegated from the A class just a couple of weeks ago. Nakahara showed that the recovered from this shock more quickly. He won by building an attack where there seemed to be nothing, leaving his opponent desperately asking what went wrong. Nakahara will now play Habu next in the semi-finals. Habu beat Yonenaga in a double anaguma game. It seemed easy, but Habu showed his great form by beating an opponent he had lost the last four encounters with after only a single mistake. Habu is suddenly very close to adding an extra title to the four crowns he already holds. I am sure that Meijin Sato will think differently about that. He also qualified for the semi-finals with a win over Namekata. This was a very tough game, with both players putting all their cards on defence until byoyomi. There it was Namekata who made the first mistake of picking a defending move that was actually weakening his position. Still, a lot of things happened in this long game, but from then on it seemed that Sato was always in control. * In the Oi leagues, Yashiki seems to be the player to watch this year. Last year he narrowly missed a chance to have a go at Habu after losing the challenger final to Tanigawa. In this year's league, he has started with two good victories. Last week he convincingly beat Namekata in a R8e Yokofudori game. His group seems a little weaker than the other group, so this good start might well be an indication he can go as least as far as last year. He might have to deal with Fukaura, who beat Inoue from a very bad position. Inoue must be wondering what he has to do to win games these days, after his nightmare in the B1 class this year. Both Fukaura and Inoue now have 1-1 scores. In the red group Maruyama beat Minami to stay in the race for challenging Habu. Maruyama was in a little bit of trouble early in the game, but he managed to wriggle himself free and showed some great defence against a strong looking Minami attack. With two losses, Minami seems to have no chance to win the group, but Maruyama at 1-1 still has everything to play for. 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)298-61-3316 Fax: +81-(0)298-61-5918