On top of the world – Vachier-Lagrave at Tokyo Skytree Tower

On top of the world – Vachier-Lagrave at Tokyo Skytree Tower

By Jacques-Marie Pineau, Kawagoe Japan

Tokyo Skytree (Sukaitsuri) is a broadcasting, restaurant, and observation tower in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It became the tallest structure in Japan in 2010 and reached its full height of 634.0 metres (2,080 ft) in March 2011, making it the tallest tower in the world and the second tallest structure after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m/2,722 ft).

Tokyo Skytree – this impressive image is by Jamie Saine and was published on the
In-The-Wild blog, the one on the right by Kakidai in Wikipedia

It was in the chess piece-like Tokyo Skytree that French ace Maxime Vachier-Lagrave recently showcased his amazing chess skill in a chess and shogi match with Shogi legends Yoshiharu Habu and Meijin Toshiyuki Moriuchi. This encounter was a rematch of last year's event which occured in Villandry Castle in 2011 between the same protagonists.

Clearly this time GM Vachier-Lagrave was very well prepared to meet both Shogi champions. It seems to me that his strategy was first of all to not go for a sharp tactical melee, in which the Shogi champions have obvious natural disposition. A dynamic but solid system was therefore selected, the Taimanov Defence.

Yoshiharu Habu, 19e Lifetime Meijin in Shogi

Strangely enough Yoshiharu Habu had already met the creator of this opening over a chess board. Mark Taimanov was no longer the fierce fighter he used to be in his younger days, and their game ended in a draw, even though the Russian grandmaster had managed to gain some opening advantage out of his trademark system. However, the elderly Taimanov still very much enjoyed a good conversation, and he later exchanged many anecdotes and experiences with Habu in a Paris subway.

The setup for the two-board simultaneous in the Skytree in Tokyo

The audience waiting for the start of the match

Another subtle trademark of GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's strategy was to keep the queens on the board for as long as possible. Her Majesty is indeed one of the most difficult chess pieces to handle for Shogi players (unlike rook and bishop, there is no queen in Shogi!).

Jacques-Marie Pineau and IM Almira Skripchenko commenting for the audience

The outcome of this well-designed approach was a good technical lesson for the Shogi Champions, whose chess experience is actually quite limited. In fact in all games the French Champion took the advantage quickly through his superior understanding of the ensuing endgames. It was a very impressive display, which underlined the need to keep inviting top GMs to Japan in order to improve the country's overall chess level. In spite of having had virtually no time to prepare for this event, the Shogi Champions also showed a great deal of zest. GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave admitted very sportingly that he had a rather uncomfortable spell on both boards toward the end of the opening.

With Yoshiharu Habu (above left) we had prepared this opening scheme in the Gruenfeld: our main idea was to keep d4 solid for as long as possible, and get the control of d5 with pieces rather than with pawns. Seeking to control d5 with a pawn (c4 or e4) inevitably weakens d4 and tends to fully justify Bg7. In addition, a subtle point of Bf4 was the control of b8. In some lines the rook can't gain access to this useful square. Here are the games commented by GM Vachier-Lagrave just before his departure from Japan, as a present to the Shogi Champions.

In defeat Shogi champion Yoshiharu Habu has actually tipped over his king

As for Toshiyuki Moriuchi (above), the great lesson was that a knight is not inferior to a bishop until some pawns are exchanged (I used to say that at best three pawns should be exchanged in order for a bishop to exert its superiority vis-à-vis the knight, as a rule of thumb, of course!). As I did myself, both shogi champions enjoyed deeply appreciated the chess lessons of GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Habu, Vachier-Lagrave, the author of this report Jacques-Marie Pineau and Moriuchi

This event was sponsored by SkyPerfect TSAT and organized by Go&Shogi Channel with the collaboration of Nekomado and the support of the Shogi Renmei, the French Embassy and the FFE. I should say that Shogi woman professional Madoka Kitao and her friend Tanaka Makoto of the Go&Shogi channel did a fantastic job to make my project a reality. All my thanks go to them, and to all people who were working for them during the weeks of the preparation of these events. All this was realized in a friendly atmosphere with the conviction of being part to a historical moment for chess in Japan.

Part two, which included Maxime, Almira Skripchenko and some sumo wrestling, will follow soon...

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