History of Topics 2003

  The 27th Kisei title match has ended in a triumph for Yamashita Keigo 7-dan with a 4-1 victory over the reigning champion O Rissei. Yamashita becomes, at 24, the younger person ever to win the Kisei title and the fourth-youngest player to win a big-three title (Ishida won the Honinbo at 22, Rin the Meijin at 23, and Cho Chikun the Meijin at 24). Yamashita has reached the top just ten years after becoming a professional, and his win is the latest sign of a changeover of generations at the top level of Japanese go.
  The fifth game of the best-of-seven was played at Amaharashi (which means 'clearing up after rain') Hot Spring in Takaoka City in Toyama Prefecture on 26 & 27 February. Playing white, Yamashita came out on top in a tense endgame struggle by 1.5 points.
  The game ended at 8:11 p.m. on the second day after 364 moves. Both players were down to their final minute of byo-yomi.
  The game seemed to be going well for O Rissei when he skilfully set up a ko in the early middle game, then later pulled out a weak group with a clever leaning attack. Rescuing his group enabled him to launch an attack on a large white group that had invaded his moyo. He made a move to cut off its escape route that seemed to give him the initiative, but Yamashita hit back with a severe counter that he had overlooked and took profit while securing his group. Even after that, the game was very close and looked like being a half-pointer, but O lost a point in the endgame.
  Two features of Yamashita's play impressed observers. First, his calmness: he didn't seem at all overawed by the occasion and didn't seem to suffer from nerves at all. The second was that he remained faithful to himself, playing the bold, aggressive style that has won him many fans, particularly among the younger generation of new fans attracted to go by the 'Hikaru no Go' series. All in all, he convincingly outplayed O, so he is a worthy title holder.
  Incidentally, Yamashita is the first disciple of Kikuchi Yasuro, founded of the Ryokusei Gakuen, to win a big title.

  The first game of the 15th Women's Meijin best-of-three title match was played at the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo on 26 February. Playing black, the challenger, Kobayashi Izumi 5-dan, defeated Aoki Kikuyo 8-dan by resignation.
  The second game will be played on 5 March.

  Two games were played in the Honinbo and Meijin leagues on 27 February. In the Meijin league, Rin Kaiho (B) defeated O Meien by resignation, so Rin takes the sole lead on 3-0. O drops to 1-2.   In the Honinbo league, Kobayashi Koichi (B) beat Ryu Shikun by resignation. Kobayashi goes to 2-3, so he might have an outside chance of keeping his place. Ryu dropped to 1-4 and is already doomed to demotion.

  Yamashita Keigo demonstrated awesome fighting power in the fourth game of the 27th Kisei title match, rolling O Rissei Kisei over in 119 moves to secure his third win. Just one more win and we will see a new, young Kisei.
  The fourth game was played at the Miyazaki Kanko (Sightseeing) Hotel in Miyazaki City in Kyushu on 19 and 20 February. Actually, the game was decided by Yamashita's sealed move, Black 69, a violent nose contact play that none of the pros following the game in the pressroom had predicted. Yamashita commented later that he had completely read out the variations before he chose this move, so he probably slept soundly that night.
  Black 69 was the strongest move, and though O is noted for his shinogi (saving weak groups) ability, he decided there was no point even trying to save the stones under attack. He tried to get back into the game by staking out a large potential area in another part of the board, but Yamashita was unrelenting, always going for the strongest move. When he successfully invaded a corner that was the centerpiece of the large territory O was trying to take, O had no choice but to resignaiton. He did so at 11:31 a.m., which is unusually early for a two-day game. He had used five hours 1 minute of his time allowance of eight hours; Yamashita used four hours 56 minutes.
  O now has his back to the wall. He is noted for his tenacity and never-say-die fighting spirit, so Yamashita won't be counting his chickens yet, but his chances certainly look good at this point.
  The fifth game will be played in Takaoka City in Toyama Prefecture on 26 & 27 February.

  Osawa Narumi 2-dan has won her second Women's Kakusei title. Her first success was in the 21st title match in 1999, when she was still a 1-dan. In the final of the 24th title, played on 17 February, she defeated Umezawa Yukari 5-dan (W) by resignation. This is the second final that Umezawa has lost recently; her first title is proving elusive.

  Takao Shinji 8-dan is getting ready to move on to the major leagues with his upcoming debuts in a top-seven title match, the Judan, and the Fujitsu Cup, but he is keeping his hand in with the minor titles. In the final of the 33rd New Stars tournament, held on 17 February, he defeated Kim Shujun 7-dan (B) by 1.5 points. This is a haya-go tournament sponsored by TV Tokyo.

