|
Source: Reijer Grimbergen's translated highlights of the week from
the magazine Shukan Shogi, posted to the
Shogi-list.
If you have any interest
in Shogi at all, subscribe at once to the Shogi e-mail list!
You can get information about this at Pieter
Stouten's Shogi pages.
For news about top events,
annotated games and player profiles, there is no better source
in English than Reijer
Grimbergen's site.
HABU GRABS EARLY LEAD IN OSHO TITLE MATCH
THE PROFESSIONAL SHOGI world has finally woken up from its New Year's
slumber, resulting in a Shukan Shogi full of results in important games.
The most important of these is the first game of the Osho title match.
Challenger Sato played well against the feared R8e-Yokofudori, but Habu
again showed his great ability to turn the tables. Here is the game with
comments:
To play through the game in a Java viewer, click here.
Black: Sato Yasumitsu, Challenger
White: Habu Yoshiharu, Osho
49th Osho-sen, Game 1, January 8th and 9th 2000
1.P7g-7f
The first title match game of the year 2000 is an encounter between Habu
(who else?) and Meijin Sato. Sato needs a good start to forget the seven
previous matches he played and lost against Habu. Normally starting with
black would be a good thing, but data of professional games in 1999 showed
a remarkable 51.2% winning percentage for white. In the Yokofudori, the
opening Habu was likely to choose, the winning percentage is even 55.5%.
Sato will not have been too worried about the data. He is known as one
of the few experts in fighting the R8e-Yokofudori variation. Recently he
beat Maruyama twice in a row with black in this opening.
2.P3c-3d
3.P2g-2f
4.P8c-8d
5.P2f-2e
6.P8d-8e
7.G6i-7h
8.G4a-3b
9.P2e-2d
10.P2cx2d
11.R2hx2d
12.P8e-8f
13.P8gx8f
14.R8bx8f
15.R2dx3d
16.B2b-3c
17.R3d-3f
18.S3a-2b
19.P*8g
20.R8f-8e
The R8e-Yokofudori as expected. This is going to be a long theoretical battle.
21.R3f-2f
22.K5a-4a
23.K5i-5h
24.S7a-6b
25.G4i-3h
26.G6a-5a
27.S3i-4h
28.P7c-7d
29.P3g-3f
30.P*2e
31.R2f-2h
32.P*8f
33.P8gx8f
34.R8ex8f
35.S4h-3g
36.R8fx7f
37.P*7g
This strange-looking move that blocks the black bishop, is generally considered
the best black move in this position. Despite the locked-up bishop, this
variation is a main line in this opening.
38.R7f-8f
39.P*8g
40.R8f-8e
41.S3g-4f
42.N8a-7c
43.N2i-3g
44.P9c-9d?!
The sealed move and a change of plan by Habu. He initially wanted to play
44.P5d S6h P5e P7f P7e Rx2e Px7f R2i which seems a perfectly reasonable
way to play this position. Habu somehow did not like it and after long
thought decided to play the edge push instead. This game shows that
44.P5d might have been better after all.
45.S7i-6h
46.P9d-9e
47.P5g-5f
48.P*8f
Having allowed black to play P5f, threatening P5e~Rx2e~N4e next, white has
to act quickly to avoid a bad position.
49.P8gx8f
50.R8ex8f
51.P*8g
52.R8fx5f
53.S6h-5g
54.R5f-5d
55.P*5e
56.R5d-6d
This shows the failure of Habu's plans. This rook will be a continuing problem.
The violent solution would be: 56.Bx5e Sx5e Rx5e P7f, but after both
S*6i Kx6i Rx5g+ B*6f S*5h K7i +Rx6g S*6h and R5d B*5e black has the
advantage.
57.S5g-6f
58.P7d-7e
59.S6fx7e
60.R6d-9d
61.P7g-7f
62.P5c-5d
63.B8h-6f
All black pieces suddenly start to work. The black bishop is very well
positioned here and N7g followed by N6e later is hard to defend against.
64.P5dx5e
65.N8i-7g
66.P5e-5f
67.B6fx3c+
68.N2ax3c
69.B*8c
70.R9d-5d
71.P*5e
72.P5f-5g+
73.K5hx5g
74.R5d-3d
75.K5g-6h
76.R3dx3f
77.B8c-5f+
78.R3f-2f
79.P*2g?!
Here Sato might have missed a chance. After 79.G2g P*3f Gx2f Px3g+ Sx3g
Px2f P*2c S3a P*3d black has a big advantage. For example, N*4d +B4f
N2e Sx2f P*5f K7i B*5g K8i Bx4f+ Px4f P5g+ P3c+ Gx3c R*2a black wins.
However, if white does not retreat with S3a after P*2c in the previous
variation, but takes the pawn with Sx2c instead, things are not very
clear.
80.R2f-3f
81.P5e-5d
82.P*5b
83.R2h-2i?
Too passive. Sato judges that white can do nothing but wait until
his rook is being captured and decides to improve his position. However,
this gives Habu time to strengthen his king position against a future
rook drop as well. Sato should have attacked immediately with 83.S7d
K3a Sx7c+ Sx7c N*4h. After Rx4f +Bx4f S6b R*8a black keeps his advantage.
