From: Reijer Grimbergen FU IS SAGA-U AC JP> Date: 9 aug 2002 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 952, July 24th 2002) Now that I am back from Canada and the summer holidays at our university have started, I finally have some time to catch up with my Shukan Shogi reports. As there are no less than four title match games in the three issue that I am behind, I will split these up into two separate reports. In this report, the fourth game of the Kisei-sen between Goda and Sato and the first game of the Oi-sen between Habu and Tanigawa with comments. First, the fourth game of the Kisei-sen. Sato won in great style to tie the match at 2-2: Black: Sato Yasumitsu, Challenger White: Goda Masataka, Kisei 73rd Kisei-sen, Game 4, July 18th 2002 1.P7g-7f 00:01:00 00:00:00 2.P8c-8d 00:01:00 00:00:00 3.P2g-2f 00:02:00 00:00:00 4.P8d-8e 00:02:00 00:00:00 5.B8h-7g 00:02:00 00:00:00 6.P3c-3d 00:02:00 00:00:00 7.S7i-8h 00:02:00 00:00:00 8.G4a-3b 00:02:00 00:00:00 9.P2f-2e!? 00:06:00 00:00:00 In the Kakugawari, black usually postpones this move to keep the option of a quick attack with N2e later. However, Sato has a different opening plan. 10.B2bx7g+ 00:06:00 00:00:00 11.S8hx7g 00:06:00 00:00:00 12.S3a-2b 00:06:00 00:00:00 13.S3i-3h 00:06:00 00:00:00 14.S7a-7b 00:06:00 00:00:00 15.P1g-1f 00:06:00 00:00:00 Point number one. If white answers this edge pawn with 16.P1d, his position will become vulnerable against a climbing silver attack. 16.S2b-3c 00:06:00 00:15:00 17.P3g-3f 00:07:00 00:15:00 18.P6c-6d 00:07:00 00:16:00 19.P1f-1e! 00:09:00 00:16:00 Point number two. White is more or less committed to a reclining silver after 18.P6d. Sato now extends the pawn on the edge, which can be important in attack when the game ends up in a normal double reclining silver position. 20.K5a-4b 00:09:00 00:19:00 21.G6i-7h 00:09:00 00:19:00 22.G6a-5b 00:09:00 00:19:00 23.P9g-9f 00:15:00 00:19:00 24.P7c-7d 00:15:00 00:52:00 25.K5i-6h 00:54:00 00:52:00 26.S7b-7c?! 00:54:00 01:33:00 Goda judges that a double reclining silver position with the pawn on 1e is favourable for black, so instead he plays a climbing silver attack. However, this is not a well-balanced strategy with the pawn on 6d. Sato's subtle opening play has paid off: black has the better position. 27.S3h-3g 00:55:00 01:33:00 28.S7c-8d 00:55:00 01:33:00 29.S7g-6f 00:58:00 01:33:00 30.P9c-9d 00:58:00 01:33:00 Goda sticks with his climbing silver. An alternative was 30.S7c, but Goda didn't like 31.S4f P8f Px8f Rx8f P*8g R8b P3e which gives black a good looking attack which is further strengthened by the pawn on 1e. 31.S3g-4f 01:01:00 01:33:00 32.P9d-9e 01:01:00 01:39:00 33.P9fx9e 01:07:00 01:39:00 34.L9ax9e 01:07:00 01:39:00 The joseki books state that one should capture with the silver, but in this position this is a problem after 34.Sx9e Lx9e Lx9e B*6a. 35.P*9g 01:09:00 01:39:00 36.P7d-7e 01:09:00 01:41:00 37.P9g-9f! 02:05:00 01:41:00 Top class play. Sato pushes the pawn he just dropped one move earlier. The move expected in the press room was P3e as black can't play 37.Px7e P8f Px8f P6e Sx6e Sx7e and white has a strong attack. Sato's pawn push shows what an exceptionally good player he is. There is a world of difference between the position with the white pawn on 7d or 7e as will become clear soon. 38.P8e-8f? 02:05:00 02:02:00 After the game Goda said this was the losing move. He should have tried 38.Lx9f Lx9f P*9e P3e Px9f Px3d S4d L*3i P9g+ here. Black will probably attack with P3c+ and still looks to have the upper hand, but this seemed to have been white's best fighting chance. 39.P8gx8f 02:06:00 02:02:00 40.L9ex9f 02:06:00 02:02:00 41.L9ix9f 02:06:00 02:02:00 42.B*9h 02:06:00 02:21:00 43.B*5f! 02:43:00 02:21:00 The point of pushing the edge pawn only after white played P7e. This bishop is going to create havoc in the white position. 