History of Topics 2008

  The 1st World Mind Sports Games have just come to a close in Beijing. A very comprehensive coverage of all events, with results, interviews, professional game commentaries, and plenty of photos, is presented by the International Go Federation at http://ranka.intergofed.org/

  Iyama Yuta 8-dan made a marvellous start in the 33rd Meijin title match by winning the first two games, but the defending titleholder, Cho U, who has been the most successful player in Japan so far this century, has demonstrated his latent strength by winning three games in a row.
  As described in our last report, Cho started his fightback by taking the third game, played on 24 and 25 September. The fourth game was held two weeks later, at the Atami Sekitei inn in Atami City in Shizuoka Prefecture on 8 and 9 October. At the end of the first day, the position seemed to favour the challenger, who was playing black, very slightly, but on the second day he made a miscalculation. Cho seized this opportunity and quickly wrapped up the game. Iyama resigned after 164 moves.
  The fifth game was played at the Wakatsuki Annex in Ito City, Shizuoka Prefecture on 15 and 16 October. It got off to an unusual start, with Iyama (white) taking territory and Cho setting up a moyo. Cho made a corner invasion that he then converted into a sacrifice to expand his moyo. This looked too big, but Iyama found a clever way to invade that was triggered by playing out some moves in a ladder that was unfavourable for White. The game became a half-pointer, but Cho found a brilliant combination in the endgame that secured him a half-point win.
  So far, the series has been good value for the spectator, with both players rising to the occasion, but Cho now has a definite edge. Iyama faces his first kadoban in the sixth game, which will be played on 30 and 31 October.

4rd game

5rd game

  All the games in the final rounds of the A and B Leagues of the 33rd Kisei tournament were played on 2 October. Iyama Yuta had already won the A League, but he wrapped things up in style by taking the final game for a perfect record. In the B League, the league victory was decided by a game between the joint leaders, Cho U Meijin and Yoda Norimoto. The latter prevailed, so he will meet Iyama in the play-off to decide the challenger to Yamashita Keigo. If Iyama wins, he will make his first challenge for the Kisei title - and he would still be a teenager when the title match started. Yoda, on the other hand, would be making his second Kisei challenge, following his loss to Cho Chikun in the 22nd title match. The play-off will be held on 23 October.
  The following players lost their seats in the leagues: Kataoka Satoshi, Yuki Satoshi, Honda Kunihisa, and Kato Atsushi.

Results in the final round:

(A League)	Iyama Yuta 8-dan (W) beat O Rissei 9-dan by resignation. Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, (W) beat Kataoka Satoshi 9-dan by half a point. Yuki Satoshi 9-dan (B) beat Takao Shinji Judan by 2.5 points.
(B League)	Yoda Norimoto 9-dan (W) beat Cho U Meijin by 1.5 points. Kato Atsushi 8-dan (B) beat Hane Naoki Honinbo by resignation. Kono Rin Tengen (W) bet Honda Kunihisa 9-dan by resignation.

in the chart

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

The 33rd Kisei League

  The first game of the 27th Women's Honinbo title match was played at the Kashoen inn in Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture, on 1 October. Suzuki Ayumi 4-dan (W) defeated Xie Yimin, the 18-year-old defending title-holder, by resignation. The game lasted 204 moves.
  The second game was played at the Nihon Ki-in in Ichigaya, Tokyo on 8 October. Xie (W) took an early lead in territory and hung on to it, securing a resignation after 128 moves.
  The third game of the best-of-five will be held on 29 October. There is a bit of a gap, as both players flew to Beijing after the second game to take part in the World Mind Sports Games.

Suzuki win 1st game			Xie win 2nd game

  The first two games in the 64th Honinbo League were played on 9 October. Takao Shinji Judan (W) beat Yoda Norimoto 9-dan by resignation, and Yamashita Keigo Kisei (B) beat Nakaonoda Tomomi 9-dan, also by resignation.

The 64rd Honinbo League
Title holder: Hane Naoki

  The first of the three play-offs for the vacant seats in the 34th Meijin League was held on 16 October. Ogata Masaki 9-dan of the Nagoya branch of the Nihon Ki-in defeated Ryu Shikun 9-dan and will make a comeback to the league after a gap of three years. Ogata had black and won by 4.5 points.
  Pairings in the other two play-offs are Yamada Noriyoshi 9-dan vs. O Meien 9-dan and Hane Naoki Honinbo vs. Cho Riyu 7-dan.

