This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 880, February 28th 2001)
Reijer Grimbergen
Habu and Tanigawa. Unlike the other games in this match, not much
fireworks early on in this game as it seemed destined for sennichite
a long time. In the end Tanigawa opened up the game, but that may have
been ill-advised. Habu got the upper hand and in the end that was just
enough to win. Here is the game with comments:
Black: Tanigawa Koji, Challenger
White: Habu Yoshiharu, Osho
50th Osho-sen, Game 5, February 19th and 20th 2001
1.P7g-7f 0/0 0/0
2.P3c-3d 0/0 2/2
3.P2g-2f 3/3 0/2
4.P4c-4d 0/3 3/5
5.P2f-2e 4/7 0/5
6.B2b-3c 0/7 2/7
7.S3i-4h 1/8 0/7
8.S3a-3b 0/8 6/13
9.P5g-5f 2/10 0/13
10.R8b-4b 0/10 6/19
This match started with a Yokofudori game, but since Tanigawa played
Shikenbisha in the second game, this has become another Furibisha
match with white ranging the rook for the fourth time in a row.
11.K5i-6h 6/16 0/19
12.S7a-7b 0/16 4/23
13.K6h-7h 3/19 0/23
14.P9c-9d 0/19 16/39
15.G4i-5h 22/41 0/39
16.S3b-4c 0/41 25/64
17.P9g-9f 30/71 0/64
18.K5a-6b 0/71 28/92
19.S4h-5g 15/86 0/92
20.P6c-6d 0/86 2/94
21.P3g-3f 3/89 0/94
22.K6b-7a 0/89 18/112
23.P8g-8f 12/101 0/112
24.G4a-5b 0/101 13/125
25.K7h-8g 2/103 0/125
26.P7c-7d 0/103 20/145
27.S7i-7h 8/111 0/145
28.P8c-8d 0/111 7/152
29.S5g-4f?! 56/167 0/152
This quick attack is in style, but combined with the left mino is does
not seem so strong, at least at this level.
30.S4c-3b!? 0/167 50/202
A move like the late Oyama used to play. Pulling back this silver is
a very good defence against the quick attack. When the bishop diagonal
is opened, white can take back on 3c with the silver and it is no
longer possible to break through on 2d.
31.K8g-9h 17/184 0/202
Tanigawa knows that attacking at this point would be unreasonable and
strengthens his king position instead.
32.P4d-4e 0/184 6/208
33.S4f-5g 7/191 0/208
34.N8a-7c 0/191 15/223
35.B8hx3c+ 50/241 0/223
36.S3bx3c 0/241 1/224
37.P6g-6f 1/242 0/224
38.G5b-6c 0/242 9/233
39.G5h-6g 4/246 0/233
40.P5c-5d 0/246 1/234
41.S7h-8g 13/259 0/234
42.K7a-8b 0/259 14/248
43.G6i-7h 3/262 0/248
44.S7b-8c 0/262 8/256
45.K9h-8h 2/264 0/256
46.G6a-7b 0/264 0/256
47.N8i-7g 1/265 0/256
48.G7b-6b 0/265 11/267
49.N2i-3g 18/283 0/267
50.G6b-6a! 0/283 31/298
Subtle play. The normal 50.G6b-7b is answered by 51.P2d Px2d B*5a R2b
Nx4e S4b Bx4b+ Rx4b Rx2d Rx4e P4f R4a S*5b and black has a big
advantage.
The gold on 6a defends against B*5a.
51.P1g-1f 48/331 0/298
52.P1c-1d 0/331 16/314
53.P3f-3e? 32/363 0/314
This is why Tanigawa has so many fans. With the bishops off, this has
become a typical sennichite position. Neither player can afford to open
the game with all the possible bishop drops. Tanigawa decides to
attack anyway, but as he himself said after the game: "Sennichite was
probably best".
54.P3dx3e 0/363 28/342
55.P2e-2d 0/363 0/342
56.P2cx2d 0/363 1/343
57.B*2c 3/366 0/343
58.B*3f 0/366 13/356
59.P1f-1e 0/366 0/356
60.P1dx1e 0/366 7/363
61.L1ix1e 5/371 0/363
62.L1ax1e 0/371 0/363
63.P*3d 0/371 0/363
64.S3c-4d 0/371 7/370
65.R2hx2d 0/371 0/370
66.L*2b 0/371 1/371
67.B2c-4a+?! 12/383 0/371
Better is probably 67.N2e G7b P3c+ Nx3c B3b+ Lx2d +Bx4b Bx2e R*2b and
black has a strong looking attack for the material loss.