44.B9hx8i+ 02:43:00 02:28:00 Everything would have been alright if 44.P6e would have worked. Unfortunately for Goda, after 45.G8h Bx7f+ S7g the white bishop dies. 45.L9f-9b+ 02:43:00 02:28:00 46.R8b-6b 02:43:00 02:31:00 47.B5f-8c+ 02:43:00 02:31:00 Not only promotion of the bishop, also the silver on 8d is now just a worthless piece of wood. 48.N*5d 02:43:00 03:12:00 49.+L9bx8a 02:45:00 03:12:00 50.N5dx6f 02:45:00 03:12:00 51.P6gx6f 02:45:00 03:12:00 52.P6d-6e 02:45:00 03:12:00 53.K6h-5i! 03:08:00 03:12:00 "An early escape is worth 8 moves". White has tried hard to set up an attack, but this pretty much kills the effort. Dangerous would have been 53.+Bx8d Px6f +Bx6b Gx6b and white threatens +Bx7h next. 54.P6ex6f 03:08:00 03:13:00 55.L*6e 03:11:00 03:13:00 Wins the rook. Here a quick end of the game was expected, but from here one Goda shows a lot of fighting spirit to hang in there, hoping for a miracle. 56.R6bx6e 03:11:00 03:13:00 57.+B8cx6e 03:11:00 03:13:00 58.P6f-6g+ 03:11:00 03:13:00 59.R*6a 03:22:00 03:13:00 60.S*6b 03:22:00 03:19:00 61.+L8a-8b 03:23:00 03:19:00 62.+B8ix7h 03:23:00 03:21:00 63.+L8b-7b 03:26:00 03:21:00 64.G*7a! 03:26:00 03:22:00 Nice defence. 65.+Lx7a fails to 66.G5a, which wins the rook and gives white hope to turn things around. 65.R6ax2a+! 03:27:00 03:22:00 Sato was taken by surprise by 64.G*7a, but takes only one minute to find the correct reply. Giving up the rook is inevitable, but taking this knight gives black a strong attack with N*6d. 66.G3b-3a 03:27:00 03:22:00 67.+R2ax1a 03:28:00 03:22:00 68.S3c-2b 03:28:00 03:22:00 69.N*6d 03:30:00 03:22:00 70.+B7h-7g 03:30:00 03:29:00 Or 70.Sx1a Nx5b+ Kx5b Rx7h +Px7h N*4d and mate. 71.K5i-4h 03:30:00 03:29:00 With the black king in safe territory, the outcome of the game is clear. 72.S2bx1a 03:30:00 03:29:00 73.N6dx5b+ 03:31:00 03:29:00 74.K4bx5b 03:31:00 03:29:00 75.N*5e 03:31:00 03:29:00 76.+P6gx5g 03:31:00 03:29:00 77.K4h-3i 03:36:00 03:29:00 78.L*5d 03:36:00 03:30:00 79.L*4e 03:38:00 03:30:00 80.N*5a 03:38:00 03:30:00 81.+L7bx7a 03:53:00 03:30:00 82.R*6i 03:53:00 03:43:00 83.G*3c 03:56:00 03:43:00 84.+B7gx5e 03:56:00 03:45:00 85.S4fx5e 03:56:00 03:45:00 86.R6ix6e+ 03:56:00 03:45:00 87.B*6a 03:56:00 03:45:00 Resigns 03:56:00 03:45:00 White loses the rook after 88.K6c B7b+ K7d N*6f, which leaves him without attack and defence. A great game by Sato, who took his opening lead into the endgame and didn't give Goda a single chance to get back into the game. Goda misses his second opportunity to defend his Kisei title as Sato ties the match at 2-2 after being 2-0 down. This must be a real psychological boost for Sato, who should be slightly favoured to win the decisive fifth game. Here is the first game of the Oi match between Habu and Tanigawa. A convincing win for Tanigawa in only 68 moves: Black: Habu Yoshiharu, Oi White: Tanigawa Koji, Challenger 43rd Oi-sen, Game 1, July 12th and 13th 2002 1.P2g-2f 00:01:00 00:00:00 2.P3c-3d 00:01:00 00:08:00 3.P7g-7f 00:02:00 00:08:00 4.P5c-5d 00:02:00 00:13:00 The Kondo-style Gokigen Nakabisha is going through a remarkable revival recently. Five years ago, Kondo Masakazu (5-dan) had great success with it, reaching the quarterfinals of the Ryu-O challenger tournament where it took the likes of Sato Yasumitsu to stop his run. However, after that it seemed like his opponents adapted to this quick attacking system and Kondo's results became less impressive. Five years later, he is still struggling in C2 and has had only anonymous performances in the other tournaments. Still, he stubbornly stuck to his own system (I have never seen him play anything else), which I thought was a waste. Being a predictable, one-dimensional player is definitely a problem in modern professional shogi where opening preparation has become almost as important as in chess. However, last year everything suddenly changed for Kondo. Other