  Mukai Chiaki 2-dan has finally opened her account in the 21st Women's Meijin League. In a game played on 16 October, Mukai (B) defeated Yoshida Mika 8-dan by 12.5 points.

The 21th Women's Meijin Title Match

  The Japanese team for the 10th Nong Shim Spicy Noodles Cup has been announced. The players are Yamashita Keigo, Hane Naoki, Takao Shinji, Kono Rin, and Yamada Kimio (all 9-dan).
  The Korean team is: Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan, Yi Se-tol 9-dan, Kang Tong-yun 8-dan, Yun Chun-sang 7-dan, and Heo Yeong-ho 6-dan. Four of the players were chosen in a qualifying tournament, with Yi Ch'ang-ho being seeded.
  The Chinese team is: Chang Hao 9-dan, Gu Li 9-dan, Qiu Jun 8-dan, Piao Wenyao 5-dan, and Tuo Jiaxi 3-dan.

  The schedule for the three-way match is as below.
  1st stage: 21 to 24 October in Beijing   2nd stage: November, Pusan   3rd stage: Shanghai, February 2008.
  The 9th Cup was won by China, thanks to the sterling performance of Chang Hao, who won four games in a row as the last batter on the team. Japan won the 7th Cup, and all the others have been won by Korea.

  Iyama Yuta 8-dan followed up his convincing win in the opening game of the 33rd Meijin title match with an edge-of-the seat half-point win in the second game. This gave him a surprising 2-0 lead, but Cho U started a fightback with a good win in the third game.
  The second game was held at the Enryakuji Hall, which is attached to the Enryakuji temple, on Mt. Hiei in Otsu City in Shiga Prefecture on 17 and 18 September; the venue has a view of Lake Biwa. Hiei is a sacred mountain that is home to a great temple complex; the original temple was the Enryakuji, which was established in 805. In 1994, the mountain was designated as a Unesco Cultural Heritage Site.
  Playing black, Iyama built centre-oriented thickness while Cho took corner profit. The game became tough for Cho when he made a forcing move that Iyama ignored in favour of setting up a moyo on the right side. When Cho invaded, he came under a severe attack, aggravated by his going for further profit in a way that let Iyama split off and attack a large group. When Cho counterattacked, Iyama compromised, giving up three attacking stones in return for a large territory to the left of centre.
  Iyama kept the lead throughout the middle game, but he slipped up in the endgame, playing a bad-aji move that allowed Cho to make a large sacrificial invasion that gave him extra points through forcing moves. Watching the game in the pressroom, Iyama's teacher Ishii Kunio 9-dan wailed: 'Why not play the good-aji move?' This slip made the game very close, but Iyama just managed to hang by the narrowest margin. After the game, Cho commented: 'My falling behind in the opening was everything. I profited a little in the endgame and narrowed the gap, but at no stage of the game did White have a lead.'
  There were few go fans who would have predicted that the 19-year-old Iyama would take a 2-0 lead in the title match. Even fans of Cho were happy to see Iyama bring a breath of fresh air into the Japanese go world by winning the Meijin League, but most people assumed that Cho's greater experience would be too much for the teenager. Yet here was Cho, if not yet with his back to the wall, certainly headed in that direction. He had to find a way to halt Iyama's momentum.
  The third game started less than a week later, being played at the Takayama Green Hotel Tenryokaku in Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, on 25 and 26 September. In this game, Cho, playing black, showed the flair that was missing from his play in the first two games. He raced to a lead in the opening, then seized the initiative in the middle-game fighting. A large-scale trade followed in which Cho secured a definite lead. There were complications, when Iyama made a severe counterattack late in the middle game, but Cho managed to tide them over by resorting to a ko. Having run out of resources, Iyama resigned after 225 moves.
  Hikosaka Naoto 9-dan, the newspaper commentator, summed up the game as follows: 'Cho rapidly took profit in the opening, then showed us a powerful attack in the middle game. At the end, he wrapped things up with his favourite tactic of ko. The skill of Cho Meijin shone in every phase of the game.'
  After this game, there's a two-week break for Iyama to recover from his setback. This week both Iyama and Cho will be playing their final games in the Kisei Leagues. However, there's no pressure on Iyama, as he's already won the A League, but Cho has to play a crucial game with Yoda Norimoto to decide the result of the B League.

