From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 24 nov 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 867, November 22nd 2000) This week in Shukan Shogi the third game of the Ryu-O match between Fujii and Habu. Habu tried to confuse Fujii again by playing an opening system that is rarely seen in professional shogi, but Fujii did not blink. With some subtle opening play (including breaking down his own castle) he got his usual advantage after the opening and this time he was able to win the game from there. Here is the game with comments: Black: Fujii Takeshi, Ryu-O White: Habu Yoshiharu, 5K 13th Ryu-O sen, Game 3, November 15th and 16th 2000 1.P7g-7f 1/1 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/1 3/3 3.P6g-6f 2/3 0/3 4.S7a-6b 0/3 1/4 5.R2h-6h 2/5 0/4 6.K5a-4b 0/5 4/8 7.P1g-1f 5/10 0/8 8.K4b-3b 0/10 4/12 9.P1f-1e 6/16 0/12 10.G6a-5b 0/16 11/23 11.S3i-3h 11/27 0/23 12.P5c-5d 0/27 40/63 13.S7i-7h 12/39 0/63 14.P8c-8d 0/39 7/70 15.S7h-6g 8/47 0/70 16.P7c-7d 0/47 6/76 17.K5i-4h 5/52 0/76 18.P8d-8e 0/52 2/78 19.B8h-7g 0/52 0/78 20.B2b-4d 0/52 1/79 Again the ball is in Habu's court, as he has not found any holes in Fujii's opening repertoire. 20.B4d gives Habu the option of playing the "Millenium Castle" as he did in game 1 of the Oza match against Fujii. However, he has something else up his sleeve. 21.K4h-3i 85/137 0/79 22.N2a-3c 0/137 13/92 23.G6i-5h 7/144 0/92 24.S3a-2b 0/144 20/112 25.P4g-4f 7/151 0/112 26.G4a-4b 0/151 21/133 27.P3g-3f 28/179 0/133 28.N8a-7c 0/179 45/178 29.S6g-5f 3/182 0/178 30.R8b-8a 0/182 27/205 Habu plays the "Subway Rook", planning a quick attack by L1b followed by R1a and P1d. It is also played against normal Shikenbisha, but it has been shown that the Furibisha side does not have much to fear from this aggressive strategy. Habu's idea is that it might be more effective now black has played the pawn to P1e as the Fujii system subscribes. 31.S3h-3g 20/202 0/205 If this would be Fujii's move, it would deserve an exclamation mark. However, this has been played before and even though it weakens black's castle formation, it is the perfect counter to the Subway Rook. Black can strengthen the edge by playing S2f or, in case the Ibisha side gives up his attacking plans, play the strong counter attack P4e-S4f-G4g-R3h-P3e. 32.B4d-5c 0/202 58/263 33.P6f-6e 34/236 0/263 34.L1a-1b?! 0/236 29/292 Habu regretted this move. The edge attack will never materialise, so this is just another weakness. 35.S3g-2f 75/311 0/292 36.P2c-2d 0/311 17/309 37.N2i-3g! 3/314 0/309 Further weakens black's castle, but it is more important to defend against P2e and threaten the strong counter attack N4e. 38.P4c-4d 0/314 46/355 Habu takes 46 minutes to admit another strategic defeat. Now that the bishop diagonal is closed, white no longer has any chances of a strong attack. However, the threat N4e was too strong, so white has no choice. From now on, the game develops in a much slower pace, as both players rearrange their pieces. For Fujii this is much easier than for Habu. 39.K3i-2h 29/343 0/355 40.G5b-4c 0/343 1/356 41.G4i-3h 1/344 0/356 42.P9c-9d 0/344 13/369 43.S5f-4g 13/357 0/369 44.R8a-8d 0/357 6/375 45.P3f-3e 30/387 0/375 46.S2b-2c 0/387 2/377 47.P3ex3d 10/397 0/377 48.S2cx3d 0/397 0/377 49.P*3e 0/397 0/377 50.S3d-2c 0/397 0/377 51.R6h-8h 1/398 0/377 52.R8d-8a 0/398 35/412 53.P5g-5f 14/412 0/412 54.P6c-6d 0/412 1/413 55.P6ex6d 1/413 0/413 56.B5cx6d 0/413 1/414 57.P*6e 1/414 0/414 58.B6d-5c 0/414 0/414 59.S4g-3f 2/416 0/414 60.N7cx6e 0/416 3/417 61.B7g-6f 0/416 0/417 62.B5c-6d 0/416 0/417 63.G5h-4g 2/418 0/417 64.S6b-5c 0/418 3/420 65.R8h-6h 6/424 0/420 66.B6d-7c 0/424 1/421 67.P7f-7e 2/426 0/421 68.B7c-9e 0/426 13/434 69.R6h-6i 0/426 0/434 70.P*6g? 0/426 1/435 Fujii underestimated the bishop move 68.B9e a little, and Habu had a chance here to try and make a fight of it. If 70.R6a P9f P*6h white has fighting chances after R2i B8d or R5i N7g+ Px9e Rx6f. 70.P*6g looks better than P*6h, but in this case it is worse. 71.R6ix6g 1/427 0/435 72.B9e-5i+ 0/427 0/435 73.B6f-4h 1/428 0/435 74.+B5ix4h 0/428 0/435 75.G3hx4h 5/433 0/435 76.P*6d 0/433 0/435 77.P*6f 0/433 0/435 78.B*7h 0/433 2/437 79.R6g-6h 0/433 0/437 80.B7hx8i+ 0/433 0/437 81.P6fx6e 0/433 0/437 82.