From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 25 oct 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 863, October 25th 2000) -- This week in Shukan Shogi the start of the Ryu-O match between Fujii and Habu. Much was expected of this game, but it turned out to be a little of an anti-climax as Fujii won it quite easily. Habu seemed to have a slight edge early on, but a couple of mistakes (yes, more than one) led to a quick disaster. Here is the game with comments: Black: Fujii Takeshi, Ryu-O White: Habu Yoshiharu, Challenger 13th Ryu-O sen, Game 1, October 19th and 20th 2000 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 The first game of the Ryu-O used to be played outside Japan every year, but last year this tradition seemed to have been abandoned as all games were played in Japan. This year the Ryu-O again went abroad for the first game as Shanghai was the background for the first game of the second consecutive title match between Fujii and Habu. Psychologically, Habu seemed to have the advantage going into the match, as he beat Fujii in the final two games of the Oza match to defend his title. Furthermore, Fujii's form going into this game was a little questionable, as he lost two consecutive games against Tanigawa in the endgame lately. 2.P3c-3d 0/0 3/3 3.P6g-6f 1/1 0/3 4.P4c-4d 0/1 4/7 This move shows that Habu has found no definite answer to the Fujii system. In the last two games of the Oza match he played a quick attack but even though he won both games, Fujii had no problems after the opening. 4.P4d seems to be an invitation to play Ai-furibisha (Double Ranging Rook). I don't think I have ever seen a game where Habu played this strategy. On the other hand, it seems that Fujii does not like Ai-furibisha very much. Against other Furibisha specialists, he often plays Static Rook himself. In last year's Ryu-O match against Suzuki, he avoided the Ai-furibisha in every game and played Static Rook instead. Maybe Habu tries to trick him into a Static Rook game. 5.S7i-7h 7/8 0/7 6.S3a-4b 0/8 5/12 7.S7h-6g 5/13 0/12 8.S4b-4c 0/13 3/15 9.P9g-9f 1/14 0/15 10.P4d-4e 0/14 17/32 11.R2h-7h 8/22 0/32 12.P3d-3e 0/22 19/51 13.B8h-9g 35/57 0/51 14.S7a-6b 0/57 20/71 15.P7f-7e 1/58 0/71 16.K5a-4b 0/58 4/75 17.K5i-4h 21/79 0/75 18.G6a-5b 0/79 12/87 19.P7e-7d 14/93 0/87 20.R8b-7b 0/93 20/107 21.P7dx7c+ 6/99 0/107 22.S6bx7c 0/99 1/108 23.G6i-5h 6/105 0/108 24.K4b-3b 0/105 30/138 25.P5g-5f 3/108 0/138 26.P8c-8d 0/108 53/191 27.K4h-3h 29/137 0/191 28.G4a-4b 0/137 5/196 29.K3h-2h 4/141 0/196 30.S7c-7d 0/141 12/208 31.P*7e 8/149 0/208 32.S7d-8e 0/149 4/212 Habu's strategy seems to have payed off. This climbing silver looks very threatening. The general opinion here was that Habu was better, but it seems that this might not have been the case... 33.B9g-7i! 100/249 0/212 The sealed move for which Fujii took 100 minutes. This time was well spent, as Habu would have gotten the advantage after 33.B8h P*7d N7g S9d Px7d S8c (the reason for playing 26.P8d) N6e Rx7d and it is hard for black to exchange rooks because of the fork R*8i and the threat Sx6e. 34.P6c-6d 0/249 20/232 35.S3i-3h 5/254 0/232 36.P6d-6e 0/254 77/309 37.B7i-8h 2/256 0/309 38.P*7d 0/256 1/310 39.P6fx6e 48/304 0/310 40.B2bx8h+ 0/304 9/319 41.R7hx8h 0/304 0/319 42.P7dx7e? 0/304 0/319 Bad move that gives Fujii the advantage. Correct was 42.B*3c B*5e Bx5e Px5e Px7e. This looks very similar to the game, but there is one move difference which is very important. 43.R8h-6h! 5/309 0/319 The difference. Black now is given a chance to activate his rook. 44.B*3c 0/309 38/357 45.L9i-9g 41/350 0/357 46.P7e-7f? 0/350 15/372 The losing move. Habu did not like the empty promotion 46.B9i+, but that is what he should have done anyway. After 47.B*6f +Bx8i Bx1a+ N3c P6d P*6b it is not so easy for black to attack with only one lance in hand and white having a good escape route for the king through 4a. 47.S6g-6f 1/351 0/372 48.S8e-7d 0/351 0/372 49.P6e-6d 13/364 0/372 50.P*6e 0/364 36/408 51.S6f-5e 18/382 0/408 52.P5c-5d 0/382 1/409 53.P*7e 0/382 0/409 54.S7d-8c 0/382 1/410 55.R6hx6e 7/389 0/410 56.G4b-5c 0/389 0/410 57.P6d-6c+ 7/396 0/410 58.G5bx6c 0/396 4/414 59.R6ex6c+ 1/397 0/414 60.G5cx6c 0/397 0/414 61.P*6d 0/397 0/414 62.G6c-6b? 0/397 17/431 It seems that Habu has already given up on this game. 62.G7c was better. 63.B*6e 3/400 0/431 64.R*6i 0/400 0/431 65.B6ex8c+ 7/407 0/431 66.P5dx5e 0/407 0/431 67.S*6c 2/409 0/431 68.P3e-3f 0/409 7/438 69.G*5i 4/413 0/438 70.R6ix8i+ 0/413 3/441 71.S6cx7b+ 0/413 0/441 72.P3fx3g+ 0/413 0/441 73.S3hx3g 0/413 0/441 74.P*3f 0/413 0/441 75.S3gx3f 1/414 0/441 76.P*3e 0/414 0/441 77.