From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 2 mar 2001 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 880, February 28th 2001) This week in Shukan Shogi the fifth game of the Osho match between Habu and Tanigawa. Unlike the other games in this match, not much fireworks early on in this game as it seemed destined for sennichite a long time. In the end Tanigawa opened up the game, but that may have been ill-advised. Habu got the upper hand and in the end that was just enough to win. Here is the game with comments: Black: Tanigawa Koji, Challenger White: Habu Yoshiharu, Osho 50th Osho-sen, Game 5, February 19th and 20th 2001 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/0 2/2 3.P2g-2f 3/3 0/2 4.P4c-4d 0/3 3/5 5.P2f-2e 4/7 0/5 6.B2b-3c 0/7 2/7 7.S3i-4h 1/8 0/7 8.S3a-3b 0/8 6/13 9.P5g-5f 2/10 0/13 10.R8b-4b 0/10 6/19 This match started with a Yokofudori game, but since Tanigawa played Shikenbisha in the second game, this has become another Furibisha match with white ranging the rook for the fourth time in a row. 11.K5i-6h 6/16 0/19 12.S7a-7b 0/16 4/23 13.K6h-7h 3/19 0/23 14.P9c-9d 0/19 16/39 15.G4i-5h 22/41 0/39 16.S3b-4c 0/41 25/64 17.P9g-9f 30/71 0/64 18.K5a-6b 0/71 28/92 19.S4h-5g 15/86 0/92 20.P6c-6d 0/86 2/94 21.P3g-3f 3/89 0/94 22.K6b-7a 0/89 18/112 23.P8g-8f 12/101 0/112 24.G4a-5b 0/101 13/125 25.K7h-8g 2/103 0/125 26.P7c-7d 0/103 20/145 27.S7i-7h 8/111 0/145 28.P8c-8d 0/111 7/152 29.S5g-4f?! 56/167 0/152 This quick attack is in style, but combined with the left mino is does not seem so strong, at least at this level. 30.S4c-3b!? 0/167 50/202 A move like the late Oyama used to play. Pulling back this silver is a very good defence against the quick attack. When the bishop diagonal is opened, white can take back on 3c with the silver and it is no longer possible to break through on 2d. 31.K8g-9h 17/184 0/202 Tanigawa knows that attacking at this point would be unreasonable and strengthens his king position instead. 32.P4d-4e 0/184 6/208 33.S4f-5g 7/191 0/208 34.N8a-7c 0/191 15/223 35.B8hx3c+ 50/241 0/223 36.S3bx3c 0/241 1/224 37.P6g-6f 1/242 0/224 38.G5b-6c 0/242 9/233 39.G5h-6g 4/246 0/233 40.P5c-5d 0/246 1/234 41.S7h-8g 13/259 0/234 42.K7a-8b 0/259 14/248 43.G6i-7h 3/262 0/248 44.S7b-8c 0/262 8/256 45.K9h-8h 2/264 0/256 46.G6a-7b 0/264 0/256 47.N8i-7g 1/265 0/256 48.G7b-6b 0/265 11/267 49.N2i-3g 18/283 0/267 50.G6b-6a! 0/283 31/298 Subtle play. The normal 50.G6b-7b is answered by 51.P2d Px2d B*5a R2b Nx4e S4b Bx4b+ Rx4b Rx2d Rx4e P4f R4a S*5b and black has a big advantage. The gold on 6a defends against B*5a. 51.P1g-1f 48/331 0/298 52.P1c-1d 0/331 16/314 53.P3f-3e? 32/363 0/314 This is why Tanigawa has so many fans. With the bishops off, this has become a typical sennichite position. Neither player can afford to open the game with all the possible bishop drops. Tanigawa decides to attack anyway, but as he himself said after the game: "Sennichite was probably best". 54.P3dx3e 0/363 28/342 55.P2e-2d 0/363 0/342 56.P2cx2d 0/363 1/343 57.B*2c 3/366 0/343 58.B*3f 0/366 13/356 59.P1f-1e 0/366 0/356 60.P1dx1e 0/366 7/363 61.L1ix1e 5/371 0/363 62.L1ax1e 0/371 0/363 63.P*3d 0/371 0/363 64.S3c-4d 0/371 7/370 65.R2hx2d 0/371 0/370 66.L*2b 0/371 1/371 67.B2c-4a+?! 12/383 0/371 Better is probably 67.N2e G7b P3c+ Nx3c B3b+ Lx2d +Bx4b Bx2e R*2b and black has a strong looking attack for the material loss. 68.R4bx4a 0/383 0/371 69.R2dx2b+ 0/383 0/371 70.G6a-7b 0/383 0/371 71.N3g-2e 1/384 0/371 72.P5d-5e 0/384 27/398 73.P3d-3c+ 21/405 0/398 74.P4e-4f 0/405 8/406 75.