From: Reijer Grimbergen <grimbergen <at> NICI <dot> KUN <dot> NL>
Date: 29 sep 1995
Subject: Some Shogi news and a strong denial

Just read Shuukan Shogi with the game score of the third game in the Oza
match. Seems like this time Habu finally showed his class by winning a very
difficult endgame. Again Mori seemed to be better after the opening, but
when things got too complicated in the Hineribisha, Mori misguidedly won a
lance far away from the king. In professional games such a small material
profit can be decisive, but in this case the lance made little difference.
Habu invested the time Mori lost by taking the lance into an unstoppable
attack. Interesting note is that Mori used his dinner to think about the
position. He was eating his soba next to a television monitor showing the
position in the game. This is very unusual in professional Shogi where
thinking about the game during breaks has long been thought of as
unsportsmanlike behaviour. Try and explain that to Kasparov and his legion
of strong seconds :-).
The Oza, Kisei and Kio are called one day matches for obvious reasons, and
Habu has won alll three titles several times in a row. Moreover, he now has
a renshou (number of consecutive wins) in these matches of 17(!). This
means that he has won the last five matches with a score of 3-0. Habu seems
to be unbeatable in limited time games.
Habu's challenger for the Ryu-O is also known. Sato Yasumitsu, who lost the
Ryu-O title to Habu last year, has gained the right to a return match by
beating Sensaki Manabu, 6-dan, by 2-1 in the challengers match. This was a
very tough fight indeed. The first game took more than 15 hours, because of
a replay after a late sennichite. Sato won. The second game also took a
long time (more than 160 moves), but this time Sensaki won. The third and
decisive game showed Sato at his best, cruising to victory after quickly
getting the upper hand in a quick yagura. The first game of the Ryu-O will
be played in Beijin (or Peking) in China at the end of october (21st and
22nd from the top of my head). This might be a very interesting match
indeed.
Then finally, I have to answer to some rumours that Hiroki Kawada put on
the net. It was only after a while that I realised that he might be talking
about me when referring to "a European champion". In case you are
wondering, his imagination is running a little wild. I am not denying that
I will buy the Hayashiba picture book if I get the chance, but I had
nothing to do with her trip to Ireland. As a matter of fact, there is an
old but never denied rumour that Mike Sandeman (a former European Champion)
had something to do with that. He seems to be back in Europe, so maybe we
should ask him about it...

That's all for the moment,
Reijer