53rd Oi Match Game 3
[Black "Habu Yoshiharu, Oi"]
[White "Fujii Takeshi, Challenger"]
[Event "53rd Oi-sen, Game 3"]
[Date "August 1st and 2nd 2012"]
1.P7g-7f 00:00:00 00:00:00
2.P3c-3d 00:00:00 00:05:00
3.P2g-2f 00:03:00 00:05:00
4.R8b-4b 00:03:00 00:09:00
5.S3i-4h 00:09:00 00:09:00
6.K5a-6b 00:09:00 00:13:00
7.K5i-6h 00:11:00 00:13:00
8.B2bx8h+ 00:11:00 00:17:00
Again, Fujii plays the early exchange of the bishops.
9.S7ix8h 00:12:00 00:17:00
10.K6b-7b 00:12:00 00:18:00
11.K6h-7h 00:20:00 00:18:00
12.S3a-2b 00:20:00 00:21:00
13.S8h-7g 00:34:00 00:21:00
14.K7b-8b 00:34:00 00:34:00
15.K7h-8h 00:42:00 00:34:00
16.S2b-3c 00:42:00 00:39:00
17.G6i-7h 00:50:00 00:39:00
18.P2c-2d 00:50:00 01:39:00
19.P4g-4f 00:58:00 01:39:00
20.S7a-7b 00:58:00 01:46:00
21.S4h-4g 01:01:00 01:46:00
22.P3d-3e!? 01:01:00 02:25:00
This is Fujii's new idea. It is not unusual to play P3e after the silver has
moved to 5f, but with the silver still on 4g it has not been tried. The reason
for this is clear, because black seems to have the obvious counter P3f to take
control of the 3rd file. However, Fujii has analyzed the position deeper.
23.P3g-3f 02:07:00 02:25:00
The obvious counter, but black really has no alternative. If he plays it slowly,
white can get and overwhelming position with S3d followed by P4d and P4e.
24.P3ex3f 02:07:00 02:32:00
25.S4gx3f 02:07:00 02:32:00
26.R4b-2b! 02:07:00 02:32:00
High class opening strategy. White is keeping the pressure on the black position,
not allowing a slow build up at the head of the white king, which is normal pattern
in this kind of position.
27.G4i-5h 02:30:00 02:32:00
28.S3c-4d 02:30:00 03:01:00
29.P4f-4e 02:54:00 03:01:00
30.R2b-3b 02:54:00 03:26:00
31.P4ex4d 03:07:00 03:26:00
32.R3bx3f 03:07:00 03:26:00
33.S*3g 03:10:00 03:26:00
34.R3f-3c 03:10:00 03:33:00
White has exchanged the silvers and forced black to immediately drop back his. With
only white having a silver in hand, Fujii was very happy with his position here.
The professionals in the press room agreed that Fujii had (again) won the opening
battle.
35.R2h-4h 03:19:00 03:33:00
36.P*3f 03:19:00 04:29:00
The sealed move. Here Fujii started to feel a little uneasy. Both sides seem to have
a lot of options and it is hard to control the pace of the game. Habu may have judged
correctly that even without the silver in hand, black has enough ways to fight back.
37.S3g-2h 03:22:00 04:29:00
38.P4cx4d 03:22:00 04:41:00
39.B*2b 03:25:00 04:41:00
40.B*5e 03:25:00 04:44:00
41.P5g-5f 03:50:00 04:44:00
42.P3f-3g+ 03:50:00 05:55:00
A good looking alternative is 42.Bx2h+, but after 43.Rx2h P3g+ Bx3c+ Nx3c Nx3g P*3f
and now if R4h then B*3e R*3d Px3g+ the white tokin is huge. However, in the
post-mortem analysis Fujii said that black can also play P*3h after P*3f and that
he wasn't very confident in the white position after that.
43.N2ix3g 04:05:00 05:55:00
44.B5ex3g+ 04:05:00 05:55:00
45.S2hx3g 04:05:00 05:55:00
46.R3cx3g+ 04:05:00 05:55:00
47.R4hx4d 04:07:00 05:55:00
48.G4a-3a 04:07:00 05:56:00
49.B2bx1a+ 04:09:00 05:56:00
50.S*6i 04:09:00 05:56:00
51.G5h-6h 04:20:00 05:56:00
52.S6ix7h+ 04:20:00 05:59:00
53.G6hx7h 04:20:00 05:59:00
54.+R3g-3h 04:20:00 06:45:00
55.B*1f 05:46:00 06:45:00
Here the professionals in the press room started leaning toward a black advantage,
because this bishop seems to work very well in attack and defense. However, Habu
was not so sure about the effectiveness of this bishop and said after the game
that he had played it more or less out of necessity. Black would like to play
55.S*6h immediately here, but after 56.N*6e S6f G*6i B*4f Gx6h Gx6h S*5i L*6i
Sx6h+ Lx6h the black king position gets roughed up a lot and Habu thought it
would be very hard to keep it together.