+P3c-4b 28/433 0/406 76.R4a-8a 0/433 13/419 77.P4gx4f 11/444 0/419 78.P5ex5f 0/444 0/419 79.S5g-6h 0/444 0/419 80.S4d-5e 0/444 2/421 81.+P4b-4c 2/446 0/421 82.P6d-6e 0/446 5/426 Here it seems that white has big advantage, but... 83.L*5i! 9/455 0/426 This is a strong move that both defends and attacks. White's advantage is not as big as it looked. 84.B3f-6i+ 0/455 9/435 85.G6gx5f 2/457 0/435 86.P8d-8e! 0/457 12/447 Habu takes a little time to compose himself and change his attack. The planned 86.Sx5f is not so good after 87.Lx5f G*5h S*7i P*5e P*5d Gx5d P*5i and white has a hard time to continue his attack. 87.G5fx5e 1/458 0/447 88.P8ex8f 0/458 2/449 89.S8gx8f 2/460 0/449 90.P*8g 0/460 0/449 91.K8hx8g 0/460 0/449 92.B*8i 0/460 5/454 93.S6h-7i 0/460 0/454 94.P*8e 0/460 0/454 95.N7gx8e 0/460 0/454 96.N7cx8e 0/460 0/454 97.P*8d? 1/461 0/454 How unfortunate for Tanigawa. By reversing the move order, his position is suddenly lost. If 97.+P5c right away, he would still have had good fighting chances. For example, 98.Gx5c P*8d Sx8d Gx6e P*5b Lx5c+ N*6g P*8c K9c P9e black wins. According to Morishita, even after 97.+P5c the black attack is probably not strong enough, but it seems clear that it would have been Tanigawa's best chance. 98.S8cx8d 0/461 0/454 99.+P4c-5c 0/461 0/454 100.G6c-7c 0/461 7/461 101.+P5c-6b 4/465 0/461 102.K8b-9c! 0/465 0/461 Brilliant. The rook that was asleep on 8a for a long time wakes up just in time to defend and help in mating the black king. 103.+P6bx7b 1/466 0/461 104.N*7e 0/466 0/461 Resigns 0/466 0/461 Time: 07:46:00 07:41:00 White wins after 105.Px7e Sx7e and now either Sx7e Px7e and no defence or +Px7c Bx7h+ Sx7h Sx8f and mate. With this fine win Habu takes his 6th Osho title in a row and closes out a title match early for the first time since he beat Moriuchi 3-1 in the Kio match almost a year ago. In other shogi news: ==================== * As expected, Kubo won his postponed game in the B2 Junisen class against Hatakeyama and now joins Tsukada in the lead with an 8-1 score. In the final round, Tsukada needs a win against Tamaru and Kubo needs to beat Nishikawa to get to B1. Except for promotion pressure, this should not be too hard for both players and Abe and Suzuki probably need to wait another year. * In the Red Group of the Oi league, a major upset as Yamasaki beat Tanigawa in the first round. Still, Yamasaki will not be boasting to much about this win, as he was completely outplayed by Tanigawa. However, when Tanigawa wanted to place the coup de grace with a nice gold sacrifice, Yamasaki could not believe his eyes. This gold sacrifice was a terrible blunder that lost immediately. Tanigawa is of course still not out of the promotion race, but this is a major setback. * Moriuchi reached the final of the Zen Nihon Pro tournament with a win over Sato Yasumitsu. Even though the mutual score going into the game was pretty even with 16-13 in Moriuchi's favour, Sato has had some big problems against him lately as the result of their last ten games is an astonishing 9-1 for Moriuchi. Moriuchi added another victory to that, as he won a difficult Yokofudori game. Moriuchi will meet Tanigawa for the second time to play for the Zen Nihon Pro title. In 1988 he lost 2-1 as a 4-dan (then the match was a best of three games). Let's see if he can do better this time. I am not sure if I have time for the Shukan Shogi report next week, as I will be preparing for the computer shogi tournament. If not, there will be a double report in two weeks. 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