From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 23 feb 2001 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 879, February 21st 2001) This week in Shukan Shogi the first game of the Kio title match between Habu and first time challenger Kubo. Kubo got very close to a flying start in this match, but in the end Habu was lucky that an opening failure was not as bad as it looked. Here is the game with comments. Black: Kubo Toshiaki, Challenger White: Habu Yoshiharu, Kio 26th Kio-sen, Game 1, February 14th 2001 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/0 2/2 3.P6g-6f 1/1 0/2 4.P8c-8d 0/1 1/3 5.R2h-6h 1/2 0/3 Kubo is a specialist in both Sankenbisha and Shikenbisha, and his first title match appearance is started with ranging the rook to the sixth file. The young challenger (25) said he did not feel any pressure in his first title match game and just played it like any other game. Still, the different atmosphere (wearing formal kimono, for example) must have been special. 6.S7a-6b 0/2 1/4 7.P1g-1f 0/2 0/4 8.K5a-4b 0/2 2/6 9.S3i-3h 1/3 0/6 10.K4b-3b 0/3 1/7 11.S7i-7h 0/3 0/7 12.P5c-5d 0/3 4/11 13.S7h-6g 3/6 0/11 14.G6a-5b 0/6 1/12 15.P1f-1e 1/7 0/12 16.P8d-8e 0/7 6/18 17.B8h-7g 0/7 0/18 18.B2b-3c 0/7 0/18 19.P4g-4f 5/12 0/18 20.K3b-2b 0/12 3/21 21.P3g-3f 5/17 0/21 22.L1a-1b 0/17 3/24 23.S6g-5f 2/19 0/24 Already it is clear that Kubo is a different kind of Furibisha player than Ryu-O Fujii. Even though Kubo plays a kind of Fujii system here, his style is much more aggressive. Fujii plays to take away the opportunities of the opponent with slow strangulation as the main goal. Kubo on the other hand, aims for a quick development of his pieces (sabaki), opening the game as quickly as possible. 24.P5d-5e?! 0/19 19/43 Habu is not afraid. He invites the silver to move up. This move says "Come and get me if you can". Objectively, this seems a little dubious. 25.S5f-4e 6/25 0/43 26.R8b-8d 0/25 0/43 27.P6f-6e 16/41 0/43 28.K2b-1a?! 0/41 12/55 It is possible that Habu overlooked something here. In the press room 28.K3b was analysed, which is probably better. However, moving back the king would show a weak heart, so I doubt that Habu considered this very long. 29.P6e-6d 18/59 0/55 30.S3a-2b 0/59 24/79 31.S4ex3d 16/75 0/79 32.B3c-4b 0/75 1/80 33.P6dx6c+ 11/86 0/80 34.S6bx6c 0/86 6/86 35.S3dx4c= 9/95 0/86 Here Kubo looked in amazement at his own position: "I was very surprised at how well it was going here". White seems to be completely lost as Gx4c Rx6c+ is too bad. In the press room it was expected that the game would be over very soon. However... 36.B4b-6d! 0/95 29/115 Again the shogi gods smile on Habu. It can only be called amazing luck that white's position is still playable after this move. The difference in king defence is just enough to give Habu a counter attack. 37.S4cx5b= 12/107 0/115 38.S6cx5b 0/107 3/118 39.G*9e 11/118 0/118 Black wants to play 39.G*7e, but after 40.P*6g Rx6g Bx7e Px7e S*7e white takes over the game. 40.R8d-7d 0/118 2/120 41.G9ex8e 1/119 0/120 42.P5e-5f 0/119 0/120 43.G8ex7d 1/120 0/120 44.B6dx4f 0/120 0/120 45.R6h-6b+ 47/167 0/120 46.P5fx5g+ 0/167 10/130 47.R*4c 39/206 0/130 In the press room, 47.R*4e was analysed extensively, but after 48.P*6h Rx4f Px6i+ Kx6i P*6h K7i S*6i (or S*6g) white's attack seems too strong. 48.S*5e 0/206 28/158 49.R4cx4f+ 6/212 0/158 50.S5ex4f 0/212 19/177 51.P*5h 0/212 0/177 52.P*4h 0/212 17/194 53.G4i-3i 1/213 0/194 54.P*6h 0/213 6/200 55.G6i-7i 1/214 0/200 56.P7cx7d? 0/214 13/213 Here it seems that Habu could have won with 56.S4g+!. Taking this gold gives Kubo the opportunity to regroup his defence. 