From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 15 may 1997 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 686, May 14th 1997) Black: Tanigawa Koji, Ryu-O White: Habu Yoshiharu, Meijin 55th Meijin-sen, Game 3, May 7th & 8th 1997 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P8c-8d 0/0 2/2 3.G6i-7h 6/6 0/2 4.G4a-3b 0/6 10/12 5.S7i-6h 23/29 0/12 6.P3c-3d 0/29 3/15 7.B8h-7g 1/30 0/15 8.P8d-8e 0/30 30/45 9.S3i-3h 10/40 0/45 10.S7a-7b 0/40 8/53 11.P2g-2f 18/58 0/53 12.B2bx7g+ 0/58 28/81 13.S6hx7g 0/58 0/81 14.S3a-4b 0/58 0/81 15.P1g-1f 5/63 0/81 16.P1c-1d 0/63 7/88 17.P9g-9f 9/72 0/88 18.S4b-3c 0/72 50/138 19.P4g-4f 10/82 0/138 20.S7b-8c 0/82 13/151 21.S3h-4g 33/115 0/151 22.S8c-8d 0/115 1/152 23.P6g-6f 2/117 0/152 24.P9c-9d 0/117 4/156 25.G4i-5h 35/152 0/156 Instead of this move, 25.R6h is also possible, but Tanigawa wants to keep the options about his future king position open. The king can now still move to either 4h or 6h. 26.K5a-4b 0/152 128/284 The sealed move. Like the other games, this game is developing at a very slow pace. Habu was contemplating 26.P9e Px9e Sx9e Lx9e Lx9e P*9g P*9h S8h S4d to use also the left silver in attack. However, he did not like his position after P3f S5e B*7g! with the double threat of taking the lance on 9e and attacking the silver with P6e. 27.P3g-3f 18/170 0/284 28.G6a-5b 0/170 4/288 29.N2i-3g 36/206 0/288 30.P7c-7d 0/206 6/294 31.P2f-2e 31/237 0/294 32.P7d-7e 0/237 14/308 33.K5i-6h 18/255 0/308 34.P6c-6d 0/255 10/318 35.S4g-5f 49/304 0/318 36.K4b-3a? 0/304 24/342 Natural but questionable move. Habu's idea is to counter the natural attack 37.P3e with P4d P4e P3e Px4d Px3f. He did not like 37.P4d because of P4e and 37.B*5d because of S6g. In both cases it is difficult for white to attack. However, Habu overlooks that Tanigawa can play the attack differently. 37.N3g-4e! 19/323 0/342 Strange looking, but very difficult to defend against. 38.S3c-4d 0/323 31/373 One would like to play 38.S4b to attack the knight with P4d next, but after 38.S4b black can play P2d Px2d B*5e B*4d Rx2d P*2c Rx3d and white is in trouble. 39.P2e-2d 0/323 0/373 40.P2cx2d 0/323 0/373 41.R2hx2d 0/323 0/373 42.P*2c 0/323 0/373 43.R2d-2i 0/323 0/373 44.B*3h?! 0/323 7/380 This move backfires, but there does not seem to be anything else. 45.R2i-2e! 16/339 0/380 Not to the more natural square 2f. This rook now also works on the left side of the board and makes P3e possible. The immediate threat is P3e Px3e P1e Px1e P*1c Lx1c P*2d Px2d Rx2d P*2c R3d and black's attack is quicker. 46.P7ex7f 0/339 11/391 47.S7gx7f 1/340 0/391 48.B3h-4i+ 0/340 0/391 This still does not look so bad, does it? 49.S5f-4g! 7/347 0/391 But now it does! Black threatens to win the horse by R2i and there is only one defence. 50.+B4i-3i 0/347 5/396 Very painful. This horse is forced away from the enemy king. This basically decides the game. 51.P1f-1e 23/370 0/396 52.P1dx1e 0/370 3/399 53.P3f-3e 7/377 0/399 54.P8e-8f 0/377 36/435 55.P3ex3d! 24/401 0/435 Another great Tanigawa move. He does not lose time with defending against moves that are not threatening. He rightly judges that his own attack is stronger. 56.P*3f! 0/401 31/466 Subtle counter. If 56.S7e at once, then Sx7e Px8g+ P*8c +Px7h Kx7h R7b P*7c Rx7c P*7d R8c P*8d R8b S*3c and black wins. The difference with the game is that the silver on 4g is still defending the gold on 5h, so that +B4i is not threatening to take the gold. 57.S4gx3f 4/405 0/466 58.S8d-7e 0/405 33/499 Desperate move. 59.P3d-3c+! 41/446 0/499 I assume that Tanigawa has read the game until the end from here. 60.N2ax3c 0/446 3/502 61.N4ex3c+ 0/446 0/502 62.S7ex7f 0/446 0/502 63.+N3cx3b 6/452 0/502 64.K3ax3b 0/452 0/502 65.P*3c 0/452 0/502 66.S4dx3c 0/452 6/508 Habu has already given up the game. He could have extended his suffering by playing 66.Kx3c. After that black wins by playing 67.N*7d R7b (if Px8g+ then simple Nx8b+) P*3d K3b S3e Rx7d Rx2c+ K4a B*6c. 67.R2ex2c+ 13/465 0/508 68.K3bx2c 0/465 1/509 69.B*4a 0/465 0/509 Resigns 0/465 1/510 Time: 07:45:00 08:30:00 For us mere mortals it would have been nice if a couple of more moves had been added. Tanigawa does not have a mate, but calculated that he has a hisshi while Habu has no mate. Habu took a minute to check that and resigned. After the next (forced) variation that would have been more clear: 70.P*3b N*3e K3d G*4e K2d P*2e K1c Bx3b+ S*6g G7hx6g Sx6g+ Kx6g N*7e K5f and white has no mate. In other Shogi news: 1) Sensaki beat Maruyama in the second group of the Ryu-O to get his ticket for the challenger knock-out tournament. Namekata beat Awaji in group 3 and also qualifies. 2) In the red group of the Oi tournament Sato Yasumitsu beat Okazaki to get his fourth win in four games. However, both Nakamura and Fujii are 2-1, so this is not over yet, but with only one more game to play in the group, Sato will have two chances to win the red group. It seems almost certain that he will meet the winner of the white group to decide the challenger of Habu. 3) Kobayashi Hiroshi, just promoted to 4-dan, won his debut game as a pro. Opponent Aoki was full of praise: "I did not think he would be that strong". Also in Shukan Shogi a big article about the American Championships. Unfortunately I have no time to read it thoroughly this week. Sorry for the American players who are desperate to know if their names are mentioned :-). More next week, Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Electrotechnical Laboratory Palcious Tsukuba 302 1-1-4 Umezono 1-24-8 Ninomiya Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305 JAPAN 305 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp Tel: 0298-59-1606 WWW: http://www.etl.go.jp:8080/etl/suiron/~grimberg Tel: +81-(0)298-54-5080 extension: 67431 Fax: +81-(0)298-58-5918