History of Topics 2010

  The third game of the 48th Judan title match was held in the city of Omachi in Nagano Prefecture on 8 April. Three days before, Yamashita had defeated Iyama Yuta Meijin in the Honinbo League play-off, so he didn't appear to be in bad form generally. It's just against Cho U that he was having problems. So far this year, the two had played eight games, and Cho had won seven of them.

  Once again, Yamashita, playing white, fell behind in the opening. He made a mistake in the timing of a peep, which let Black gain an advantage. Yamashita fought hard after that and succeeded in creating complications, but was not able to upset Cho's lead.
  The game concluded at 5:45 p.m. (the relatively early time is due to the shortness of the time allowance, which is four hours per player). Yamashita resigned after 275 moves.
  This match concluded a remarkable series of six successive title matches for Cho. First was the Gosei (won), followed by the Meijin (lost), Oza (won), Tengen (lost), Kisei (won), and the Judan (won); his record was 4-2. The last three matches were all with Yamashita.

Cho U Jyudan VS. Yamashita Keigo Challenger

* Date: mm/dd

  The final of the large-scale BC Card Cup, which started in January with 64 players in the first round, was held from 24 to 27 April and pitted Yi Se-tol 9-dan of Korea against Chang Hao 9-dan of China. The result was a victory with three straight wins for Yi, who has been enjoying marvellous form since his return to competitive go after a six-month sabbatical. We don't have the latest figure, but at one point he had scored 18 successive wins.
  First prize is 300 million won.

The results:

Game 1 (24 April). Yi Se-tol (B) by resignation. Game 2 (25 April). Yi (W) by resignation. Game 3 (27 April). Yi (B) by resignation.

  The Pair Go World Cup was held in Hangzhou, China on 21 and 22 March as one of the events commemorating the 20th anniversary of the birth of Pair Go. Sixteen pairs from 12 countries took part, and victory went to the home team of Song Ronghui 5-dan and Xie He 7-dan, who beat the Korean team of Yi Min-chin 5-dan and Mok Chin-seok 9-dan.

  The first two rounds of the 8th Chunlan Cup, a Chinese-sponsored international tournament, were held in Beijing at the end of March. Five Japanese representatives took part, of whom the most successful was the oldest, Cho Chikun. He beat a top Korean player and a top Chinese player to reach the quarterfinals. Besides Cho, there are five Chinese and two Korean players in the quarterfinals, one of the latter being Yi Se-tol.

  The game between 18-year-old Gu Lingyi of China and Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan of Korea provided a puzzle for their fellow professionals. Yi resigned the game, though it looked like a half-pointer, possibly favouring him. On his blog (accessible on the Nihon Ki-in's HP, though in Japanese), Takao Shinji wrote that it was a mystery why Yi resigned. Takao played out the game and got a half-point win for White (Yi); he then went over the game more carefully, but still concluded it was a half-pointer. Actually it seemed to be a game White could be proud of, but perhaps Yi was upset about something not obvious to anyone else.

Round 1 (27 March)   Iyama Yuta 9-dan (Japan) (B) beat Czaba Mero (Europe) by resignation.   Yuki Satoshi 9-dan (Japan) (B) beat Lin Zhihan 8-dan (Taiwan) by resignation.   Cho Chikun 9-dan (W) beat Kang Tongyun 9-dan (Korea) by resignation.   Yamashita Keigo 9-dan (Japan) (W) beat Chen Yaoye 9-dan (China) by 4.5 points.   Heo Yeong-ho 7-dan (Korea) (W) beat Yoda Norimoto 9-dan (Japan) by 6.5 points.   Gu Lingyi 5-dan (China) (B) beat Jiang Mingjiu 7-dan (USA) by resignation.   Yi Se-tol 9-dan (Korea) (B) beat Zhou Junxun 9-dan (Taiwan) by resignation.   Ch'oe Ch'eol-han 9-dan (Korea) (W) beat Hu Yaoyu 8-dan (China) by 1.5 points.

