From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 28 jul 2000 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 850, July 26th 2000) Habu and Tanigawa are clearly the stars of this summer. They are fighting for both the Oi and the Kisei title and maybe for the Oza title as well (if Tanigawa can beat Fujii in the challenger final). So far this season, Habu is the only one who has been able to stop Tanigawa. All the games that Tanigawa has lost so far have been against Habu. Habu desperately needed another stop in game 4 of the Kisei match or Tanigawa would win the match 3-1 and end Habu's hopes of adding a fifth crown to the titles he is already holding. Habu indeed won the game, but Tanigawa must feel a little unfortunate as he lost the game without a single clear mistake. It seems his opening was a little suspect and that was enough for Habu to win, even though Tanigawa managed to get very close in the end: Black: Tanigawa Koji, Kisei White: Habu Yoshiharu, Challenger 71st Kisei-sen, Game 4, July 18th 2000 1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0 2.P3c-3d 0/0 2/2 3.P2g-2f 2/2 0/2 4.P8c-8d 0/2 1/3 5.P2f-2e 1/3 0/3 6.P8d-8e 0/3 1/4 7.G6i-7h 0/3 0/4 8.G4a-3b 0/3 1/5 9.P2e-2d 1/4 0/5 10.P2cx2d 0/4 0/5 11.R2hx2d 0/4 0/5 12.P8e-8f 0/4 0/5 13.P8gx8f 0/4 0/5 14.R8bx8f 0/4 1/6 15.R2dx3d 1/5 0/6 Habu is not in a position to vary the opening much, as he must win this game to stay in the match. Just like in the third game (which he won), he plays the Yokofudori. 16.B2b-3c 0/5 3/9 17.R3d-3f 8/13 0/9 18.S3a-2b 0/13 2/11 19.G4i-3h 4/17 0/11 20.K5a-4a 0/17 4/15 21.K5i-5h 3/20 0/15 22.S7a-6b 0/20 1/16 23.B8hx3c+ 16/36 0/16 This early bishop exchange is to avoid the popular R8e variation. 24.N2ax3c 0/36 2/18 25.S7i-8h 0/36 0/18 26.R8f-8b 0/36 32/50 27.P*8g 3/39 0/50 28.P5c-5d 0/39 4/54 29.S3i-4h 6/45 0/54 30.G6a-5a 0/45 7/61 31.S8h-7g 26/71 0/61 32.P7c-7d 0/71 11/72 33.P1g-1f 10/81 0/72 34.P5d-5e 0/81 39/111 35.P1f-1e 21/102 0/111 36.R8b-8d 0/102 17/128 Subtle play, as this rook was first pulled back to 8b. A loss of a move, but having the rook here is more important. It is a strange feature of shogi that even though black seems to have played all the natural moves, it is white who comes out of the opening on top. He has a natural attack in N7c~P7e~N6e, while black is stuck for moves. 37.R3f-2f 14/116 0/128 38.N8a-7c 0/116 4/132 39.S7g-6f 42/158 0/132 Tanigawa thought long and hard about 39.P1d, but after the wild variation 40.Px1d P*1b Lx1b B*2a B*4e P4f B3d R2d B2c Rx2c+ Sx2c P*2d R*2b Px2c+ Rx2a +Px3b Kx3b black has lost material and it is also hard to defend on the second file without pawns in hand. 40.P7d-7e 0/158 15/147 41.P7fx7e 1/159 0/147 42.P9c-9d! 0/159 1/148 This simple move requires top level positional judgement. Habu has seen that every move Tanigawa can play will only weaken his position. Forcing his opponent to move increases his advantage. Of course, this pawn also aims for a nasty edge attack. 43.N2i-1g 22/181 0/148 44.P9d-9e 0/181 20/168 45.R2f-2i 7/188 0/168 46.P*2g 0/188 31/199 47.S6fx5e 3/191 0/199 48.P9e-9f 0/191 6/205 49.P9gx9f 0/191 0/205 50.P*8f 0/191 2/207 51.P8gx8f 5/196 0/207 52.R8dx8f 0/196 1/208 53.S5e-6f 1/197 0/208 54.P*9h 0/197 3/211 55.L9ix9h 14/211 0/211 56.B*5d 0/211 2/213 Now the white advantage is clear. Black can no longer defend the right side of the board accurately. 57.S7g R8d does not help black. Tanigawa has made no obvious mistakes so far and the post mortem analysis also did not reveal any clear problem. It seems that there is something wrong with the black opening development. 57.P7e-7d 12/223 0/213 58.B5dx9h+ 0/223 10/223 59.P7dx7c+ 0/223 0/223 60.S6bx7c 0/223 0/223 61.P*8g 0/223 0/223 62.+B9hx8g 0/223 8/231 63.G7h-7g 7/230 0/231 64.+B8gx7g 0/230 4/235 65.S6fx7g 0/230 0/235 66.R8f-8g+ 0/230 0/235 67.S7g-6h 13/243 0/235 68.S7c-6b? 0/243 18/253 A natural looking move, but a mistake that gives black hope. After 68.G*7h instead, white would have won easily. 69.P*7c 4/247 0/253 70.P*7g 0/247 3/256 71.B*6e 2/249 0/256 72.+R8g-8h 0/249 11/267 73.B*9g 2/251 0/267 74.+R8h-8e 0/251 1/268 75.N8ix7g 0/251 0/268 76.+R8ex9f 0/251 0/268 77.P*9h 1/252 0/268 78.P*7f 0/252 4/272 79.P7c-7b+ 2/254 0/272 80.P7fx7g+ 0/254 0/272 81.S6hx7g 0/254 0/272 82.N*8e 0/254 1/273 83.+P7bx6b 17/271 0/273 84.G5ax6b 0/271 0/273 85.N*5d 0/271 0/273 With active use of both bishops, black has chased the dragon out of his position. It is unfortunate for Tanigawa that white can just survive. Here 85.N*2d looks very good, but after 86.L*6d Nx3b+ Kx3b S*3d Lx6e G*4b K2a Rx2g Lx6g+ K4i N*2f defends against the black mate with a mating threat of his own and still wins. 86.G6b-5b 0/271 1/274 87.R2i-8i 5/276 0/274 88.L*6d 0/276 4/278 89.B6e-7d 5/281 0/278 90.+R9fx9g 0/281 6/284 91.P9hx9g 0/281 0/284 92.N8ex7g+ 0/281 0/284 93.S*6a 3/284 0/284 94.G5b-5c! 0/284 8/292 For the past couple of moves, Habu's hand was visibly shaking when he made his moves. However, the pressure was not affecting his endgame power in the least. Here he used only 8 minutes to secure the win by this simple looking move. Hard to see for mere mortals, but this gold defence is actually a mating threat. For example, 95.S7b= +Nx6g K4i +N5h K3i G*2h Gx2h Px2h+ Kx2h P*2g Kx2g P*2f Kx2f B*4d followed by taking the piece that black drops on 3e and advancing the gold on 5c to 4d. 95.K5h-4i 7/291 0/292 This must have been a long 7 minutes for Tanigawa. He has found no way out and turns to defence without any hope of survival. 