57.P5hx5g 2/216 0/213 58.P*5f 0/216 1/214 59.P5gx5f 2/218 0/214 60.R*5g 0/218 0/214 61.K5ix6h 0/218 0/214 62.R5gx5f+ 0/218 0/214 63.G3ix4h 13/231 0/214 64.P*6c 0/231 5/219 65.B*3d 4/235 0/219 66.G*6g 0/235 7/226 67.K6h-6i 0/235 0/226 68.G6gx7g 0/235 0/226 69.B3dx5f 0/235 0/226 70.B*8d 0/235 0/226 71.N8ix7g 0/235 0/226 72.B8dx4h+ 0/235 2/228 73.K6i-7h 1/236 0/228 74.S4f-5g+ 0/236 0/228 75.B5f-6e 1/237 0/228 76.+S5g-6g 0/237 0/228 77.K7hx6g 1/238 0/228 78.G*6f 0/238 0/228 79.K6g-7h 0/238 0/228 80.G6fx6e 0/238 0/228 81.N7gx6e 0/238 0/228 82.+B4hx3h 0/238 0/228 83.N6e-5c+ 1/239 0/228 84.B*4d 0/239 0/228 85.G*6h 0/239 0/228 86.B4dx5c 0/239 2/230 87.+R6bx5c 0/239 0/230 88.S5bx5c 0/239 0/230 89.B*8h 0/239 0/230 Now the tables have turned in Kubo's favour. White's attack is no longer strong enough. 90.+B3h-6e 0/239 0/230 91.R*8b 0/239 0/230 92.N*5e 0/239 2/232 93.G*6f? 0/239 0/232 In byoyomi Kubo makes the decisive mistake. Here 93.K8i would have given him great chances to win. After 94.+B5f G*7h black's king is completely safe. 94.+B6ex6f 0/239 1/233 95.B8hx6f 0/239 0/233 96.G*5f 0/239 0/233 97.B6fx5e 0/239 0/233 98.G5fx5e 0/239 0/233 99.P1e-1d 0/239 0/233 100.P1cx1d 0/239 0/233 101.P*1c 0/239 0/233 102.L1bx1c 0/239 0/233 103.B*3d 0/239 0/233 104.R*2d! 0/239 1/234 Habu shows some nice defending skills with major pieces here. Usually, it is hard to defend with bishops and rooks ("Without a gold in hand, there is no defence"), but here is an exception. This rook defends against the mating threat P*1b, attacks the attacking bishop and also will play a decisive role in mating the black king. 105.B3d-4c+ 0/239 0/234 106.S5c-4b 0/239 1/235 107.+B4cx4b 0/239 0/235 108.G4ax4b 0/239 0/235 109.R8bx4b+ 0/239 0/235 110.S*3a 0/239 1/236 111.+R4b-4a 0/239 0/236 112.G5e-6f 0/239 1/237 113.N*3c 0/239 0/237 114.B*3b 0/239 1/238 The second defensive drop of a major piece. This bishop also threatens to help in the attack by capturing the pawn on 7f. 115.N3cx2a+ 0/239 0/238 116.K1ax2a 0/239 0/238 117.+R4ax8a 0/239 0/238 Tempting is 117.N*3c, but after 118.Sx3c S*1b Kx1b +Rx3a the move B*2a (another major piece in defence) is winning for white. Capturing the pawn on 7f next is a mating threat. 118.N*5f 0/239 0/238 119.G6h-5h 0/239 0/238 120.P*8f 0/239 0/238 121.P*4c 0/239 0/238 122.R2dx2g+ 0/239 0/238 123.N*4d 0/239 0/238 124.G6f-7g 0/239 1/239 125.K7h-6i 0/239 0/239 126.B*7h 0/239 0/239 127.K6i-5i 0/239 0/239 128.+R2gx2i 0/239 0/239 Resigns 0/239 0/239 Time: 03:59:00 03:59:00 Mate after 129.N*4i N*4g Gx4g P*5h Kx5h B6g+. A great game with both players attacking and defending almost from the start. Kubo really showed his great potential here and was unlucky that he could not start his first title match with a win. This might be important, as Kubo now desperately needs to win the next one, as 2-0 down in a best-of-five match against Habu seems hopeless. In other shogi news: ==================== * The Junisen is always where the hardest fighting is going on, but this year the promotion races in the different classes are especially tight. Last week the next to final rounds in all classes were finished and at the moment there is no player certain of promotion yet. I can not remember a year where there was no player with a perfect score in any class with one round to play. * In B1 Goda let his first chance to promote slip away when he lost against Inoue. He could still have promoted if Fujii would have lost against Kobayashi and for a long time it looked like this would happen. However, Kobayashi missed a win in the endgame and Fujii stayed in the promotion