Today and tomorrow are the days when the first game occurs between Ryuo Watanabe Akira and 9-dan Maruyama Tadahisa as the 24th Ryuo-sen best-of-seven match. You may not know about who Maruyama is well, but he used be have two consecutive terms of Meijin in 2000 and 2001 that made him promoted to 9-dan. He had been a Kio for one term as well. And he has been competing in A-Juni-sen since 1997 except for his holding the Meijin title for two terms. Up to this game, the score between the both players is tied in 5-5. So I hope this match will be decided in a close score as they performed in the past.
The game started at 9:00am at Takinoyu Hotel in Tendo City where the International Shogi Festival 2008 was held. As a result of Furigoma, Watanabe has become Sente. The opening of the first game Maruyama chose is Itteson Kakugawari(Bishop exchange losing a tempo). He showed his novelty at the 28th move of N-3c.
You can watch and replay the game on the official liveboard linked at;
Here is the link to the official site of the 24th Ryuo-sen. The allotted thinking time per player is eight hours. Today is Day 1 and the game will be suspended at 6:00pm. The player who has turn to play then will make a sealed move. Day 2 will restart at 9:00am tomorrow. And I think the game will end tomorrow evening, probably after 7:00pm. A chat environment with watching a slightly-deferred-liveboard is ready at 81dojo.
I've recently come across you're blog and would like to thank you for helping guide westerners through some aspects of shogi. There are not many resources out there for us.
Posted by: MB | October 13, 2011 at 10:46 PM