68.R4bx4a 0/383 0/371
69.R2dx2b+ 0/383 0/371
70.G6a-7b 0/383 0/371
71.N3g-2e 1/384 0/371
72.P5d-5e 0/384 27/398
73.P3d-3c+ 21/405 0/398
74.P4e-4f 0/405 8/406
75.+P3c-4b 28/433 0/406
76.R4a-8a 0/433 13/419
77.P4gx4f 11/444 0/419
78.P5ex5f 0/444 0/419
79.S5g-6h 0/444 0/419
80.S4d-5e 0/444 2/421
81.+P4b-4c 2/446 0/421
82.P6d-6e 0/446 5/426
Here it seems that white has big advantage, but...
83.L*5i! 9/455 0/426
This is a strong move that both defends and attacks. White's advantage
is not as big as it looked.
84.B3f-6i+ 0/455 9/435
85.G6gx5f 2/457 0/435
86.P8d-8e! 0/457 12/447
Habu takes a little time to compose himself and change his attack.
The planned 86.Sx5f is not so good after 87.Lx5f G*5h S*7i P*5e P*5d
Gx5d P*5i and white has a hard time to continue his attack.
87.G5fx5e 1/458 0/447
88.P8ex8f 0/458 2/449
89.S8gx8f 2/460 0/449
90.P*8g 0/460 0/449
91.K8hx8g 0/460 0/449
92.B*8i 0/460 5/454
93.S6h-7i 0/460 0/454
94.P*8e 0/460 0/454
95.N7gx8e 0/460 0/454
96.N7cx8e 0/460 0/454
97.P*8d? 1/461 0/454
How unfortunate for Tanigawa. By reversing the move order, his position
is suddenly lost. If 97.+P5c right away, he would still have had good
fighting chances. For example, 98.Gx5c P*8d Sx8d Gx6e P*5b Lx5c+ N*6g
P*8c K9c P9e black wins. According to Morishita, even after 97.+P5c the
black attack is probably not strong enough, but it seems clear that
it would have been Tanigawa's best chance.
98.S8cx8d 0/461 0/454
99.+P4c-5c 0/461 0/454
100.G6c-7c 0/461 7/461
101.+P5c-6b 4/465 0/461
102.K8b-9c! 0/465 0/461
Brilliant. The rook that was asleep on 8a for a long time wakes up
just in time to defend and help in mating the black king.
103.+P6bx7b 1/466 0/461
104.N*7e 0/466 0/461
Resigns 0/466 0/461
Time: 07:46:00 07:41:00
White wins after 105.Px7e Sx7e and now either Sx7e Px7e and no defence
or +Px7c Bx7h+ Sx7h Sx8f and mate. With this fine win Habu takes his
6th Osho title in a row and closes out a title match early for the
first time since he beat Moriuchi 3-1 in the Kio match almost a year
ago.
In other shogi news:
====================
* As expected, Kubo won his postponed game in the B2 Junisen class
against Hatakeyama and now joins Tsukada in the lead with an 8-1 score.
In the final round, Tsukada needs a win against Tamaru and Kubo needs
to beat Nishikawa to get to B1. Except for promotion pressure, this
should not be too hard for both players and Abe and Suzuki probably
need to wait another year.
* In the Red Group of the Oi league, a major upset as Yamasaki beat
Tanigawa in the first round. Still, Yamasaki will not be boasting to
much about this win, as he was completely outplayed by Tanigawa.
However,
when Tanigawa wanted to place the coup de grace with a nice gold
sacrifice, Yamasaki could not believe his eyes. This gold sacrifice
was a terrible blunder that lost immediately. Tanigawa is of course
still not out of the promotion race, but this is a major setback.
* Moriuchi reached the final of the Zen Nihon Pro tournament with a
win over Sato Yasumitsu. Even though the mutual score going into the
game was pretty even with 16-13 in Moriuchi's favour, Sato has had
some big problems against him lately as the result of their last ten
games is an astonishing 9-1 for Moriuchi. Moriuchi added another victory
to that, as he won a difficult Yokofudori game. Moriuchi will meet
Tanigawa for the second time to play for the Zen Nihon Pro title. In
1988 he lost 2-1 as a 4-dan (then the match was a best of three games).
Let's see if he can do better this time.
I am not sure if I have time for the Shukan Shogi report next week,
as I will be preparing for the computer shogi tournament. If not,
there will be a double report in two weeks.
Reijer
--
Reijer Grimbergen
Complex Games Lab
Electrotechnical Laboratory
1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305-8568 JAPAN
E-mail: grim...@etl.go.jp
URL: http://www.etl.go.jp/~grimberg/
Tel: +81-(0)298-61-3316
Fax: +81-(0)298-61-5918