Good news if you are a Gokigen Nakabisha(Central Rook) fan! The translation of Chapter 5 of Lectures on the Latest Strategies about Gokigen Nakabisha, written by 6-dan Katsumata Kiyokazu, became available to read. Here is the link and the copy of the beginning.
This professional player whom we call Habu, he is ubiquitous in any strategy that he got interested in, he raises an issue, he presents a solution, and he goes away like a whirlwind. That was what I spoke in the lecture on Fujii system. Gokigen central rook, which we'll cover in this lecture, also starts its story from tracing "Habu's footsteps".
There was a game that is one of the most impressive in Habu's games, and that became a branching off point when studying modern strategies. It's the 1st game of Meijin title match in 1994. Habu appeared for the first time in Meijin title match that year as the challenger. Habu got black in the 1st game, and he adopted a "5th-file vanguard central rook", rather than Yagura which was the mainstream strategy at the time.This provoked a little dispute among professional players. It was hardly understandable at the time for a static rook player to swing the rook when playing black, especially on the highly formal and the greatest stage of Meijin title match. I remember a high ranked player was even angry with it saying, "It is unacceptable the he used a central rook as black in Meijin title match".
Please click the link above in order to read the rest of articles. In addition, there are diagrams and usuful links to the gamerecords and annotation materials.
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