History of Topics 2008

  Everything continues to go perfectly for Cho U. After a marvellous week's work in which he won two title-match games and a title (the Agon Kiriyama Cup-see our previous report) in six days, he continued on his winning ways, taking the Tengen title from Kono Rin with three straight wins. He is beginning to seem like a yokozuna surrounded by junior wrestlers.
  The second Tengen game was played on a cold, snowy day in Sapporo on 20 November, with Cho playing black. The game followed the same pattern as the first game, with Kono Rin falling behind in the opening because of a mistake in strategy.Thereafter, things only got worse for him and he had to resignaiton, after 151 moves, when he lost a large group.
  Things didn't improve for Kono in the third game, played at the Mifuneyama Sightseeing Hotel in Takeo City in Saga Prefecture. In the early middle game, the focus was on who would take sente in one corner and switch to the opposite corner. Cho succeeded and turned to the other corner, saving a weak stone. In the subsequent fighting, Cho took the initiative and was confident of victory by his 104th move. His endgame was close to perfect, and Kono resigned after 202 moves. In an interview later, Kono admitted that he was outplayed in all three game sin the match.
  This win gave Cho three of the top seven titles.

The results:
  Game 1 (10 Nov.). Cho (W) by resig.
  Game 2 (20 Nov.). Cho (B) by resig.
  Game 3 (4 Dec.). Cho (W) by resig.

  Just three days before the game in which he won the Tengen title, Cho U suffered one of his rare setbacks this winter when Yamashita scored his first win in the 56th Oza title match. This game was played on 1 December at the Jinya, a traditional Japanese inn in Hadano City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Yamashita outfought Cho in the middle game, so suddenly interest was revived in what had looked like becoming a one-sided match.
  The fourth game was played at the Sanyoso inn in Izu-no-kuni city, Shizuoka Prefecture on 8 December. This game showed the other side of Cho U. He is known for his rapid development in the opening and his outstanding fighting ability and positional judgement in the middle game. However, he is also known for his tenacity in unfavourable positions: when he falls behind, he is very good at denying the opponent the opportunity to settle the game and wrap up a win.  In this game, Cho made a slack move in the midst of a complicated fight, letting Yamashita seize the initiative. Instead of making an unreasonable counterattack, which might lead to a premature end to the game, he played patiently, waiting for his chance. Eventually, Yamashita also made a slack move, letting Cho U catch up. He then seized a narrow lead in the endgame.
  With this win, Cho regained the title that Yamashita took from him two years ago. He also became the first player for 20 years to hold four of the top seven titles simultaneously. Since he will be defending four titles next year, that also means that the Japanese go world will continue to revolve around him.

The results:

Game 1 (27 Oct.). Cho (B) by resig. Game 2 (13 Nov.). Cho (W) by resig. Game 3 (1 Dec.). Yamashita (W) by 5.5 points. Game 4 (8 Dec.). Cho (W) by 2.5 points.

  The last of the quarterfinals in the Losers' Section of the 47th Judan tournament (we use the term 'quarterfinals' loosely; the Losers' Section is an irregular knock-out, with players moving sideways from the Winners' Section into different rounds of the Losers' Section) was held on 20 November. Akiyama Jiro 8-dan (B) beat So Yokoku 8-dan by resignation, so he will meet Iyama Yuta 8-dan in one semifinal. In the other, Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, will play Ko Iso 7-dan.
  The winner of the Losers' Section will meet Cho U in a play-off to decide the challenger to Takao Shinji.

The 47th Judan Tournament (loser'tournament)

  At the end of the 2008 tournament year, the two top-ranked players in the 64th Honinbo League share the lead. With everyone having played three games, Takao Shinji Judan and Yamada Kimio 9-dan are the only undefeated players. The biggest surprise is the poor form of Yoda Norimoto 9-dan, who has yet to win a game and who will have to fight hard to avoid demotion.

Recent results:
(25 November) Takao Shinji Judan (B) beat Cho U Meijin by resig.
(27 November) So Yokoku 8-dan (B) beat Yamashita Keigo Kisei by 8.5 points.
(4 December) Nakaonoda Tomomi 9-dan (B) beat Yoda Norimoto 9-dan by 2.5 points.
(11 December) Yamada Kimio 9-dan (B) beat Kataoka Satoshi 9-dan by resig.
(18 December) Takao Shinji Judan (B) beat Yamashita Keigo Kisei by 10.5 points.
Cho U Meijin (W) beat So Yokoku 8-dan by resig.

in the chart	･ B=playing black, W=playing white ･ 1=win, 0=loss
* Date: mm/dd

The 64th Honinbo League
Title holder: Hane Naoki

  With only one round completed, it's too early to make any guesses about how the Meijin League will go, but it is interesting to note that Iyama Yuta 8-dan has won his first game, so we can assume he's not suffering any aftereffects from the failure of his title challenge.

