From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 25 may 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 841, May 24th 2000) This week in Shukan Shogi the fourth game of the Meijin match between Sato and Maruyama. Sato finally got it right in his seventh try against the Kakugawari opening and won the game to get back to 2-2. Here is the game with comments: Black: Maruyama Tadahisa, Challenger White: Sato Yasumitsu, Meijin 58th Meijin-sen, Game 4, May 18th and 19th 2000 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P8c-8d 0/0 5/5 3.P2g-2f 0/0 0/5 4.G4a-3b 0/0 1/6 5.G6i-7h 0/0 0/6 6.P8d-8e 0/0 1/7 7.B8h-7g 0/0 0/7 8.P3c-3d 0/0 0/7 9.S7i-8h 0/0 0/7 10.S3a-4b 0/0 1/8 11.B7gx2b+ 0/0 0/8 12.G3bx2b 0/0 0/8 13.S3i-3h 0/0 0/8 14.G2b-3b 0/0 5/13 15.S8h-7g 0/0 0/13 16.S7a-7b 0/0 1/14 17.P9g-9f 0/0 0/14 18.P9c-9d 0/0 4/18 19.P4g-4f 1/1 0/18 20.P1c-1d 0/1 2/20 21.P1g-1f 1/2 0/20 22.P6c-6d 0/2 4/24 23.S3h-4g 2/4 0/24 24.S7b-6c 0/4 4/28 25.K5i-6h 2/6 0/28 26.K5a-4a 0/6 15/43 27.S4g-5f 44/50 0/43 28.K4a-3a 0/50 6/49 29.K6h-7i 39/89 0/49 30.P7c-7d 0/89 28/77 Just like the last two years, the Kakugawari opening is very important in this Meijin match. In games for the Meijin title, Sato thus far has perfect losing record of 0-6 against this opening. Furthermore, in game 2 he was beaten straight from the opening by Maruyama. In that game, he played the popular P6e strategy. Here he plays the more conventional P7d-N7c plan. 31.G4i-5h 18/107 0/77 32.N8a-7c 0/107 21/98 33.P3g-3f 9/116 0/98 34.S6c-5d 0/116 16/114 35.P6g-6f 2/118 0/114 36.G6a-6b 0/118 39/153 This is a little unusual, but not without significance. With the P7d-N7c position, white's natural attack is P6e Px6e Nx6e. With the gold on 5b, there would be a hole on 7c for a bishop drop in that case. 36.G6b covers this hole. 37.N2i-3g 13/131 0/153 38.P6d-6e!? 0/131 117/270 The sealed move after very long thought. Everyone, including Maruyama, expected the game to continue for a couple of more moves on the first day, but Sato took a really long time for this brave decision. Almost all professionals would play 38.R8a here without much thought. The hole on 7a is really worrying as a bishop or a silver can be dropped here. Maruyama could not even hide his surprise when he saw Sato's sealed move on the morning of the second day. The bravest part of the decision was that Sato himself was far from convinced that this was the correct move. 39.P6fx6e 23/154 0/270 40.S5dx6e 0/154 3/273 41.S5fx6e 52/206 0/273 42.N7cx6e 0/206 0/273 43.S7g-6f 0/206 0/273 44.P8e-8f 0/206 4/277 45.P8gx8f 8/214 0/277 46.P*6d 0/214 2/279 Not good is 46.Rx8f P*8g R8e S*8f R8a P*6a and white gets in big trouble (G5b Sx6e S*3i R1h B*2i N*6d). 47.B*5e 68/282 0/279 The reason Sato dared to play 38.P6e is that 47.S*7a is looking good in this position, but leads to a good position for white after 48.R7b Sx6b+ Rx6b B*7c R6a Bx9a+ S*3i. 48.B*4d 0/282 10/289 49.B5ex4d 32/314 0/289 50.P4cx4d 0/314 0/289 51.P4f-4e 0/314 0/289 52.S*3i 0/314 60/349 53.R2h-2i 15/329 0/349 54.B*4i 0/329 0/349 55.S*4g 0/329 0/349 56.B4ix5h+ 0/329 0/349 57.S4gx5h 0/329 0/349 58.S3i-4h+ 0/329 0/349 59.R2i-2h 68/397 0/349 60.G*3h 0/397 11/360 61.R2h-1h 0/397 0/360 62.+S4hx5h 0/397 13/373 63.R1hx3h 0/397 0/373 64.N6ex5g+ 0/397 3/376 65.S6fx5g? 48/445 0/376 A mistake that Maruyama even called the losing move. After 65.P*5i +N5f S7g +S5g Px4d instead, the position would have been unclear. 66.+S5hx5g 0/445 1/377 67.P*5h 0/445 0/377 68.S*4g! 0/445 18/395 The problem. After 69.R1h Sx5h= black has no good defence against S6g+ next. 69.P5hx5g 23/468 0/395 70.S4gx3h+ 0/468 0/395 71.N3g-2e 0/468 0/395 72.R*4i 0/468 8/403 73.P*6i 1/469 0/403 74.+S3h-4h 0/469 9/412 75.B*7g 2/471 0/412 76.+S4h-5h 0/471 2/414 77.K7i-8h 1/472 0/414 78.R4ix6i+ 0/472 21/435 79.G*7i 1/473 0/435 80.