From: Richard Sams PARKCITY NE JP> Date: 8 jan 2003 Subject: Re: Habu Retains Ryu-O Title Dear All, Habu has just won the 7th game of the Ryu-O Match to retain his title against the challenger Abe. The match was broadcast live on NHK Satellite and they even rescheduled a couple of animated cartoon programs to show the final hour live. When I started watching (at 4.00pm local time) Abe (Black) was clearly better, with a material advantage (bishop for silver) and seemingly a faster attack than Habu's. All the commentators (Takahashi, Tanigawa, and Sato) thought Abe was winning, but they couldn't find a concrete way of breaking through. Abe seemed to have the same problem and looked increasingly nervous as his time began to run out. He muttered to himself ("soka, soka"), repeatedly opened and closed his fan, and swayed backwards and forwards. Meanwhile Habu sat still and concentrated on the position with a poker face. This was Abe's first title match and his inexperience showed in the final minutes of this final game. He misplayed the attack, gave the material advantage back to Habu and resigned in hopeless position. The commentator Takahashi made a strange remark at the end, saying that if Abe had won, the shogi world might have changed, but now it was back to "business as usual." According to the commentators, this was Habu's 6th Ryu-O title. He needs just one more to become "Lifetime Ryu-O." Richard Sams