56.+R3h-2h 05:46:00 06:58:00
57.S*6h 05:47:00 06:58:00
58.S*6i 05:47:00 07:04:00
59.G7h-7i 05:48:00 07:04:00
60.S6i-5h+ 05:48:00 07:05:00
61.P*3b 06:09:00 07:05:00
The reason why the press room considered 55.B*1f good for black, was that they
thought black could play 61.L*3h here. However, as Fujii pointed out in the
post-mortem analysis, he would be happy to play P*3b in answer to that.
62.G*6i 06:09:00 07:26:00
63.G7ix6i 06:16:00 07:26:00
64.+S5hx6i 06:16:00 07:26:00
65.P*4h 06:17:00 07:26:00
66.+R2hx1i 06:17:00 07:29:00
67.P3bx3a+ 06:22:00 07:29:00
68.N*8f 06:22:00 07:42:00
69.P8gx8f 06:55:00 07:42:00
70.L*8g 06:55:00 07:42:00
71.K8h-7h 06:55:00 07:42:00
72.+S6ix6h 06:55:00 07:52:00
73.K7hx6h 06:55:00 07:52:00
74.L8gx8i+ 06:55:00 07:52:00
75.R4d-4b+ 07:34:00 07:52:00
Habu played this after 39 minutes, because he had a long look at 75.Bx6a+ here.
However, after 76.Sx6a R4b+ N*6b K5g +Rx1g L*4g he thought that P*4f was too
strong, so he decided to play 75.R4b+ instead, which also is a very dangerous
move.
76.N*6e 07:34:00 07:52:00
77.S7g-6f 07:40:00 07:52:00
78.S*7g 07:40:00 07:52:00
79.K6h-5h 07:40:00 07:52:00
80.S7gx6f+ 07:40:00 07:52:00
81.+B1ax6f 07:40:00 07:52:00
82.S*5g 07:40:00 07:52:00
83.+B6fx5g 07:41:00 07:52:00
84.N6ex5g+? 07:41:00 07:52:00
Fujii misses his chance to keep the endgame very close. Correct was 84.+R6i,
which cannot be taken because after 85.Kx6i Nx5g+ black has no defense. Therefore,
black has to run away with 85.K4g, but then 86.Nx5g+ K3f P*3d! (a move Fujii
had overlooked) black needs to be extremely careful. For example, Bx3d +R3i
P*3g B*6i is very dangerous for black. Therefore, after P*3d, the best move
seems K4e, and after +R3i G*3h B*5d Kx3d +Rx3h Bx3h G*4c +Rx4c Bx4c K2c R*3c
K1b Rx3h+ G*2b the black king seems to survive. However, this is just a single
variation and there are many possibilities for black to make a mistake. Fujii
admitted that this would have been his best chance to win because in the game
there was no way to get to the black king.
85.K5hx5g 07:41:00 07:52:00
86.B*7i 07:41:00 07:52:00
87.K5g-4g 07:43:00 07:52:00
88.P*4e 07:43:00 07:58:00
89.+R4bx4e 07:44:00 07:58:00
90.+L8ix9i 07:44:00 07:58:00
91.N*6f! 07:44:00 07:58:00
A standard attack against the Mino castle, but decisive here because this is
a mating threat (after N*7d next). Here Habu felt that he would win the game.
92.L*7d 07:44:00 07:59:00
93.L*8e 07:47:00 07:59:00
94.+R1ix1g 07:47:00 07:59:00
95.G*2g 07:48:00 07:59:00
96.+R1gx1f 07:48:00 07:59:00
97.G2gx1f 07:48:00 07:59:00
98.P*4f 07:48:00 07:59:00
99.K4g-3g 07:51:00 07:59:00
Resigns 07:51:00 07:59:00
The black king has a lot of space to run to and cannot be attacked effectively.
On the other hand, black has a lot of decisive attacking options like +R4b and/or
N*9e and white cannot defend so Fujii resigned here. Fujii drops a close game
that might have given him the lead in this match. However, he has been playing
well, and in the post-mortem analysis he didn't give the impression of being
too disappointed. Still, there is a lot of pressure on him to win game four to
avoid getting into a 1-3 hole.