From: Manabu Terao - Nihon Sun RM Advisory Staff
Date: 16 mar 1997
Subject: Re: Habu and his Castles

Patrick Davin wrote

> Habu Meijin plays a wide variety of openings.  In the past two years, he
> has certainly played all the major openings.  And tried a few experiments,
> too.  Not always successfully.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the openings Habu Meijin has not chosen for
these 2 years are

      Double Ranging Rook,
      Ranging Rook but Fourth File Rook
      King's Head Vanguard Pawn against Ranging Rook
      Central Vanguard Pawn against Ranging Rook

Maybe there are other strategies he has not chosen.

> Habu's area of strength is the endgame.  If he's winning, he just wins.
> If he's behind (which is surprisingly often), he finds a way to
> confuse the issue.  In Japan, this is called "Habu magic".
> In the recent Kio match against Morishita, (a famous openings
> specialist), which he won 3-0, all three games turned around
> in the endgame, if I'm not mistaken.  He's certainly got nerves
> of steel.

They say Habu's endgame style has become different from it used to be.
He never gave up a game until the last moment of defeat regardless of
how he appeared in others' eyes when he was a lower dan player. However,
being a title holders, he loses gracefully when he is in a hopeless
position. It is surprising me that Habu still has a lot of reversal
games called "Habu magic" in the endgame after changing his style of
endgame.

Manabu Terao