From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 12 may 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no.838 and 839, May 3rd and 10th 2000) Time to catch up after Golden Week. A full week of national holidays and some paper deadlines mean that I have to do two Shukan Shogi reports in one again this time. First the second game of the meijin match between Sato Yasumitsu and Maruyama Tadahisa. Shukan Shogi calls this a "Kanpu" victory for Maruyama, which to my knowledge is a baseball term used when a pitcher throws the full nine innings and wins. Perfect to the end, so to say, and this is how Maruyama did it: Black: Maruyama Tadahisa, Challenger White: Sato Yasumitsu, Meijin 58th Meijin-sen, Game 2, April 22nd and 23rd 2000 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P8c-8d 0/0 3/3 3.P2g-2f 2/2 0/3 4.G4a-3b 0/2 3/6 5.G6i-7h 2/4 0/6 6.P8d-8e 0/4 1/7 7.B8h-7g 1/5 0/7 8.P3c-3d 0/5 0/7 9.S7i-8h 2/7 0/7 10.B2bx7g+ 0/7 2/9 11.S8hx7g 3/10 0/9 The Kakugawari is no surprise. Maruyama is a specialist in this opening and Sato has had big trouble with white against the Kakugawari in the previous two Meijin matches against Tanigawa. 12.S3a-4b 0/10 0/9 13.P9g-9f 3/13 0/9 14.S7a-7b 0/13 4/13 15.S3i-3h 3/16 0/13 16.P9c-9d 0/16 5/18 17.P4g-4f 14/30 0/18 18.P6c-6d 0/30 8/26 19.S3h-4g 10/40 0/26 20.S7b-6c 0/40 2/28 21.K5i-6h 0/40 0/28 22.P1c-1d 0/40 5/33 23.P1g-1f 1/41 0/33 24.S6c-5d 0/41 22/55 25.K6h-7i 6/47 0/55 26.P6d-6e 0/47 23/78 This is most often played these days. White does not allow black the natural development with P6f and at the same time this moves prepares for a future bishop drop on 6d. 27.S4g-5f 14/61 0/78 28.G6a-5b 0/61 17/95 29.K7i-8h 49/110 0/95 30.K5a-4a 0/110 23/118 31.S5f-4e 73/183 0/118 Maruyama took a long time for his last two moves. There are many variations in this opening where the loss of a tempo is vital and the extra move K7i-8h can not be spared. Maruyama judged that he could improve his king position before playing the attack S4e. This attack is not often seen, but Maruyama has played this before, albeit in a slightly different position. 32.S5dx4e 0/183 55/173 Difficult decision. Sato thought long about 32.S5e, but did not like the position after 33.Sx3d R8d S4e Sx4f G5h. 33.P4fx4e 1/184 0/173 34.K4a-3a 0/184 0/173 35.R2h-4h 69/253 0/173 36.S4b-3c 0/253 26/199 37.G4i-3h 14/267 0/199 38.G5b-4b 0/267 36/235 39.G3h-4g 17/284 0/235 40.K3a-2b 0/284 14/249 41.N2i-1g! 26/310 0/249 Good move. If black gives white time to build an anaguma (after L1b next) he will be in trouble. For example, 41.P3f L1b N3g K1a and white is just in time since N2e can be answered with S2b. 42.S3c-2d 0/310 112/361 Now 42.L1b fails to N2e and black gets a strong attack. It is very hard to see what white can play here, and it is no wonder that Sato took almost two hours for 42.S2d. The main alternative he spent the time on was 42.K1b. This is a strange looking move, but after 43.G5f as in the game, white can play B*5i followed by Bx3g+. 43.G4g-5f 13/323 0/361 Not a move to play lightly, as the gold in front of the pawn is bad shape. However, this game is an exception to the rule. The gold will play a vital role. 44.N2a-3c?! 0/323 39/400 White can not play 44.B*5i, since 45.B*5e defends the pawn on 3g with check, so white loses the bishop after R5h next. However, Sato should probably have played 44.S3c here. A difficult move to play, as the silver just moved away from this square. Still, 44.S3c N2e B*5i R4i Bx3g+ Nx3c+ Nx3c P4d S*4h Px4c+ G4bx4c R7i "is better than what happened in the game" (Sato). 45.P4e-4d 30/353 0/400 46.S2d-3e 0/353 13/413 No choice. 46.Px4d Rx4d P*4c R6d and the rook promotes. 