Round 2 (29 March)   Gu Li 9-dan (China) (B) beat Yamashita by resignation.   Xie He 7-dan (China) (B) beat Iyama by resignation.   Cho Chikun (B) beat Qiu Jun 8-dan (China) by resignation.   Kong Jie 9-dan (China) (W) beat Ch'oe by resignation.   Heo (W) beat Chang Hao 9-dan (China) by resignation.   Gu Lingyi (b) beat Yi Ch'ang-ho-ho 9-dan (Korea) by resignation.   Yi Se-tol (W) beat Sun Tengyu 7-dan (China) by resignation.   Wang Xi 9-dan (China) (B) beat Yuki by resig.

Quarterfinal pairings (November)   Gu vs. Gu, Kong vs. Heo, Wang vs. Yi, Xie vs. Cho.

  This year Chinese players have done best in the Fujitsu Cup, taking three of the semifinal places. To no one's surprise, the fourth player is Yi Se-tol, who only seems to have got better from his lay-off. Departing from previous practice, the tournament started off with three rounds being played immediately, instead of the usual two. This is in line with the recent trend of economizing on time because of the increasingly hectic schedule of international go.

  The host country did well in the first round, winning four of the five games it played, but no local survived the second round, in which the seeded players make their appearance.

Round 1 (Nihon Ki-in, Tokyo, 10 April)   Hane Naoki 9-dan (Japan) (W) beat Ch'oe Ch'eol-han 9-dan (Korea) by 1.5 points.   Ishida Yoshio 9-dan (Japan) (B) beat Mok Chin-seok 9-dan (Korea) by resignation.   Takao Shinji 9-dan (Japan) (W) beat Fernando Aguilar, amateur 6-dan (South America), by resignation.   Anzai Nobuaki 6-dan (Japan) (W) beat Chen Shiyuan 8-dan (Taiwan) by 2.5 points.   Qiu Jun 8-dan (China) (W) beat Sakai Hideyuki 7-dan (Japan) by 2.5 points.   Pak Cheong-hwan (Korea) (W) beat Chang Hao 9-dan (China) by resignation.   Kim Chi-seok 7-dan (Korea) (B) beat Alexandre Dinerstein 3-dan (Russia) by resignation.   Piao Wenyao 5-dan (China) (B) beat Jie Li, amateur 7-dan (USA), by resignation.

Round 2 (Tokyo, 12 April)   Kang Tong-yun 9-dan (Korea) (W) beat Hane by resignation.   Qiu (W) beat Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan (Korea) by resignation.   Yi Se-tol 9-dan (Korea) (B) beat Anzai by 3.5 points.   Pak Yeong-hun 9-dan (Korea) (W) beat Takao by 4.5 points.   Gu Li 9-dan (China) (W) beat Pak Cheong-hwan by resignation.   Kong Jie 9-dan (China) (B) beat Ishida by 8.5 points.   Piao (B) beat Yamashita Keigo 9-dan (Japan) by 2.5 points.   Kim (W) beat Cho U 9-dan (Japan) by resignation.

Quarterfinals (Tokyo, 14 April)   Qiu (W) beat Kang by half a point.   Kong (W) beat Kim by resignation.   Piao (W) beat Pak by resignation.   Yi Se-tol (W) beat Gu Li by resignation.

  The qualifying round of the 15th LG Cup started at the Hanguk Kiwon in Seoul on 17 April with 49 players from Japan taking part. In an unusual step, two Japanese players who were paired in the opening round played their game in Japan on 5 April, saving the loser the expense of a fruitless trip to Korea. To our knowledge, this is the first time this has happened in an international tournament.
  The qualifying round was dominated by young Chinese players, who took 11 of the 16 seats in the main tournament at stake. The remaining five were taken by Koreans. Japan again failed to gain a seat, but not all was black. Suzuki Ayumi 5-dan almost reached the final round; she scored a notable win over the top young Chinese player Gu Lingyi 5-dan.
  Four Japanese players are seeded: Iyama Yuta, Yoda Norimoto, Takao Shinji, and Yamada Kimio.