After 83.R2i, things get complicated again.
84.K4a-3a
85.G3h-4h
86.G5a-4b
87.S7e-7d
88.K3a-2a
89.N7g-6e?
Overlooks the next move.
90.B*9b!
Great move that took Sato completely by surprise. 91.Nx7c+ Sx7c Sx7c+ now
fails to Bx5f and 91.P7e Nx6e Sx6e P*6d also loses. Sato has no choice:
91.S7dx7c+
92.S6bx7c
93.N*2h
94.B9bx6e
95.+B5fx6e
96.R3f-3d
White has saved the rook and the black knight on 2h looks terrible. Still,
the position is not hopeless.
97.N2h-1f?
But now it is. Habu feared 97.B*5f R1d +B6f and the two bishops have awesome
power. For example, Rx5d S5e R1d B8c+ S6d P1f and a white win seems very
far away. It may be that Sato was still disgusted with himself for missing
90.B*9b.
98.S7c-6d
99.+B6e-7d
100.P*3f
The combination of getting the silver into play and this attack on the weak
head of the knight, gives white a winning position.
101.N3g-4e
102.P3f-3g+
103.+B7dx6c
If 103.Sx3g or 103.Gx3g then N4e wins easily, so Sato decides to make the
final position look a little better.
104.+P3gx4h
105.+B6cx6d
106.N*8e
107.K6h-5g
108.P*6c
109.P*3e
110.N3cx4e
111.K5g-5f
112.P6cx6d
113.P3ex3d
114.G*6e
Sato Resigns, Time: 07:59:00 07:57:00
115.Kx4e B*5f K3e N*2c leads to mate. A tough loss for Sato, after winning
the opening. He now needs to win game 2 with white to avoid having a
mountain to climb in the rest of the match.
*****
In other shogi news:
Moriuchi finally managed to become challenger for a title again. Despite
winning all kinds of other tournaments, his first and only title match
appearance has been in the Meijin title four years ago (lost to Habu 4-1).
It is strange that a player of his ability is only making his second
title match appearance. In the Kio he must have been worried that he
would fail again, after Shima beat him to equalise the score in the
challenger race.
However, no worries for Moriuchi in the decisive game.
Moriuchi got a very good position from the opening and that seemed to
kill Shima's fighting spirit. Shima had a chance to make it difficult
for Moriuchi, but he did not seem prepared for such a chance and lost
without a fight. Moriuchi will meet his childhood rival Habu again
in the Kio match that will start on February 12th.
*****
In the Junisen A class three games of round 7 were played. Things are
really interesting at both ends of the table. Maruyama and Moriuchi
will decide the challenger of Sato this year. Maruyama played Tanigawa,
who had a surprisingly bad 2-4 score. Things got even worse, since
Maruyama won and took another step towards his first Meijin challenge.
On the other hand, Tanigawa dropped to 2-5 and amazingly would relegate
to B1 if the Junisen would finish today. Fortunately, there are still
two rounds to play and with games against Shima and Morishita still to
play, Tanigawa should be able to save his A class position.
Another
player surprisingly fighting for his life is Goda. A 2-4 score after
six rounds and a bad Junisen position has made things very difficult.
However, in round 7 he beat Nakahara, who is a main relegation rival.
It was not easy, as Goda was not able to keep his initial advantage and
needed some Nakahara mistakes to finally win this vital game. Nakahara
now has a 2-5 score and needs to win both of his final games to be
sure of staying in the league.
Goda's troubles are also far from over,
and with games against Habu and Maruyama still to play, relegation is
still very much a possibility. Shima also won a vital game against Kato.
Both players now have 3-4 scores and especially Shima has some tough
opposition in Tanigawa and Habu. My predictions: Maruyama will become
challenger, Nakahara and Tanaka will be relegated to B1.
*****
In the eighth round of the C1 Junisen there was a chance of seeing the
first promotion of the year. Suzuki Daisuke had won his first seven matches
and his high position in the class meant that he needed only one more win
to promote to B2. Unfortunately he had to face the very strong Namekata,
who just promoted from C2 last year and still had an outside chance for
promotion himself. Namekata had the early lead, but Suzuki managed to
fight back to an unclear position. However, in the end he made the mistake
of being overly defensive and with that killed his own chances for attack.
Namekata then won easily.
Co-leader Kubo did not make a mistake against
Nakata Isao and is now the only player with 8-0. With two games to play
both Kubo and Suzuki need one win to promote, so they are still pretty
safe. Kubo has two easy opponents in Sakurai and Kodama, but Suzuki still
has to face promotion rival Sato Shuji (6-2) in the final round. He better
beat Nakata Isao in the next round to avoid too much excitement... Other
players with an outside chance to promote are Hatakeyama, Namekata and
Kobayashi at 6-2.
*****
Lifetime Kisei Yonenaga showed why he is given this title for past
achievements in the tournament. He beat Tanaka Kaishu in the B group
of the Kisei leagues to become the second player (after Habu) to
qualify for the quarter-final knock-out.
*****
In the Ladies Meijin a surprising start as challenger Nakai beat
Shimizu in the first game. It looked like a good win for Nakai, who
is looking for her first Meijin title in seven years.
- Reijer Grimbergen
|
