| October 14, 2003 | |
| Cho Chikun wins Kisei B League The final round of the 28th Kisei B League was held at the Nihon Ki-in on 9 October, and the result was that Cho Chikun won the league. Actually, he ended in a tie with O Meien, with both on 4-1, but he took precedence because of his higher rank in the league. Cho will meet Hane Naoki, the winner of the A League, in a play-off to decide the challenger to Yamashita Kisei. The results of the final round: Cho Chikun (B) beat Ryu Shikun 9-dan by 3.5 points. As a result, Cho U (3-2) takes 3rd place, Yoda (2-3) 4th, and Ryu and Awaji (both on 1-4) drop out. So takes 28th King of the New Stars title So Yokoku 7-dan followed up his good start in the King of the New Stars (Shinjin-O) title match with a second win on 9 October to win this title for the first time. Playing white, So defeated Fujii Shuya of the Kansai Ki-in by resignation. Born in Guangzhou in China in 1979, So came to Japan in 1991 and made pro 1-dan three years later. This is his first title. Yuki wins 1st JAL Super Go Yuki Satoshi 9-dan of the Kansai Ki-in has scored another triumph in a haya-go (fast go) tournament, winning the 1st JAL Super Haya-go tournament, which is the successor to the 25th Kakusei Cup. Yuki won the last (25th) Kakusei Cup, so in effect he has repeated as champion, which is quite a feat in a knockout tournament. Taking white, Yuki won by 5.5 points. This is one of the few haya-go (quick go) tournaments that could justifiably be called a lightning tournament. There is no initial time allowance and the players have just ten seconds per move. However, they do have ten minutes thinking time that they can use at will in one-minute units, NHK style. 2nd Cheongkwanjang Cup starts The opening rounds of the 2nd Cheongkwanjang Cup, a Korean-sponsored women's international tournament, were recently held in Beijing. The name of this tournament literally means 'upright official's village'; it is the name of a health food made from red ginseng. We do not yet have full details, but apparently the semifinal places have been monopolized by Korea. Only one Japanese player, Aoki Kikuyo, got through to the second round, but she lost to last year's champion, Rui Naiwei. First round (8 October, Beijing)The remaining second-round games were apparently played on the 10th. We will publish the results when they come to hand. Yamashita to challenge for Tengen title The 29th Tengen title match will feature the first challenge to a 'young hawk' by a 'young hawk'. The play-off was held at the Nihon Ki-in on 9 October; playing white, Yamashita Keigo Kisei forced Kono Rin 7-dan to resign after 200 moves. Yamashita, aged 25, will challenge Hane Naoki, aged 27, for the title. In the past, Hane has done badly against Yamashita, losing successive King of the New Stars (Shinjin-O) title matches to him in 1999 and 2000, both by 0-2 scores. In all encounters, Yamashita has an 8-2 lead. However, there is no doubt that Hane has got a lot stronger in the last couple of years, so the title match should be a hard-fought one. The first game will be played on 30 October. Kato makes good start in Honinbo league The second game in the 59th Honinbo league was played at the Nihon Ki-in on 9 October. The immediate past Honinbo, Kato Masao 9-dan, made a good start in his quest for a return match with Cho; playing black, he defeated Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan by resignation. Yashiro doing well Yashiro Kumiko 5-dan, who has the lead in the ongoing Women's Honinbo title match, is making a bid to challenge for its sister title, the Women's Meijin, as well. The latter tournament is organized like the Judan, with parallel winners' and losers' sections. The play-off of the winners' section was held at the Nihon Ki-in on 8 October; holding white, Yashiro forced a resignation from Chinen Kaori, Women's Kisei. This was a very encouraging win for her, as she had done very badly against Chinen in the past; her record against her was 3-8 before this game and she was sitting on a losing streak of four games. However, Yashiro is the in-form player in Japanese women's go at present, and she scored a convincing win against Chinen. Yashiro now has to wait for the winner of the losers' section to be decided. Komatsu reaches milestone Because of the computerization of the Nihon Ki-in records, more milestones are being noticed by the go press. We can't claim that they are all terribly significant, but they may be of interest to statistically-minded fans. The most recent such milestone to be published is Komatsu Hideki's scoring his 600th win. He is the 37th player to reach this total, but, at 36 years 7 months, he is the 6th-youngest to do so. Promotion Nakane Naoyuki has won promotion to 8-dan by the transitional Oteai system. The promotion is dated 10 October. Westerners at the Nihon Ki-in Michael Redmond played two games in the Fujitsu Preliminary A qualifying tournament on 6 October. He won the first, against Kato Atsushi 8-dan, by a forfeit (Kato did not play), but lost the second, against Miyazawa Goro 9-dan, so he has been eliminated. Taking black, Miyazawa won by 3.5 points. |