Korea triumphs in Fujitsu Cup
It was Korea day in the 13th Fujitsu Cup on 12 August, with Korean players winning both the final and the play-off for third place. In the final, Cho Hun-hyun 9-dan (B) forced Chang Hao 9-dan of China to resign after 203 moves and so won his second Fujitsu Cup. In the play-off, Mok Jin-seuk 5-dan defeated Kobayashi Satoru (details not yet available) to take third place and also secure a seeded place in next year's Fujitsu Cup. Both games were played at the Kudan Kaikan in Tokyo. This double triumph for Korea confirms yet again, not that confirmation was needed, her ascendancy in international go. Korea has now won 24 of the 45 international titles held to date. The result of the final must have been a bitter disappointment for Chang Hao, as Chinese fans were expecting big things of him and there was a lot of on-the-spot coverage by the Chinese media. He has yet to win an international tournament.
Yoda becomes Meijin challenger
O Meien stumbled in the final round of the 25th Meijin league, losing to Kato Masao 9-dan. The game was played at the Nihon Ki-in on 3 August and Kato, playing black, defeated O by resignation. On the same day, Yoda Norimoto 9-dan (B) defeated Hane Naoki 8-dan, also by resignation, so he ended up on 6-2 and tied O for first place. Two other games were played on the same day, with the following results: O Rissei Kisei (W) defeated Kobayashi Koichi by 13.5 points and Ryu Shikun 7-dan (W) defeated Imamura Yoshiaki 8-dan by resignation. A play-off to decide the challenger was held on 7 August. Playing black, Yoda won this by 2.5 points and so will challenge for the Meijin title for the second year in a row. Yoda was reported to be staking everything psychologically on the Meijin title this year, so we should witness an exciting title match. On the other hand, O Meien will be very disappointed to slip up in the final round. There would have been a nice symmetry about it if he had won both the Honinbo and Meijin leagues in the same year, and 2000 would definitely have been remembered as the year of O Meien. The final standings in the Meijin league are as follows: 1st: Yoda 6-2 2nd: O Meien 6-2 3rd: O Rissei 5-3 4th: Hane Naoki 5-3 5th: Ryu Shikun 4-4 6th: Kato Masao 4-4 Falling out of the league: Kobayashi Koichi 3-5, Takemiya Masaki 2-6, Imamura Yoshiaki 1-7.
Awaji keeps sole lead in Kisei A League
Awaji Shuzo was already the sole leader of the Kisei A League after two rounds. In a game played at the Nihon K-in on 10 August, he defeated Imamura Toshiya 9-dan by 3.5 points (Awaji had black), so he has kept his lead. Imamura drops back to 1-2. Awaji still has to play Cho Chikun, who is on 1-1, and Yo Kagen (0-2), but at the moment he has to be given a good chance of winning the league. Everything will depend on his game with Cho.
Judan tournament
Two games were held in the Losers' Section of the 39th Judan tournament last week. In one, Yamashita Keigo 6-dan (W) defeated Cho Chikun Meijin by resignation. In the other, Ogaki Yusaku 8-dan (W) defeated Otake Hideo 9-dan, also by resignation.
Samsung Qualifiers
The preliminary tournament for the 5th Samsung Cup was held in Seoul from 26 July to 1 August. Twelve players from the Nihon Ki-in and four from the Kansai Ki-in plus two other players based in Japan, Michael Redmond representing North America and Hans Pietsch representing Europe, made the trip from Japan. Since all expenses, including transportation and accommodation, have to be borne by the player himself, the conditions are quite different from other international tournaments. Actually, the Samsung Cup is the only international tournament in which players go to the host country to compete in a preliminary (usually, as with the Fujitsu Cup, separate preliminaries are held in each country). Eligibility is determined by the prize money rankings in each country. Perhaps because of the expense -- and the possibility of a wasted trip if one loses -- some top players from Japan, such as O Meien Honinbo, passed up the tournament. (The Japanese seeds were decided before O won the Honinbo title.) In the end, only three of the 18 players from Japan qualified for the main tournament: Yokota Shigeaki 9-dan of the Kansai Ki-in and Nakano Hironari 9-dan and Ko Mosei 8-dan of the Nihon Ki-in. One encounter of interest: the new star of Korean go, Lee Se-dol 3-dan, who is only 17, beat Hane Naoki 8-dan of Japan.
Korea wins Japan-Korea Go Exchange
The Japan-Korea Go Exchange is an unofficial series of goodwill matches between young players from Japan and Korea. On the Japanese side, it is mainly organized by Oya Koichi 8-dan, who gets together a group of Japanese players to visit Korea. This year it was held for the 7th time, and the Japanese team was made up of players visiting Korea to participate in the Samsung Cup preliminaries. When we say "young" players, that applies to the Korean side more than to the Japanese. This has been an explosion of interest in go among young people in Korea, resulting in the emergence of a very strong group of young professionals at the Korean Ki-in (Hanguk Kiwon). According to Oya, every year the Korean team seems to be getting younger and younger. This year almost all of their players were teenagers, whereas there was not one on the Japanese team. The honours in the two-match series went to the youthful Korean team, which won 20-16. Korea has now won three years in a row and has an overall lead of 5-2. Oya himself scored 1-1. Best for the Japanese team were Yamashita Keigo, Akiyama Jiro, Nakano Hironari, Kurahashi Masayuki and Kiyonari Tetsuya, who all won both their games.
Promotions
The following two players won promotions in the first week of August: To 2-dan: Ko Reibun (son of Nie Weiping 9-dan and Kong Shangming 8-dan); Yamamoto Tadanao.