professionals started to take a closer look at his system and it now seems more popular even than the Chuza Yokofudori (I have no data to back this up yet). It is not surprising that players like Suzuki and Kubo play this system as they play every ranging rook game with attack in mind. However, the Kondo-style Gokigen Nakabisha has also been played by Meijin Moriuchi and Sato Yasumitsu. Tanigawa joins the crowd in this game and this must have taken Habu completely by surprise as he took 51 minutes for his next move. 5.P2f-2e 00:53:00 00:13:00 6.R8b-5b 00:53:00 00:15:00 7.G4i-5h 00:56:00 00:15:00 The main line these days is 7.G7h. The difference will become clear very soon. We are only 7 moves into the game, but with this extremely sharp move Habu makes clear that he will not back out of an early fight. 8.P5d-5e 00:56:00 01:27:00 After the game Tanigawa admitted that he put most of his homework in the position after G7h. 9.P2e-2d 02:18:00 01:27:00 10.P2cx2d 02:18:00 03:06:00 11.R2hx2d 02:18:00 03:06:00 12.P5e-5f 02:18:00 03:06:00 13.P5gx5f 02:38:00 03:06:00 14.B2bx8h+ 02:38:00 03:16:00 15.S7ix8h 02:39:00 03:16:00 16.B*3c 02:39:00 03:16:00 The difference between 7.G4i-5h and 7.G7h. With the gold on 7h, this would not be a fork on rook and silver. It is difficult to say if G7h is really better than G4i-5h as there are so many sharp variations. However, from this game it seems that black is the side that has to fight to stay in the game, which is not a good sign. 17.R2dx2a+ 02:58:00 03:16:00 18.B3cx8h+ 02:58:00 03:16:00 19.N*5e 02:58:00 03:16:00 20.K5a-6b 02:58:00 03:22:00 21.+R2ax1a 02:58:00 03:22:00 22.+B8hx9i 02:58:00 03:43:00 23.L*6f 04:03:00 03:43:00 The sealed move. It must be very rare that a whole day of play ends with only 23 moves being played. 24.S*5d 04:03:00 03:48:00 25.B*2c? 04:24:00 03:48:00 Better seems 25.P*2b. After 26.L*5c! (a move found by Suzuki Daisuke) B*3f S7b P2a+ Sx5e Px5e Lx5e +Px3a Lx5h+ Gx5h P*5g P*5d Px5h+ Kx5h N*7d white has the advantage, but Habu was not convinced that this was conclusive variation and said after the game that he should have tried 25.P*2b instead of 25.B*2c. 26.G6a-5a 04:24:00 05:09:00 27.B2cx3d+ 04:40:00 05:09:00 28.S3a-4b 04:40:00 05:10:00 29.P*2c 05:35:00 05:10:00 30.K6b-7b 05:35:00 05:50:00 31.P2c-2b+ 05:36:00 05:50:00 32.L*6a! 05:36:00 05:52:00 As Tsukada (9-dan) pointed out, 30.K7b is a move that most professionals would have played. Moving the king away from danger followed by defending the pawn on 6c with S6b next is a natural way to strengthen the position and this position was analysed at length in the press room. To everyone's surprise, Tanigawa played 32.L*6a. This move not only defends 6c, but also aims at the counterattack P6d-P6e. However, dropping this lance in defence takes a lot of courage. The counterattack along the 6th file takes quite a lot of moves and it is far from clear that the white attack will be in time. Tanigawa has all judged it perfectly. 33.P*2d 06:11:00 05:52:00 34.P6c-6d 06:11:00 05:57:00 35.P2d-2c+ 06:16:00 05:57:00 After the game, Habu regretted his confidence in the attack with the two promoted pawns. It looks strong, but it turns out that it is difficult to get two tokins moving towards the white king. 36.P*3a 06:16:00 06:12:00 37.+P2c-3c 07:15:00 06:12:00 38.P6d-6e 07:15:00 06:12:00 39.+P2bx3a? 07:16:00 06:12:00 Better was 39.Lx6e but after 40.Lx6e +Px4c S5dx4c Nx4c+ Sx4c +Bx4c L*6a S*5c P*5g Gx5g Lx6g+ Gx6g Lx6g+ it looks like black's attack isn't strong enough. The promoted bishop on 9i is very powerful and the black promoted rook on 1a isn't working at all. 40.S4bx3a 07:16:00 06:17:00 41.+P3cx4c 07:17:00 06:17:00 42.R5b-6b 07:17:00 06:17:00 43.+P4c-5c 07:21:00 06:17:00 44.R6b-3b 07:21:00 06:19:00 45.+B3d-4d 07:27:00 06:19:00 46.S5dx5e 07:27:00 06:19:00 47.