From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 13 oct 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 861, October 11th 2000) This week in Shukan Shogi the 4th game of the Oza match between Habu and Fujii. Habu really likes to play shogi, it seems, as he won game 4, which means that after the Kisei and the Oi, the Oza will also be decided in the final game. It could have been different though, as Habu needed all his magical powers to avoid losing the game and his Oza title: Black: Habu Yoshiharu, Oza White: Fujii Takeshi, Challenger 48th Oza-sen, Game 4, October 4th 2000 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/0 3/3 3.P2g-2f 3/3 0/3 4.P4c-4d 0/3 3/6 5.S3i-4h 3/6 0/6 6.S3a-3b 0/6 3/9 7.P5g-5f 3/9 0/9 8.R8b-4b 0/9 2/11 9.K5i-6h 6/15 0/11 10.S7a-7b 0/15 5/16 11.K6h-7h 1/16 0/16 12.S3b-4c 0/16 1/17 13.G4i-5h 10/26 0/17 14.P9c-9d 0/26 1/18 15.P9g-9f 4/30 0/18 An interesting change of strategy by Habu. In the first three games he faced the Fujii System head on, but this time he picks a more classic variation of the Shikenbisha. Did he find something new or is it just an attempt to break Fujii's rhythm? 16.K5a-6b 0/30 20/38 17.S7i-6h 19/49 0/38 18.K6b-7a 0/49 10/48 19.P3g-3f 9/58 0/48 20.K7a-8b 0/58 13/61 21.P2f-2e 16/74 0/61 22.B2b-3c 0/74 0/61 23.S6h-5g 0/74 0/61 24.P5c-5d 0/74 17/78 25.P4g-4f 22/96 0/78 26.G4a-5b 0/96 16/94 27.P4f-4e 3/99 0/94 This quick attack has been analysed extensively. The conclusion seems to be that the Shikenbisha side has nothing to fear. 28.P6c-6d 0/99 9/103 29.N2i-3g 6/105 0/103 30.G5b-6c 0/105 7/110 31.P2e-2d 13/118 0/110 32.B3cx2d 0/118 1/111 33.P4ex4d 2/120 0/111 34.S4cx4d 0/120 0/111 35.R2hx2d 1/121 0/111 36.P2cx2d 0/121 0/111 37.P*4c 0/121 0/111 38.R4bx4c 0/121 0/111 39.B*3b 0/121 0/111 40.R4c-4b 0/121 5/116 41.B3bx2a+ 1/122 0/116 42.R*4a 0/122 0/116 43.N*3c 6/128 0/116 44.R4a-5a 0/128 4/120 45.P9f-9e 2/130 0/120 So far this is all theory. The joseki books say 45.Px9e Lx9e Lx9e P*4c R4b-5b Bx4d and black has a winning position. The same position was played between Goda and Suzuki in the Ryu-O tournament on April 10th of this year. Suzuki tried 45.P5e, but in the end lost the game. Look what Fujii plays here: 46.P9dx9e!? 0/130 34/154 Never trust the joseki books! Fujii did not like giving up the edge after 46.P5e Px9d, and gives up a silver instead after the forced book line. 47.L9ix9e 13/143 0/154 48.L9ax9e 0/143 3/157 49.P*4c 1/144 0/157 50.R4b-5b 0/144 0/157 51.B8hx4d 0/144 0/157 52.P5d-5e 0/144 4/161 53.P5fx5e 13/157 0/161 54.L9e-9h+ 0/157 0/161 Surprise, surprise, but this position is not at all a winning position for black. Even though white is a full silver down, the knight on 3c and the horse on 2a can not move so black has no good way to continue. Fujii again shows great judgement: the position is probably about even. 55.S5g-5f 12/169 0/161 With no direct attack, black just settles for improving his position. 56.G6c-5c 0/169 41/202 57.B4d-2f 27/196 0/202 58.P2d-2e 0/196 4/206 59.B2f-1e 13/209 0/206 60.G5c-6c 0/209 13/219 61.S4h-5g 21/230 0/219 62.+L9hx8i?! 0/230 32/251 After the game, Fujii said that he regretted this move as he considered the promoted lance near the king worth at least a gold. He had to do something, as Habu was threatening to complete the improvement of his position with 63.S6f followed by the strong attack S*4a. Fujii said that he should have played 62.L*8d instead. Still, the professionals in the press room did not think Fujii's plan was bad. He is making the black king very vulnerable and then attacks through the centre to activate his rooks. 