Final round in Oi leagues
In the Oi leagues the final round was played. In the white group there were four players still with a chance to win the group. Yashiki and Morishita both had 3-1 scores and had the chances in their own hands. Namekata and Fukaura both were 2-2 and could only hope to creep in if both leaders would make a mistake. Namekata and Fukaura played each other and that turned into a tremendous fight that was won by Fukaura in 195 moves.
However, it was all for nothing as Yashiki beat Suzuki in a game that looked better for Suzuki for a long time, but was actually difficult for both players all the way through. Suzuki overlooked a nice counter by Yashiki until it was too late and lost after being forced to change his plans. Yashiki then had to wait for the result of the game between Morishita and Inoue to know if he would have to play a play-off game against Morishita. This proved unnecessary, as Inoue played very well in a reversed R8e Yokofudori. Morishita overlooked a strong Inoue attack in the early middle game. He fought back hard, but Inoue did not give him a chance to get back in the game.
In the red group the situation was much clearer as leaders Tanigawa and Goda played each other in the final game. Goda seemed to have the edge as he managed to promote the bishop early on, but he overlooked a nasty Tanigawa counter drop. He was so surprised that instead of picking the reply that would lead to an even position, he picked the one that gave Tanigawa a big advantage. Goda also tried to fight back hard, but he was always one move late and Tanigawa won. By the way, there was a strange incident in this group as Nakata Isao lost his game to Minami by default. He was under the impression that the game was played in Tokyo, while actually it was played in Osaka. When he found out he had made a mistake, he had no time to get to the playing venue in time. Not very smart, but the game result did not really matter as both players drop out of the Oi league.
On June 19th, the challenger game in the Oi league will be played
between Tanigawa and Yashiki, just like last year. Can Yashiki get past Tanigawa this time?
Sato meets Fujii in Oza semifinals
In the Oza tournament, Sato reached the semi-finals with a win over Kato Hifumi. Sato was in trouble for a long time, but managed to turn the tables and win. However, it took a little more effort than was really necessary, as Sato overlooked a forced mate at one point. When the mate was pointed out to him after the game, he was very surprised as he had not been looking for one at all in that specific position. Still, it did not change the result and Sato will now play Fujii next.
New Junisen season started
Even though the Meijin match is still far from finished, the new
Junisen season has started with one game in the A class and the first round in B1.
In the A class Senzaki had not much fun in his first ever game in the top class. Moriuchi had a small lead after the opening, but a small mistake seemed to turn it into a very interesting game. However, Senzaki immediately blundered away a silver and never got another chance to make something of it. Good start for Moriuchi, who was very close to a Meijin challenge in
the past two seasons, losing a play-off with Tanigawa and just missing a play-off with Maruyama by losing his final game this year. Maybe his third attempt will succeed.
B1 promises to be very interesting with Goda, Nakahara, Inoue, Fujii and Miura all in the race for only two promotion spots. Goda seemed to have an easy start as he got an overwhelming position against Kobayashi very early in the game. However, he got confused in all the variations that looked very good and squandered the lead, giving Kobayashi every chance to win. But Kobayashi also failed to capitalize and after a long struggle Goda finally managed to win. This must be a great relief for him, as his form has been up and down recently and he can not afford to drop many games if he wants to return to the A class.
Miura also seemed to have some problems in his B1 debut against Kamiya. In a very slow Yokofudori game (at the dinner break only 42 moves had been played), Kamiya seemed to have a good position, but an error in a tactical exchange cost Kamiya material and the game. Ryu-O Fujii also won his first game in B1 against Kiriyama. This was a very controlled win as he was trying to strangle Kiriyama slowly. Kiriyama decided to go out with a bang by sacrificing a silver. This might have given him a little more chances if he had chosen a slightly different follow-up to this. As he played, Fujii could defend strongly and was never in trouble. Nakahara showed in his game against Minami that he has not lost anything of his ambition despite falling from the top class for the first time in his brilliant career. He quickly disposed of Minami in a game that finished already at 20:44, which is quite early for a Junisen game at this level.
Inoue also won (against Takahashi), so all the favourites started with a win. The final game was between Fukuzaki and Nakamura, which was won by Fukuzaki. This was a little surprising, as Fukuzaki had a very bad Junisen run last season. He probably realises that he needs to get into safe territory quickly with so many strong players in B1 this year. The fight against relegation will also be very interesting this year.
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