  A 'new face' will be making his appearance in the 41st Judan title match: 26-year-old Takao Shinji 8-dan. Takao, who is a disciple of Kikuchi Yasuro at the Ryokusei Gakuen, has won two junior titles (the Shinjin-O or King of the New Stars in 1996 and the NEC New Stars in 2000) and one haya-go title, the Ryusei Cup in 2000, but this will be his first challenge for a top-seven title.
  For some time, Takao has been bracketed with Yamashita Keigo as one of the most promising players of the younger generation, but the latter has forged ahead of him in the last couple of years. Now it may be Takao's turn, as he has been displaying superb form recently. Fittingly, it was Yamashita whom he defeated to become the Judan challenger.
  Yamashita, who is two years younger, won the Winners' Section of the Judan tournament on 20 October last year. He defeated, in order, Kato Masao Honinbo, Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, Yamada Kimio 8-dan, and, in the final, Kataoka Satoshi 9-dan. He then had to wait over three and a half months for the play-off. In contrast, Takao lost in the first round of the Winners' Section to Yamada Kimio, so he moved sideways to the Losers' Section. There he defeated a line-up of opponents no less formidable than Yamashita's - three of the players were actually the same: Kobayashi Koichi Gosei, Kato Masao, Hashimoto Yujiro 9-dan, Kataoka Satoshi, and then Cho Chikun in the final (held on 16 January).
  Takao and Yamashita have been rivals since elementary school, when the latter beat the former in the Elementary School Pupils Meijin Tournament; Yamashita also beat him in the 1998 Shinjin-O title match, so this was a good chance to get some revenge.
  The play-off between the two sections was held at the Nihon Ki-in on 10 February. The game featured a dramatic contrast between Yamashita's attack (he had black) and Takao's shinogi (the art of saving a weak group under attack). Yamashita started out by building a large moyo in the top half of the board; Takao invaded at the centre top. Because of the width of the moyo, it was not a risky invasion, but after just two moves, he made a second invasion further to the right. This led to a furious fight that ended up in a two-stage ko. In a large trade that followed, Takao took a big lead, and Yamashita resigned after 204 moves.
  The first game of the title match with O Rissei will be played at Iwamuro Hot Spring in Niigata Prefecture on 6 March.

  The third game of the 6th DoCoMo Cup Women's Kisei title match was held in the Ryusei Studio at the Nihon Ki-in in Ichigaya, Tokyo on 10 February. Playing white, Chinen Kaori forced Kato Keiko 4-dan to resignaiton after 152 moves and so won the title match 2-1. Chinen made a good recovery after her opening loss and has now held this title for four years in a row. Kato's second challenge for this title met with the same fate, a 1-2 loss, as two years ago.

  The first semifinal of the 22nd NEC Cup was played in Okayama City on 1 February. Playing black, Takao Shinji 8-dan defeated Cho U 7-dan by 3.5 points. In the final, Takao will meet the winner of the semifinal between Ryu Shikun 7-dan and Yamada Kimio 8-dan.

  Two games were played in the Meijin league on 13 February. Ryu Shikun 7-dan (B) defeated O Rissei Kisei by half a point; Cho U 7-dan (B) defeated Mizokami Tomochika 7-dan by resignation. As a result, Ryu goes to 1-1, O to 0-3, Cho to 2-1 and Mizokami to 1-2. The leaders of the league, on 2-0, are Cho Chikun, Yamashita Keigo and Rin Kaiho.

  Two games were also played in the Honinbo league on 13 February and, like the Meijin league, they were both won by black (this league is still using the 5.5 komi). Yamashita Keigo 7-dan (B) defeated Rin Kaiho 9-dan by half a point and Cho Sonjin 9-dan (B) defeated Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, by resignation. As a result, Yamashita goes to 3-2 and still has an outside chance of becoming the challenger (if Cho U and O Meien both lose both their remaining games, he will qualify for a play-off with Cho). Rin and Cho Sonjin are now 2-3, and Cho Chikun, on 1-4, faces almost certain demotion from the league.
  Incidentally, Yamashita had had a bad spell, losing two important games, the third Kisei game (5 & 6 February) and the Judan play-off (10) within the space of a few days, but he just managed, by half a point, to change his luck in the Honinbo league. Actually, Yamashita played a move in this game that astonished the players following the game, as it defied the existing joseki. Unfortunately, we can't give a diagram here, but if you have a copy of the Dictionary of Basic Joseki, please refer to Volume 3, page 141, diagram 4. When his opponent pushed up at 8, instead of blocking his path with 9, Yamashita blocked at 10, letting his opponent extend at 9. This is very slack territorially, but it is typical of Yamashita in its disregard for conventional wisdom. He is probably one of the most original players on the contemporary go scene

  Only Michael Redmond 9-dan had a game last week. On 13 February, playing black, he defeated Iwata Hajime 8-dan by resignation in the second preliminary section of the 59th Honinbo tournament.

