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Source: Reijer Grimbergen's translated highlights of the week from
the magazine Shukan Shogi, posted to the
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SOMETIMES EVERYTHING IS NOT ENOUGH
This week in Shukan Shogi the fifth and final game of the final title match of this millennium. Challenger Suzuki got everything he wanted with a clear advantage in a wild position. However, he could not convert this into a necessary win to stay alive in the match. If your speciality is not good enough, I guess you can not expect to win a major title. Here is the (short) game with comments (also available at Reijer's.)
To play through the game in a Java viewer, click here.
Black: Suzuki Daisuke, Challenger
White: Fujii Takeshi, Ryu-O
12th Ryu-O sen, Game 5, November 25th and 26th 1999
1.P7g-7f 2.P3c-3d 3.P1g-1f 4.P8c-8d 5.P5g-5f 6.P8d-8e 7.R2h-5h 8.G6a-5b 9.P5f-5e
Suzuki likes the wild variations of the Gokigen Nakabisha. He also played
this opening in game 2, with disastrous results. However, in this game he
is black, which has given him an extra move. This move, 3.P1f, will make
an important difference.
10.P8e-8f?!
Like in game 2, Fujii takes up the challenge. With white this might be not
such a good idea...
11.P8gx8f 12.R8bx8f 13.P5e-5d!
The sharpest possible variation. In game 2 Suzuki had to defend here and
lost without a chance.
14.P5cx5d 15.B8hx2b+ 16.S3ax2b 17.B*7g 18.R8fx8i+ 19.B7gx2b+ 20.N*5e 21.K5i-4h 22.+R8ix9i 23.+B2bx2a 24.N5ex6g+ 25.R5hx5d
This move ended the first day. Only 25 moves have been played, but what
excitement! It is very rare for a title match game to have the board on
fire after so few moves. Violent as it may be, the moves above are
all more or less forced.
26.P*5c
After long thought. 26.L*5c is very tempting here. White seems to win after
27.R8d B*6f and 27.Rx3d +N5g K3h +Nx4g K2h B*6g. However, black also has
27.Rx5c+! Gx5c N*4e B*5g K3h Bx7i+ Nx5c+ +Bx6i +Bx4c.
If the black edge
pawn were on 1g, then white would have mate after +Bx4g K2h G*3h. Since
black has an extra escape on 1g, it is black who wins in this variation
instead of white. This is the reason why Fujii's 10.P8f is suspect.
27.R5d-5f?
Suzuki finally has the edge after the opening, but he almost immediately
throws away his advantage. 27.R5i was the right move. White then has to
play the same variation as in the game with 28.B*6f K3h L*7g, but there
is a big difference between having a bishop and having a horse on 6f.
28.B*8h 29.R5f-5i 30.B8h-6f+ 31.K4h-3h 32.L*7g 33.S*8h
In his calculations, Suzuki had counted on the power of 33.P*5d. Here he
saw that white can ignore this and play 34.Lx7i+ Px5c+ +R9h P*6h +Lx6i
and black loses the semeai. After 33.S*8h white has the advantage; he is
the only one to attack.
34.+R9i-9h 35.P*6h 36.L7gx7i+ 37.S8hx7i 38.P*8g 39.P*8i?
Another mistake. 39.L*5e was the right move. If then 40.S6b or 40.S*6d then
+Bx1a brings the black horse back into play. (Black does not have to fear
P8h+ Px6g +Px7i R5h!).
40.S*3b
Wins the horse.
41.+B2ax3b 42.G4ax3b 43.S*4h?
The losing move. 43.L*8f was the last chance to make a fight of it. Then
44.P8h+ Px8h P*8b Px6g is still difficult for white.
44.+N6g-7g
Suzuki thought that having forced this promoted knight away from the king
was a big plus. A serious error of judgement.
45.N*4e 46.S7a-6b 47.L*5e 48.G3b-4b 49.L5ex5c+?
This wild sacrifice just quickens the end. 49.S*3a is the last chance to give
white some problems.
