From: Takako Noda JA2 SO-NET OR JP> Date: 27 dec 1996 Subject: "QUEST" Masuda's Ishida-ryu (1) Masuda-shiki Ishida Ryu : Ishida-style a la Masuda (To be developed into Tateishi-ryu) Haya-Ishida(rapid-attack Ishida Ryu) was long considered to be one of those trapping tactics which can be quite successful only if the opponent is unprepared. Kozo Masuda, who was popular because of his insatiable zeal for creating new theories in shogi, perfected it into a full- fledged strategy which was eventually accepted among fellow professionals. Thus it was called Masuda-shiki Ishida-ryu. The first diagram shows an early phase of the game played by Masuda(black) and Oyama(white), April 20 & 21, 1971, as the second game of Meijin-sen. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 +--------------------------------------------+ White in hand: | wL | wN | wS | wG | wK | wG | wS | wN | wL | a +------------------+ +--------------------------------------------+ | | | | wR | | | | | | wB | | b | | +--------------------------------------------+ +------------------+ | wP | | wP | wP | wP | wP | | wP | wP | c +-------------------------------------------- | | | | | | | wP | | | d +--------------------------------------------+ | | wP | bP | | | | | | | e +--------------------------------------------+ | | | | | | | | | | f +--------------------------------------------+ | bP | bP | | bP | bP | bP | bP | bP | bP | g +--------------------------------------------+ Black in hand: | | bB | bR | | | bK | | | | h +------------------+ +--------------------------------------------+ | | | bL | bN | bS | bG | | bG | bS | bN | bL | i | | +--------------------------------------------+ +------------------+ Then followed (from white): S-6b, K-3h, P-6d, K-2h, S-6c, S-3h, K-4b, R-7f, Bx8h, Sx8h, S-3b, G-7h, P-4d, N-7g, G6a-5b, B*9f. The last move, B*9f was the fruit of Masuda's midnight oil, and turned out to be a beauty. As a most likely next move by white, a drop of B at 9d would meet a counterattack of Nx8e, which would be followed by Bx8e, R-8f, yielding a promising outlook for the black player. The actual moves they took were:(from white) B*5d, R-4f, P-7d, Rx4d, K-3a, Px7d, Sx7d, P-8f, P-9d, N-8e, P-9e, B-8g... Masuda won this thrilling game of 207 moves, all told, which marked a milestone of this strategy. That it was adopted successfully in the meijin-sen, which was considered to be the most prestigious event, helped to boost its name. Together with its simplicity in form, it has become one of the most popular openings among amateur players since then. Masuda's quest, however, did not end there. His next mission was to prove that this strategy was also valid when playing white. He again took the same strategy in the following game of meijin-sen, in which he had to play white. The whole shogi world got, understandably, quite excited about this. (TO BE CONTINUED)