  Yuki Satoshi 9-dan has won the prize for the most outstanding player at the Kansai Ki-in last year. His main achievements were becoming the challenger for the Gosei title and becoming a Japanese representative in three international tournaments. His results for the year were 40 wins (including 15 and 13 in a row) to 13 losses. He also reached the final of the Kakusei tournament and the quarterfinals of the NHK Cup (both tournaments still in progress).
  The other prizes went as follows:

The Risen (fighting spirit) prize: Imamura Toshiya 9-dan (29-12, won the Kansai Ki-in No. One Position title).

The Dogen (special merit) Prize (players under 9-dan): Seto Taiki 4-dan (45-12). Seto, aged 18, had the most wins for the year at the Kansai Ki-in. He also reached the quarterfinals of the NHK Cup on his debut in this tournament (this year he was eliminated by O Rissei).

The New Face prize: Sakai Hideyuki 5-dan. In his first full year as a professional, Sakai, a former WAGC champion who abandoned a medical career for go, scored 30-8. This included 14 wins in a row; his winning percentage of 81.8 was the highest at the Kansai Ki-in.

The Yamano Prize (for spreading go): Yoshida Mika 7-dan.

The Nagai Prize (for the most promising new face): Son Hideyo 3-dan.

  The writer and illustrator of the comic book series Hikaru no Go have been awarded Okura Prizes in recognition of their contribution to popularizing go. They are, respectively, Hotta Yumi and Obata Takeshi. This comic book series and the spin-off TV cartoon have led to an unprecedented interest in go among young people, especially elementary-school children, in Japan. Known as the 'Hikaru no Go' boom, it is one of the few bright spots on the Japanese scene and one hopes it will need to a new flowering of go talent in Japan.

  The play-off for the fourth nonseeded Japanese place in 16th Fujitsu Cup was held at the Nihon Ki-in on 3 February. Takao Shijin 8-dan (B) beat a former Fujitsu Cup champion, Kobayashi Koichi Gosei, by 3.5 points. The 26-year-old Takao has been doing quite well recently, reaching the Judan play-off and the final of the NEC Cup. He will now make his debut in an international tournament, so he gets the chance to make a real splash.
  The other nonseeded players are: Hane Naoki Tengen, Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, and Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan. They join the seeded players, who are: O Rissei Kisei, Yoda Norimoto Meijin, Kato Masao Honinbo, and O Meien Oza (the last is seeded because he won third place last year). Korea and China have not yet chosen their representatives.
  The opening two rounds of the tournament will be held in early April.
  Some bad news for the competitors is that the Fujitsu corporation has been affected by the worldwide IT slump and it has had to renegotiate the sponsorship fee for the whole tournament, including reductions in the top prizes. The new prizes are:

1st: 15 million yen (formerly 20 million)
2nd: 5 million yen (7 million)
3rd: 3 million yen (4 million)
4th: 1.5 million (2 million)

  As go fans may remember, there were wholesale reductions in prize money and changes in sponsors in Korea after the economic crash of the late 90s, but this is the first time this has occurred with a Japanese sponsor. We hope it is not a sign of worse things to come.

  The 40th Shusai Prize has been awarded to Cho U 7-dan, in recognition of his feat in setting a new record for most wins in one year last year. His record was 70 wins to 14 losses. Since the Oteai (rating tournament) has now been abolished, it may be very hard for anyone to break this record in the future. Cho also won the NHK Cup and the King of the New Stars title. The selection was made on 25 January.

  (6 February). Michael Redmond 9-dan forfeited a game to Tamaki Shinobu 6-dan.
  Yamada Kimio 8-dan (B) defeated Catalin Taranu 5-dan by resignation. (Both games were in the 2nd preliminary section of the Meijin tournament.)