47.P4dx4c+ 26/379 0/413 48.G4bx4c 0/379 0/413 49.S*4a! 43/422 0/413 Great attack. This seriously weakens the white king. 50.P*4d 0/422 20/433 Painful, but 50.G3b-4b B*6a P*4d Bx4c+ Gx4c G*3b K1c P*4e is worse as black's attack can not be stopped (Px4e Gx4e Nx4e Rx4e etc.). 51.S4ax3b+ 8/430 0/433 52.K2bx3b 0/430 0/433 53.N1g-2e! 21/451 0/433 There comes the knight. After the knight exchange, the square 5e is great for a knight drop. 54.B*5i 0/451 8/441 55.R4h-4i 11/462 0/441 56.B5ix3g+ 0/462 1/442 57.N2ex3c+ 12/474 0/442 58.K3bx3c 0/474 0/442 59.N*5e 1/475 0/442 60.+B3g-3h 0/475 5/447 61.R4i-6i 2/477 0/447 62.P9d-9e 0/477 16/463 63.B*6a 10/487 0/463 A big surprise for the professionals in the press room. They analysed 63.G*7b as a quick win for black. This gold can not be taken: 64.Rx7b Nx4c+ Kx4c B*6a. 64.G4c-4b 0/487 18/481 65.G*4c 0/487 0/481 66.K3c-2d 0/487 1/482 67.G4cx4b 0/487 0/482 68.S3ex2f 0/487 0/482 And things are suddenly very tough for black as the white king escapes up the board, or... 69.N5e-4c+! 18/505 0/482 Looks slow, but after 71.+Nx4d black's attack is decisive. 70.R8b-6b 0/505 24/506 71.B6a-5b+ 2/507 0/506 72.R6bx5b 0/507 0/506 73.G4bx5b 0/507 0/506 74.+B3h-4g 0/507 3/509 75.R6i-4i 11/518 0/509 76.S*4h 0/518 3/512 77.R*4f! 5/523 0/512 The decider. Maruyama usually plays his moves without making a sound, but putting this rook down could clearly be heard in the press room. Very unusual for Maruyama, showing that he is human after all. The gold on 5f is doing a fine job on a bad square. 78.S4hx4i= 0/523 17/529 After 78.+Bx4f Gx4f Sx4i= P*2e black wins, showing how vital a single pawn can be. 79.R4fx2f! 2/525 0/529 Taking the horse is also winning, but Maruyama takes the shortest route to victory. 80.S*2e 0/525 0/529 81.R2f-4f 3/528 0/529 Coolly moving the rook back. White has no defence. Maruyama, back to his modest self, said that only here he was certain of victory. 82.B*3f 0/528 10/539 83.R4fx3f 2/530 0/539 84.S2ex3f 0/530 0/539 85.G*2f 0/530 0/539 Resigns 0/530 0/539 Time: 08:50:00 08:59:00 This threatens mate with 85.S*3c and even if white defends with 85.N*2a then B*4b is winning. A perfect game by Maruyama, who most be feeling very confident now. The win in game 1 may have been a little lucky, this game can go straight into the collection of his finest performances. Sato was beaten without making a single mistake. Tough luck, and he now desperately needs a win in game 3 to have a chance to keep his Meijin title. Tanigawa ended the one-sided Zen Nihon Pro Tournament match with a victory over Okazaki in game three. He must have felt some extra pressure, knowing that everyone expected him to win against his lowly ranked opponent, but Tanigawa outplayed Okazaki to win the match in straight games. Okazaki had a little more fun in this game than in the previous games, but the result did not change. Here is game three with comments: Black: Okazaki Hiroshi, 5-dan White: Tanigawa Koji, Kisei 18th Zen Nihon Pro Tournament, Game 3, April 27th 2000 1.P7g-7f 1/1 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/1 1/1 3.P2g-2f 3/4 0/1 4.P8c-8d 0/4 1/2 At the party before the start of the tournament, Morishita and Ouchi predicted that Tanigawa would play Furibisha, but he selects the Yokofudori instead. 5.P2f-2e 0/4 0/2 6.P8d-8e 0/4 0/2 7.G6i-7h 0/4 0/2 8.G4a-3b 0/4 0/2 9.P2e-2d 0/4 0/2 10.P2cx2d 0/4 0/2 11.R2hx2d 0/4 0/2 12.P8e-8f 0/4 1/3 13.P8gx8f 0/4 0/3 14.R8bx8f 0/4 0/3 15.R2dx3d 0/4 0/3 16.B2b-3c 0/4 0/3 17.K5i-5h 1/5 0/3 18.S3a-2b 0/5 5/8 19.G4i-3h 0/5 0/8 20.K5a-4a 0/5 2/10 21.R3d-3f 0/5 0/10 22.S7a-6b 0/5 1/11 23.P9g-9f 0/5 0/11 24.P9c-9d 0/5 14/25 25.P7f-7e 3/8 0/25 Okazaki likes this move, which is an attempt to avoid the R8e-Yokofudori. However, he runs straight into the home preparation of Tanigawa. This game seems to indicate that 25.P7e is not good and that black has to play either S4h or N7g. 26.R8f-8d! 0/8 7/32 The move that Tanigawa prepared. Okazaki only knew 26.R8b and admitted that he had not studied this variation well enough. The game now picks up pace very quickly. 