Shogi genius Habu gets record 1,434th victory

At times when players think for an hour between moves, not to mention taking a full day or more to finish a game, has got to drive the commentators crazy. What tactical information can they discuss for that long, before getting into the default mode of speculation about the players' psychological states? That is why shogi, chess, dungeons and dragons, and other slow paced board games stay at an underground level.

@BigYen--during the Cold War, chess by Fischer vs. Spasky etc. got a lot of press coverage. But I think that was driven mostly by politics. Casual observers may have been excited by the symbolic clash of brain power from two competing superpowers. Later chess returned to higher visibility as a man vs. technology (Deep Blue etc) battle, which also reflected the worries about the rise of computing power supplanting human workers. The defense of his title by long time top player Magnus Carlson about half a year ago didn't do much to raise chess popularity. If it were really a strongly competitive global game that paid enough to play it full time, I doubt that a single player would dominate the rankings for as long as Carlson has, maybe a decade now. Shogi world has highlighted both young pros and veterans like Habu to broaden its appeal, with regular stories on NHK. I don't know if western Chess can count on big media boosts like shogi has with NHK.