race. For Kobayashi this was extra tough, as Mori beat Takahashi, so Kobayashi is now certain to go down to B2 next year. Miura, who did not play in this round, is now the leader with 9-2, followed by Goda and Fujii on 8-3. Miura is at the bottom of the class, so he still needs to beat Takahashi in the final round to promote to the A class. Goda plays Nakamura and Fujii has to beat Minami and hope for a mistake by one of the others. * In B2 Tsukuda recovered from a loss in the 8th round that broke his winning streak. This loss might have increased the pressure, as he had a lot of trouble to beat Ariyoshi. In the end he escaped and now has the best chances of promoting back to 8-1. The only other player with one loss is Kubo, whose Junisen game against Hatakeyama was postponed because of the first game of the Kio match. Even if Kubo wins this game, he still needs to win his final game against Nishikawa to promote for the second year in a row. Abe and Suzuki Daisuke are the other players that still have a chance to promote with 7-2 scores. Abe plays Tosa and Suzuki plays Arimori in the final round. Tsukada (playing 1-8 Tamaru) and Kubo are the clear favourites to clinch promotion. * In C2 the number of players with a chance to promote in the final round is down to seven. Best chances are for Kobayashi Hiroshi, who is the only player with 8-1 after a win against promotion rival Akutsu. Co-leader Chuza had good chances to promote with one game left to play, but surprisingly lost to Ito Hatasu, who had won only one other game so far. A very painful loss for Chuza, who now drops to 4th place and no longer has his promotion chances in his own hands. Most likely to promote are Nozuki and Iizuka. Nozuki had a tough game against Matsuo, but won and now has 7-2 and the best Junisen position. Iizuka is only one place behind and I must admit that I hope he makes it as he always seems so close to promotion, failing at the very end on numerous occasions. Other players who still have a chance are Naganuma, the brilliant rookie Watanabe and Masuda. Masuda has only a 6-3 score, so his chances are minimal. Of these players, Nozuki has the toughest opponent as he has to play Watanabe in the final round. Will he be able to keep off the "new Habu"? * In the Zen Nihon pro tournament Tanigawa reached the finals with a win over Meijin Maruyama. Tanigawa loves this tournament as he now will play for his 8th tournament victory against either Sato Yasumitsu or Moriuchi. An interesting match coming up... * Yashiki had a good start in the white group of Oi leagues with a win over Sato Yasumitsu. He had to dig deep in his ninja resources to pull out the win, as Sato was dominating the game for a long time. Sato was so upset that he lost, that he left immediately without the usual post-mortem analysis. * Nakai almost defended her Ladies Meijin title thanks to her husband, professional Ueyama. Two days before the fourth game of the Ladies Meijin match against Saita, Ueyama was surprised by a very interesting new move played by Yamasaki in their C2 Junisen game. Nakai got the chance to play exactly the same move in her game against Saita. Saita fell for the long term positional trap (Ueyama played it differently) and Nakai got an overwhelming position. However, that was when Saita showed her fighting spirit as she managed to turn around the game in byoyomi and win. So the match is now even at 2-2 and a decisive 5th game is needed to decide the next Ladies Meijin. 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/~grimberg/ Tel: +81-(0)298-61-3316 Fax: +81-(0)298-61-5918