27.N8i-7g 0/8 0/32 28.P*8g 0/8 13/45 29.B8h-9g 0/8 0/45 30.P9d-9e 0/8 0/45 31.P9fx9e 14/22 0/45 32.N8a-9c 0/22 0/45 33.P7e-7d 16/38 0/45 34.P7cx7d 0/38 20/65 Not good is 34.Rx7d Rx3c+ Nx3c B*8c G5a (G7a P*7b) Bx7d+ Px7d P*7c and black gets the initiative. 35.R3f-8f 10/48 0/65 36.R8dx8f 0/48 21/86 37.B9gx8f 0/48 0/86 38.P8g-8h+ 0/48 0/86 39.S7ix8h 0/48 0/86 40.P*8e 0/48 0/86 This looks like a complete loss for black, as 41.B9f fails to 42.Px9f and after 40.Nx8e white can play the sacrifice Bx8h+ anytime he likes. 41.R*8a! 6/54 0/86 With his back against the wall, Okazaki shows that he is not a pushover. The next moves are forced. 42.R*7a 0/54 2/88 43.R8ax7a+ 1/55 0/88 44.G6ax7a 0/55 0/88 45.P*7b 0/55 0/88 46.G7ax7b 0/55 3/91 47.R*8a 8/63 0/91 48.R*7a 0/63 16/107 49.P*7c 2/65 0/107 And suddenly black seems to have everything to play for. 50.Sx7c or Gx7c fail to Rx7a+ followed by Bx5c+ and black has an overwhelming position. White has no choice. 50.R7ax8a 0/65 0/107 51.P7cx7b+ 24/89 0/107 52.P8ex8f 0/89 0/107 53.P*8b! 0/89 0/107 Much better than 53.+Px8a which moves the promoted pawn to far from the king. Okazaki thought that he had the better position here, but in the press room Ouchi already pointed to the general wall on 3h and 3i, which would make it very hard for the black king to escape. Ouchi predicted that black's attack was not strong enough and that white's counter attack would be very severe. 54.P8f-8g+ 0/89 2/109 55.S8hx8g 0/89 0/109 56.P*8f 0/89 1/110 57.S8g-7f 29/118 0/110 Here Okazaki woke up to reality. He thought he could play 57.Sx8f, which after 58.R*8i +Px6b G4b Px8a+ B*6i K6h P*8g S*7i is good for black. However, here he realised that after 58.Rx8b! +Px8b R*8i R*8a S5a +P7b B*6i K6h P*8g he has no silver in hand and he can no longer defend. 57.S8f is a change of plan and that is almost never a good sign. 58.R8ax8b 0/118 3/113 59.+P7bx8b 0/118 0/113 60.P7d-7e! 0/118 0/113 Now white's advantage is clear. 61.+P8b-7b 3/121 0/113 62.S6b-5a 0/121 0/113 63.+P7b-6a 1/122 0/113 64.S5a-4b 0/122 0/113 65.+P6a-6b 2/124 0/113 66.G3b-3a 0/124 1/114 67.R*7a 1/125 0/114 68.K4a-3b 0/125 0/114 69.R7ax7e+ 0/125 0/114 Black has managed to avoid immediate disaster by taking this pawn, but allowing the white king to get out of danger has virtually ended this game. White is completely safe and black has nowhere to run. 70.R*8i 0/125 1/115 71.P6g-6f 5/130 0/115 No choice. The natural 71.P*7i fails to 72.Bx7g+ Gx7g Rx7i+. 72.B*4i 0/130 13/128 73.K5h-6h 4/134 0/128 74.B4ix7f+ 0/134 1/129 75.+R7ex7f 0/134 0/129 76.P*7e 0/134 0/129 77.+R7fx7e 1/135 0/129 78.P8f-8g+ 0/135 0/129 79.P*2d 0/135 0/129 80.B3cx2d 0/135 1/130 81.G*3d 0/135 0/130 82.+P8gx7h 0/135 4/134 83.K6hx7h 0/135 0/134 84.B2dx5g+ 0/135 0/134 85.K7hx8i 0/135 0/134 86.S*8g 0/135 0/134 Resigns 0/135 0/134 Time: 02:15:00 02:14:00 Black has no mate and even the defence 87.R*7h P*8h Rx8h G*7i leads to mate. Another great performance by Tanigawa, who wins the Zen Nihon Pro Tournament after a three year lapse for the 7th time, improving on his own record. One has to feel a little sorry for Okazaki, who failed to make much impact in his first appearance on the big stage. Still, most professionals do not even get this far in their entire career and Okazaki will take this experience with him into the