Iyama Yuta wins 2nd game

Cho U wins 3rd game

  Only one game has been played in the 33rd Kisei Leagues since our last report. In the B League, Hane Naoki won his fourth-round game, putting him into a theoretical three-way tie for first place, but his low rank means that the best he can hope for is second place.
(18 September) Hane Naoki Honinbo (B) beat Honda Kunihisa 9-dan by resignation.

in the chart

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

The 33rd Kisei League

  Three days before the third Meijin game, Cho U (W) defeated Akiyama Jiro 8-dan by 8.5 points in the semifinal of the Winners Section of the 47th Judan tournament. He will meet Cho Chikun in the final.

The 47th Judan Challenger's Tournament
Title holder: Takao Shinji

  After making a good start in the first game, Uchida Shuhei 2-dan also won the second game of the Shinjin-O (King of the New Stars) title match, held on 22 September. Taking black, he forced a resignation from Ha Yeong-il 4-dan. This gives Uchida his first title just three years after becoming a professional; he is the lowest-ranked player ever to win the Shinjin-O (Yoda Norimoto and Takao Shinji won it as 5-dans).

33rd Shinjin-O title match second game

  So far in his career, Kono Rin has been a one-title specialist, winning the Tengen title three years in a row. This year he is branching out, however. In March, he won the NEC Cup which carries a hefty prize of 17 million yen. Now he has also won the Ryusei Cup, making this his first year with multiple victories. Most significant for Kono was the opponent whom he overcame in the final: Cho U, against whom his previous record was a miserable 2 wins to ten losses. The game was telecast on 26 September; taking white, Kono secured a resignation. He will take this as a very good omen for their upcoming Tengen title-match clash.
  Incidentally, this is the sixth title of Kono's career.

  The final of the 2nd Daiwa Securities Cup Net Igo Ladies, to give this unofficial tournament (i.e., it's not counted in tallies of titles won, but the money is real) its full name, was held at the Tokyo headquarters of the sponsor, Daiwa Securities. The final matched the current leading star of Japanese women's go, Xie Yimin 4-dan, against the winner of the 1st cup, Kobayashi Izumi 6-dan. Taking white, Xie won by resignation. First prize is one million yen.

2nd Daiwa Securities Cup the final

Two games in the 21st Women's Meijin League were played on 18 September. Kato Keiko, Strongest Woman Player, (B) defeated Kobayashi Izumi 6-dan by resignation and Suzuki Ayumi 4-dan (B) defeated Mukai Chiaki 2-dan by 2.5 points.
  Umezawa and Suzuki, both on 2-0, share the lead. Mukai and Kobayashi, both on 0-3, are in danger of losing their seats.

The 21th Women's Meijin Title Match

  Some big names have been dropping off in the round of the final preliminary of the 34th Meijin tournament held on 25 September. In the new Honinbo League, two of the four players who were eliminated from the old league regained their seats, but all three of those who dropped out of the just-completed Meijin League were eliminated. There were Yoda Norimoto, Ko Iso and Chien Kaei. On the same day, former Meijin Takemiya Masaki was also eliminated.

  Three-quarters of the way through the year, the most winning players are as listed below.

  1. Iyama Yuta 8-dan: 40-15
  2. Cho U Meijin: 36-11
  3. Hane Naoki Honinbo: 30-12
  4. Ko Iso 7-dan: 29-14
  5. 25th Honinbo Chikun: 28-23
  6. Kono Rin Tengen: 27-14; Takao Shinji Judan: 27-21
  8. Ryu Shikun 9-dan: 24-5
  9. Rin Shien 7-dan: 22-5
     (Rin had a winning streak of 11 games that came to an end last week);
  Ogata Masaki 9-dan: 22-7; Suzuki Ayumi 4-dan: 22-8; Yamada Kimio 9-dan: 22-15

The margin in the Tengen play-off was 1.5 points, not 2.5.