From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 20 feb 1996 Subject: This Week in Habu Land (no. 623, 2/21/96) Habu, Habu, Habu, Habu, Habu, Habu, Habu, Habu.... It has been national Habu week here in Japan. Every newspaper opened last Thursday with the news about Habu taking all seven major titles. I have seen three specials about Habu's path to glory on different TV channels and I am sure I have missed most of them. I think Yamashita must be the most famous unknown loser these days. He was beaten by Habu on Habu's very first television appearance when he won the primary school meijin championships as an 11 year old boy. I have seen several reruns of this match as well. Maybe Habu is now so famous that Yamashita is proud to be beaten by him (did I ever mention I was beaten by Habu in Rook handicap? :-)). Of course Shukan Shogi has no words to describe Habu's amazing achievement. "Habu reaches the rainbow", "The only one who kept believing the dream". After the game had finished it was brought to my attention that Habu was not even healthy playing it. He had a high fever and even went to hospital for treatment on the day before the game, arriving late at the reception. It did seem to affect him in the least. He may have been known as the king of "gyakuten", but that is hardly appropriate for a player who has reached such a degree of perfection in his game. The fourth game was another shining example. Tanigawa made a mistake in the early middle game and later missed a fighting opportunity. That was all the chance he got. Habu made no questionable moves. That seems to be the difference between Habu and the rest. Habu makes at most one mistake in a game, all the other players make at least two. And for those (like me) who are hoping that his marriage will influence his performance, read the comment of his future wife on the game: "I am very happy. However, because he was playing the game with a high fever I was more worried about his health than the outcome of the game." Isn't that sweet? With a wife like that Habu will dominate the Shogi world for at least another ten years. Habu's year statistics are frightening. He has won his last 12 games against the strongest possible opposition. He is now 41-7 for the season, an average of 0.854, which is better than the record of Nakahara, which seemed unbeatable. The most scary statistic of all, Habu is only 25 years old and will get stronger... I would almost forget in all the excitement of the Osho match that Habu has yet another match to play. He faces Takahashi in the Kio. Takahashi is a very strong player, who has won a couple of titles, his first when he was only 5-dan. He almost became Meijin a couple of years ago, lost to Nakahara after being 3-1 up. However, his comments on the match indicate that he is already happy to be in another title match and that he lacks the focus to make it really difficult for Habu. The first game was an illustration of that. Takahashi promoted a bishop, allowing Habu a strong attack, which was not decisive. However, defending is more difficult than attacking and finally Takahashi made a mistake and Habu wrapped up the game. To end the Habu news: Habu beat Kobayashi Kenji to reach the final of the Tokyo terebi quick play tournament and beat Tanigawa again in the quarter finals of the NHK television tournament. He can also still win the Zen Nihon Pro tournament. He played Shima on Friday, but I have not heard the result yet. Other news: In B1, B2 and C2 a complete round was played. In B1 Sato was already promoted, but he just continued winning. His eleventh consecutive win was against "rival" Mori. Mori has an easy-going nature, so it will not be the first time he smiled after losing, but this time he must have been especially happy after hearing that Tanaka had lost his game as well. This meant Mori will accompany Sato to the A-class. With one round to play, Tomioka is certain to go down to B2. In B2 promotion has also been decided. Leaders Inoue and Urano won again and are out of reach of their rivals with one round to play. Inoue's promotion is hardly surprising, and will probably do well in B1 next year. About Urano I am not so sure, but he will probably prove me wrong... In C2 also no surprises. Leaders Kitahama (8-0), Sensaki (7-1), Nakata Hiroki (7-1) and Oshima (7-1) all won their 9th game, so the last game will decide which three will leave the deathpool that C2 is. I go for the first three and hope Oshima will find a bottle of sake big enough to drown his despair... Reijer -- Dr. Reijer Grimbergen Electrotechnical Laboratory Palcious Tsukuba 302 1-1-4 Umezono 1-24-8 Ninomiya Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305 JAPAN 305 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp Tel: 0298-59-1606 WWW: http://www.etl.go.jp:8080/etl/suiron/~grimberg Tel: +81-(0)298-54-5080 extension: 67431 Fax: +81-(0)298-58-5918