other tournaments. In other Shogi news: ==================== * In the Oza tournament all top players advanced to the second round. Meijin challenger Maruyama played veteran Naito, who is only four wins away from 1000 professional victories. He will have to wait a little longer for this milestone, as Maruyama showed his outstanding form with a complete victory. Meijin Sato also advanced to the quarterfinals with a win over Mori Keiji. Sato seems to be getting more and more defensive these days, leaving the initiative to the opponent and then striking with a counter attack. In the Meijin match this has not paid off yet, but in the game against Mori it worked fine. Mori had the early lead, but Sato nicely turned the tables and won with a dangerous looking sacrifice of a promoted bishop that was just enough. It would have been a good game for his confidence, if he had not been told after the game that Shima had found a very nice win without the dangerous sacrifice. Sato completely overlooked this alternative and he has enough Meijin pride to be kicking himself for this oversight. Moriuchi did not have to do much to beat Izumi. Izumi failed to find a good way to build his position in the opening and got a cramped position as a result. He then decided to play a waiting game, knowing that the longer a game lasts, the bigger the chance that the opponent makes a mistake. However, in the end he was not patient enough and chose an ill-advised attack that was refuted with some forceful Moriuchi attacking. * In the white group of the Oi league Morishita could have forced an early decision with a win over Fukaura. The fight between the two players with the same teacher (Hanamura) ended in Fukaura's favour. This suddenly makes the red group very interesting as all six players still have a chance to win the group or reach a play-off with two rounds left to play. Since the red group is also very close, all bets are off on the challenger of Habu this year. * In the Ryu-O tournament Nakahara, Habu and Hatakeyama Nariyuki qualified for the challenger knock-out, joining Aono who already qualified earlier. Nakahara beat Meijin Sato in a Yodofuribisha game where he grabbed the initiative early on and never gave Sato a chance to get back in the game. Habu had much more trouble winning the 99th encounter with Tanigawa (Habu lead 59-39). He got the advantage early on, but a mistake turned the tables and Tanigawa got a big advantage. However, a desperate attempt to get some counter play turned into a winning plan when Tanigawa overlooked that a bad looking reply to a good looking counter move he played, was actually very good for Habu. Habu is in great form at the start of the season and is looking like he might add one or two titles to his four crowns. He already made the finals of the Kisei challenger tournament and now he also made an important step to the Ryu-O title. Hatakeyama qualified for the finals by beating Nishikawa in the relatively easy qualification group 3. This group has only 16 players and two players qualify for the challenger finals, so the route to big fame and money is very short. Hatakeyama won the battle of nerves as the game was heading straight for sennichite. However, Nishikawa spent 78 minutes around the dinner break to decide that he wanted to open the position instead of playing again. This turned out to be suicidal, as Hatakeyama defended well got a very strong counter attack. He then almost gave it away in the endgame, but a Nishikawa mistake under time pressure was enough for Hatakeyama to win the game. More next week with the third game of the Meijin match, 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