From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 7 sep 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 856, September 6th 2000) This week in Shukan Shogi the first game of the Oza match between Habu and Fujii. Fujii showed a refreshing lack of respect for Habu and scored a convincing win, playing with great confidence. Here is the game with comments: Black: Habu Yoshiharu, Oza White: Fujii Takeshi, Challenger 48th Oza-sen, Game 1, August 29th 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 2/5 5.P2f-2e 1/4 0/5 6.B2b-3c 0/4 0/5 7.S3i-4h 0/4 0/5 8.S3a-3b 0/4 4/9 9.P5g-5f 5/9 0/9 10.R8b-4b 0/9 1/10 11.K5i-6h 4/13 0/10 12.P9c-9d 0/13 2/12 13.K6h-7h 2/15 0/12 14.S3b-4c 0/15 4/16 15.G4i-5h 6/21 0/16 16.S7a-7b 0/21 3/19 17.S4h-5g 9/30 0/19 18.P9d-9e 0/30 6/25 19.B8h-7g 12/42 0/25 20.P7c-7d 0/42 12/37 21.P6g-6f 12/54 0/37 22.P6c-6d 0/54 12/49 23.G5h-6g 12/66 0/49 24.N8a-7c 0/66 8/57 A long awaited battle between the Ryu-O and the holder of five major crowns. Fujii is one of the few players with a positive score against Habu, leading 5-2. Not too many games, so it is too early to label Fujii as a "Habu killer", but he will have been a lot more confident going into this match than most of the other players. We will know a little more after this match and the upcoming Ryu-O match, where Fujii and Habu will also meet. The opening in the games between Fujii and Habu is easy to predict. Fujii will play the Furibisha system that has his name, and Habu will have to come up with some new ideas. 25.B7g-5i 2/68 0/57 26.P4d-4e 0/68 61/118 27.N8i-7g 2/70 0/118 28.K5a-6b 0/70 1/119 29.P3g-3f 11/81 0/119 30.G4a-5b 0/81 0/119 31.K7h-8i 4/85 0/119 In this game, Habu chooses the castle that has been named "Millennium" as it has only recently become popular among professionals. The basic structure is L9i-K8i-N7g-S7i-G7h-G6g-S5g where the silver on 5g can be pulled back to 7i (after S7i-8h) to make the castle even stronger. The Millennium is not as strong as the anaguma, but it is far from easy to break down. 32.K6b-7a 0/85 0/119 33.G6i-7h 2/87 0/119 34.G5b-6c 0/87 3/122 35.P1g-1f 6/93 0/122 36.P1c-1d 0/93 0/122 37.B5i-2f 6/99 0/122 This is a new idea. In the semi-final of the Oza challenger tournament between Fujii and Sato, Sato used this bishop on 6h (actually on 4b as the colours were reversed in that game) after pulling back the silver from 5g to 7i. 38.K7a-8a!? 0/99 14/136 Deep judgement. The normal square for the king is 8b, but Fujii is anticipating a fight on the edge and on the 7th file, where the weak points of the black castle are. If this would happen, the king on 8a is in a better position, as it is further away from the danger area. In this game this move does not make a difference, but it shows Fujii's deep understanding of this type of position that he moves his pieces to unexpected squares. 39.S5g-6h 22/121 0/136 40.P5c-5d 0/121 28/164 41.N2i-3g 33/154 0/164 42.S4c-4d 0/154 27/191 43.R2h-4h 9/163 0/191 44.S4d-5c 0/163 0/191 45.S6h-5g 6/169 0/191 46.B3c-4d 0/169 8/199 47.B2fx4d 13/182 0/199 48.S5cx4d 0/182 0/199 49.P2e-2d 1/183 0/199 50.P2cx2d 0/183 7/206 51.P4g-4f 0/183 0/206 52.P4ex4f 0/183 25/231 53.S5gx4f 0/183 0/231 54.B*2g 0/183 13/244 55.P*4c 26/209 0/244 56.R4bx4c 0/209 3/247 57.R4h-2h 26/235 0/247 A change of plan that makes clear that Habu's opening strategy has failed. His original idea was 57.B*3b R4b Bx2a+ Bx3f+ +B3a R6b G5g, but when he looked at it again here, he suddenly lost confidence in his position after P7e next. 58.B2gx3f+ 0/235 18/265 59.R2hx2d 0/235 0/265 60.P*2c 0/235 4/269 61.B*3b 0/235 0/269 62.R4c-3c 0/235 1/270 63.B3bx2c+ 0/235 0/270 64.+B3fx4f 0/235 0/270 65.+B2cx3c 0/235 0/270 66.N2ax3c 0/235 0/270 67.R2d-2a+ 0/235 0/270 68.S*6i! 0/235 3/273 "That's too quick" was a comment heard in the press room, but Fujii again has judged this well. Not worried at all by Habu's magical endgame powers, he trusts his own calculations and goes straight for the black king. 69.G7h-6h 26/261 0/273 The least attractive looking move, but 69.R*4b Sx7h+ Kx7h G*5a Rx4d+ B*3e is bad for black because of the big difference in king position. Also, 69.G6g-6h Sx7h+ Gx7h and white has managed to exchange a general from black's castle and B*3e is now very strong. 