63.K7hx8i 6/236 0/251 64.L*9a 0/236 2/253 65.K8i-7h 5/241 0/253 66.P*5d 0/241 0/253 67.P5ex5d 8/249 0/253 68.P*5e 0/249 5/258 69.S5fx5e 9/258 0/258 70.N*6e 0/258 2/260 71.P*9c! 6/264 0/260 Weird move... It seems like black has no time for this, as the head of the king is very weak and white now gets a general in hand to attack that weak spot. This can only be called "Habu Magic" as it might just be good enough to turn the position in black's favour. 72.G6cx5d 0/264 8/268 73.P4c-4b+! 9/273 0/268 No way back. 74.R5ax2a 0/273 6/274 The best response. After 74.Gx5e 75.+Px5b 76.S*7g white would win, but if black plays 75.+Bx6e instead, the white attack is stopped. 75.+P4bx5b 1/274 0/274 76.G5dx5e 0/274 0/274 77.G6i-6h! 3/277 0/274 Well timed defence. Black defends 7g and makes an escape route for the king that is hard to close without a rook. Also, white has to do something, as both the rook on 2a and the gold on 6a are hanging. It seems that black now has the advantage, but actually things are still quite close. 78.P*5f 0/277 7/281 79.S5g-4h? 4/281 0/281 A mistake. After 79.+Px6a Rx6a S6f black seems to be winning. If he gets a knight in hand (for example by Sx6e next), the drop N*9d is very painful for white. 80.P*4g 0/281 15/296 81.N3cx2a+ 9/290 0/296 82.G6ax5b 0/290 2/298 83.L*9b 4/294 0/298 84.P4gx4h+ 0/294 0/298 85.L9bx9a+ 0/294 0/298 86.N8ax9c? 0/294 1/299 Bad luck for Fujii. This looks like a great move, as black had a mate after 86.+Px5h R*9b K7a +Lx8a etc., and after 86.Nx9c white is threatening mate himself with S*7g Gx7g Nx7g+ Kx7g N8e etc. Unfortunately, black now gets the chance to slow down white's attack, so 86.Nx9c is the losing move. After 86.P7d instead (creating an escape for the king), the position is still unclear. 87.R*9b 2/296 0/299 88.K8b-7a 0/296 0/299 89.R*4a 1/297 0/299 90.K7a-6b 0/297 0/299 91.R4ax4h+ 1/298 0/299 Decisive. White needed this promoted pawn for his attack. 92.P*4g 0/298 0/299 93.P*5c 0/298 0/299 94.G5bx5c 0/298 0/299 95.+R4hx4g 0/298 0/299 96.S*7g 0/298 0/299 97.G6hx7g 0/298 0/299 98.N6ex7g+ 0/298 0/299 99.K7hx7g 0/298 0/299 100.N9c-8e 0/298 0/299 101.K7g-7h 0/298 0/299 102.S*7g 0/298 0/299 103.K7h-6i 0/298 0/299 104.G*6h 0/298 0/299 105.G5hx6h 0/298 0/299 106.S7gx6h+ 0/298 0/299 107.K6ix6h 0/298 0/299 108.G*5g 0/298 0/299 109.K6h-7h 0/298 0/299 110.G5gx4g 0/298 0/299 111.N*5d 0/298 0/299 112.G5cx5d 0/298 0/299 113.S*5a 0/298 0/299 Resigns 0/298 0/299 Time: 04:58:00 04:59:00 And mate after 114.K6c S*5b Kx5b B4b+ K6c S*5b. So, Habu survives Fujii's first attempt at taking his Oza title, albeit with the smallest possible margin. For the third time in a row Habu has to be a decisive game in a title match. So far his results have been good as he won in the Kisei-sen and the Oi-sen against Tanigawa. Will Fujii do better? In other shogi news: ==================== * A big game in the A class between Morishita and Tanaka. Both had 1-2 scores going into the game and the difference between winning and losing would be the difference between an outside chance of challenging Maruyama and a tough struggle to avoid relegation. Everything seemed to go Tanaka's way as he showed why he is called the "Opening Edison" by inventing a new type of Yagura castle that looked very weird (G3c-S3b-G4a), but turned out to be very hard to break down. However, "a winning position is like a devil" as Tanaka started dreaming of an easy win and lost his concentration. In the end it was only one slack move that led Morishita back in, but it was enough to lose the game. * In C1 there is an uneven number of players, so an intermediate round is necessary to give all players the right number of ten games in the end. Therefore, only 5 games were played in C1 last week. The most interesting game seemed to be the game between Namekata and Hiura as both players had 2-1 scores so far and it was only 10 days earlier