From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 5 oct 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 860, October 4th 2000) This week in Shukan Shogi the final game of the Oi title match between Habu and Tanigawa. Habu showed that his magic extends to the middle game as he was the only one who saw a way out of what looked like a desperate position. Here is the game with comments: Black: Tanigawa Koji, Challenger White: Habu Yoshiharu, Oi 41st Oi-sen, Game 7, September 25th and 26th 2000 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/0 4/4 3.P2g-2f 4/4 0/4 4.P8c-8d 0/4 2/6 5.P2f-2e 3/7 0/6 In this match, the emphasis has been on the Shikenbisha opening, so the Yokofudori that is being played here might be called a small surprise. Another theme of this Oi match is the domination by black, as all previous six games have been won by the player with the black pieces. Tanigawa will not have been unhappy about the result of the furigoma. 6.P8d-8e 0/7 3/9 7.G6i-7h 4/11 0/9 8.G4a-3b 0/11 8/17 9.P2e-2d 5/16 0/17 10.P2cx2d 0/16 2/19 11.R2hx2d 0/16 0/19 12.P8e-8f 0/16 3/22 13.P8gx8f 0/16 0/22 14.R8bx8f 0/16 0/22 15.R2dx3d 1/17 0/22 16.B2b-3c 0/17 10/32 17.R3d-3f 22/39 0/32 18.S3a-2b 0/39 13/45 19.G4i-3h 36/75 0/45 20.K5a-4a 0/75 21/66 21.K5i-5h 8/83 0/66 22.S7a-6b 0/83 21/87 23.B8hx3c+ 34/117 0/87 24.N2ax3c 0/117 1/88 25.S7i-8h 0/117 0/88 26.R8f-8b 0/117 33/121 27.S3i-4h 26/143 0/121 28.G6a-5a 0/143 32/153 29.B*6f! 39/182 0/153 This bishop works both at the left and the right side. The immediate threat is 31.P*2c Sx2c Bx3c+ Gx3c Rx3c+ and black has a big advantage. However, this threat is only of secondary importance. Tanigawa is looking to the left more than to the right... 30.P4c-4d 0/182 60/213 The best defence. G5a-4b would destroy white king formation. Furthermore, if black takes the pawn on 4d, white gets extra possibilities for attack by dropping a pawn on the 4th file later. 31.R3f-3e! 39/221 0/213 Tanigawa switches the rook to the left to put pressure on the white rook. This rook is vulnerable, as both white's silver and gold have moved to the king. 32.P6c-6d! 0/221 27/240 Subtle play. This pawn can be used for attacking the bishop on 6f and it always makes an escape route for the bishop that Habu wants to drop in defence later. Hiura (7-dan), who commented the game, said he had expected 32.S7a P*8c Rx8c P*8d R8b R8e S7b S7g G4c, but Habu thought this was too passive. 33.P*8c 26/247 0/240 34.R8bx8c 0/247 1/241 35.P*8d 0/247 0/241 36.R8c-8b 0/247 0/241 37.R3e-8e 0/247 0/241 38.B*7d 0/247 13/254 39.R8e-8g 22/269 0/254 40.P*8e 0/269 18/272 41.P3g-3f? 13/282 0/272 All commentators were convinced that Tanigawa had a great position, including top players like Sato Yasumitsu. This move went past almost unnoticed as it is one of the most natural moves to play in this position. Furthermore, it seems that white can only wait for the axe to fall on the 7th and 8th file. However, Habu has already found a hidden counter attack that was overlooked by everyone, including Tanigawa. 41.P3f just gives Habu the extra move to make this counter succeed. If Tanigawa would have noticed, he would have played his attack immediately: 41.N7g G3b-4c Nx8e K3b P9f and black seems to have a strong attack. 42.G3b-4c 0/282 24/296 43.S8h-7g 24/306 0/296 44.K4a-3b 0/306 16/312 45.R8g-8h 16/322 0/312 46.B7d-6c 0/322 24/336 47.P5g-5f 6/328 0/336 48.P5c-5d 0/328 4/340 49.S7g-6h 5/333 0/340 50.S6b-5c 0/333 2/342 51.N8i-7g 3/336 0/342 52.G5a-4b 0/336 2/344 53.N7gx8e 7/343 0/344 54.B6c-7d 0/343 2/346 55.P7f-7e 17/360 0/346 56.B7dx5f 0/360 8/354 57.P7e-7d 0/360 0/354 58.B5fx7d 0/360 13/367 59.P*7b 2/362 0/367 Black has taken his time, and it looks like white has just strengthened his king position to put up a last stand after the black breakthrough. 60.S5c-6b 0/362 3/370 Of course 60.Rx7b fails to P8c+ Bx8c Nx9c+ Nx9c Rx8c+. 61.G7h-7g 34/396 0/370 62.P*8c 0/396 25/395 63.P8dx8c+ 8/404 0/395 64.B7dx8c 0/404 0/395 65.P*8d 0/404 0/395 66.B8cx7b 0/404 0/395 67.G7g-7f 0/404 0/395 68.P5d-5e 0/404 34/429 69.G7f-7e 1/405 0/429 70.B7bx3f 0/405 0/429 71.S4h-3g 1/406 0/429 72.B3f-4e 0/406 0/429 73.P*7d 19/425 0/429 74.P7cx7d 0/425 2/431 75.G7ex7d 0/425 0/431 76.R8b-7b! 0/425 0/431 Suddenly the commentators figured out what was going on. Habu is planning to switch the rook to the 2nd file (R7a-R2a-S3a) and break through there as black has no pawns in hand after 77.P*7c next which is forced. It is ironic that the knight on 8e and the pawn on 8d, who seemed to put so much pressure on white position, are now blocking the rook so there is no quick breakthrough for black. 77.P*7c 10/435 0/431 78.R7b-7a 0/435 0/431 79.G7dx6d 0/435 0/431 Black desperately needs a pawn to defend the 2nd file, but this only helps white as the exchange of silver for gold after white's next move stops black's attack and gives white's attack more power. Habu has built a winning position out of nowhere. 