+S7bx6b 1/415 0/441 78.P3ex3f 0/415 0/441 79.P*3h 0/415 0/441 Resigns 0/415 3/444 Time: 06:55:00 07:24:00 Habu takes three minutes to decide that there is nothing left to play for. White's only reasonable moves seems to be 80.Px5f followed by B5e, but black can simply play +Bx5f, defending against B5e and attacking the white rook. A bad start for Habu in his quest for his sixth major title. Worse than losing seems to be the lack of fighting spirit that Habu displayed in this game. For Fujii this win must be very important. He stopped the rot with a convincing start in this match. Also, Habu again has to rethink his opening strategy as he lost the opening in every game he played against Fujii so far. In other shogi news: ==================== * In the A junisen one game only, but a very important one. Shima played Aono and for both players a win was vital. Aono had started with three losses and another loss would make relegation to B1 after only one year in the top class almost a certainty. On the other hand, Shima had just beaten Habu in the third round for his first win and a win against Aono would get him out of relegation trouble for a while. In the end it was a disappointing game, as Shima lost straight from one of the most deeply analysed openings in shogi: the Kakugawari reclining silver. "I played it too simple" was Shima's comment and that might prove costly in the end. With this win he has given Aono hope to stay in the top class and he now finds himself again on a relegation spot. * In B1 the 7th round was played and the big game was between Minami and Miura, who both had only a single loss going into the game. It was a strange game where Miura started the fight very early, but where both players seem to know exactly what they were doing as they used almost no time until the 72nd move. There Miura played a move that was supposed to be an improvement of a game he played earlier and from there on both players used a lot of time for the next couple of moves: 92, 104, 23, 72, 58, and 32 minutes. Miura seemed to have the better position, but a blunder gave Minami's attack decisive strength and Miura lost. Painful second loss in a row for Miura and Minami is now the sole leader in B1 with a 5-1 score. He is followed by Miura and Goda at 5-2 and Fujii at 4-2. It seems that the promotion race this year will be between these four players. * In B2 Tsukada seems to have woken up from a long slump in his career as he is only 35 but dropped first from the A class and then from B1 a couple of years back. This year he seems to have the determination to back among the top professionals as he won his fifth game in a row in B2. Like in the previous round against Azuma, he did it by beating a co-leader, this time Hatakeyama Nariyuki. Tsukada controlled the game from early on and despite Hatakeyama's desperate attempts to get back in the game he got winning position in the endgame. For one moment it looked like he gave it all away with one careless move, but it turned out that Hatakeyama only had mate with a pawn drop. Tsukada had not calculated all the variations to the end, so in the end was relieved to see that everything just went right for him. He is now the only undefeated played in B2 with five consecutive wins. Tsukada already seems quite close to promotion as there are only three players with 4-1 scores: Nakagawa, Hatakeyama and Kubo (who won a really tough game against Abe where he could only turn the tables at the very end). I think the only player that can still join this group is Fukaura, especially since he plays Kubo in the next round. Tsukada's promotion seems almost certain with a pretty easy schedule in the remaining rounds. * In C2 also the fifth round was played. This class usually is a survival race where losing a game is decisive as 10-0 or 9-1 scores are usually required for promotion. However, this year may be different. After the fifth round there are only two players left with perfect records: Naganuma and Yamamoto. To see Naganuma in the lead is a complete surprise and Yamamoto was also not seen as a serious candidate for promotion after his abysmal C2 run last year. Still, both players showed some good form in their respective wins. The pattern was more or less the same: both Naganuma and Yamamoto played a good opening against Masuda and Hirafuji respectively. However, things became complicated after they missed some good opportunities in the middle game. In the end Naganuma needed a mistake by his opponent and Yamamoto needed a nice rook move to threaten mate and defend against Hirafuji's mating threat at the same time. From these games one would say that both Naganuma and Yamamoto have good chances to promote as they are both playing well. However, there is still a long way to go and the schedule of both players is far from easy. Actually, Chuza who is one of the players in shared third place with a 4-1 score still has to play both Naganuma and Yamamoto. Other players waiting for a mistake are Nozuki, Iizuka, Kobayashi, Toyokawa, Tamura, Akutsu and Watanabe. That is quite an impressive field that is supposed to keep the pressure on until the end. * The Osho league is slowly getting under way and last week two games were played. Kubo had a great start with a win over Meijin Maruyama, who now has a surprising 0-2 score. Tanigawa even had a better start with a win over Goda for a 2-0 score. Do we have another Habu-Tanigawa match in the making? * Shimizu successfully defended her Ladies Oi title with a win over challenger Usui in the third game. Usui will need feel too happy about the match and especially not about the 3-0 score, as again she had some chances this time. The problem was that Shimizu came out of the opening with a good position and Usui used a lot of time to avoid disaster. This was the time she needed in the end to make it really hard for Shimizu. Because of time trouble, Usui missed the chance and that was the end of the game and the match. 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