Ryu-O
The Ryu-O challenger tournament is nearing its climax. Last week Habu played Hatakeyama and Miura played Nakahara to join Sato and Tanigawa in the semi-finals. Habu had a very tough game where he fought Hatakeyama's Shikenbisha with the quick attack B6f~N7g followed by L9h and moving the rook behind this lance. Not a new plan, but it was a little frowned upon by the professionals until recently. Habu rushed his attack, giving Hatakeyama a clear advantage. However, Habu kept the position very difficult and in the end Hatakeyama got confused and lost the game.
Miura had it a little easier against Nakahara. They played a very
sharp game that Nakahara had especially prepared. However, Miura's over the board analysis turned out to be better than Nakahara's homework, as he found a move that Nakahara had overlooked. Nakahara soon followed with a bad mistake after which Miura won quickly. The Ryu-O now has a great semi-final line-up with the games Miura-Sato and Tanigawa-Habu (again!). Fujii is not likely to have an easy defence of his title, whoever the challenger may be...
Junisen C2 class
The second round of the survival race in C2 was played last week. 13 of the 44 players remain without a loss. The brilliant Watanabe learned the hard way that even for a Habu type talent there will be some bumps in the road to stardom. Sato Shinya gave him a lesson in professional shogi by winning in only 77 moves. Another lesson in professional shogi was given by Yamamoto, who beat Ono Yaichio in only 52 moves in almost exactly the same way as he had beaten Tamura on July 6th in the Ryu-O challenger tournament. Ono clearly had not seen this game yet, or his prepared counter failed miserably. Yamamoto is in great form so far this season and is one of the 13 players with two wins in C2. The others are Maeda, Masuda, Nozuki, Matsuo, Chuza, Kobayashi Hiroshi, Naganuma, Toyokawa, Takada, Oshima, Anzai and Akutsu (the only rookie to start with two wins).
Happiest man of the day was probably Iijima, who had not won a game since his professional debut in May. He won an up and down game against Takano and must be very relieved.
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