Games played to date:
(4 December) Iyama Yuta 8-dan (W) beat O Meien 9-dan by resig.
Takao Shinji Honinbo (W) beat Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan by 4.5 points.
Ogata Masaki 9-dan (W) beat Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, by resig.
(18 December) Yamada Kimio 9-dan (B) beat Cho Riyu 7-dan by resig.

in the chart	･ B=playing black, W=playing white ･ 1=win, 0=loss
* Date: mm/dd

The 34th Meijin Challenger's League

  There are only seven players in the 21st Women's Meijin League, but five of them share the lead with 3-2 scores. Kato Keiko, Strongest Woman Player, has an advantage because of his top ranking-if she wins her final game, she will be the challenger. However, if she loses, the other four players will all be in the running, as, in the initial league, the bottom five players share the same ranking.

Recent results:
(27 November) Suzuki Ayumi 4-dan (W) beat Kato Keiko, Strongest Woman Player, by half a point.
(4 December) Yoshida Mika 8-dan (W) beat Suzuki Ayumi by resig.
(11 Dec.). Mukai Chiaki 2-dan (W) beat Chinen Kaori 4-dan by resig.
(18 Dec.) Umezawa Yukari 5-dan (W) beat Kobayashi Izumi 6-dan by resig.

The 21th Women's Meijin Title Match

  The final of the 4th Daiwa Securities Cup Net Igo Open, played at the Daiwa Securities Tokyo headquarters on 20 December, matched Kono Rin 9-dan against his teacher, Kobayashi Koichi. Taking black, Kono won by resignation to score his first win in this tournament. First prize is three million yen.

  On 9 December, Otake Hideo was elected as Chairman at a meeting of the Nihon Ki-in board of directors. He succeeds Okabe Hiromu, a prominent businessman who was formerly Chairman of the board of directors of Denso Corporation. His term of office runs until 29 July 2010.

The other members of the board are:
President: Imai Takashi
Vice Chairman: Adachi Seijiro
Executive directors: Kanda Ei 9-dan, Goto Shungo 9-dan, Miyagawa Fumihiko 7-dan, Takano Hideki 7-dan, Nobuta Shigehito 6-dan, Kuwamoto Shinpei 6-dan, Kubo Hideo 6-dan.

  Kong Jie 7-dan of China will play in his first international final in the 13th Samsung Cup, thanks to victories over Yamashita Keigo 9-dan of Japan and Zhou Ruiyang 5-dan of China in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively. Kong turned 26 on 29 November, shortly before the semifinals. His opponent will be Yi Se-tol 9-dan of Korea, who, though only 25, is already a veteran of big matches. Yi beat his fellow countryman Yi Ch'ang-ho in the quarterfinals and Huang Yizhong 7-dan of China in the semifinals. (It's interesting that the results in the best-of-three semifinals paralleled each other: same colours, same margins.)
  Yamashita had some bad luck during his quarterfinal game. The game started at 10 a.m., with an hour off for lunch from 12 to 1. Yamashita doesn't eat lunch during a game, so he went back to his room. He went to the toilet, but when he tried to leave it, the doorknob broke, so he was locked in. It was an hour before someone noticed and helped him escape. He was only seven minutes late for the afternoon session, but that hour of confinement, with the suspense of not going if he could get out at all, couldn't have helped his concentration.

Quarterfinals (Taejon)
(17 Nov.) Kong (B) d. Yamashita by resig.; Zhou (B) d. Li by resig.
(18 Nov.) Yi Se-tol (B) d. Yi Ch'ang-ho by resig.; Huang (B) d. Wang by 1.5 points.

Semifinal
(15 Dec.). Yi Se-tol 9-dan (Korea) (B) d. Huang Yizhong 7-dan by half a point; Kong Jie 7-dan (China) (B) d. Zhou Ruiyang 5-dan by half a point.
(17 Dec.) Yi (W) by resig.; Kong (W) by resig.

  In the second round of the 10th Nong Shim Spicy Noodles Cup, Kang Tong-yun 9-dan of Korea followed up his gol d medal in the men's individual competition at the World Mind Sports Games by scoring five wins in a row. His first win came at the expense of Tuo Jiaxi, who had been the star of the opening round with four successive wins. Japan finally put a win on the board when Takao Shinji, its last player, put a stop to Kang's winning streak in the concluding game of the round.

Pusan Round
Game 5 (24 Nov.). Kang Tong-yun 9-dan (Korea) (B) d. Tuo by 1.5 points.
Game 6 (25 Nov.). Kang (B) d. Yamada Kimio 9-dan (Japan) by resig.
Game 7 (26 Nov.). Kang (B) d. Piao Wenyao 5-dan (China) by resig.
Game 8 (27 Nov.). Kang (B) d. Hane Naoki 9-dan (Japan) by resig.
Game 9 (28 Nov.). Kang (B) d. Qiu Jun 8-dan (China) by resig.
Game 10 (29 Nov.). Takao Shinji 9-dan (Japan) (B) d. Kang by resig.