+R6i-4i! 0/473 4/439 It is tempting to take the lance, but that would be a mistake after B*5e. It looks like +R4i is a simple retreat, but this rook also works very well in defence on the vital fourth file, leaving Maruyama with very few attacking options. 81.S*7a 17/490 0/439 82.R8b-7b 0/490 1/440 83.S7ax6b+ 1/491 0/440 84.R7bx6b 0/491 0/440 85.G*7c 20/511 0/440 This took Sato completely by surprise. He had counted on 85.Bx4d, after which 86.S*6h G7ix6h +Sx6h Gx6h S*7i K9h Sx6h= is good for white. Maruyama, realising that he is in trouble, is trying to get away with sennichite. 86.R6b-9b 0/511 2/442 87.G7c-8c 3/514 0/442 88.R9b-6b 0/514 1/443 89.G8c-7c 0/514 0/443 90.R6b-6a 0/514 8/451 Sato repeated the moves just to compose himself and to make sure that he can still win even after Maruyama's next attack. 91.N*5f 9/523 0/451 92.S*6h! 0/523 11/462 The winning move. Next, Sx7i+ Gx7i P*8g is deadly, so Maruyama has to do something desperate. 93.N5fx4d 8/531 0/462 94.S6hx7g+! 0/531 8/470 The quickest way to win is probably still 94.Sx7i+ Gx7i P*8g Kx8g +Rx7i, but Nx3b+ followed by S*3c is very dangerous. Sato does not take any risks. 95.N8ix7g 0/531 0/470 96.B*6f 0/531 2/472 This bishop is also working in defence. A blunder would have been 96.S*6h G7ix6h +Sx6h Gx6h B*7i K7h and the black king escapes. 97.B*5b 5/536 0/472 98.B6fx4d 0/536 6/478 99.B5bx6a+ 0/536 0/478 100.N*6f 0/536 0/478 101.S*4a 3/539 0/478 Maruyama's last try does not work, but 101.Px4d Nx7h+ Kx7h P*8g P*6i +Sx6i Gx6i P8h+ Kx8h +Rx6i +Bx3d is also winning for white. 102.N6fx7h+ 0/539 0/478 103.G7ix7h 0/539 0/478 104.P*8g 0/539 0/478 105.G7hx8g 0/539 0/478 106.+S5h-6h 0/539 0/478 107.S4ax3b+ 0/539 0/478 108.K3ax3b 0/539 0/478 109.G*4c 0/539 0/478 110.S4bx4c 0/539 0/478 111.+B6ax4c 0/539 0/478 112.K3bx4c 0/539 0/478 113.P4ex4d 0/539 0/478 114.K4cx4d 0/539 0/478 115.B*6f 0/539 0/478 116.S*5e 0/539 0/478 Resigns 0/539 0/478 Time: 08:59:00 07:58:00 This win must be a great relief for Sato. He has equalled the match at 2-2, the momentum is completely his after two wins and he has black in the next game. Most of all, he must be relieved that he finally managed to win a Kakugawari game in the Meijin match after six failed attempts. The Meijin title will now be decided in a best-of-three, so the next game is perhaps the most important one of the match. Who will get to one game within the Meijin title? In other shogi news: ==================== * Tanigawa became the last player to qualify for the quarter finals of the Oza challenger tournament. His win over Arimori may not have been a big surprise, but it was interesting to see that Tanigawa played some very accurate defence to get the victory. The quarterfinal line-up is one of the strongest I have ever seen: Goda-Fujii, Kato-Sato Yasumitsu, Nakahara-Tanigawa and Moriuchi-Maruyama. Who will challenge Habu? * In the red group of the Oi league, things have cleared up a little. Goda beat Minami to join Tanigawa in the lead with 3 wins from 4 games. They will play in the final round to decide the winner of this group. In the other group there are still a lot of scenario's possible, but Yashiki won an important game against Inoue to get to 3-1, the same score that Morishita has. However, they will not play in the final round, which means that Fukaura and Namekata at 2-2 still have a chance to enter a play-off with Morishita and Yashiki. My guess is that both Morishita and Yashiki will win, as they play Inoue and Suzuki, who have already been relegated. * Two more players qualified for the challenger knock-out of the Ryu-O tournament. Yonenaga had a surprisingly easy win against Namekata in the semi-finals of group two. It was quite a violent game where Yonenaga seemed to feel better at home than his young opponent. In the end a nice horse sacrifice sealed it. In group 5 Yamamoto qualified for the knock-out tournament for the first time with a convincing win over Naganuma. 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