From: Alexei <alexei <at> HAWAII <dot> RR <dot> COM>
Date: 13 feb 2003
Subject: Re: SHOGI-L Digest - 7 Feb 2003 to 13 Feb 2003 (#2003-28)

Hi.  I tried posting earlier, but accidentally sent the message to the
listserve address.

Hello everyone.

I was going to report that Habu won the 4th game of his match with Sato, but
Reijer already got it in.

Sato suprisingly played the 3rd file rook which may have been a questionable
choice for a critical game considering that he is not a natural furibisha
player, and also because the 3rd file rook in particular is a difficult
opening to play.  In the opening phase, Habu achieved a clear advantage with
natural moves and by move 48, Sato's 52g was a tacit admission of sakusen
make.  Soon after, his positional inferiority was emphasized by the fact
that he could not grab the 32 pawn without further deterioration of his
position.  Sato tried sacrificing his rook for some counterplay, but it was
hopeless.  During moves 91-97, Habu aggressively returned the material to
eliminate counterplay while simultaneously wrecking Sato's castle.  His 99.
84n was a nice yose and in the final position, Habu threatens mate with 92p
92k 83g (hats off to the knight sac) 83k 72s etc while his own king is safe.
If Sato tries to defend, it will be itte itte as he requires 2 full moves to
force mate (he would drop a pawn on 97) whereas Habu can keep up his mating
threat with each move.  Unfortunately Sato was never really in the game.

Sincerely,
Alexei