From: Reijer Grimbergen FU IS SAGA-U AC JP> Date: 27 jun 2003 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 999, June 25th 2003) This week in Shukan Shogi the second game of the Kisei match between Sato and Maruyama. Both players are very strong with the black pieces, so Sato's come-back win in the Gokigen Nakabisha could be very big. Here is the game with comments: [Black "Maruyama Tadahisa, Challenger"] [White "Sato Yasumitsu, Kisei"] [Event "74th Kisei-sen, Game 2"] [Date "June 19th 2003"] 1.P7g-7f 00:00:00 00:00:00 2.P3c-3d 00:00:00 00:00:00 3.P2g-2f 00:00:00 00:00:00 4.P5c-5d 00:00:00 00:00:00 5.P2f-2e 00:00:00 00:00:00 6.R8b-5b 00:00:00 00:00:00 Played immediately, so this was Sato's intention. It must have hurt his pride a little as the Nakabisha opening is more or less saying that Sato doesn't think he can beat Maruyama in the Kakugawari opening. Still, this is not the first time he has played this against Maruyama. 7.B8hx2b+ 00:01:00 00:00:00 A Maruyama special. He has good results with this early bishop exchange. 8.S3ax2b 00:01:00 00:00:00 9.S7i-7h! 00:01:00 00:00:00 A very early new idea. In this position 9.K6h or 9.S8h are played most often. 9.S7h is better as it aims at playing a left Mino, which is a very strong castle against the Furibisha, especially with the silver in an awkward position. 10.S2b-3c 00:01:00 00:00:00 11.S3i-4h 00:01:00 00:00:00 12.K5a-6b 00:01:00 00:01:00 13.P4g-4f 00:01:00 00:01:00 14.R5b-2b 00:01:00 00:05:00 15.S4h-4g 00:02:00 00:05:00 16.K6b-7b 00:02:00 00:13:00 17.K5i-6h 00:03:00 00:13:00 18.S7a-6b 00:03:00 00:44:00 19.K6h-7i 00:11:00 00:44:00 20.P7c-7d 00:11:00 00:45:00 21.G4i-5h 00:26:00 00:45:00 22.P6c-6d 00:26:00 00:45:00 23.P6g-6f 00:29:00 00:45:00 24.S6b-6c 00:29:00 00:46:00 25.P3g-3f 00:34:00 00:46:00 26.N8a-7c 00:34:00 00:49:00 27.G5h-6g 00:38:00 00:49:00 28.G6a-6b 00:38:00 00:57:00 29.K7i-8h 00:49:00 00:57:00 30.S3c-4d 00:49:00 01:20:00 31.P5g-5f 01:12:00 01:20:00 32.N2a-3c 01:12:00 01:43:00 33.P9g-9f 01:19:00 01:43:00 34.P9c-9d 01:19:00 01:47:00 35.P8g-8f 02:23:00 01:47:00 36.P8c-8d 02:23:00 02:12:00 37.P1g-1f 02:24:00 02:12:00 38.P1c-1d 02:24:00 02:13:00 39.N8i-7g 02:24:00 02:13:00 40.R2b-2a 02:24:00 02:25:00 41.N2i-3g 02:26:00 02:25:00 42.G4a-4b 02:26:00 02:28:00 43.R2h-2i 02:28:00 02:28:00 Black has won the opening. His position is much more natural than white's. Black's castle is stronger and the silver on 4d combined with the knight on 3c is awkward. Still, it will be hard for black to find a way to attack, so some were already concerned about sennichite. 44.G4b-5b!? 02:28:00 03:06:00 "A blunder?", "Impossible to understand", were the comments here. The general opinion was that Sato has nothing but to invite the sennichite with G4b-3b-4b. Playing for sennichite is not Sato's style, but he may have done it in this position. However, he was worried that while he was switching his gold back and forth, black would first make a silver crown and then play L9h followed by R9i, attacking the weak edge of the king. 44.G5b is in general not a good move, as it leaves a gaping hole on 3b for the black bishop. However, psychologically this may have been the best way to play. When your position is suspect, make it a little more suspect and invite the opponent to attack. Riding the wave of the opponent attack will open new possibilities for you as well. Of course, attacking should not be too easy and this condition is also met here. Black has several options: 45.B*3b, 45.S8g or 45.P4e. 45.P4f-4e? 03:03:00 03:06:00 After 35 minutes, Maruyama chooses the worst of the three. Both 45.B*3b R8a P2d and 45.S8g (aiming at G7h-L9h-R9i followed by the edge attack) P5e G7h Px5f Sx5f B*3h are better than 45.P4e. 46.N3cx4e 03:03:00 03:10:00 Maruyama might have counted on 46.S5c, after which 47.B*3b is better than without the pawn push to 4e (the knight on 3c is now hanging). However, Sato decides to sacrifice material and start a counter attack. 47.N3gx4e 03:03:00 03:10:00 48.S4dx4e 03:03:00 03:10:00 49.N*3g 03:12:00 03:10:00 50.P4c-4d 03:12:00 03:10:00 51.P2e-2d 03:16:00 03:10:00 52.P2cx2d 03:16:00 03:27:00 53.P3f-3e? 03:18:00 03:27:00 Completely underestimates the attacking possibilities of the white position. Maruyama still thinks he has time for a slow move like P3e and push white off the board. Maruyama probably had seen that 53.Nx4e Px4e B*3b looks much more promising than it actually is after R8a Rx2d P9e Px9e P*9h Lx9h P8e and even though this looks like an unclear position, white has the nasty B*1c and the bishop on 3b is hopelessly out of place. 