From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 18 jan 2001 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 874, January 17th 2001) Fireworks to start the new year as the first title match game was a very interesting one. In the first game of the 50th Osho title match between Habu and Tanigawa, it seemed for a long time that Tanigawa would win. In the end, Habu's magical endgame had to save the day for him. Here is the game with comments: Black: Tanigawa Koji, Challenger White: Habu Yoshiharu, Osho 50th Osho-sen, Game 1, January 9th and 10th 2001 1.P7g-7f 1/1 0/0 It seems almost a matter of course that the first title match of the 21st century is between Habu and Tanigawa. They meet in a title match for the third time this season and it is already their 19th encounter at the big stage. Tanigawa lost in the Kisei and the Oi matches, but every match start with 0-0 and losing the Ryu-O match against Fujii might have affected Habu's confidence a little. 2.P3c-3d 0/1 5/5 3.P2g-2f 2/3 0/5 4.P8c-8d 0/3 2/7 5.P2f-2e 2/5 0/7 6.P8d-8e 0/5 2/9 7.G6i-7h 1/6 0/9 8.G4a-3b 0/6 3/12 9.P2e-2d 7/13 0/12 10.P2cx2d 0/13 3/15 11.R2hx2d 0/13 0/15 12.P8e-8f 0/13 3/18 13.P8gx8f 0/13 0/18 14.R8bx8f 0/13 1/19 15.R2dx3d 6/19 0/19 16.B2b-3c 0/19 9/28 17.R3d-3f 7/26 0/28 18.S3a-2b 0/26 21/49 19.P*8g 49/75 0/49 20.R8f-8e 0/75 22/71 After two Habu-Fujii matches (Oza and Ryu-O) with only Furibisha against Ibisha games, the R8e Yokofudori looks almost fresh. Despite the great results of the Furibisha players recently, the R8e Yokofudori continues to be the main opening system among professionals. 21.R3f-2f 4/79 0/71 22.K5a-4a 0/79 8/79 23.K5i-6h 21/100 0/79 24.S7a-6b 0/100 37/116 25.P3g-3f 36/136 0/116 26.G6a-5a 0/136 18/134 27.S3i-3h 19/155 0/134 28.P7c-7d 0/155 20/154 29.N2i-3g 26/181 0/154 30.N8a-7c 0/181 46/200 31.P4g-4f 17/198 0/200 32.R8e-5e 0/198 64/264 33.P4f-4e 27/225 0/264 34.R5e-5d 0/225 4/268 35.B8hx3c+ 5/230 0/268 36.N2ax3c 0/230 1/269 37.P6g-6f 0/230 0/269 38.P*2e 0/230 9/278 39.R2f-2i 7/237 0/278 40.P6c-6d 0/237 2/280 So far this game is identical to the game between Sato and Tanigawa in the Osho league. It is interesting that despite the fact that Tanigawa won this game very quickly, he has no problems playing the game with reversed colours here. It seems that both players have found some improvements in this position. 41.G4i-4h 71/308 0/280 Tanigawa is the first to deviate from his game against Sato. Sato played 41.B*7b here, but white just attacked strongly with 42.P6e. It turned out that exchanging the bishop for the rook did not help white in any way and that 41.B*7b was just a wasted move. 41.G4h is better, as it strengthens the centre before attacking. 42.P6d-6e 0/308 28/308 The natural move. After 43.Px6e moves like B*6f and Nx6e make black's position quite dangerous. 43.B*8b 12/320 0/308 44.R5d-6d 0/320 37/345 If 44.Px6f then 45.P*6c is good for black. 45.P6fx6e 39/359 0/345 46.R6dx6e 0/359 1/346 47.P*6g 0/359 0/346 It looks like black has a strong position here. The head of the king is relatively safe and the lance on 9a will be lost. 48.P*3e 0/359 28/374 Habu must attack. Losing material without compensation is too much. 49.B8bx9a+ 8/367 0/374 50.P3ex3f 0/367 1/375 51.N3gx2e 0/367 0/375 52.N3cx2e 0/367 3/378 53.R2ix2e 0/367 0/378 54.P*2d 0/367 0/378 55.R2e-2i 6/373 0/378 56.R6ex4e 0/373 0/378 57.L*4g 4/377 0/378 58.R4e-3e 0/377 3/381 59.+B9a-9b?! 17/394 0/381 So far Tanigawa's opening preparation has worked nicely, but this move is questionable. Better was 59.P*3g 60.Px3g+ 61.Sx3g to get rid of the attacking base on 3f. Habu had planned 62.N*5e, but then 63.S4f Nx4g+ Sx3e is good for black. 60.N*2e! 0/394 23/404 Hard to defend. 61.+B9bx7d 2/396 0/404 62.P*6c 0/396 1/405 63.N*2g 8/404 0/405 This is a waste of a good knight, but it can not be helped. Things are complicated, but black still seems to have a slight edge. 64.R3e-5e 0/404 6/411 65.P5g-5f 2/406 0/411 66.R5e-5d 0/406 2/413 67.+B7d-7e 0/406 0/413 68.B*2f 0/406 2/415 69.R2i-3i 18/424 0/415 70.P*8h 0/424 25/440 71.G7hx8h 3/427 0/440 72.R5dx5f 0/427 0/440 73.N8i-7g 15/442 0/440 74.P*7d 0/442 5/445 75.+B7e-8d 0/442 0/445 76.R5fx7f 0/442 0/445 77.K6h-7h 4/446 0/445 78.N7c-6e 0/446 2/447 79.S7i-6h 1/447 0/447 80.P7d-7e 0/447 1/448 81.P*4i! 4/451 0/448 This looks like a powerless defence-only move, but it is actually quite strong. The black horse is now relieved of the duty to defend the gold on 4h and if black is given the chance to play +B7d followed by +Bx6e the white attack is completely killed. 82.N2ex1g+! 0/451 21/469 Habu shows his fighting ability. He is going to invest a full bishop in his attack as it is the only way to keep fighting. If 82.P3g+ then Gx3g Nx3g+ Sx3g Bx3g+ Rx3g it are actually black's inactive pieces that have been exchanged and the rook is freed. 83.L1ix1g 7/458 0/469 84.B2fx1g+ 0/458 0/469 85.R3i-1i 0/458 0/469 86.+B1gx2g 0/458 2/471 87.S3hx2g 0/458 0/471 88.P3f-3g+ 0/458 0/471 89.L4gx4c+? 3/461 0/471 The losing move. Still, in this position there was no win found for black. 