From: Reijer Grimbergen FU IS SAGA-U AC JP> Date: 31 oct 2002 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 966, October 30th 2002) In this week's Shukan Shogi the somewhat disappointing start of the Ryu-O match between Habu and Abe. Playing in Taiwan couldn't inspire the players to really go at each other's throat and the first game ended in consecutive sennichite. Here are the games with comments: Black: Habu Yoshiharu, Ryu-O White: Abe Takashi, Challenger 15th Ryu-O sen, Game 1, October 23rd and 24th 2002 1.P7g-7f 00:01:00 00:00:00 2.P3c-3d 00:01:00 00:02:00 3.P2g-2f 00:03:00 00:02:00 4.P5c-5d 00:03:00 00:03:00 A surprise. The Gokigen-Nakabisha is very popular at the moment, but Abe is not known to use it very often. Abe likes to play quick Yagura variations with white and in the Ryu-O challenger final against Nakata he played the R8e-Yokofudori. He has only played the Gokigen-Nakabisha twice: in January against Fukaura and in June against Nakahara. Both games were in quick play tournaments, indicating that Abe believed that the sharp variations of the Gokigen-Nakabisha were more suited for quick games than for games with long thinking time. It seems he changed his mind in the weeks up to his first title match. By choosing this opening he makes clear that he is not willing to wait for Habu to come to him. Everybody sees Habu as the favourite in this match, but Abe will not go down without a fight. 5.P2f-2e 00:21:00 00:03:00 Habu was surprised, too. He took 18 minutes for this move. 6.R8b-5b 00:21:00 00:07:00 7.G6i-7h 00:25:00 00:07:00 8.K5a-6b 00:25:00 00:31:00 9.K5i-6i 00:33:00 00:31:00 10.K6b-7b 00:33:00 00:33:00 11.S3i-4h 00:34:00 00:33:00 12.P5d-5e 00:34:00 01:17:00 13.P2e-2d 00:53:00 01:17:00 14.P2cx2d 00:53:00 01:17:00 15.R2hx2d 00:53:00 01:17:00 16.G4a-3b 00:53:00 01:17:00 17.S7i-6h 01:11:00 01:17:00 18.K7b-8b 01:11:00 02:06:00 19.R2d-2h 01:33:00 02:06:00 20.P*2c 01:33:00 02:07:00 21.P4g-4f 01:35:00 02:07:00 22.P3d-3e 01:35:00 02:13:00 23.S4h-4g 01:57:00 02:13:00 24.S7a-7b 01:57:00 02:23:00 25.P6g-6f 02:46:00 02:23:00 26.R5b-5d 02:46:00 03:05:00 27.G7h-6g 03:15:00 03:05:00 28.S3a-4b 03:15:00 03:45:00 29.P5g-5f 03:56:00 03:45:00 The sealed move and a surprise. 29.K7h was the expected move. Habu wants to play this position more positively. 30.P5ex5f 03:56:00 04:50:00 31.G6gx5f 03:56:00 04:50:00 32.R5d-5a 03:56:00 04:57:00 33.K6i-7h?! 04:25:00 04:57:00 Questionable. Habu regretted playing this move. After the game he said that he should have played 33.G4e, putting pressure on white's major pieces 34.P6c-6d 04:25:00 05:29:00 35.G4i-5h 05:42:00 05:29:00 36.S4b-5c 05:42:00 05:44:00 37.G5h-6g 05:47:00 05:44:00 38.S5c-5d 05:47:00 05:48:00 39.P9g-9f 05:48:00 05:48:00 40.S7b-6c 05:48:00 06:23:00 41.P3g-3f 05:54:00 06:23:00 42.G6a-7b 05:54:00 06:28:00 43.P3fx3e 05:55:00 06:28:00 44.P7c-7d 05:55:00 06:30:00 45.G5f-5g 06:26:00 06:30:00 46.P*5e 06:26:00 06:37:00 47.N8i-7g 06:30:00 06:37:00 Blocks the bishop, but black has no choice. Allowing the pawn exchange P6e would be good for white. 48.N8a-7c 06:30:00 06:41:00 49.P3e-3d 06:35:00 06:41:00 50.P9c-9d 06:35:00 06:46:00 51.N2i-3g 06:44:00 06:46:00 52.P8c-8d 06:44:00 06:56:00 53.R2h-3h 06:51:00 06:56:00 54.G3b-4b 06:51:00 07:05:00 Defending against P3c+ Bx3c N2e. With the gold still on 3b, the bishop can't move in this position. 55.R3h-2h 07:06:00 07:05:00 It seems that black can start the fight here with 55.N2e, but Habu had seen that after 56.B4d P*2b Bx2b P2d Px2d N3c+ Nx3c P*3c white has the strong P*3g!. If black takes this pawn with Rx3g then white can play N2e and if black moves the rook with R2h, then B3a is good for white. Habu decides to acknowledge his strategical mistake on the 33th move and try his luck in a replay with reversed colours. 56.G4b-3b 07:06:00 07:05:00 57.R2h-3h 07:06:00 07:05:00 58.G3b-4b 07:06:00 07:05:00 59.R3h-2h 07:06:00 07:05:00 60.G4b-3b 07:06:00 07:05:00 61.R2h-3h 07:06:00 07:05:00 62.G3b-4b 07:06:00 07:05:00 63.R3h-2h 07:06:00 07:05:00 64.G4b-3b 07:06:00 07:05:00 Sennichite 07:06:00 07:05:00 A small psychological victory for challenger Abe. Habu has not been able to put him under real pressure with black. In other shogi news: ==================== * In B1 Junisen the sixth round was played. Senzaki had taken the lead in round five by beating undefeated Kubo, but played to optimistically against Suzuki and fell back to 4-2. The other two leaders Kubo and Inoue made no mistake and they now lead the promotion race. They are followed by Senzaki, Suzuki and Fukaura. It seems likely that two of these five players will play in the top division next year. * In B2 leader Hatakeyama Nariyuki lost against Kimura, and now all players in this class have at least one loss after five rounds. Nakagawa and Kitahama are back in the lead, but Izumi, Tamaru and the Hatakeyama twins also have 4-1 scores and every chance of promoting to B1. This is going to be a hard one to predict, but it would be kind of interesting if both Hatakeyama brothers would promote to B1 at the same time. * In C2 the sixth round was played. Leaders Iijima, Kubota and Ueno didn't make a mistake and still occupy the promotion spots after winning their first five games. They are followed by Tamaru at 5-1. Chuza, Yamasaki, Akutsu, Watanabe, Kondo, Hashimoto and Kawakami are following with 4-1. * Maruyama is the first player to reach the semi-finals of the Kio challenger tournament. He beat Nakata Hiroki in 129 moves and will now play the winner of the game between Tanaka Torahiko and Iizuka. * In the Osho league Goda recovered from a first round loss against Habu with a victory against Fujii. Fujii showed how tight this year's Osho league might be by bouncing back from two losses with a fine win over Meijin Moriuchi. Only Habu and Morishita are without loss in the league, but they have only played one game so far. More next week, Reijer -- 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