Tanigawa alone atop Junisen A
Without playing, Tanigawa got the sole lead in the A class Junisen.
Sato Yasumitsu played Morishita to join Tanigawa at 5-1, but he could
not get anything going. Sato played Yodofurisbishi, just like in the
previous round against Habu. That game he won very convincingly, but
this time it was a different story.
Morishita played the middle game
very well and with Sato's dicey position he could not afford a single
mistake. This mistake still came and after that it was all Morishita,
who now got back to 3-3, so his position in next year's top class
is almost assured.
Habu managed to catch up with Sato at 4-2 with a victory over Senzaki.
Habu has the edge in this game for a long time, but almost got caught
by a brilliant bishop sacrifice by his opponent. He was lucky in that
it just was not good enough to turn the tables, but the move must have
shaken him a little. In the end Senzaki's move will not end up in the
history books, but just be a "nice try".
Senzaki now drops to 2-4
and finds himself at the bottom of the league after three consecutive
losses. I think he needs at least two wins from the final three to
save his place in the A class. Especially the next game against Kato
is going to be vital.
Horiguchi, Namekata still lead Junisen C
In the C1 Junisen class the 8th round was played. It seems that
things are finally getting a little clearer in this class, as leaders
Namekata and Horiguchi Kazushiza both won to stay ahead of everyone
else with 6-1.
Both still can not drop a game, Horiguchi just
promoted from C2 and is at the bottom of the league. Namekata still
has Sato Shuji to worry about, who is 5-2 and has a higher Junisen
ranking.
Other players still in with a promotion chance are Nakata
Hiroki (6-2), Ouchi (5-2), Nishimura (5-2), Sugimoto (5-2) and
Katsumata (5-2).
In the next round Namekata plays Katsumata and
Horiguchi plays Ouchi and this might make things even clearer.
I think both leaders are more than capable of winning their remaining
games, so my guess is that the other will have to try next year.
Battle for Osho league spots
In the Osho league the challenger of Habu was already decided
a couple of weeks ago, but the fight for a place in next year's
league was still wide open.
Nakahara and Maruyama played to stay in the league and it was a little surprising that Nakahara won the game. He played very confidently throughout the game and got a good position. However, in the end Maruyama got some good chances to get back in the game, but he seemed to have already resigned
himself to losing, so he missed his chance.
Kubo showed how talented he is by beating Morishita in the final game to get a place in next year's finals. Victories over Maruyama, Sato, Goda and Morishita
indicate that Kubo might be challenging for a title in the not too
distant future.
The final place in next year's Osho league was for
Sato Yasumitsu, who just managed to squeeze in with a win over Goda.
Fujii fighting for Kisei quarterfinal
Still some good news for Fujii despite his losses in the Ryu-O.
He beat Hatakeyama Nariyuki in the Kisei league and now only needs
one more win from two games to get to the quarter finals.
He was lucky to win, as Hatakeyama refused to give up after getting behind
in the game early on. In the end Fujii needed a blunder by his
opponent to win the game. Hatakeyama let himself be mated where there
was still an escape that would have won the game.
Moriuchi's revenge
Moriuchi won the JT Series with a victory in 184 moves over Tanigawa.
The JT Series is an invitational tournament for the best 12 professionals
and is played all over Japan in front of large audiences. Tanigawa
more or less owns this tournament, as he has already won it five times
before.
However, the last time was already three years ago when he
beat Moriuchi in the final. This year was different, as Moriuchi won
a very exciting game to get his first JT Series victory.
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