From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 12 jan 2001 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 873, January 10th 2001) Finally some details on the final game of the Ryu-O match between Fujii and Habu. Shukan Shogi thinks that it was Fujii again who won the opening battle convincingly, but when he rushed his attack, Habu got a chance to get back in the game. Habu eventually lost because he could not find the right move because of time trouble. Here is the game with comments: Black: Fujii Takeshi, Ryu-O White: Habu Yoshiharu, Challenger 13th Ryu-O sen, Game 7, December 25th and 26th 2000 1.P7g-7f 1/1 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/1 2/2 3.P6g-6f 4/5 0/2 4.P8c-8d 0/5 4/6 5.R2h-6h 1/6 0/6 6.S7a-6b 0/6 4/10 7.P1g-1f 3/9 0/10 8.P1c-1d 0/9 6/16 9.S3i-3h 2/11 0/16 10.K5a-4b 0/11 8/24 11.S7i-7h 1/12 0/24 12.K4b-3b 0/12 2/26 13.S7h-6g 3/15 0/26 14.G6a-5b 0/15 4/30 15.K5i-4h 9/24 0/30 16.P5c-5d 0/24 18/48 17.K4h-3i 8/32 0/48 18.S6b-5c 0/32 33/81 19.P4g-4f 9/41 0/81 20.P7c-7d 0/41 4/85 21.K3i-2h 15/56 0/85 22.P8d-8e 0/56 26/111 23.B8h-7g 0/56 0/111 24.P2c-2d 0/56 0/111 A small surprise. Habu has had the most success with quick fights against Fujii, but for this decisive seventh game he decides to play the left Mino, a slow opening system. He also played this in game 4, and even though Fujii won that game, Habu did not think this was because of the opening. Also, despite his good results with the quick attack, it was always Fujii who ended up in the better position after the opening. It must have been very hard for Habu to decide what to play... 25.G6i-5h 43/99 0/111 26.K3b-2c 0/99 6/117 27.P3g-3f 1/100 0/117 28.S3a-3b 0/100 0/117 29.P2g-2f 0/100 0/117 30.R8b-7b 0/100 49/166 31.R6h-7h 5/105 0/166 32.P4c-4d 0/105 1/167 33.G5h-4g 24/129 0/167 34.G5b-4c 0/129 13/180 35.N2i-3g 12/141 0/180 36.S5c-4b 0/141 16/196 37.R7h-8h 2/143 0/196 38.N8a-7c 0/143 33/229 39.S6g-5f 86/229 0/229 40.S4b-3c 0/229 25/254 41.S3h-2g 3/232 0/254 42.B2b-3a 0/232 57/311 43.G4i-3h 2/234 0/311 Fujii plays this type of opening so well. He has so much confidence in his ability to play these slow games well that from a psychological point of view only, Habu's choice of the left Mino can be criticised. Also from a shogi technical point of view, things have already taken a wrong turn for Habu. Black has completed his Silver Crown castle and the difference in the strength on the head of the king is already enough to make this position a strategic victory for black. 44.P9c-9d 0/234 11/322 Things would have been alright if white could play 44.K1b here, to make a Silver Crown himself. However, after 45.P6e S2c P8f Px8f Bx8f R8b Bx3a+ Rx8h+ +Bx4a black has a big advantage. 45.P6f-6e 42/276 0/322 46.P5d-5e 0/276 20/342 Habu decides to force the issue as he has no moves to improve his position. His only chance is to break through in the centre, developing some of his idle pieces. This will be hard, since Fujii's position is almost perfect. 47.B7gx5e 40/316 0/342 48.G4c-5d 0/316 2/344 49.P4f-4e 3/319 0/344 50.P4dx4e 0/319 9/353 51.B5e-6f 13/332 0/353 52.S3c-4d 0/332 18/371 53.P*4f 5/337 0/371 54.B3a-2b 0/337 15/386 55.P4fx4e 19/356 0/386 56.S4d-5e 0/356 0/386 57.S5fx5e 0/356 0/386 58.G5dx5e 0/356 0/386 59.B6fx5e 0/356 0/386 60.B2bx5e 0/356 0/386 61.R8h-9h! 0/356 0/386 It is moves like this that show Fujii's special talent. Only few players would even think of this move. Black is behind in material and with this move he also gives up the initiative. Fujii has calculated that white can do nothing with the move that is given and that the weakness of 2d, combined with the terrible position of the rook on 7b and the knight on 7c are more important. Perfect judgement: black has a clear advantage. 62.P8e-8f 0/356 35/421 63.P2f-2e 21/377 0/421 64.P2dx2e 0/377 12/433 65.G4g-5f 3/380 0/433 66.B5e-2b 0/380 6/439 After 66.Px8g+ Gx5e +Px9h P*2d Kx2d G4d black wins. Moves like B*6a B*4f and B*2b are all winning and white can not defend them all. 67.P4e-4d 4/384 0/439 68.B2bx4d 0/384 13/452 69.G5f-4e 2/386 0/452 70.R7b-4b! 0/386 0/452 Habu tries to make the most of it. Activating the rook is much more important here than saving the bishop. 