Now that Habu failed to take the Ryu-O off Fujii and so cannot make a clean sweep of the titles (for the time being), among the main points of interest before the end of the season (March 31) are:
- a) whether he can beat Yonenaga's record of 88 games in a season1 (something he privately expressed some interest in a couple of months ago)
- b) whether he can surpass his own record of 64 wins in a season.
As he was 59-18 on 2nd February, a) is a good chance and b) almost certain.
The only title matches left this season are the Osho (best of 7) and Kio (best of 5) in which Habu respectively leads Tanigawa 3-1 and Kubo 1-0. (Habu has now beaten Tanigawa 4-1).
The last round of A class is March 2nd and the Meijin challenger at the beginning of next season is now sure to be the winner of the Tanigawa-Sato game.
The 2 TV knock-out tournaments are at the quarterfinal stage. Habu is still in both and will also have at least one game in early stages of next Ryu-O.
1 Since shogi events are virtually all knock-outs, number of games is a clear indication of success.
Here are some key Shogi records:
| Most Wins in a season |
| 1 |
Habu |
64 |
1988 |
| 2 |
Moriuchi |
63 |
1991 |
| 3 |
Habu |
61 |
1992 |
| 4= |
Nakahara |
56 |
1970 |
| |
Tanigawa |
56 |
1985 |
| |
Morishita |
56 |
1990 |
| 7 |
Yonenaga |
55 |
1980 |
| 8 |
Morishita |
54 |
1991 |
| 9 |
Oyama |
53 |
1979 |
| |
Habu |
53 |
1989 |
| |
Tanigawa |
53 |
1991 |
| Most Games in a season |
| 1 |
Yonenaga |
88 |
1980 |
| 2 |
Tanigawa |
86 |
1985 |
| 3 |
Nakahara |
82 |
1982 |
| 4 |
Habu |
80 |
1988 |
| 5 |
Moriuchi |
79 |
1991 |
| 6= |
Morishita |
78 |
1991 |
| |
Habu |
78 |
1991 |
| 8 |
Kato |
77 |
1984 |
| 9 |
Tanigawa |
76 |
1986 |
| 10= |
Oyama |
75 |
1974 |
| |
Yonenaga |
75 |
1974 |
| Most consecutive wins |
| 1 |
Kamiya |
28 |
1986-87 |
| 2 |
Maruyama |
24 |
1994 |
| 3= |
Tsukada |
22 |
1986 |
| |
Habu |
22 |
1992 |
| 5 |
Ariyoshi |
20 |
1984 |
| 6= |
Habu |
18 |
1987-88 |
| |
Nakata H. |
18 |
1991 |
| |
Maruyama |
18 |
1999 |
| 9= |
Ouchi |
17 |
1966 |
| |
Shoshi |
17 |
1987 |
| |
Maruyama |
17 |
1995 |
| Season Percentage |
| 1 |
Nakahara |
85.5 |
(47-8) |
1968 |
| 2 |
Habu |
83.6 |
(46-9) |
1995 |
| 3 |
Kiriyama |
82.6 |
(38-8) |
1968 |
| 4 |
Nakahara |
82.1 |
(32-7) |
1966 |
| 5 |
Habu |
82.0 |
(50-11) |
1987 |
| 6 |
Ouchi |
81.8 |
(27-6) |
1966 |
| 7 |
Kubo |
81.0 |
(34-8) |
1994 |
| 8 |
Serizawa |
80.6 |
(25-6) |
1960 |
| 9 |
Habu |
80.0 |
(64-16) |
1988 |
| |
Fukaura |
80.0 |
(44-11) |
1994 |
|
|