70.B*4i 0/261 6/279 71.G6g-5g 0/261 0/279 72.+B4fx5g 0/261 1/280 73.G6hx5g 0/261 0/280 74.B4ix7f+ 0/261 1/281 75.R*2b? 5/266 0/281 Uncharacteristic endgame error by Habu. Despite Fujii's confident and strong looking attack, Habu could still have caused him some problems with dropping the rook on square to the left. After 75.R*3b, the game move 76.G7a fails to 77.R3a+ and now white has to drop a gold in defence after which K8h is good enough to survive. The correct reply to 75.R*3b is 76.P*4a, and after 77.+Rx4a G*5a +Rx4d +Bx7g P*7h N6e Px7g Nx5g+ white still is better, but things are still a little complicated. 76.G6a-7a 0/266 3/284 77.P*7h 8/274 0/284 78.P9e-9f 0/274 4/288 79.+R2ax1a 15/289 0/288 80.+B7fx8g 0/289 5/293 Resigns 6/295 0/293 Time: 04:55:00 04:53:00 After both 80.P*8h G*9h and 80.Px9f G*8h Sx8h Sx7h+ black is mated. A perfect start for challenger Fujii in this match. Not only did he win the game, he won it by outplaying Habu, establishing the dominance of the Fujii system in the process. Habu's recent endgame errors (in this game and in the 4th game of the Oi match against Tanigawa) seem to indicate that his exhausting schedule is giving him problems with his concentration. He will have his hands full against a rested and confident Fujii... Other shogi news: ================= * Sato will be a little jealous looking at Fujii's results against Habu, as he is probably one of the players with the biggest Habu complex, losing almost all important games against him. This time Habu got the better of him in the second game of the Ryu-O challenger final. Habu won in only 90 moves, although he was helped a little when Sato gave up hope a little early and missed an opportunity to make things more interesting in the endgame. With this win, Habu has decided this mini match with 2-0 in his favour, which means that after a summer of games between Habu and Tanigawa, we will now get an autumn of games between Habu and Fujii. I would not be surprised if they would swap titles, Fujii winning the Oza title but losing the Ryu-O. * In the A Junisen the game between Tanigawa and Tanaka was played. Both players had started the Junisen with a loss, so this game was already vital as the winner would stay in the race for challenging Maruyama, while the loser would probably have to fight relegation. Even though Tanaka had beaten Tanigawa in the A class last year, there was no new upset as Tanigawa won with the Fujii system against Tanaka's anaguma. It seems like the A class may have a clear division between challenger race and relegation battle again this year, as all the games except Senzaki-Aono have been won by the player ranked higher in the class. Bad news for Aono, Shima and Tanaka with 0-2 scores and a bad Junisen position... * In C2 the third round was played, but Shukan Shogi did not have much space for a detailed explanation of all the games. Usually only 10-0 or 9-1 is enough for promotion to C1, but this year might be different, as there are only 5 players left with a perfect record after three rounds: Nozuki, Naganuma, Toyokawa, Yamamoto and rookie Akutsu. I very much doubt that Naganuma will be a promotion candidate, but we will know more after the next round when he meets Nozuki. Promotion of Akutsu is also very unlikely, as it has been ten years since a rookie promoted to C1 in his first year in the Junisen (Yashiki). I think the other three have a better chance, but the road to C1 is still very long. * Another tournament victory for Habu as he beat Horiguchi Kazushiza in the final of the 8th Ginga-sen. Horiguchi is one of the most promising new players and won 15 straight games in the preliminaries of this tournament, and added victories over Sato Yasumitsu and Moriuchi in the knock-out finals. However, Habu is a completely different story and superior endgame judgement was again the key. * A new record for Habu as he beat Chuza in the Kachinukisen tournament for his 13th straight victory. The previous record was jointly held by Tanigawa and Nakahara, each with 12 consecutive wins, but their names are out of the record book. Habu had no trouble at all with Chuza, beating him in only 67 moves. 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