From: Larry Kaufman <lkaufman <at> COMCAST <dot> NET>
Date: 24 may 2002
Subject: Re: Habu's magical tour in Paris (the simul)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Cheymol" <shogi <at> FREE <dot> FR>
To: <SHOGI-L <at> TECHUNIX <dot> TECHNION <dot> AC <dot> IL>

For interested players, I enclosed my win. I use an idea from an amateur
win vs Makoto Nakahara Meijin : sente exchanges bishops, gets a useful
pawn in hand and switches the rook to the 8th column to attack the king
on the weak side :

[Sente "Eric Cheymol"]
[Gote "Yoshiharu Habu, 4 Crowns"]
[Date "2002/05/22"]
[Site "Paris"]
[Handicap "Rook"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.... P3d 2.P7f P4d 3.P4f G3b 4.S4h S4b 5.S4g P5d 6.S5f S4c 7.P4e Px4e
8.Bx2b+ Gx2b 9.Sx4e P'4d 10.S5f G3b 11.K6h K6b 12.K7h K7b 13.R4h N3c
14.S6h S6b 15.S7g S5c 16.P7e G5b 17.S7f P3e 18.G3h P9d 19.P9f P1d 20.G6h
P1e 21.P8f P4e 22.N7g S54d 23.R4i P5e 24.S4g P2d 25.R8i P6d 26.P8e B'5d
27.R8f G6c 28.P6f P1f 29.Px1f P4f 30.S5h P3f 31.P6e Px6e 32.P'6d {Very
good move, if Sx6e then B5e, K8b, P'6d, S7f and the game is unclear -
Yoshiharu Habu} Gx6d 33.P8d Px8d 34.Rx8d P7d 35.Px7d {The key move -
Yoshiharu Habu} P'8c 36.P7c+ Kx7c 37.B'5a K6c 38.Rx8c+ K5b 39.B8d+ P6f
40.+R8b P'7b 41.+Rx8a Bx7f 42.+Rx7b {Resigns}

     Here is the background on this opening system.  The system beginning
with 7 P4e (instead of the standard 7 R4h, usually met by ...N3c) is a very
old one, known as "quick attack" (but rather misnamed, as it usually leads
to a slow game!), which is sometimes recommended by pros.  However the
specific plan used here, involving R-4h-4i-8i, is known as the "subway rook"
as the rook's movement suggests that it took an underground train.  I don't
know who invented it, but it was played in Tokyo on July 18, 1972, by
Student Meijin Kurokawa (amateur) against Nakahara Makoto Meijin, Kurakawa
winning fairly easily.  The game was nearly identical to Eric's game vs.
Habu up to move 23; the only differences in the position were that the 9th
file pawns were not pushed, the moves P1e and P8f were not played, and white
had chosen ...P2d instead of ...P1d.  Black played P6f (actually he played
it some moves earlier), so as to meet P5e by S6g, which looks better than
having to retreat to 4g as Eric did.  Black then won with an attack on the
8th file, similar to Eric's win.
     This game was shown by Koji (Pro) to George Hodges, who had planned to
run it in his magazine which unfortunately stopped publication.  The pro had
told George that it was a "sure win" system for black.  He sent me the game
two years ago, and I was impressed by the idea.  I never got to use it, as
in recent years I always play pros at bishop, but I showed the idea to Marc
Theeuwen who was visiting D.C.  Although Marc had a terrible record of
countless losses to pros at rook prior to this, he immediately won games
from pros Ishikawa and Kondo with this system.  Ishikawa defended as in the
Nakahara game but kept his right gold at 6a to slide to 7a when needed for
defense, while Kondo chose the setup K5b and G7b (which I think is tougher
for black than the K7b setup), but still the system worked fine for Marc.
Marc later sent the games (or at least the outline of the system) to Eric
for use against Takano, Pro 4 Dan and now against Habu.  So far as I know
the only failure of the system was a loss by George Fernandez against
Yonenaga 9 Dan, but I believe that George did not study the system enough
and did not play it correctly.
     Does all this mean that rook handicap is "busted" or solved?  Not
quite.  It seems to me that once the bishops are exchanged, the game is
indeed pretty difficult for white.  One possible solution: meet 7 P4e by
G5b, avoiding the bishop trade.  Pros rarely do this, because after 8 R4h
they have been "tricked" into playing a defense (G5b) that was not their
intended defense to 7 R4h (namely 7...N7c).  Nevertheless, the G5b defense
is quite playable and theory exists on it.  Still, black can be satisfied
that he has avoided the "best" defense (7...N7c), which experience shows is
quite difficult to defeat.
     All of this and more was going to appear on my handicap series on the
MindSports site, but since that site has not shown any signs of coming back
to life I thought I'd go ahead and tell the story here.

     Larry Kaufman, amateur 5 Dan