From: Takako Noda JA2 SO-NET OR JP> Date: 12 jan 1997 Subject: "QUEST" Masuda's Ishida-ryu (6) Masuda's Ishida-ryu: the 6th game (6) 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 +--------------------------------------------+ White in hand: | wL | wN | | | | wG | | wN | wL | a +------------------+ +--------------------------------------------+ | B | | | wR | wG | | | wK | wS | | | b | | +--------------------------------------------+ +------------------+ | wP | | wP | wS | wP | wP | | wP | wP | c +-------------------------------------------- | | | | wP | | | wP | | | d +--------------------------------------------+ | | wP | bP | | | | | | | e +--------------------------------------------+ | | | bR | | | | | | | f +--------------------------------------------+ | bP | bP | | bP | bP | bP | bP | bP | bP | g +--------------------------------------------+ Black in hand: | | bS | bG | | | | bS | bK | | h +------------------+ +--------------------------------------------+ | B | | bL | bN | | | | bG | | bN | bL | i | | +--------------------------------------------+ +------------------+ The diagram above is from the 6th game of the meijin-sen (held on 3 & 4 June, 1971), where Oyama, the White player, just moved his Gold to 7b, a wary positioning. After this, too, Oyama made every effort not to let out any loose ends, from which the furi-bisha side could open hostilities. After the Diagram: (from Black) P-9f, P-9d; S-7g, K-3a; P-1f, P-1d; S-6f, S-3c; S-5e, P-5d; S-4f, G-4b; N-7g, K-3b; P-5f, S-4d; P-2f, G-7a; P-3f, G-6a; The two moves, G-7a and G-6a from above, speak loudly that the player is Oyama. So far, Oyama seems to have effectively blocked Masuda's attack. Then after this: (from Black) P-6f, R-8d, B*6g. The elaborate procedure follows after this, which makes us admire Masuda's talent, but the Bishop drop in his own territory cannot be a very good idea, because in this case, it was only to pry open the deadlock on his part. Even if we can't say which side is leading at this stage, or make a judgement as to the quality of the whole game, it is clear that Masuda's typical dynamism failed to surface in this game. So, this game tells us that Black is likely to walk into a deadlock when White plays very cautiously. Sennichite, or a stalemate, is what Black wouldn't welcome, so gradually, this strategy got less and less popular when playing black. Rather, it got to be a white player's tactic. For your imformation, out of the recent ten thousand-odd professional games, only four were played with this strategy by black players, while 20 were played by white players. I have to add that the White's winning rate was not very good. Next I will present what could be called a model game for a black player against white's Masuda-shiki. It was a final match of the TV Haya-zashi Championship Tournament, played by Yoshiharu Habu and Kenji Waki. I might add that although Masuda used it in Meijin-sen, a very long game, the strategy is now more frequently used in a match like Haya-zashi, because the strategy is better fit for a quick game. Haya-zashi is a very quick game, in which each move has to be made within 30 seconds. (TO BE CONTINUED)