  After an exciting game with a lot of twists and turns, Takao Shinji 9-dan secured victory by a bare half point in the final of the 3rd Daiwa Securities Cup Net Igo Grand Champion Tournament, which was held at the headquarters in Tokyo of Daiwa Securities. Takao had black, and his defeated opponent was Kono Rin 9-dan.
  This tournament is open to the winners of the male and female versions of the ordinary Daiwa Securities Cups played on the Net. In the semifinals, Kono defeated Cho U Kisei, and Takao beat Iyama Yuta Meijin. First prize is 4 million yen.

  Yamashita Keigo started the year badly by losing the Kisei title but he has a chance to make up for that by taking another big-three title. In the play-off to decide the challenger for the 65th Honinbo title, held at the Nihon Ki-in on 5 April, Yamashita (W) defeated Iyama Yuta Meijin by resignation. The title match will get off to a start on 11 May.
  All the games in the final round of the 65th Honinbo League were held on 1 April, and the result was one that had looked more and more likely during the final stage of the league: a tie between Iyama Yuta Meijin and Yamashita Keigo Tengen. They both won their final games, so they both finished on 6-1. Takao Shinji was one point behind them.
  This year there was clear split between the top four and the bottom four, with Cho U, in 4th place on 4-3, being two points ahead of the next three players.
  This will be Yamashita's fourth successive title match. Starting with the Tengen last year, which he won, he played in the Kisei (lost), the Judan (lost), and now the Honinbo.

The 65th Honinbo League Play Off

Title holder: Hane Naoki

The 65th Honinbo League	Title holder: Hane Naoki
in the chart	* B = playing black, W = playing white * 1 = win, 0 = loss * Date: mm/dd

  The first game of the title match was played in Otaru city in Hokkaido on 11 and 12 May just before we went to press (or the Net equivalent). Taking black, Hane Naoki won by 3.5 points.
  The game finished at 8:22 p.m. after 297 moves. Both sides were down to the second-last minute of byo-yomi. Yamashita had taken the lead when he captured a black group in a fight that broke out early in the endgame. However, Hane played a do-or-die move that plunged the game into a chaotic fight. A large trade took place in which Hane managed to upset Yamashita's lead.
  The second game will be played on 26 & 27 May.

Hane Naoki HONINBO vs. Yamashita Keigo

  In the play-off to decide the challenger for the 35th Gosei title, Sakai Hideyuki 7-dan of the Kansai Ki-in defeated Yamashita Keigo Tengen and so earned the right to make his first challenge for a title. The game was held at the Nihon Ki-in on 6 May; taking white, Sakai forced a resignation.
  Sakai is an unusual figure in today's go world. He was a top amateur player who won the World Amateur Go Championship in 2000. He also qualified as a doctor at Kyoto University and practised his profession for a while before succumbing to the lure of go.

He became a professional 5-dan at the Kansai Ki-in in, after winning four test games with professionals, in September 2001, at the age of 28. In recent years, he has become one of the top two or three Kansai Ki-in players, doing particularly well in the Meijin League, in which he has played for five years in a row. An interesting side note is that Sakai is the first player who turned professional after the age of 20 to challenge for a top-seven title.
  The defending champion is Cho U, who at present stands head and shoulders above other players in Japan, so his debut match will be a tough test for Sakai. Cho has the additional motivation of aiming at his fifth Gosei title in a row, which would qualify him for the title of Honorary Gosei. Sakai hasn't played many games with Cho yet, but he has an even record, 2-2, and Cho commented that he's lost some important games to him.
  The first three games of the match are scheduled for 24 June, 9 July and 20 July.

  In a game in the round of 16 in the 36th Tengen tournament, played on 1 April, Michael Redmond (W) defeated Ishida Atsushi 9-dan by resignation. This is his best performance in a tournament for a while. His quarterfinal opponent will be Yoda Norimoto 9-dan. So far, Michael's best results are taking second place in the King of the New Stars tournament in 1992 and reaching the semifinals of the Gosei tournament in 2006. Michael needs three more wins to challenge Yamashita Keigo for the title.

