The Crown Title Match is deadlocked at one win a piece. I’ll jump right to the end and say that the one who went first won every match through the sixth.
The third match was a Double Wing Attack.
But Ayumu’s version of it was so far removed from the modern Double Wing that nobody understood what he was trying to do.
“A 9 Six Pawn version of the Double Wing ...... Huuuh?! He moved the 1 Six Pawn up, too?!”
“The defender secured the seventh file in the meantime. Does that mean trash Kuzuryu has the lead?”
“Wait just a minute here! The offense has slid a Rook into the open 7 Four spot!! What purpose is there in doing that?”
“I don’t have a clue anymore.”
I heard that Shogi fans with software analysis were stunned and even the commentators on the broadcast had no idea what to say other than, “It’s a mystery.”
Actually, this formation is a mystery to both Ayumu and me, too. We don’t understand it, but this is what Awaji says is the best move and maintains the best balance in the formations.
Maybe that’s why Ayumu didn’t look all that happy even though he won, just like in the first match.
Fourth match.
The first move was mine this time, and I set up for a Double Wing Attack. Ayumu boldly accepts. A win here means he’ll have three victories, one away from taking the title, and he gunned for it at full speed.
“The challenger sure is in good form.”
“Kuzuryu-Crown is struggling to hold his ground.”
That’s apparently what analysts were saying at the sealing move.
On the contrary, I was burning bright.
Ayumu was trying to smother my attack by going on the attack himself despite being the defender. I vigorously sidestepped his strikes and took him out with a counter.
The biggest difference between this match and the second was that Ayumu kept playing even after his last shred of hope for a comeback faded ...... He eventually surrendered with the most heartbroken look I’ve ever seen on his face.
“............ I have been defeated.”
“Thank you for the match.”
I threw my head down to accept and we did a short review session. The staff and media people then watched, clueless, as he left them all behind. That brought us back to a tie at two wins a piece.
Fifth match. The formation turned out to be the one that everyone said would definitely show up at some point during the series: yagura.
Ayumu was counting on that yagura castle to win him this match. Even I, who knows the future, had to admit that one was nearly perfect.
“............ It’s beautiful ......”
I managed to hide my mouth with my fan as those words slipped out in the middle of the match.
Ayumu’s research leading up to this title match was so much further along than I ever dreamed it would be. The Meijin and Mr. Natagiri came through for him big time.
―――How did he make this much progress with only 100 match records to work with ......?
This yagura castle is like the whole of humanity’s wisdom coming together, crystalizing like an impenetrable diamond on the board.
I threw in the towel before I even took a swing at it.
Even though Ayumu was one win away from taking the title in the sixth match, I wasn’t worried at all because the first move was mine.
It was a yagura for both of us again.
The modern yagura is steadily morphing into something like a Double Wing and looking more like a rundown shack sinking into the ground than a castle. But the ones played a few decades from now tend to be well-defined strongholds. After computers rediscovered the benefits of the Snowroof formation, it steadily replaced the yagura before disappearing along with it. Maybe the more evolved computers understand pain and fear.
The match became a war of attrition that lasted over 300 moves.
“Haaa ...... Haaa ...... Hauuugh ......!!”
“Wheeeew――― ......”
Both of us were gasping for breath, shoulders rising and falling. There was no end in sight even at 11 p.m. on the second day, but I was holding up much better than Ayumu.
I was physically tired, sure, but never once did I think I was going to lose.
That mental leeway turned out to make all the difference.
“There!”
I was able to focus up until the very end, landing a fatal blow even as our Kings were cornered in mind-numbingly complex sequences.
Then, after 313 moves, I won. Now that we’re tied at three wins a piece, the full set is complete.
“...... Why won’t Kuzuryu play that 5 Eight King strategy he used against Shinokubo?”
“Probably because it’s too big of a risk.”
“Then Kannabe is just that good ......?”
I turned my back on their conversation and left the arena.
I get a phone call right after winning the sixth match.
“What the deal, Yaichi? Is he giving you that much trouble?”
It’s my older brother.
“Wasn’t Shogi’s solution either a Repetition Draw or Double Nyugyoku? Neither of those have happened yet.”
Just before the Crown Title Match started, I had a chance to talk with my brother for the first time in ages at Shinjuku’s Gyoen Park. Rather than congratulate me on winning or dispense some tough, brotherly love, he decides to pick a fight.
“You’ve started doubting the future you claim you saw, haven’t you, Yaichi? Your mindset always comes out in your Shogi. Always has, going way back.”
“And you can’t see past the surface, as always.”
I know he’s just taunting me, but I go along with it anyway.
“There hasn’t been a Repetition Draw or Double Nyugyoku because I’m purposefully avoiding them. It’d be easy enough to do it, but then it’d get copied right away. A title match coming down to multiple Repetition Draws and waiting moves? I’ll pass.”
“......”
“Besides, the only way to get to the wasteland Awaji showed me is for both players to play at the same level as a super computer. Ayumu and I aren’t that good.”
With human levels of Shogi skill, it’s hard to trigger that kind of Repetition Draw or stalemate.