From: DANERUD MARTIN TELIA COM> Date: 5 jun 2003 Subject: Close Dear shogi friends, The Swedish Championship play-off almost resulted in a new Swedish Shogi Champion, but once again Thore Angqvist defended the title. On Thursday, May 29, the Challenger Final was played between Christer Hartman and Martin Danerud. Christer has a positive score against most of the Swedish players, however against Martin he had lost four games and won none. In the first game, Christer had black. What had he prepared? Nothing special, it seemed. Just like in the last game of the Swedish Championship tournament, Nakabisha with the pawn at 5e was played. After some exchanges in the centre, Martin´s bishop (at 5e) got the possibility of being exchanged for two generals. There was one possibility to some counterplay for Christer, but when it was not used, Martin´s more active game and Japan influenced shogi technique resulted in 1 to 0 in the best-of-three games Challenger final. At the McDonalds lunch a bird left its signature on Christer´s jacket. Christer saw the humorous aspect of it, and found that the entire world had gathered against him on this day. The second game was also Nakabisha with the pawn at 5e. Christer had now thought of a new variation (the so called "McDonalds variation"), but it also resulted in a bishop on 5e that could be exchanged for two generals. In a similar fashion as in the first game, Christer´s defence around king was torn to pieces, and he lost quickly in the final attack. Christer now has lost six games to me and won none. However, from a neutral point of view, Christer has had the better position in two of the games. His own explanation to his somewhat feeble shogi in the Challenger final was some weeks of day trading at the computer at home. And sure this was a tough fight! I was happy not having to play a third game in the Challenger final. The first Swedish Championship final game, was played on Friday morning with Thore having black. The game followed one of my preparations for the play-off, and that meant two sacrificed pawns and a promoted bishop. It was almost giving a positive result directly, but it was wrong to exchange the promoted bishop, and Thore could play shogi along one line and one diagonal, while I was in fugire. I thought that I had found the decisive attack, but Thore´s king could escape towards my part of the board, and finally there was nothing but desperation. Thore had 1 to 0. In the second final game on Friday afternoon, I played a traditional Nakabisha. Thore was much better in the game after a while with several advanced pawns. In some silly sequence, I moved my only strong piece, a promoted bishop, not less than in four consecutive moves, before it was sacrificed together with a general against a rook and a knight. Thore started a tough defence, which however was worn down by my fierce attack. Finally, Thore had to resign with his king surrounded by enemy pieces. I was satisfied having 1 to 1 after the first day of the final. The third game on Saturday morning was my best game of the final. In a traditional Nakabisha, where Thore attempted a bogin, I opened up some diagonals and lines with a couple of pawn sacrifices. I have had the position before, and it is very simple to play against black´s naked defence. The entire attack was OK all the way to the final attack. Then a bishop should have been dropped threatening a rook and then promoted on a diagonal directed towards Thore´s king. For some unexplicable reason, the bishop was instead dropped directly on the diagonal, and all of a sudden there was a chance to escape for Thore´s king. After that, Thore forced my king close to mate, but using my last forces I got another attack on Thore´s king. Thore escaped again and forced my king closer to death, but once again I counterattacked. After touring the central fields of the board, Thore´s king could once again escape. Finally, I had to drop a gold general in my defence, but I dropped it in the wrong place, and finally Thore could win the game. This long game in 171 shogi moves came to be the key game of the match. On Saturday afternoon, the fourth game was played between two rather tired finalists. Thore surprised me in the opening with an advanced pawn on the sixth line and the rook on the fifth line, together with the generals spread out on the board. Against this, I produced a pretty bad Yagura defence. But Thore did not do very much with his position, so I started to push my pawns on the static rook side. It actually did not result in very much either, but after exchanges of silvers and bishops, Thore threatened to advance with his rook on the third line. I started to drop pieces, partly because I wanted to fill up the third and partly to get some activity. Thore made some consecutive mistakes, and I could bring some action into the position. After some hunting of Thore´s rook and gold general in the centre, I could start the final attack with the right material in hand. Thore´s king was finally caught in a mating net. After four final games we thus had two wins each, and I had succeeded in getting a fifth and deciding game and forcing the match into the month of June. But from a neutral point of view, it was Thore´s match, where I had spent most of the time fighting. I had lost my best game... Probably both players believed strongly in a victory in game five. Thore took advantage of the game being played in the morning, and that the furigoma gave him black in the final game. Thore had won in the mornings with black and lost in the afternoons with white. During the fourth game he really looked worn out. The final games were played with two hours per player and 60 seconds byo-yomi. My advantage was maybe that I had had chances in all the four first games, regardless of the positions after the openings. The fifth game started as expected. We played a traditional Nakabisha again, where Thore arranged his pieces somewhat passively but stable. The game was fairly equal, maybe with some small advantage for me after Thore had moved around his generals in order to be able to exchange a pawn and thus get a pawn in hand. I did not have any real attack either, but I pushed on the second line with a pawn that I thought could not be captured by Thore´s silver general. I "only" had to get a pawn in hand, and then the silver general would be caught. But I had missed a simple knight fork, threatening a gold general and a lance. It turned out so well, so I had to sacrifice a bishop in order to get two knights in hand. I was lucky to also get a lance in hand, and then I could start an attack against Thore´s king at the opposite lance line. It was however easy to understand that Thore´s king would get space to escape. My last mistake was that I did not check the king with a bishop and and capture a tokin, which soon enough consumed an entire gold general. Finally, Thore could drop a knight, which prevented my king from escaping up the board, and then the game was over. Only one expert out of eleven in the Swedish Shogi Federation "guess- the-results" competition had the combination Challenger final: Hartman vs Danerud 0-2 Swedish Championship final: Angqvist vs Danerud 3-2 Per-Olof Bomark was the winner and can now win millions of kronor in a lottery. The play-off was played at the game convention LinCon 2003 at Linkoping together with maybe one thousand game addicted youngsters. Our new secretary, Robert Soderberg, and Jan Rabe gathered a lot of persons around the shogi boards. A lot of shogi sets were sold, and some new members found their way to our community, which enjoys the hardest and finest board game of the world. Finally, it should be stated that Thore Angqvist defended the Championship title, and he deserved to win. His shogi is not active, neither beatiful, nor impressing, but it is efficient, and that is good enough. I fought to the limit to win the title, but I was not good enough. But Do not cry for me, Shogi Europe! I will be back, just like in the shogi games. Next time, we will see each other at the Swedish Team Championship in Norrkoping, June 14-15. After that, I would like to welcome all of you to Sweden and the European Shogi Championship and the Worldwide Open Shogi Championship at Ockero, outside Goteborg. Sincerely yours, Martin Danerud President of the Swedish Shogi Federation and of FESA