| Quest of the lost systems |
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| Chapter Four: Aigakari |
| Section 2: Tsukata Special |
Tsukata was playing Yoshikatsu Yoshida (then 7-dan, retired now), who
happened to be the very first player to invent the nimble P*2d (in hineri-bisha,
though). The record keeper was again me, who since that day had been fascinated
by Tsukata-sensei and following him.
Moves after the diagram: (from black)
Rx6d, Rx8h+; Rx6b+, Gx6b; Sx8h
Among the countermeasures the Tsukata Special encountered after its debut,
there was P*8f in response to black's P-1e in a game against Hiroji Kato
(now retired), which didn't make Tsukata happy. So, he skipped moving along
the first file in this game, and just shifted his R to 6d. The rest proceeded
like the first game.
Moves afterwards: (from white)
P-3d; R*8c, B*5d; R-8b+, P*2g; G-3i, P-1e;
+Rx9a, Bx8h+; Gx8h, R*7i; S*6i
Yoshida attacked from the first file, but it didn't work. Tsukata won
this game, and was promoted to B-1. The game ended exceptionally early,
at 3 :40 pm. Indeed, I'd never known a Jun-i-sen game that wrapped up earlier
than this in my experience as a record keeper.
The Tsukata Special became a boom, which culminated in Tsukata's establishing
22 consecutive wins, the record of the longest winning streak at the time.
Then, other players like Yonenaga began using this strategy, which accelerated
investigation to find an antidote. The one who finally stood against
the Tsukata Special was Kohji Tanigawa (now Ryu-oh, the highest-prize-money
title, approx. US$300,000).