80.S6b-6c 0/435 8/439 81.G6dx6c 13/448 0/439 82.B4ex6c 0/448 0/439 83.S*7b 0/448 0/439 84.P*8g 0/448 10/449 85.R8h-7h 0/448 0/449 86.P*6e 0/448 1/450 87.S7bx6c+ 1/449 0/450 88.P6ex6f 0/449 0/450 89.P7c-7b+ 0/449 0/450 90.R7a-2a 0/449 3/453 91.+P7b-6b 2/451 0/453 92.S2b-3a 0/451 0/453 93.P*2f 0/451 0/453 94.P6fx6g+ 0/451 3/456 95.S6hx6g 0/451 0/456 96.N3c-4e 0/451 0/456 97.+P6b-5b 6/457 0/456 98.B*8i 0/457 1/457 There are too many weaknesses in the black position. Tanigawa tries to make the most of it, but he has no chance. 99.+P5bx4b 3/460 0/457 100.S3ax4b 0/460 0/457 101.P*3c 8/468 0/457 102.K3bx3c 0/468 1/458 103.B*4f 0/468 0/458 104.P*6f 0/468 3/461 105.K5h-4i 0/468 0/461 106.P6fx6g+ 0/468 0/461 107.G*2d 0/468 0/461 108.R2ax2d 0/468 2/463 109.B4fx2d 0/468 0/463 110.K3cx2d 0/468 0/463 111.R7h-7a+ 0/468 0/463 112.+P6g-5h 0/468 0/463 113.K4i-3i 0/468 0/463 114.B*5g 0/468 0/463 Resigns 0/468 0/463 Time: 07:48:00 07:43:00 And white wins after 115.K2h Nx3g+ Nx3g S*3i and now K2g S*3f Kx3f P*3e K2g G*3f etc. or Gx3i Bx3i+ Kx3i S*4h etc. With this victory Habu gets his 8th consecutive Oi title, although he still has a long way to go to break Oyama's record of 12 consecutive titles. In this game he again showed his magical powers of finding hidden resources in desperate looking positions. A long summer of games between Habu and Tanigawa has come to an end... In other shogi news: ==================== * With so many important games to play, Habu is bound to lose a couple and that is what happened in the A class Junisen game against Shima. Shima does not have much success in games against Habu, but he will be pleased with this one. Not only did he give himself some breathing space after starting with two losses in the A class this year, he also played a very good game. Only at the very end of a complicated endgame he made a mistake that might have cost him the game. However, there were too many variations and Habu picked the wrong reply after which Shima won. So, after three rounds in the A class, Moriuchi is the only player with three wins. He is followed by Sato, Habu, Tanigawa and Senzaki on 2-1, so this year's A class promises to be a race between the great players. * In B1 the sixth round was played and Goda made this class very interesting again by beating leader Miura. Miura will be kicking himself, as he had an easy win if he would have picked a simple defensive move. However, he chose to play the variation that he thought was the fastest way to victory, but there was a hole in his calculations. Fujii put the pressure on with a quick win against Kamiya and now has a 4-2 score. With this win he also sent a little message to Habu, who was sitting next to him as he was playing his game against Shima in the same room. However, Fujii is still not back on a promotion spot as Minami beat Kiriyama to improve his record to 4-1. Next is Goda with 4-2 and the final player with a chance to promote seems Nakahara, who beat Inoue and now has a 3-2 record. * In C1 the three games that were delayed because of very bad weather in central Japan were played. The most important one was between leader Namekata and Sugimoto. This game took 255 moves to be decided and that was all one game (no sennichite and no jishogi replay)! Both players were in byoyomi for more than 150 moves! I guess in such games the winner is decided by luck rather than ability, and Sugimoto was the lucky one. I hope this game will make Shukan Shogi some day as it might be very interesting to play through. There are now no undefeated players in C1, so the promotion race is wide open this year. BTW, the results of the other two games: Kanzaki-Okazaki 0-1, Kitajima-Kodama 1-0. * The Osho league has started and interestingly enough there has been no change in the players in the league as the three qualification spots were taken by Nakahara, Kubo and Tanigawa, who dropped out of the league last year. The first round immediately had the interesting encounter between Maruyama and Sato, who fought such a hard battle in the Meijin match this year. Sato still did not back off as he faced Maruyama's Kakugawari head-on. This time with success, as he just managed to kill black's attack. It was very close, but Sato won and starts his quest for a rematch with Osho Habu well. Tanigawa also had a good start with a win over Morishita. He had to fight hard for it, as Morishita was dictating the pace of this game and missed a golden opportunity to win in the endgame. Tanigawa seems all to eager to start another match against Habu... * Amateur Yamada keeps making a name for himself in the Zen Nihon Pro tournament, as he beat his third professional in a row after Nakao and Ouchi. This time he got the scalp of no-one else than Yashiki. It was a very tough game that took 215 moves to finish, but it seemed that Yamada just was better in byoyomi, playing some nice endgame moves. Yamada will play Chuza in the next round. He shouldn't look further than that, but if he wins, there is a good chance that he will meet Habu next... 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