+B4dx5e 07:27:00 06:19:00 48.P6ex6f 07:27:00 06:19:00 49.P6gx6f 07:30:00 06:19:00 50.K7b-8b 07:30:00 06:19:00 This move made Habu lose his will to fight. The white king is too far to set up a decent attack. Tsukada still thought things were far from easy though... 51.+R1a-2a? 07:32:00 06:19:00 According to Tsukada, a better fighting chance was 51.+Rx1c +Bx6f +Bx6f Lx6f P*6g P*5g (Gx5g is then answered by B*3e). White is clearly better but the game is not over as quickly. 52.P*5b 07:32:00 06:42:00 53.+P5c-5d 07:33:00 06:42:00 54.R3b-2b! 07:33:00 06:42:00 Great finish. It is not unlikely that this move took Habu by surprise. 55.+B5ex2b 07:43:00 06:42:00 56.S3ax2b 07:43:00 06:42:00 57.S*3b 07:43:00 06:42:00 Defends against G*3a. Black can't take the silver as 57.+Rx2b fails to 58.+Bx6f. 58.+B9ix6f 07:43:00 06:47:00 59.P*6b 07:45:00 06:47:00 60.+B6fx3i 07:45:00 06:54:00 61.P6bx6a+ 07:45:00 06:54:00 62.S*5g 07:45:00 06:55:00 63.G5hx5g 07:45:00 06:55:00 64.+B3ix5g 07:45:00 06:56:00 65.S*4h 07:51:00 06:56:00 66.+B5g-6g 07:51:00 07:02:00 67.G6i-6h 07:51:00 07:02:00 Or 67.G5h N*6f and white wins. 68.G*4i 07:51:00 07:03:00 Resigns 07:51:00 07:03:00 Not mate, but black is left without defence after 69.K6i L*6f Gx6g Lx6g+. A very important win for Tanigawa for a number of reasons. First of all, winning with white against an opponent he has great problems with is a great start in an attempt to end a title drought of more than a year. Furthermore, this was Tanigawa's 1000th victory as a professional. He is only the 7th player in history to reach this milestone. At 40 years and 3 months he is the youngest player to get 1000 wins (beating Nakahara's previous record of 44 years and 4 months) and he is also the player who took the shortest time from his professional debut with 25 years and 6 months (just beating Nakahara with 26 years and 3 months). After the game Tanigawa was a relieved man, as he lost two games in a row at 999 wins, making life for the anticipating crowd of journalist quite difficult. Of course all the records will be broken by Habu in a couple of years (Habu has now 759 wins), but with having this extra pressure out of the way, Tanigawa can play a little more freely to try and take the Oi title from his nemesis. In other shogi news: ================ * Sato beat Morishita and Fujii beat Moriuchi in the semi-finals of the Oza challenger tournament. Sato had a tough time against Morishita, who seemed to be able to get an entering king, but Sato found a nice move to stop this and win. Surprisingly, Fujii had it much more easy against Moriuchi, who played a questionable opening strategy and never recovered. Sato and Fujii will now play for the right to challenge Habu. * Matsuo's Ryu-O dream continues as he beat Kimura in the challenger finals to set-up a quarterfinal encounter with former Ryu-O Fujii. Kimura seems to have lost a little of his aura of invincibility as he made a mistake in the opening and despite desperate attempts to get back into the game couldn't not turn things around. * In the A class Junisen, Habu recovered from a loss in the opening round against Tanigawa with a win against Sato. With only Miura winning both of his games (and maybe Shima if he beats Maruyama), it seems like this year's Meijin challenger race is going to be a tight one. * In C2 the second round was played. A number of favourites like Tamura, Takano, Chuza and Miyata lost to fall back to 1-1. There are nine undefeated players left: Sato Shinya, Yamasaki, Kondo, Anyoji, Kawakami, Iijima, Kubota, Ueno and Ina. Quite a strong field and I think any of them is capable of going all the way. Still a long way to go of course. -- Reijer Grimbergen Department of Information Science Saga University 1 Honjo-machi, Saga-shi, 840-8502 Japan E-mail: grimbergen fu is saga-u ac jp URL: http://www.fu.is.saga-u.ac.jp/~grimberg/ Tel: +81-(0)952-28-8821 Fax: +81-(0)952-28-8650