From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 25 sep 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 858, September 20th 2000) Not much time for Shukan Shogi translations, but the 6th game of the Oi title match between Habu and Tanigawa did not require much translation. Habu was beaten so quickly that even Shukan Shogi had a hard time filling a page with the game and comments. Here is the evidence that Habu is human after all: Black: Tanigawa Koji, Challenger White: Habu Yoshiharu, Oi 41st Oi-sen, Game 6, September 13th and 14th 2000 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/0 2/2 3.P2g-2f 2/2 0/2 4.P4c-4d 0/2 1/3 5.P2f-2e 5/7 0/3 6.B2b-3c 0/7 1/4 7.S3i-4h 1/8 0/4 8.S3a-3b 0/8 5/9 9.P5g-5f 4/12 0/9 10.R8b-4b 0/12 2/11 11.K5i-6h 2/14 0/11 12.P9c-9d 0/14 12/23 13.K6h-7h 16/30 0/23 14.S3b-4c 0/30 14/37 15.P9g-9f 18/48 0/37 16.S7a-7b 0/48 23/60 17.G4i-5h 3/51 0/60 18.P6c-6d 0/51 13/73 19.S4h-5g 16/67 0/73 20.K5a-6b 0/67 11/84 21.P3g-3f 60/127 0/84 22.K6b-7a 0/127 16/100 23.P8g-8f 23/150 0/100 24.P8c-8d? 0/150 41/141 This might already be an important mistake. It looks like Habu underestimated the power of the next move. 25.B8h-5e! 17/167 0/141 A very simple threat (taking the pawn on 6d), but quite hard to defend against. 6c is supposed to be the square for the gold on 4a, so 26.S6c is not a move that white wants to play. 26.P6d-6e 0/167 26/167 Habu decides to push the attacked pawn, but this creates some serious weaknesses. White has lost the opening battle. 27.S7i-8h 5/172 0/167 28.G4a-5b 0/172 6/173 29.S8h-8g 19/191 0/173 30.R4b-3b 0/191 61/234 31.P4g-4f 39/230 0/234 32.S4c-5d 0/230 17/251 33.B5e-7g 11/241 0/251 34.P7c-7d 0/241 10/261 35.R2h-3h 12/253 0/261 36.P4d-4e? 0/253 40/301 White is in trouble, but this makes matters worse. Black is also better after 36.B2b P5e S5d-6c S5f S6d P4e Px4e P2d Px2d R2h B3c N3g, but this variation is better for white than the game. 37.P4fx4e 10/263 0/301 38.R3b-4b 0/263 12/313 39.R3h-4h 3/266 0/313 40.B3cx7g+ 0/266 9/322 41.N8ix7g 0/266 0/322 42.B*3i 0/266 0/322 43.B*3g! 34/300 0/322 Already more or less decisive. White can not defend against the attack on the long open diagonal to 9a. 44.B3ix4h+ 0/300 46/368 No choice. Black also threatened to win the bishop with R4i next. This is a position where a bishop is worth much more than a rook. 45.S5gx4h 0/300 0/368 46.S7b-7c?! 0/300 0/368 Habu already seems to have lost all fighting spirit. Better was 46.N7c P7e G6c Px7d Gx7d B*4d, but even then the black advantage is overwhelming. 47.P7f-7e 18/318 0/368 Everything works perfectly for black. Because of the silver on 8g, which looked out of place earlier, this attack is now very strong. The head of the black knight on 7g is defended well enough for this to work. 48.P6e-6f 0/318 1/369 Tries to complicate things, but... 49.P7ex7d 35/353 0/369 Tanigawa just ignores white's attempt at counter play and goes straight for the win. Playing Tanigawa in a position like this is like trying to stop a bullet train. 50.P6fx6g+ 0/353 0/369 51.G5hx6g 0/353 0/369 52.S7c-8b 0/353 0/369 53.B3gx8b+ 7/360 0/369 Combined with the next black move, white's position is shattered. 54.K7ax8b 0/360 0/369 55.B*3g 0/360 0/369 Game over, but Habu decided that 55 moves was a little too short for a title match game. 56.K8b-7b 0/360 0/369 57.B3gx9a+ 3/363 0/369 58.G6a-6b 0/363 0/369 59.S*8b! 19/382 0/369 Tanigawa-style attacking defence. Most players would play 59.N3g here to take the last white chances out of the position. Tanigawa has seen that after 60.Rx4e, he can defend with 61.L*4g which closes of the escape route of the white king, as 62.P*4f fails to Lx4f Rx4f Sx8a=. 60.K7b-6a 0/382 8/377 61.+B9ax8a 1/383 0/377 62.R*2h 0/383 0/377 63.P7d-7c+ 1/384 0/377 64.R2hx4h+ 0/384 0/377 65.P*6h 0/384 0/377 66.R4bx4e 0/384 18/395 67.N*6d 1/385 0/395 68.K6a-5a 0/385 3/398 69.