The 3rd game of Kiou Title Match was played today. Watanabe won against Habu and defended his title with 3-0.
http://live.shogi.or.jp/kiou/kifu/40/kiou201503080101.html
Bishop Exchange Strategy was adopted. I think Watanabe is really good at opening preparation. It seems like he always try to play something new his opponent probably doesn't know in detail. In this game, P-25 at #41 haven't been
played these days because the attack from P-65 was thought as a strong line for
gote. But, he deeply researched the variation around Diag.1. Other than P-75 Habu played, there were three actual examples in pro games. P-95, P*47 and B*63. In case of P*47, it will proceed with Rx, B*38, R-48, B-29+.
Gote is expecting the +Bishop to work well.
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| Diag.1 |
About 10 moves later from Diag.1, advancing a gold
into 46 at #63 (Diag.2) was a good plan for
sente. Although the promoted bishop on 28 limited
sente's attacking formation, it was possible to oppress
gote's castle with next Gx35. In this case, the bishop's line has a big influence on the opponent's king. I
think sente had an advantage here already.
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| Diag.2 |
After Diag.2,
sente had been better. But, there was a chance for
gote in Diag.3. Commentator 9-Dan Fukaura suggested S*78 instead of +Bx56, which is a
threatmate from +B-79. If taken
with king, +Bx56 would be a fork. Thus, the sequence of G*31, K-52, +Rx32 is needed due to changing the +R's position, however, when G-42, there is no checkmate. After this, continuing with G*63, K-61, Kx78, Gx32, Gx, +Bx56, L*67, B*45 (Diag.4), it would go on to a difficult endgame. Therefore, back to Diag.3, P-63+ which 9-Dan Fujii suggested might be better than P*52. In reply to +Bx56, with G*52, Rx, +Px, Kx, +Rx32, G*42, L*64,
sente would be in a winning
postion.
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| Diag.3 |
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| Diag.4 |
Actually, in reply to P*52, Habu took a silver simply. And, Watanbe captured the king from G*31. L*82 at #103 was the technique which is not commonly seen. I guess Habu overlooked this in the little time he had left.