+B8i-7i 0/433 1/438 83.R6h-6f 1/434 0/438 84.P2d-2e? 0/434 2/440 The wrong move order after which Fujii has no problems blowing up the white position. Correct was 84.Px6e Rx6e P*6d and now black has to move the rook back to 6f, as R5g fails to +B6h and R6f is not good because of Px7e, threatening N*7d. The difference with the game will become clear soon. 85.N3gx2e 11/445 0/440 86.N*2d 0/445 0/440 87.N2ex3c+ 1/446 0/440 88.G4bx3c 0/446 1/441 89.S3f-2e 0/446 0/441 90.P6dx6e 0/446 4/445 91.R6fx6e 0/446 0/445 92.P*6d 0/446 0/445 93.R6e-6g! 0/446 0/445 This is why Habu should have played 84.Px6e instead. If he now plays 94.Px7e as before, black can simply reply with 95.B*6c and because the white king position is much weaker, black will easily win the mating race. Having the rook on 6g is very significant. Until the end, it will play a decisive role in attack and defence. 94.P*3d 0/446 2/447 95.P3ex3d 2/448 0/447 96.S2cx3d 0/448 0/447 97.N*3e 0/448 0/447 98.N*3f 0/448 0/447 99.S2ex3f 1/449 0/447 100.N2dx3f 0/449 0/447 101.G4gx3f 0/449 0/447 102.S3dx3e 0/449 0/447 103.S2fx3e 0/449 0/447 104.P*3d 0/449 0/447 105.N*2d 9/458 0/447 106.K3b-4b 0/458 0/447 107.N*2e 4/462 0/447 108.P3dx3e 0/462 1/448 109.N2ex3c+ 0/462 0/448 110.G4cx3c 0/462 0/448 111.N*2e 9/471 0/448 112.P3ex3f 0/471 6/454 113.N2ex3c+ 0/471 0/454 114.K4b-5a 0/471 0/454 One point of the rook on 6g is that 114.Kx3c S*3d Kx3d B*5b N*4c P*3e Kx3e G*2e Kx2e Bx4c+ P*3d P2f leads to mate because the rook can switch to 2g. 115.G*6c 6/477 0/454 116.+B7ix4f 0/477 0/454 117.K2h-1h 1/478 0/454 Resigns 0/478 0/454 Time: 07:58:00 07:34:00 Black can escape up the board along the first file, so white has no mate. Another impressive victory for Fujii, who again won the opening and this time was able to carry the lead over the finish line. For Habu it is back to the study room to come up with something new again for game four, a game he has to win as going 3-1 down would make things very hard for him. In other shogi news: ==================== * Yamasaki is the new Shinjin-O. He should have already finished Kitahama off in game two, but he let his opponent slip away at the final moment. It must be tough to be so close and lose, but Yamasaki showed remarkable mental strength, showing no signs of being depressed about the missed opportunity. He got black and the third Kakugawari opening in a row gave him a solid middle game advantage. With some fine play with a silver far away from the king that Kitahama had completely overlooked he extended his lead. The silver in the end picked up a vital knight and went all the way to the other side of the board to be exchanged for a defending general. Of the 46 moves Yamasaki played, he played 8 with that devilish silver, including five moves in a row to get to Kitahama's king. Fine play by Yamasaki that made him the first Shinjin-O from the Kansai area since Inoue won the title fifteen years ago. Yamasaki is just 19 years old and only Habu and Moriuchi managed to win the Shinjin-O title as a teenager. Judging from that company Yamasaki is heading for a brilliant future. There is more evidence for that as exactly half of the former 20 Shinjin-O winners reached the A class and 9 of them have won one or more titles. One final interesting statistic: Yamasaki's teacher, Mori Nobuo, has also won the Shinjin-O (in 1980). This is the second time as the teacher-pupil combination Wakamatsu-Inoue also won the Shinjin-O in the past (in 1971 and 1985, respectively). * In C1 round 7 was played and the number of leaders was cut in half as Sato Shuji lost against Katsumata and Ouchi lost against Yashiki. Especially Ouchi will be disappointed as he missed a chance to show that Yashiki's opening strategy had failed. The two remaining leaders with 5-1 scores are Namekata, who beat Kobayashi, and Horiguchi, who beat Kimura after a gruelling R8e Yokofudori fight that was the last game to finish. The two leaders are followed by an army of nine players including Yashiki and Nakata Hiroki. Nakata is the only player of this group who did not have his free round yet, so he also has 5 wins (against two losses). I think that Namekata and Horiguchi are two of the strongest players in C1, so I would not be surprised if they both go all the way. * Three games were played in the fourth round of the Osho league and it seems that there will not be much suspense this year. Tanigawa scored his fourth consecutive win by beating Kubo in great style, despite a late devilish move by his opponent. Nakahara seems to be the only player who can catch up with him, as he has only one loss from three games after beating Sato in an aggressive Yokofudori game. Sato fell back to 2-2 and can only hope for a miracle to catch up with Tanigawa. Morishita also helped Tanigawa by getting his first win against Goda, leaving both players with 1-2 scores. Tanigawa can already clinch the challengership with a win over Nakahara in the fifth round (a game that is being played today, November 24th). 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