From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 29 sep 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 859, September 27th 2000) This week in Shukan Shogi the third game of the Oza-sen between Habu and Fujii. It was a tough day for both players, as they had to play two games after the first game ended in sennichite. The replay was very close and Habu missed a good chance to win, but in the end Fujii stayed coolest in the close endgame and won. Here is the game with comments: Black: Fujii Takeshi, Challenger White: Habu Yoshiharu, Oza 48th Oza-sen, Replay Game 3, September 21st 2000 1.P7g-7f 155/155 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/155 175/175 For the first time in the history of the Oza tournament, a game was played overseas as Habu and Fujii played their game in GuangZhou, near Hongkong. China actually got two games for the price of one, as the first game ended in sennichite. In that game, Habu played the K9h anaguma against the Fujii system and sacrificed a bishop for a gold to go straight for Fujii's king. His attack was not strong enough to win, but Fujii could not avoid a repetition of moves without seriously exposing his king. The game ended at 2:53 and after a 30 minute break, the game was replayed with reverse colours. Both players had to play the game with the time remaining on the clock after the first game, which gave Fujii a 20 minute advantage. 3.P1g-1f 0/155 0/175 4.P8c-8d 0/155 2/177 5.P6g-6f 0/155 0/177 6.S7a-6b 0/155 1/178 7.S7i-7h 3/158 0/178 8.K5a-4b 0/158 1/179 9.R2h-6h 2/160 0/179 10.K4b-3b 0/160 1/180 11.S7h-6g 1/161 0/180 12.P5c-5d 0/161 1/181 13.S3i-3h 0/161 0/181 14.G6a-5b 0/161 2/183 15.P1f-1e 2/163 0/183 16.S6b-5c 0/163 3/186 17.G6i-5h 1/164 0/186 18.B2b-3c 0/164 1/187 19.P4g-4f 9/173 0/187 20.P4c-4d 0/173 3/190 21.P3g-3f 1/174 0/190 22.G5b-4c 0/174 2/192 23.N2i-3g 0/174 0/192 24.P8d-8e 0/174 1/193 25.B8h-7g 0/174 0/193 26.K3b-2b 0/174 2/195 27.P6f-6e 0/174 0/195 28.G4a-3b 0/174 1/196 29.S3h-4g 7/181 0/196 30.P7c-7d 0/181 6/202 31.N3g-2e 2/183 0/202 32.B3c-5a 0/183 2/204 33.P4f-4e 0/183 0/204 34.B5a-7c 0/183 2/206 35.P4ex4d 0/183 0/206 36.S5cx4d 0/183 1/207 37.P*4e 0/183 0/207 38.S4d-3c 0/183 0/207 39.N2ex3c+ 0/183 0/207 40.N2ax3c 0/183 1/208 41.P4e-4d 2/185 0/208 42.G4c-4b?! 0/185 2/210 The commentators had a hard time with this move. So far the game is identical to the B1 Junisen class game that was played between Fujii and Nakahara a week earlier. Nakahara played 42.G5c here and got the advantage after 43.P3e Px3e S4f which he converted into a win. There seemed to be no reason to play something different here. Either Habu found an improvement for Fujii or he had some other variation he was aiming for, because he picked 42.G4c-4b instead. This gives Fujii a free promotion of the rook, so this does not seem to be an improvement over Nakahara's 42.G5c. 43.P3f-3e 15/200 0/210 44.P3dx3e 0/200 3/213 45.P6e-6d 0/200 0/213 46.B7cx6d 0/200 9/222 47.S6g-5f 5/205 0/222 48.B6dx1i+ 0/205 15/237 49.R6hx6c+ 4/209 0/237 50.+B1i-3g 0/209 1/238 51.G4i-4h 12/221 0/238 52.+B3g-7c 0/221 0/238 53.+R6cx5d 15/236 0/238 54.P*5c 0/236 10/248 55.+R5d-6e 15/251 0/248 56.L*6c 0/251 8/256 57.+R6ex3e 5/256 0/256 58.P*3d 0/256 0/256 59.+R3ex3d 0/256 0/256 60.P8e-8f 0/256 0/256 61.P8gx8f 0/256 0/256 62.P7d-7e! 0/256 1/257 Up until this point, most people favoured black's position. However, this move shows that things are not so easy. At first glance, the attack at the head of the bishop looks slow, but white's attack actually picks up a lot of pace after this. 63.P*6d 3/259 0/257 64.L6cx6d 0/259 4/261 65.S*4c 12/271 0/261 66.P7ex7f 0/271 14/275 67.B7g-5e 0/271 0/275 68.R8bx8f 0/271 1/276 69.P*8h 1/272 0/276 70.L6d-6i+ 0/272 1/277 71.K5i-4i 1/273 0/277 72.+B7cx5e 0/273 0/277 73.S5fx5e 0/273 0/277 74.B*2e 0/273 1/278 Attack and defence. 75.+R3d-3h 5/278 0/278 Black would like to play the more active 75.+R3e, but after 76.P*3d +R4f P*4e +R6f Rx8h+ white is better. 76.P*3g 0/278 7/285 77.G4hx3g 9/287 0/285 78.P7f-7g+ 0/287 3/288 79.P*3d 1/288 0/288 80.+P7g-6h? 0/288 3/291 Habu has skillfully turned the tables, but this is a mistake. For three minutes Habu tried to figure which was best: 80.+P6h or 80.N4e. In the end he picked the wrong one. If he would have had a little more time, he probably would have found that the variation 80.N4e B*6a Nx3g+ +Rx3g N*4e +R3e +P6g was good for him. 81.P3dx3c+ 0/288 0/291 82.G4bx3c 0/288 0/291 83.P*3d 1/289 0/291 84.+P6hx5h 0/289 1/292 85.S4gx5h 0/289 0/292 86.P*4h? 0/289 0/292 The losing move. After 86.+L6h Px3c+ Gx3c P*3f N*4e the position is still very complicated. 87.K4ix4h 4/293 0/292 88.P*3f 0/293 2/294 White now longer has the option of playing 88.+L6h, as after 89.S4g the move 90.Rx8h+ is no longer a mating threat (which it was with the king on 4i). It is these tiny details that make the difference in this game. 89.P3dx3c+ 3/296 0/294 90.G3bx3c 0/296 0/294 91.G3gx3f 2/298 0/294 92.B2ex3f 0/298 0/294 No choice. 