96.+N7gx6g 0/291 1/293 97.P*6e 4/295 0/293 98.S*2i 0/295 2/295 99.P*2h 2/297 0/295 100.B*1f 0/297 0/295 101.P2hx2g 0/297 0/295 102.P*2f 0/297 0/295 Resigns 0/297 0/295 Time: 04:57:00 04:55:00 The bishop on 1f works very well. Black has no defence and Tanigawa has no option but to resign. The decisive fifth game will now decide whether Habu will get his fifth crown or Tanigawa will become Lifetime Kisei. Unlike the Meijin match, both players might hope that the furigoma will give them the white pieces. All four games in this Kisei match have been won by white so far... In other shogi news: ==================== * The battle for challenging Ryu-O Fujii is also in its final stages. Tanigawa (who else) and Sato Yasumitsu reached the semi-finals with victories over Yashiki and Yonenaga respectively. Sato had a tough battle against Yonenaga and seemed to have a disadvantage for a long time. However, in the endgame he showed that a weak looking castle was actually surprisingly difficult to break down and he won by showing prefect defensive skills. Tanigawa's victory was not a real surprise. Not only is he in great form, he is the worst possible opponent for Yashiki, who has an abysmal 1-8 score against him. Again a quick victory for Tanigawa in only 92 moves where Yashiki had only one chance to make it interesting. Tanigawa will no play the winner of the game between Habu and Hatakeyama, who beat Yamamoto in an up and down game. Another Habu-Tanigawa game coming up? * In the A class the final game of the first round was played between former Meijin Sato and Aono. Aono showed his fighting spirit by playing the game in official kimono. When Sato saw this, he followed Aono's example after the lunch break. Aono seemed to have the better position for most of the game, but Sato made it very difficult for him to find the correct way to attack. Aono then made a mistake and lost quickly. A victory that had probably some psychological aspects, as the post mortem analysis surprisingly failed to come up with a win for Aono. His mistake was probably caused by the idea that he had a good position and he tried too hard to force the win. Sato will be happy to get off to a good start, as history has shown that it is very difficult to challenge for the meijin title immediately after a player has lost it. * In B1 the third round was played and it seems that we are in for a mud fight for promotion this year. After the dust had settled, Miura was the only undefeated player left. Like in last year's Junisen, he again beat Ryu-O Fujii, who dropped to 2-1. It was a very close game that in the end was decided by the right timing to play a check. Fujii failed to see the significance of this and lost. Co-leader Fukuzaki lost against Kamiya after missing an early chance to get a very good position. Goda, the final player without a loss after two games, lost to Minami. No comments on that one in Shukan Shogi, which to me is an indication that Goda played a bad game. Still everything to fight for in this 13 round class. However, Miura already has stated his promotion claim with wins over Kamiya, Nakahara and Fujii. * In B2 things also promise to be very interesting this year. After the second round there are 6 players with two wins, but only Kubo was named as promotion favourite before the season started. Izumi, Hatakeyama, Tsukada, Tanaka Kaishu and Azuma (surprise win over Suzuki Daisuke) are the other undefeated players, but I doubt if any of them is able to keep his winning streak going. This is good news for promotion favourites Fukaura and Abe, who recovered from a loss in the first round with victories over veterans Tamaru and Ishida. Still, they will probably need to win all of their remaining games to have a chance to get to B1 next year. In the third round the game between Fukaura and Suzuki seems to be very interesting. * Yashiki did it again! Being stuck in C1 for ten years, it seemed finally time for him to say goodbye to the piranha pool and move on. However, this year he has also suffered an early setback as he was beaten by Manabe in the second round. The loss was made extra painful by the fact that he was winning for most of the game, but a blunder in the endgame cost him dearly. Of course it is too early to despair, but Yashiki again will have to come from behind. Undefeated players in C1 after two rounds are Awaji, Manabe (both just dropped from B2), Namekata (promotion favourite number one), Hiura (did not play in the first round, so has only one win), Ogura, Nakata Hiroki, Nishimura and Horiguchi Kazushiza. More next week, Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Complex Games Lab Electrotechnical Laboratory 1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305-8568 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp URL: http://www.etl.go.jp/etl/suiron/~grimberg/ Tel: +81-(0)298-61-3316 Fax: +81-(0)298-61-5918