+P7cx6b 27/412 0/398 70.G5bx6b 0/412 0/398 71.S8b-7c= 0/412 0/398 Resigns 0/412 0/398 Time: 06:52:00 06:38:00 Habu finally throws the towel. White can not take this silver because of mate in one and after 72.R4g+ Sx6b= K4b G*5h white's position is completely hopeless. A complete defeat for Habu, who saw a strategical loss after opening quickly deteriorate. Still, all is not lost as the Oi match is now level at 3-3 and a decisive seventh game is needed to decide the winner. In other shogi news: ==================== * In the A class, two games were played and we had the first major upset. Senzaki beat Sato Yasumitsu to take a big leap out of the danger zone as both players now have 2-1 scores. It was a good win for Senzaki, who found a nice way to counter Sato's rushed attack in the late middle game. After this, things were still quite complicated, but it was not Senzaki, but the former Meijin who lost after an uncharacteristic endgame mistake. In the other A class game Moriuchi and Morishita fought another epic battle. In the last three years their A class encounters have taken 253 moves, 163 moves and 139 moves. The game they played this time fit exactly in that pattern as it finished at 1:34 in the morning after a gruelling 171 moves. Morishita seemed to have a very strong attack, but Moriuchi managed to get an entering king that Morishita could have stopped at some point. Even with the entering king, it was very questionable if Moriuchi would have enough points to get a jishogi. Therefore, he had to attack desperately and usually Morishita is at his best when he is defending, but this time he made a mistake in byoyomi. After this Moriuchi's attack got decisive strength and he won to extend his perfect record to 3-0. Moriuchi has been very close to challenging for the Meijin title in the past couple of years. Will he finally succeed this time? * In B1, Nakahara showed that he is still a force to be reckoned with as he beat Fujii in a B1 Junisen game that was delayed because of Fujii's Oza title match game with Habu. Both players really went at each other as the board was already on fire just after the lunch break. Nakahara came out on top, but needed some clever defence to contain Fujii's dangerous looking counter attack. For Nakahara the win meant that he still has some chances at promoting back to the A class with a 2-2 score and a high Junisen ranking. For Fujii the loss is quite painful, as he drops to 3-2 and a low Junisen ranking. Miura will be happy with the loss of a promotion rival, as he is going straight for promotion with a 5-0 score after beating Kiriyama. At the moment there is not even a player with 4 wins, as Inoue lost to Minami. Closest rivals of Miura are now Minami and Fukuzaki (who did not play), both with 3-1 scores. Miura still has two tough games coming up against Goda and Minami, but I think that B1 is going to be a fight for the second promotion place this year as Miura will probably run away with first place. * In C1 the 4th round was supposed to be played, but because of terrible weather in the centre of Japan, travelling from Osaka was almost impossible and three games were cancelled. Most important game was the one between Namekata and Sugimoto, as Namekata so far had a 2-0 score. The rain delay was not the only surprise of the round as all leaders lost and Namekata is now (without playing) still the only player without a loss. Nakata Hiroki was beaten by Katsumata, Nishimura was beaten by Kimura and Horiguchi Kazushiza lost to Sato Shuji, so these players all dropped back to 3-1. Good news for Yashiki, who jumped to the top of the table with a win over Ogura. Still a long time to go... That's all for this 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