54.N*8c! 03:18:00 03:34:00 This must have been a cold shower for Maruyama. This knight opens up all kinds of attacking possibilities for white. 55.P8f-8e? 03:31:00 03:34:00 This second mistake in a row ruins black's position. Maruyama is hoping to use a knight on 8d to attack, but 55.P8e only weakens his own king. 56.N7cx8e 03:31:00 03:35:00 57.N7gx8e 03:31:00 03:35:00 58.P8dx8e 03:31:00 03:35:00 59.B*3c 03:31:00 03:35:00 60.N*8d 03:31:00 03:39:00 The irony is that white is using 8d as a drop square for the knight. This double knight attack is very strong. 61.B3cx4d+ 03:33:00 03:39:00 62.P*4f 03:33:00 03:39:00 63.N3gx4e 03:33:00 03:39:00 64.P4fx4g+ 03:33:00 03:39:00 65.S*5c 03:33:00 03:39:00 66.P9d-9e 03:33:00 03:44:00 This position is all white's, naturally attacking from both sides. There is no way the black king can survive this onslaught. Black will always be one move late. 67.K8h-8i 03:37:00 03:44:00 68.P9ex9f 03:37:00 03:45:00 69.P*9h 03:37:00 03:45:00 70.R2a-4a 03:37:00 03:51:00 The decider. This forces black to sacrifice a lot of material or forget about attacking. 71.S5cx6b+ 03:38:00 03:51:00 72.G5bx6b 03:38:00 03:51:00 73.+B4dx6b 03:44:00 03:51:00 74.K7bx6b 03:44:00 03:51:00 75.G*5c 03:44:00 03:51:00 76.K6b-7c 03:44:00 03:51:00 77.S7h-7g 03:46:00 03:51:00 Despite the white lead, in the end it all comes down to a nice mate. Black has to defend here, because 77.Rx2d leads to mate after 78.S*8h Kx8h B*9g Px9g Px9g+ K7i B*8h K6h Nx7f Gx7f S*5g K6g N7e Gx7e Bx6f+. A beautiful mate that shows how strong the two white knights are. 78.R4ax4e 03:46:00 03:54:00 79.G*6b 03:48:00 03:54:00 80.S6c-7b 03:48:00 03:54:00 81.R2ix2d 03:48:00 03:54:00 82.S*8g 03:48:00 03:55:00 83.R2d-2b+ 03:48:00 03:55:00 84.B*7h 03:48:00 03:56:00 Resigns 03:48:00 03:56:00 Mate after 85.Gx7h Sx7h+ Kx7h S*8g Kx8g B*6i S*7h N9e K8h G*8g K7i Bx7h+. A disappointing loss for Maruyama, who saw a good position evaporate in just a few moves. Winning with white in a best-of-five match is huge. Now Sato only needs one more game from the next three to defend his Kisei title. On the other end, coming back from 2-0 behind is no exception. Sato did it himself against Goda last year and Maruyama also came back from 0-2 in his Kio match against Habu. Sato can't afford to take things easy. In other shogi news: ==================== * Habu has a shot at another title, as he beat Yashiki in the challenger decider of the Oi tournament. Habu has been quite fortunate this year. Just like in the Meijin, he had to come from behind in the Oi as well. Losing his first league game (against Ogura), he needed to win all his remaining games to win the league and in the game against Yashiki it also looked all over for Habu at a certain point. However, again his magical powers prevailed and he can try to win the Oi title back from Tanigawa. On the other hand, one has to feel sorry for Yashiki. He is always performing his best in the Oi tournament and has won his league four times in the past. However, he has now lost the challenger game against the winner of the other group three times and challenged for the Oi title only once. * The first round of the B2 Junisen class was played. There were no real surprises, as promotion favorites Kimura, Namekata, Sugimoto and Horiguchi all won their first game. Kimura had to work the hardest for this win, as he had a very bad position against Tosa. Horiguchi's win might already be very important, as he beat promotion rival Hatakeyama Mamoru. Hatakeyama's twin brother Naruyuki followed this bad example with a loss against Urano. * In C2 also the first round was played. Not much to say here in a class with 44 players. Again, not many surprises as out of the 15 highest ranked players only 4 lost their first round game. Surprising was maybe only Hashimoto's loss against Masuda and Akutsu's loss against Nakao. The rookies also didn't fare well in this first round. Only Yokoyama won (against Maeda), while Fujikura (against Sasaki), Shimamoto (against Ono, who had just been release from hospital on the evening before the game) and Nishio (against Ito No) all lost their debut game. * Kitajima Tadao is showing that he really likes the Ryu-O tournament. He beat Kamiya to win qualification group 4 and qualify for the challenger tournament for the third time. Earlier he won qualification group 6 (in 1998) and group 5 (in 2001). Quite a remarkable achievement for a 5-dan player. He will not be 5-dan for long, as winning group 4 gives him a 6-dan title on October 1st. More next week (Shukan Shogi issue number 1000!), 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