that Namekata suffered that disappointing defeat against Sugimoto. Namekata seemed to have picked himself up as he won the game and is now one of the leaders at 3-1. Yashiki really seems to like it in C1, as he had a golden opportunity to become the sole leader but lost instead to Kodama (not really the most formidable opponent imaginable). Yashiki seemed to have a golden opportunity this year to finally get out of the C1 class, but with losses against players like Manabe and Kodama he is not making it easier for himself. With 3-2 he still has some chance to promote as C1 might be very close this year, but there is no margin of error anymore. In the other two games Nakata Hiroki suffered his second loss in a row against Sanada. Both players now have 3-2 scores. Sato Shuji joined the leaders at 3-1 with a win over Hatakeyama. It was quite an interesting middle game as Sato voluntarily put his rook in some far away corner, but with that took away all of Hatakeyama's attacking possibilities. Hatakeyama thought about resigning, played on and almost won the game ("I thought I had done it again" -Sato). He missed his chance and Sato won. * The challenger tournament of the Kio has advanced to the quarter finals. This year some veteran players managed to squeeze between the top as Kiriyama had a great win over Sato Yasumitsu. Also, Fukuzaki beat Fujii and Takahashi beat Shima. The quarter finals are as follows: Takahashi-Kubo, Tanigawa-Fukuzaki, Kiriyama-Maruyama and Goda-Moriuchi. This last game was already played last week and Goda showed that he is slowly getting out of his slump as he beat Moriuchi to become the first player to advance to the semi finals. * Habu extended his record in the Kachinuki-sen to 16 consecutive wins with a win over Ogura. It was a game where Ogura did not seem to have much fun as Habu attacked first, got the advantage and converted that to a win with some fine endgame play. Habu now faces Shima next, and he probably wants revenge for the defeat in their A class game last week. * Is shogi going to be dominated by the Chinese in the near future? This week's Shukan Shogi has two news items that make this a relevant question. First, the 20th Sukusuku Osho-hai Kanto-chiku tournament for junior high school teams of three players was won by a team from Beijing playing over the Internet. It won the final against a team from Tokyo with 3-0. Will one of these young boys be a future Habu? The second article in Shukan Shogi was about the events surrounding the third game of the Oza match between Habu and Fujii that was held in China on September 21st. No less than 480 children gathered to challenge Ono (6-dan), Ueyama (6-dan), Kubo (6-dan) and Nozuki (4-dan). The professionals had a really hard time against the kids and lost an unusual high number of games. It was also interesting that there was almost no difference in the level between boys and girls as they are often being taught shogi in school at the same age. Maybe before a Chinese Habu we will see a Chinese Shimizu? * Of course, for the time being Shimizu is still at the top of the women's shogi mountain. Last week she met Usui there in the first game of the Ladies Oi title. Usui challenged for the second year in a row, but at the start of the game it did not look like she would do better this time, as she blundered in the opening to give Shimizu an overwhelming position. However, the young generation does not just roll over and die as Usui fought back hard to get back in the game. She almost succeeded as Shimizu made a couple of mistakes, but in the end Usui missed the chance to win and Shimizu won the game (with a big sigh of relief, I imagine). 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