89.Gx3g N*5f N*6i L*5d was better than the game, but is still unclear. In the press room 89.P*2c was analysed, but 90.Sx2c P*3c Gx3c does not gain much. 90.G3bx4c 0/461 0/471 91.N*3e 0/461 0/471 92.G4c-4d 0/461 0/471 93.B*4c 3/464 0/471 It seems like Tanigawa counted on the strength of this move. 94.L*5d! 0/464 1/472 Nice counter. Defending the knight on 6e and attacking at the same time. White has turned the tables. 95.B4c-2a+ 7/471 0/472 96.+P3gx4h 0/471 1/473 97.+B2ax2b 1/472 0/473 98.+P4h-5h 0/472 3/476 99.S*3b 1/473 0/476 100.K4a-5b 0/473 0/476 101.+B2bx4d 0/473 0/476 In his calculations at the 93th move, Tanigawa might have thought that he was winning here. This bishop defends 7g so white has no mate and threatens mate in one at the same time. 102.N*6f!! 0/473 0/476 A move that will go into the Habu highlight series. 102.Px6f leads to mate after 103.+Px6h Kx6h Nx7g+ Gx7g Rx7g+ Kx7g G*7f or 103.+Px6h K8i G*7h K9h Gx8h. 103.+B4dx6f 1/474 0/476 No choice. Now black has no mating threat anymore. 104.+P5hx6h 0/474 0/476 105.K7hx6h 1/475 0/476 106.R7fx6f 0/475 0/476 107.N3e-4c+ 2/477 0/476 108.K5b-6a 0/477 0/476 Resigns 0/477 0/476 Time: 07:57:00 07:56:00 Black has no mate and after 109.Px6f B*4f K7h G*7i K6g B5g+ it is mate. Tanigawa had a good position after the opening, but Habu's brilliant endgame skills again prevailed. It might have been luck that 102.N*6f was possible, but Habu already showed his resilience earlier with the bishop sacrifice to keep him in the game. In other shogi news: ==================== * The success of the Furibisha players continues as young Kubo did the impossible by beating Goda twice in a week to win the challenger tournament in the Kio-sen. In both games Goda had good chances. Expecially in the first game, he missed a win in byoyomi. It was quite a difficult one, but Goda chose the wrong mating threat which was beautifully countered with a "drop where your opponent wants to drop" knight sacrifice. In the second game, Kubo got the upper hand in the middle game, but Goda got back in and had a chance to make it very difficult near the end of the game. He missed his opportunity and that meant that Kubo is the challenger of Kio Habu. Of course, it is his first challenge and it will be interesting to see how he will do against Habu, especially after Habu lost against Fujii, the other main Furibisha specialist. * In the A Junisen dark clouds are starting to gather over Shima and Tanaka. Shima played a great game against Sato Yasumitsu that I hope will be published soon as it was a textbook example of an exciting endgame. Both kings were in a lot of danger and neither player could read out all the possible variations. In the end it was Sato's tiny middle game lead that just seemed to make the difference between winning and losing. Shima is now at the bottom of the league with 2-5, while Sato keeps the pressure on Tanigawa with a 5-2 score. Shima was joined at the bottom by Tanaka, who lost against Moriuchi. Tanaka thought he had a good position in the middle game and opened the game by sacrificing a bishop for a silver. If he would have sacrificed an extra pawn to open another line before that, it might have worked. As it was, Moriuchi's position was difficult, but playable. Moriuchi defended well and then won in the counter attack. At 4-3 he does not have much hope to challenge for the Meijin title, but he will be very happy with a win after three consecutive losses. * In C1 the 9th round was played and leader Namekata suffered a shocking defeat against Katsumata. Namekata's opening preparation in the R8e Yokofudori seemed to have worked perfectly, but a small mistake in the complicated middle game turned the game completely around. Katsumata won from there in great style. Namekata almost immediately left after the game, clearly very upset with himself. For Katsumata it was a big victory as he now has a 6-2 score. This means that he will lose the relegation marker he got last year and also gives him an outside chance to promote from the piranha pool. Horiguchi Kazushiza seems to have no problems in this class, as he beat Ouchi to get to 7-1 and is now the only player with only one loss. Getting out of C1 in his first year seems quite possible, even though Hatakeyama and Ogura are not the easiest opponents in his final two games. He is followed by Sato Shuji, Namekata, Nakata Hiroki, Nishimura, Sugimoto and Katsumata, so he can not afford to drop a game. * Challenger Saita had a good start in the Ladies Meijin match against Nakai. "Miss Shikenbisha" showed that good results with the Furibisha opening are not only achieved by the men by winning the first game of this best-of-five match. Saita played the opening very well and got a good position, but a mistake in the middle game made it all very complex. In the end it became a byoyomi endgame where anything could happen and the coin fell on Saita's side. Saita is a former Ladies Osho, but has never won the Meijin title. Maybe this time... 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