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.
Dear Akira, thanks again for very interesting blogpost. This one more topical than ever, as Watanabe-Goda seems to have excactly this position right now! What is your evaluation of p*63?
返信削除Very often in chess we have opening ideas designed for 1 game only, as surprise effect is the main point. I thought maybe Watanabe was doing the same, but he seemed ready to repeat, even against a prepared Goda! Will be interesting to follow.
Watanabe has confidence in the position at Px65. I guess he prepared other lines when Habu-Watanabe, such as P*47, Rx, B*38, not P75 Habu played. So, he did it again. P*63 looks like defensive. After B28, G43, It's most likely to keep defending sente's attack for a while.
返信削除And yet another game in this line! And now with Watanabe as gote. What is your evaluation?
返信削除I was suprised at the same position and have never seen G43 Watanabe played. Sometimes in shogi the same strategy is adopted in a row considering the psychological effect. Now R49 at #69, Both kings are hard to be captured. It will go on to a long game including entering king.
削除Hello Akira. Thanks for your work on this blog, it's pure gold. I've noticed that you haven't posted anything in a while though. I hope it's just temporary and that you intend to continue posting great articles here. I myself have grown to prefer hineribisha opening since I've found that my opponents have a hard time defending the Ishida shape. I do know though that it's not really popular among professionals nowdays. I would really like if you could maybe make an article about this opening sometime in the future.
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