Miura leads in B1
In B1 the fourth round was played. After three rounds, Miura was the
only
undefeated player and he extended this perfect record with a quick
win
over
Nakamura. The question then was who would be able to stay close to
keep
up
the pressure.
The biggest game of the round was the game between Goda
and
Ryu-O Fujii. Both players had 2-1 scores and needed to win to stay
close
to
the lead.
Goda met Fujii's Shikenbisha with a slow build up, taking
the
time
to make a Silver Crown castle. The game looked to end in sennichite
for
a
while, but Goda did not want to give up the advantage of playing
black
and
opened the game. This might not have been wise, as it was Fujii who
benefited
most and won the game with some fine defensive endgame play.
Fujii
was
joined in second place by Inoue and Fukuzaki. Inoue showed that he
understands
the subtleties of the R8e Yokofudori better than Kamiya, who
completely
misjudged the strength of his own attack (much weaker than he
thought)
and
the attack of Inoue (much stronger than he thought). Fukuzaki's win
over
Nakahara can be called an upset, but Shukan Shogi does not spend a
single
sentence on this game. So, relegation from the A class seems to have
a
large
psychological impact, as both Goda at 2-2 and Nakahara at 1-2 have a
bad
start in their effort to get back to the top class in one year. The
situation
is not hopeless, as there are 12 rounds to play in B1, but they have
a
lot
of work to do to catch up with the leaders.
B2 remains unclear
In B2 the third round was played and the situation about promotion to
B1
is
already very unclear. Promotion favourite number 1 Fukaura lost his
second
game against Suzuki Daisuke and is already in big trouble. After
three
rounds, Hatakeyama Nariyuki, Tsukada, Azuma and Kubo kept their
perfect
record. Former A class player Tsukada might finally put an end to his
free
fall down the Junisen ranks (he is only 35) and both Hatakeyama (31)
and
Kubo (24) are strong players, but the name of Azuma among the leaders
is
a complete surprise. 45-year old Azuma is playing to get rid of his
relegation
marker and only needs three wins from the remaining seven games to do
so.
However, while he is at it, he might as well go for promotion! Still
a
long
way to go and his next game against co-leader Tsukada might tell us
more.
Anyway, the leaders can not take it easy as they are followed by Abe,
Nakagawa, Izumi, Kitahama, Tanaka Kaishu and Suzuki Daisuke. Except
perhaps for Tanaka, all seem strong enough to play a role in the
promotion
race.
Amateur beats 9-dan!
Last week a small piece of shogi history was being made. Ouchi had
the
dubious honour of becoming the first 9-dan beaten by an amateur in a
regular tournament game. Yamada Atsumoto, the Asahi amateur meijin,
beat
Ouchi in the second round of the 19th Zen Nihon Pro tournament, after
he
had already beaten Nakao in the first round. Ouchi looked to be in
control
for most of the game, but a hidden combination that was missed by
both
Ouchi and the players in the press room forced Ouchi to change his
plans
where he thought he could win easily with a bishop sacrifice. Yamada
had
seen it all and was very cool in the endgame, deciding the game by
building
a rock hard defence. This is typical for strong amateur play, as the
time limits in amateur tournaments do not allow for carefully reading
out all
the variations to a win, as professionals are used to do. In some
cases
this
will give the opponent a chance to get back in the game, but not in
this
case.
Yamada will now face an even tougher challenge in the third round, as
he
will
meet Yashiki next.
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