Title- The 5th TOKYO-Chanpionship A-Class Final Round
- Player
Makoto Matsumoto (Tokyo Insitute of Technology) vs. 
Yuzi Kikuta (RICOH)
- Date
- Dec 17 1995
- Place
- Gymnasium in Headquarter of Hasegawa Engineering Firm, Tokyo, Japan
- Anotation : Yuzi Kikuta
- translated by Hiroki Kawada <kawada@merl.hitachi.co.jp>
For long time I could not reach the final game.
I knew nothing about this tournament before, but I was surprised to see very high-level games here. How lucky I was to survive to the final! The previous games today were satisfying, where I managed to take advantage in opening and developed it to the wins.
In this final match Mr. Matsumoto opened the game with his promising Fourth-File-Rook and I used quick attack which is my unchangeable tactics.
I got sick of this opening today. All the games I opened with Fourth-File-Rook, and four of them were against quick attack including a game ended in Sennichte (extra game for infinite moves).
I felt a small advantage at 23... R-8c because I have ever seen the same position several times. Instead of 26... Bx7g+ I considered alternative move, P-8h. I chose Bx7g+ as it seemed a clear variation at the moment but...
When I saw 28. B*6a I simply thought "What is he doing?". Then 29. Bx5b+, his sacrificing move, really shocked me. "Oh, my Rook will be dead by G*8i!" I could not see any moves other than taking the Horse immediately, however, I intentionally made myself absent-minded for five minutes. Calm down. Again, looking at the situation I found 29... Rx7h+, taking Silver with leaving the Horse alive. It meant my castle would be brittle, but I dared this variation.
After the absolute moves to 36. +Px6c I spent a long time to seek how to crush Black's castle, but it was not easy. Finally I squeezed out the variation 36... P-6b 37. +P-7b Bx9d. For me it was cool move. But the following moves were not necessary defense. I could not stop it for my psychological pressure and resulted 44. +Bx7g +Rx5h: he could successfully draw back his Horse to the better position and I had to sacrifice my Dragon. Now my attack became thinner.
I realized a large disadvantage at this position, though, I felt the game might be easy for me because he was already in Biyoyomi (obligated to move in a short limited time) and my castle had become much solid.
But, 48... P*1g was too hurried. Steady move, N-3c for example, was better instead.
Black's loosing move was 51. N*4e. If L*2g instead, I was not confident.
The reason he did not was told he expected my attack would be continued by 51... P-2d, though, I might not choose such a risky move.
Back to the game,51...Sx2f allowed no effective defense in Black.
A lot of prizes were surprising for me. Prize money, four honorable mentions, a shogi board and a ticket of Koma-Oto Concert (an annual musical event by famous classic musicians and shogi pros!) were too much to carry by myself.
In the prize giving ceremony I dropped by mistake a small envelope of the prize money and stepped on it. Oops, a large footprint on the prize...
The Moves