  The third game of the 27th Kisei title match was played at the Lake Biwa Hotel in Shiga Prefecture on 5 & 6 February. This was a crucial game for the defending champion, O Rissei. He had lost the first two games, in both of which at one stage he had held the lead. This was a reversal of the usual pattern, as O is known for his skill at engineering upsets in bad positions. If he had lost the third game also, the odds of his defending the title would have plummeted.
  Like the first game, this game featured an invasion by O, who had black, into a large moyo. Yamashita answered flexibly, not going all out to kill the group, which is a very risky strategy, but just trying to ensure that he took enough territory from harassing it. He followed up with a severe attack on another black group, in the bottom right, but this also managed to live. At this point, the game looked like a tight territorial contest. O managed the endgame very skilfully, playing sente moves in three successive corners. Yamashita countered by going for a large centre territory, but O had taken enough profit to secure the lead. He ended up winning by 4.5 points after 242 moves.
  Of their time allowances of 8 hours each, Yamashita used 7 hours 52 minutes (which meant that he was two minutes into byo-yomi) and O exactly seven and a half hours.
  O must have been very relieved at this result: it was only his second win in eight games with Yamashita. If he can tie the series in the fourth game, scheduled to be played in Miyazaki City on 19 & 20 February, there will be a lot of pressure on the challenger.

  The second game of the 6th DoCoMo Cup Women's Kisei title match was held at the Ryusei Studio (a satellite TV studio in the basement of the Nihon Ki-in) on 3 February. Chinen Kaori, the title-holder, defeated Kato Keiko 4-dan by resignation (Chinen had white). This levels the series at 1-all. The deciding game will be played in the same venue on 10 February.

  The first game in the fifth round of the 58th Honinbo league and probably what was the key game of the whole league was played on 6 February. Playing white, Cho U 7-dan defeated O Meien Oza by resignation. That took Cho to 5-0, giving him the unqualified sole lead for the first time. O dropped back to sole second place on 4-1. This result gave Cho some revenge for his loss to O when he challenged him for the Honinbo title in 2001. If he can win his remaining games against Cho Sonjin 9-dan and Yamashita Keigo 7-dan, he will become the challenger to Kato Honinbo. If he drops one of these games, O has a chance to force a play-off; his remaining opponents are Cho Chikun and Rin Kaiho.

  Cho Chikun is making up for lost time in the 28th Meijijn league, playing his second game in as many weeks. Once again, he was victorious, edging Takemiya Masaki 9-dan by just half a point (Cho had black). That took Cho to 2-0 and secured him a share of the lead with Yamashita Keigo and Rin Kaiho. Takemiya has made an abysmal start and is 0-3.

  Yamashita Keigo 7-dan has made a marvellous start to his Kisei title challenge, sweeping to a 2-0 lead over the title holder, O Rissei. The second game was played at the Surikamitei Otori inn in Fukushima City on 29 and 30 January. Playing white, Yamashita won by resignation after 217 moves. The game ended at 6:09 pm on the second day.
O Rissei had seized the initiative in the early middle game, but later played a slack move, allowing Yamashita to get back into the game. A tense fight between two large groups followed, but both managed to live. However, Yamashita then took the lead with a successful invasion that ended in a two-step ko. He ceded the ko, but took enough compensation to decide the game.
The third game is scheduled to be played in Otsu City on 5 & 6 February.

  Cho Chikun finally played his first game in the current Meijin league. On 30 January, taking white, he defeated O Meien by resignation,so he has made a good start. O is now 1-1.

in the chart

* B=playing black, W=playing white * 1=win, 0=loss

Title holder: YODA Norimoto

  Two of the four open Japanese places in the 16th Fujitsu Cup were decided on 30 January. Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan (B) beat Cho U 7-dan by half a point and so will make his second successive appearance. He will be joined by Hane Naoki Tengen, who beat Ryu Shikun 7-dan (W) by 2.5 points. Hane will be making his debut in this tournament.
Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, had already secured a place on 20 January by defeating Nakano Hironari 9-dan (W) by resignation. The pairing in the remaining play-off is Kobayashi Koichi Gosei vs. Takao Shinji 8-dan.

  The play-off to decide the challenger for the 15th Women's Meijin title was held at the Nihon Ki-in on 29 January. Playing black, Kobayashi Izumi 5-dan, who is definitely the in-form woman player at present,defeated Nakazawa Ayako 5-dan by resignation. She will challenge Aoki Kikuyo 8-dan, who took the title from her last year.
Kobayashi currently holds the Women's Honinbo title. She had reached the quarterfinals of the 50th NHK Cup, with wins over Kato Atsushi 8-dan and Hane Naoki Tengen, but unfortunately she was eliminated by Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan. This tournament is telecast at noon on Sunday and has a big viewing audience. In the last couple of years, Kobayashi has had the best results among the women players and so has achieved quite a high profile, with many fans rooting for her to go all the way. She plays so well on TV that that day may not be so far off.

  Hayase Hiroshi 9-dan has announced his retirement, as of 31 January. Born in 1934, Hayashi was a member of the Western Japan or Osaka branch of the Nihon Ki-in. He became 1-dan in 1955 and reached 9-dan in 1984.