News & Topics

News & Topics
Hane defends Tengen title Hane Naoki has won the Tengen title for the third year in a row. This year's was expected to be a very tough defence for him, as he had done badly against the challenger, Yamashita Keigo Kisei. His career record against him was a miserable 2-8, and that included two successive wipeouts in Shinjin-O title matches in 1999 and 2000. However, go journalists often comment that past results are not a reliable guide in predicting the outcome of a match, and that's how it turned out. Despite losing the first game, Hane took a 2-1 lead; Yamashita survived the kadoban in the fourth game, but Hane triumphed in the fifth. This is a very good omen for his upcoming challenge to Yamashita for the Kisei title. The fifth game of the 29th Tengen title match was played in the Hotel Clement Tokushima in Tokushima City on 18 December. Taking white, Hane got off to a bad start when a group of his stones in the top left corner was captured. That gave Black an early territorial lead, though Hane had thickness as compensation. Hane later started a fight that spilled all over the board and that involved a ko. When Hane won this ko fight, he took the lead, and held on to it through precise endgame play. The game ended at 7:08 p.m. after 284 moves, and White won by 6.5 points. The time allowance in this title is only four hours per side, and each player was in the last minute of byo-yomi. Hane commented: "I'm very happy, because I didn't expect to win this match. I was able to display all my strength." Yamashtia: "The games I lost in this series were hopeless and even the games I won were upsets, so I can't complain about the result." Honinbo and Meijin leagues The second game in the new Meijin league and two games in the third round of the Honinbo league were played on 18 December. In the Meijin-league game, Cho U Honinbo got off to a good start; playing black, he defeated Yamada Kimio 8-dan by resignation. Since Cho is Honinbo, one may think that this was the natural result, but actually it's a good one for Cho, as Yamada has been enjoying marvellous form in recent months and was expected to do well in the league. His loss to Cho brought to an end a 14-game winning streak. In the Honinbo league, no one can catch Kobayashi Koichi, who has already played his third-round game and is on 3-0. However, two players showed that they have every intention of putting up a fight for the challengership. They are O Rissei and Cho Sonjin, who are following close behind Kobayashi. In his league game, O Rissei, playing white, defeated immediate past Honinbo Kato Masao by half a point. O goes to 2-1 and Kato to 1-2. In the other game, past Honinbo Cho Sonjin defeated the player who deposed him as Honinbo, O Meien; taking white, Cho won by 2.5 points. He also goes to 2-1, while O has made an abysmal start and is on 0-3. Two weddings Two weddings have been held recently. On 7 December, Yamashita Keigo Kisei and Takanashi Shoko held their wedding party at the Tokyo Hilton Hotel in Shinjuku. Takanashi is the younger sister of Takanashi Seiken 8-dan. Yamashita and his wife studied together at Kikuchi Yasuro's go school, the Ryokuseikai. The other auspicious occasion was a little earlier, on 30 November, when Ko Reibun 4-dan married Kobayashi Sayaka. Ko is the son of top Chinese players Nie Weiping 9-dan and Kong Shangming 8-dan, but he is now a naturalized Japanese. His bride is the eldest daughter of Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan. The latter looks so young that it's a bit of a shock to find he has a child old enough to marry (just for the record, Ko and Sayaka are both 21). Samsung follow-up Our Samsung report last week was a little incomplete. Cho Chikun's victory was front-page news in Go Weekly, of course, but the headline was: 'Chikun's great upset'. Apparently the third game was headed for an easy win for Pak Yeong-hun, but he made an terrible blunder on move 183, playing on the only point that allowed his opponent to pull off something. Pak must have felt awful, but after the game he was his normal self and calmly reviewed it with Cho. Cho lavishly praised his opponent after the game. He commented: "Despite his youth, he is already a person of magnificent character. If I had lost a game in that fashion, I would have been carrying on and making a great fuss."

Hane defends Tengen title
Hane Naoki has won the Tengen title for the third year in a row. This year's was expected to be a very tough defence for him, as he had done badly against the challenger, Yamashita Keigo Kisei. His career record against him was a miserable 2-8, and that included two successive wipeouts in Shinjin-O title matches in 1999 and 2000.
However, go journalists often comment that past results are not a reliable guide in predicting the outcome of a match, and that's how it turned out. Despite losing the first game, Hane took a 2-1 lead; Yamashita survived the kadoban in the fourth game, but Hane triumphed in the fifth. This is a very good omen for his upcoming challenge to Yamashita for the Kisei title.
The fifth game of the 29th Tengen title match was played in the Hotel Clement Tokushima in Tokushima City on 18 December. Taking white, Hane got off to a bad start when a group of his stones in the top left corner was captured. That gave Black an early territorial lead, though Hane had thickness as compensation. Hane later started a fight that spilled all over the board and that involved a ko. When Hane won this ko fight, he took the lead, and held on to it through precise endgame play.
The game ended at 7:08 p.m. after 284 moves, and White won by 6.5 points. The time allowance in this title is only four hours per side, and each player was in the last minute of byo-yomi.
Hane commented: "I'm very happy, because I didn't expect to win this match. I was able to display all my strength."
Yamashtia: "The games I lost in this series were hopeless and even the games I won were upsets, so I can't complain about the result."

Honinbo and Meijin leagues
The second game in the new Meijin league and two games in the third round of the Honinbo league were played on 18 December.
In the Meijin-league game, Cho U Honinbo got off to a good start; playing black, he defeated Yamada Kimio 8-dan by resignation. Since Cho is Honinbo, one may think that this was the natural result, but actually it's a good one for Cho, as Yamada has been enjoying marvellous form in recent months and was expected to do well in the league. His loss to Cho brought to an end a 14-game winning streak.
In the Honinbo league, no one can catch Kobayashi Koichi, who has already played his third-round game and is on 3-0. However, two players showed that they have every intention of putting up a fight for the challengership. They are O Rissei and Cho Sonjin, who are following close behind Kobayashi.
In his league game, O Rissei, playing white, defeated immediate past Honinbo Kato Masao by half a point. O goes to 2-1 and Kato to 1-2. In the other game, past Honinbo Cho Sonjin defeated the player who deposed him as Honinbo, O Meien; taking white, Cho won by 2.5 points. He also goes to 2-1, while O has made an abysmal start and is on 0-3.

Two weddings
Two weddings have been held recently. On 7 December, Yamashita Keigo Kisei and Takanashi Shoko held their wedding party at the Tokyo Hilton Hotel in Shinjuku. Takanashi is the younger sister of Takanashi Seiken 8-dan. Yamashita and his wife studied together at Kikuchi Yasuro's go school, the Ryokuseikai.
The other auspicious occasion was a little earlier, on 30 November, when Ko Reibun 4-dan married Kobayashi Sayaka. Ko is the son of top Chinese players Nie Weiping 9-dan and Kong Shangming 8-dan, but he is now a naturalized Japanese. His bride is the eldest daughter of Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan. The latter looks so young that it's a bit of a shock to find he has a child old enough to marry (just for the record, Ko and Sayaka are both 21).

Samsung follow-up
Our Samsung report last week was a little incomplete. Cho Chikun's victory was front-page news in Go Weekly, of course, but the headline was: 'Chikun's great upset'. Apparently the third game was headed for an easy win for Pak Yeong-hun, but he made an terrible blunder on move 183, playing on the only point that allowed his opponent to pull off something. Pak must have felt awful, but after the game he was his normal self and calmly reviewed it with Cho.
Cho lavishly praised his opponent after the game. He commented: "Despite his youth, he is already a person of magnificent character. If I had lost a game in that fashion, I would have been carrying on and making a great fuss."