  With most members having reached the halfway point, games in the 35th Meijin League are becoming more important in deciding the eventual challenger. Takao Shinji had led the league all the way and was in sole first place on 4-0. He was closely pursued by two players on 3-1, Cho U and Yuki Satoshi.
  In the fifth round, Cho met Takao in a game that was first climax of the league. Cho won, so he caught up with Takao. Yuki Satoshi also won his fifth-round game, so this set up a three-way tie. Cho is in the most advantageous position, as the top-ranked player; without intending any offence to his remaining opponents, one could also say that he had already met his toughest rivals (his only loss was to Yuki). Takao's final-round game with Yuki may well become the crucial game.

(8 April)	Mizokami Tomochika 8-dan (B) defeated Yamada Kimio 9-dan by resignation. Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, (B) defeated Ogata Masaki 9-dan by 11.5 points. Yuki Satoshi 9-dan (B) defeated O Meien 9-dan by resignation.
(19 April)	Cho U Kisei (W) beat Sakai Hideyuki 7-dan by 3.5 points.
(6 May)	Cho U Kisei (B) beat Takao Shinji 9-dan by resignation. Yuki Satoshi (W) beat Cho Chikun by resignation. Mizokami Tomochika 8-dan (W) beat O Meien by resignation.

  Not surprisingly, in view of his recent one-sided successes in title matches, Cho U has taken first place in the list with a 15-6 record (as of 7 May). He is followed by Iyama Yuta on 14-9, Takao Shinji on 13-6, and Yamashita Keigo on 13-13.

  Fujisawa Shuko's niece Rina has made her debut with three unofficial games. Every year, Go Weekly arranges the 'New Shodan Series', pitting the debutant 1-dans against top players. Taking black and receiving a komi of 6.5 points, Rina played Cho Chikun in late April. She played well, putting Cho under some pressure, but was outfought in the middle game and resigned after 152 moves. The diplomatic Cho commented that she was ber than him when he was 1-dan.
  Rina's next two games were in the 7th Nakano Cup, an unofficial tournament organized by Go Weekly for players under 21. Both games were played on 3 May and both were won by Rina. Details are as follows:
  Fujisawa Rina 1-dan (W) beat Kibe Natsuki, an insei, by resignation.
  Fujisawa Rina (W) beat Adachi Toshimasa 1-dan by 2.5 points.

To 7-dan: Rin Kanketsu (120 wins)
To 6-dan: (Ms.) Kuwabara Yoko (90 wins)

  Michael Redmond has been doing well recently, as mentioned above, and has won all the games listed in this report.
  (29 March) Redmond 9-dan (B) beat Kenmochi Jo 7-dan by resignation; Redmond (B) beat Kono Mitsuki 8-dan by half a point (both games in Preliminary A, 17th Agon Kiriyama Cup).
  (1 April) Redmond (W) beat Ishida Atsushi 9-dan by resignation (36th Tengen tournament, main section).
  (8 May) Redmond (W) beat Nakano Hironari by 4.5 points (final section, 17th Agon Kiriyama Cup).

  In the 16th Asian Games, to be held in Guangzhou, China in November, go will be an official event for the first time. There will be men's and women's team events and a Pair Go tournament. To coordinate the Japanese entries, a new body, the All-Japan Go Federation, was founded on 1 April. The founding members are the Nihon Ki-in, the Kansai Ki-in, and the Japan Pair Go Association. It will apply to the Japan Olympic Committee to become a member.

  Kitamura Yoji died on 11 April from a haemorrhage caused by a stomach ulcer. He was 75 years old.
  Born on 17 March 1935 in Kochi Prefecture, Kitamura first became a disciple of Kambara Shigeji 7-dan, then of Murashima Yoshinori, honorary 9-dan. He became 1-dan in 1955 and reached 7-dan in 1983. He won the second section of the Oteai in 1960. He was posthumously promoted to 8-dan.

  Three players retired on the 31 March. They are Kosugi Masaru 7-dan, Ishibashi Chinami 5-dan (both members of the Tokyo branch of the Nihon Ki-in), and Kuwata Yasuaki 8-dan, a member of the Nagoya branch. Each was promoted one rank to commemorate his retirement.