50.S6bx5c 51.N4ex5c+ 52.G5bx5c 53.S4h-5g 54.+B6f-8d 55.S5g-4h 56.L*2d 57.P3g-3f 58.P*5d 59.N2i-3g 60.P4c-4d 61.P2g-2f 62.L2dx2f 63.P*2g 64.P3d-3e 65.S*2e 66.P3ex3f 67.S2ex3f 68.N*2d 69.R5i-5f 70.P8g-8h+ 71.P8ix8h 72.+N7gx8h
Resigns
Time: 07:24:00 07:41:00
A little early to resign, but black's position is hopeless. White threatens to win the silver on 3f with +Nx7i Gx7i S*5e. Defending against this with 73.S2e fails to P*3f while 73.S*2e ends all black hopes of an attack.
His first title match appearance has becoming a painful experience for Suzuki. He was outplayed in the opening in all games except game 5. In that game he got exactly the position he wanted, but consecutive errors in a type of position that was supposed to be his speciality lead to a quick disaster. Fujii must be very happy with his dominance in this match. He is the Ryu-O titleholder for at least another year.
Other shogi news:
A shocking defeat for Habu in his fifth round game in the A class JUNISEN against Kato. Kato was playing very slowly and had only 10 minutes left when the middle game fighting started. Despite the big difference in time he managed to find the right way to play the semeai and he had the lead in the game for a long time.
However, in the endgame Habu seemed to have turned it around and when a mate was found in the press room Kato was expected to resign. A big surprise when Habu then did not play the mate and had to resign a couple of moves later. Despite having six minutes left Habu had not seen the mate (nor had Kato).
This painful loss ends Habu's hopes of challenging for the Meijin title. Both players are now 2-3 and will fight against relegation the rest of the way.
They are in good company, since no less than 6 players (out of 10) in the A class have a 2-3 score after five rounds. Only Nakahara is in a worse position with 1-4, while Tanaka has a little breathing space at 3-2.
The Challenger this year will be either Maruyama (5-0) or Moriuchi (4-1).
In C2 both leaders Iizuka and Sugimoto extended their perfect record to 6-0. Both were extremely lucky.
Iizuka could have been mated by Ono Yaichio, but in byoyomi Ono missed the long mating sequence.
Sugimoto was in dire straits as well in his game against Hirafuji. His king was in hisshi and he started a desperate checking sequence for which he did not know the outcome. With both players in byoyomi Hirafuji missed the only way to get out of the mating net and was mated in more than 30 moves.
Since luck plays a major role in promotion from a class as big as C2, one has to think that Sugimoto and Iizuka will make it this year. They were helped by losses by rivals Kobayashi (against Masuda), Matsuo (who did not think Kitajima had a mate, but there really was one) and Kondo (who should have beaten Nozuki but was mesmerised by a mate that involved a check that would put his own king in check).
Sugimoto and Iizuka now need only a 3-1 score to be certain of promotion. The third promotion spot looks like a race between Horiguchi, Nozuki (both with 5-1) and Kobayashi (5-2). There are 13 players with 4-2, but it is almost impossible that one of this group will promote.
*****
In the KIO CHALLENGER tournament the two semi-finals were played. Moriuchi beat Fujii in what was basically an opening battle. He had found a new way to fight the Fujii system and this resulted in an overwhelming position when Fujii decided to force things instead of waiting patiently with a slightly cramped position. Despite desperate efforts by Fujii to turn things around, Moriuchi comfortably won the game.
A surprise in the second semi-final where Shima beat Meijin Sato. Sato got a good position from the opening but in the endgame things started to go wrong in byoyomi. In the end Sato seemed to throw the towel a little too quickly, as Hiura showed a good endgame sequence that might have saved the day at a point where Sato had already given up on the game.
Both Fujii and Sato will get a second chance because of the Kio tournament system, but both need four consecutive wins now to become challenger of Habu.
*****
In the OSHO LEAGUE things are really tightening up after Maruyama beat Kubo and Goda lost to Tanigawa. Morishita, Maruyama and Sato all now have only one loss, but Sato has the advantage of having three wins, while Maruyama and Morishita play in the next round to see who will join Sato in the lead. Goda at 2-2 seems to have only a theoretical chance to become challenger.
- Reijer Grimbergen
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Shogi News Round-up