71.G4ex3d? 41/427 0/452 Based on a strange calculation error in a position that occurs 16 moves later. This Tanigawa-like attacking move is not good. If Fujii would have played in his character, he would have won easily after the simple 71.R4h Bx9i+ Gx3d Kx3d P3e K3c G*3d K2b P*2c K1b Rx4b+ Gx4b S*3a. Now Habu suddenly gets some counter chances. 72.K2cx3d 0/427 1/453 73.S*4e 0/427 0/453 74.K3d-2c 0/427 4/457 75.P*2d 0/427 0/457 76.K2c-1b 0/427 0/457 77.G*2c 1/428 0/457 78.S3bx2c 0/428 0/457 79.P2dx2c+ 0/428 0/457 80.K1bx2c 0/428 0/457 81.P*4c 2/430 0/457 82.R4b-5b 0/430 2/459 83.S4ex4d 2/432 0/459 84.R5bx5g+ 0/432 1/460 85.S*2d 15/447 0/460 86.K2c-3d 0/447 11/471 87.S2d-3e 0/447 0/471 A change of plan. On the 71st move, Fujii had calculated that he would win here with B*2b. However, after the simple Kx2d white has no good continuation. 88.K3d-2c 0/447 0/471 89.B*4b 1/448 0/471 90.G4ax4b? 0/448 4/475 The losing move. If Habu would have had a little more time, he might have found the correct 90.P*3c which keeps his position alive. After 91.Bx8f+ B*5i +Bx5i +Rx5i B*8f B*1g Kx1g +Rx1g S*1h P1e white can still fight on. In the end one could say that the reason for Habu's loss is not this move, but the fact that he had to use so much time in the opening and middle game that he did not have enough time left to take his chance here. It has taken 7 games, but Fujii's opening superiority has finally decided the issue. 91.P4cx4b+ 0/448 0/475 92.B*6f 0/448 2/477 93.P8gx8f! 11/459 0/477 Tanaka Torahiko (9-dan) was very impressed by this move. Fujii needs this pawn to make his attack work and takes 11 minutes to make sure that Habu can do nothing nasty in the meantime. 94.K2c-1b 0/459 2/479 95.P*2d 3/462 0/479 96.G*2b 0/462 0/479 97.S4d-4c= 8/470 0/479 Threatens mate and there is no defence, so Habu just plays some moves to make it all look a little better for him in the final position. 98.+R5gx3g 0/470 0/479 99.G3hx3g 1/471 0/479 100.B*3i 0/471 0/479 101.K2h-2i 0/471 0/479 Resigns 0/471 0/479 Time: 07:51:00 07:59:00 A memorable victory for Fujii, who becomes the first Ryu-O title holder to defend his title twice in a row. Even Habu admitted after the game that he had too many bad positions in this match to have a real chance of taking the title. After two Habu-Fujii matches, the Fujii system is as strong and healthy as ever and the Ibisha players will need to come up with something good to break it down. In other shogi news: ==================== * The challenger of Kio Habu is down to three players as Goda was waiting the winner of the game between Meijin Murayama and Kubo. Maruyama has been in a slump after winning the meijin title, but recently his results have been improving. On the other had, Kubo has had a career season so far, battling for the lead in the winning percentage table with Habu. His first appearance in a title match does not seem to far away. Furthermore, he had won the last two games against Maruyama, so he went into the game with confidence. It is hard to imagine a Meijin losing three times in a row against a 6-dan, but this is exactly what happened. Maruyama had the early lead, but Kubo turned the tables and finished with some accurate endgame play, showing that Maruyama's dangerous looking attack was actually quite harmless. Kubo will now have to beat Goda twice in a row to become the challenger of Habu. * After all the excitement over the wins by the amateurs Yamada and Segawa over professionals in the Zen Nihon Pro tournament and the Ginga-sen, no new upsets in the Ryu-O tournament. In group 6 we had a Watanabe encounter as amateur Watanabe met pro Watanabe, but without much success. The young professional star got an advantage in the middle game and won from there even though it was quite close in the end. No chance for former amateur Meijin, amateur Ryu-O and amateur Osho Hayasaki, who played rookie Chiba. Hayasaki's special opening system was crushed by the professional. Also no luck for the ladies, as Shimizu overlooked a nice combination by Ito No and that left her position in ruins. Ito cleaned up very quickly after that. This year only Yoshizawa defended the honour of the amateurs and reached the second round. 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