Moriuchi beat Habu in 4-3 in the 70th Meijin-sen best of seven match. The Mainichi Daily News reported it.
- Moriuchi defeats shogi champ Habu to claim 6th Meijin title - The Mainichi Daily News
KOFU -- Shogi player Toshiyuki Moriuchi claimed his sixth Meijin title on June 22 after recovering from three straight losses to defeat champ Yoshiharu Habu in game seven of the 69th Meijin match.
Moriuchi, 40, won the final game of the best-of-seven match in Kofu in 123 moves. It was the first time for a player to win the Meijin title after having three straight wins followed by three straight losses. Habu and Moriuchi both had three minutes left on the clock at the end of the game.
"From the fourth game on, no good chances appeared for me, but I thought I'd put all my effort into game seven," Moriuchi said. "It was tough shogi, but I managed to hold out. I'm surprised that I won."
Habu attributed his loss to mistakes in the game.
"I had three straight wins after three losses, but all I could do was play one game at a time. Nothing special happened. I think I lost because I made many mistakes," he said.
It was the second time for Moriuchi to win the title back from Habu. Moriuchi ranks fifth in the overall number of Meijin titles, after Yasuharu Oyama (18 titles), Makoto Nakahara (15 titles), Yoshio Kimura (eight titles) and Habu (seven titles).
Habu is now left with two separate titles: Oza and Kisei.
The 69th Meijin match was sponsored by The Mainichi Newspapers Co. and The Asahi Shimbun Co., with cooperation from Daiwa Securities Group.
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