A Class Junisen started
Habu and Tanigawa did not waste much time to play their 101st game against each other as they met in the first round of the A class Junisen. There was a lot of politeness before the game as Habu let Tanigawa have the higher seat, the seat for the senior player. In return, Tanigawa gave Habu the king without the dot which is the king for the senior player. After this, the politeness was over as it was gloves off in a violent game where both players missed winning opportunities. The final opportunity was missed by Tanigawa, who thought he was losing and did not look deep enough for an attack that would have won him the game. So Habu had a good start in the Junisen for the first time in years and is of course a strong favourite to challenge for the title next year.
Shima has been fighting against relegation from the top class for years, last year barely hanging in there. He must be looking for a little less stress this year and therefore wanted a good start against Morishita. The two had played Yagura for their last seven encounters in the Junisen, but for the first time in eight years, Shima changed the opening to a N3c Yokofudori. He might have
regretted this, as he seemed to make a mistake very early in the middle game.
He spent more than two hours on one move, even contemplating
resignation. He decided to toughen it out and for a long time the game looked like an easy victory for Morishita. However, in the endgame Morishita lost his way a little and let Shima back in. Shima, probably tired from defending a hopeless position for such a long time, wasted the opportunity and lost quickly after that.
Junisen class C1
In C1 also the first round was played. There were almost no surprises. Promotion favourite Namekata beat Okazaki, who started his Junisen campaign with a loss for the third straight year. Horiguchi was the only rookie in the class who won with a victory over Murooka. Horiguchi had a strong attack where he chased Murooka's king from 5i to 8i, but when Murooka managed to
strengthen his king position and get an attack of his own, it seemed like Horiguchi was in trouble. However, Horiguchi showed his potential by showing that Murooka's king was not as safe as it looked and his king was not as dangerous as it looked.
The most surprising thing was probably that Yashiki won. Despite being a former title holder, he has had a losing start in the Junisen for the past three years and one has to wonder if he will ever get out of this class. If luck has a say in it, this might be his year as he beat Kitajima from a very bad position. He had to work very hard for it as it was the second to last game to finish at one o'clock in the morning. The only game that
lasted longer was the game between Nakata Isao and Sugimoto. Nakata had managed to make an entering, but when he blundered in the final stages of entering he gave Sugimoto a chance to stop the king and mate it. Sugimoto did not see it in byoyomi and at ten minutes past two and more than 200 moves, Nakata won the
game. A good start that he needs to stay in this class as he was bottom of the league last year.
Oza challenger tournament
Tanigawa joined Fujii and Sato in the semifinals of the Oza challenger tournament with a win over Nakahara. Nakahara played the game very positive, but it was Tanigawa who dictated the pace all the way, finishing off with some excellent 'lightning speed' endgame that surprised everyone. He will now meet the winner of the game between Moriuchi and Maruyama.
Challenger leads in Ladies Osho
In the ladies Osho challenger Shimizu crushed title holder Ishibashi in game three to take a 2-1 lead with two games to play. She is now very close to taking back the title she lost last year.
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