92.Rx3f +Rx3f Bx3f N*3d leads to mate. 93.N*3d! 0/298 0/294 Fujii does not give Habu another chance and goes straight for the win. 94.K2b-1b 0/298 3/297 95.P*3b 0/298 0/297 Cool play. This is a mating threat (B*2a etc.) which can not be properly defended. Fujii has also seen that white has no mate. 96.P*4g 0/298 2/299 97.S5hx4g 0/298 0/299 98.B3fx4g+ 0/298 0/299 99.K4hx4g 1/299 0/299 Resigns 0/299 0/299 Time: 04:59:00 04:59:00 White has not enough pieces for mate and there is no defence for the white king. Habu made a couple of mistakes in the endgame to lose this game, but Fujii showed again how cool he is under pressure after the game looked to be slipping away from him after an initial advantage. Fujii now only needs one more win from the remaining two games to add the Oza crown to his Ryu-O title. Considering Habu hard schedule and Fujii's play in the match so far, I think Fujii has a very good chance. But then again, Habu has escaped from this situation before... In other shogi news: ==================== * In the A class Junisen two games last week. Tanigawa played against Kato, who took no less than 33 minutes for the fourth move of the game. He finally picked a Yokofudori, which is very unusual for him, but he avoided the popular R8e variant, which gave the game a little bit of an old-fashioned flavour. It did not help him much as Tanigawa won the game quite convincingly (despite claiming that he had had no faith in his position in the middle game). Tanigawa is now back at 2-1 and still in the race for challenging Maruyama. Kato dropped back to 1-2 and is in relegation trouble again. The second game in the A class was between winless Tanaka and Aono. Neither player could afford to lose the game as 0-3 and a bad Junisen position would make it very difficult to stay in the top class. Still, both players played very positively and thought they had a good position. Of course, only one of them could be right and this turned out to be Tanaka, who found a nice defensive move that gave him the advantage and eventually the win. So Tanaka can still hope for a prolonged stay in the A class, while things now look very bleak for Aono. * In the B2 Junisen class only the fourth round was being played, but it has already turned into a mud fight. Leaders Kubo and Azuma lost, leaving only Hatakeyama Nariyuki and Tsukada with a 4-0 record. Even the group of followers is quite small, as only Abe, Nakagawa, Kitahama, Azuma and Kubo have 3-1 scores. This is good news for promotion favourite number one Fukaura, who started badly and can now still hope that an 8-2 score and his good Junisen position is enough for promotion. With games against Kubo, Kitahama and Azuma still to come, his mission is less hopeless than it looks. Anyway, the big game of the next round is between the leaders Tsukada and Hatakeyama. The winner of that game takes a big step towards B1. * In the C2 Junisen class the fourth round was played. As always, this class is so big that the important question is who can keep winning as one loss is sometimes fatal and two losses almost always means the end of the promotion chances. After the 4th game there are only four players left with a perfect record. Surprising leader of the pack is Naganuma, who beat co-leader Nozuki after Nozuki was a little too impatient with his attack. Big loss for Nozuki, who is one of the promotion favourites, and a big win for Naganuma, whose was not really considered a promotion candidate. Toyokawa and Yamamoto are not such a big surprise as leaders, but rookie Akutsu managed to keep up with them with a win over Oshima. Actually, his schedule is not so tough, so I think he is a dark horse for promotion. The rookies are doing well this year, as both Watanabe and Iijima won to stay one win from the leaders at 3-1. Other players with a borderline 3-1 score are Maeda, Masuda, Nozuki, Izuka, Matsuo, Chuza, Kobayashi, Tamura, Ito No, Kanezawa and Hirafuji. * In the Kio Fukuzaki scored a surprising win over Ryu-O Fujii to reach the final eight. Even more surprising than the victory itself was that Fukuzaki won quite easily, in only 86 moves. Fujii seems to be thinking too much of Habu perhaps... Other players who qualified for the quarter final are Takahashi (winning against Shima), Maruyama (beating Inoue), Goda (beating Sanada) and Moriuchi (win over Nakamura). * Habu again extended his record in the Kachinuki-sen by beating Hatakeyama Mamoru, his fifteenth consecutive scalp in this tournament. There was an interesting discussion before the game about how much Habu would get if he won. As there was no precedent for his winning streak and the game fee is supposed to go up with every win, this was starting to get an expensive tournament for the sponsor. In the end the game fee was set to 500,000 Yen. I wonder what Habu will get if he beats Ogura, his next opponent... 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