From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 12 mar 1996 Subject: This week in Shukan Shogi (no. 626, March 13th 1996) More amazing Habu records this week. Even though Takahashi gave it his best shot in the third game, it was again not enough to break Habu. In exciting Yokofudori game Takahashi sacrificied a bishop for a silver in the early middle game and for a while had the upper hand. A small mistake made the situation a little unclear, but inventive play by the challenger brought Habu again close to defeat. In a very difficult position, Takahashi missed an opportunity to get a big advantage and Habu wrapped up the game. By beating Takahashi 3-0 Habu now has 20 straight wins in one-day matches. This win was also his 500th win as a professional. It took Habu only 656 games to reach that landmark (average .762) thereby breaking Nakahara's record of 686. Also, since his promotion to 4-dan, he took only 10 years and three months to get to the magic 500. This is again a record and gives him a yearly average of just under 50 wins. Habu is now 47-8 for the season, which is exactly the same average as the Nakahara record for the season (0.855). Habu still has some games to play, though... In the B2 and C1 Junisen the final round was being played this week. In B2 almost everything was already decided after round 9. Promoted Inoue and Urano ended with a flourish by beating Maruyama and Suzuki respectively. It was already clear that Taki would go down to C1, but Awaji saved himself from a relegation marker by beating Manabe, thereby ending with three consecutive victories. The other relegation markers are for Suzuki, Maeda and Arimori. The last one is being treated for a serious illness in the past couple of months. In C1 no surprises in the last round. Gouda and Hatakeyama had their chances in their own hands and did not make a mistake. Gouda beat Ito Hatasu, again wearing kimono and Hatakeyama beat Sato Daigoro. Interesting detail: next year Hatakeyama Naruyuki will be playing two classes higher than his twin brother Hatakeyama Mamoru, who is still struggling to get out of C2. As for relegation, Murooka and Shiyoshi miracleously managed to steer clear of the relegation markers. They both won against strong opposition (Murooka beat Kubo and Shiyoshi beat Abe), while Miyasaka lost against Sanada. For Miyasaka this was extra painful, because it was his second relegation marker and he will go down to C2. He is accompanied by Saeki. First relegation markers are for Kawaguchi and Sato Daigoro. They will get another chance in C1 next year, trying to erase the marker by making kachikoshi (majority of wins). Horiguchi managed to do that this year, winning 6 out of 10. Major pressure this week for the six Shoreikai players who still had a chance to make their dream come true. The final two rounds of the san-dan league would decide which two of these six would become the new professionals. 21 year old Horiguchi had the best chance, being in the top spot of the ordering. He won both his last games and qualified comfortably. However, many dramatic results decided the second pro place. Second place Nozuki lost both of his last games. One win would have been enough... Third place Fujiuchi also lost both his games. He too would have become a pro if he had won one of them. As a result, fourth place Chuuza (26), winning only one of his two games, became the second new 4-dan, breaking down in tears after 15 years of struggling in the Shoreikai. Final note: 15-year old Yamazaki, who had been struggling in his san-dan league debut for most of the time, ended strongly with 5 consecutive wins. At that age you are not so bothered about pressure and you adjust much quicker to new circumstances. I put my money on the new young star for the next san dan leauge... Reijer -- 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