History of Topics 2010

  In the 16th Asian Games, the go events started on 20 November. In some circles, the Chinese had been regarded as the favourites in view of their many recent international successes and their home-ground advantage, but once again Korea demonstrated that it is the country to beat by monopolizing the gold medals. The host country took all the silvers and Japan and Taiwan had to be content with one bronze each. The third bronze went to Korea.

Mixed doubles
  This event started on 20 November, and the finals were held on the 22nd.
  Yi Seul-a 1-dan and Pak Cheong-hwan 8-dan (Korea) beat Song Ronghui 5-dan and Xie He 7-dan (China) by half a point. The Chinese team was leading, but it made a rotation error, which cost it a penalty of two points.
  In the play-off for third, Kim Yun-yeong 1-dan and Ch'oe Ch'eol-han 9-dan of Korea defeated Hei Jiajia (also known as Joanne Missingham) 1-dan and Zhou Junxun 9-dan of Taiwan.

Men's and women's team events
  These events, featuring five-player male teams and three-player female teams, got off to a start on 23 November and the finals were held on the 26th. Below are the results of the medal matches.

Men's
  Gold: Korea beat China 4-1
  Bronze: Japan beat Chinese Taipei 3-2

Women's
  Gold: Korea beat China 2-1
  Bronze: Chinese Taipei beat Japan 2-1

  Although Japan did not perform up to its own expectations in the tournament, there were some redeeming points. The men's team did well in its match against eventual champions, Korea, with wins on the first and second boards. Yamashita Keigo beat Yi Ch'ang-ho and Iyama Yuta beat Yi Se-tol. Yamashita also beat Gu Li in the match against China. Also, Cho U, who plays in Japan, had a good tournament for Taiwan; he was undefeated, with wins over Chang Hao of China, Kang Tong-yun of Korea, and Yamashita of Japan. These wins are encouraging signs for the future.

  China may have missed out on the top prizes in the Asian Games, but Gu Li bounced back to win the next international title to be decided, the 15th Samsung Cup. In the final, held at the Korean Culture Hall in Beijing, he defeated Heo Yong-ho 7-dan of Korea 2-1 to take this title for the first time. Heo was promoted to 8-dan for taking second place.

Game 1 (7 Dec.). Gu (W) by 2.5 points.
Game 2 (9 Dec.). Heo (W) by resig.
Game 3 (10 Dec.). Gu (B) by resig.

  The second round of the 12th Nong Shim Spicy Noodles Cup knock-out team tournament was held at the Nong Shim Hotel in Pusan, Korea from 29 November to 4 December. Japan had done badly in the opening round, having two players knocked out without opening their team's account, and more bad news was to come when its third representative, Hane Naoki, was eliminated in Game Six. However, Takao Shinji made amends for his bad form in the Asian Games by winning two games in this round. He lost the last game of the round, however, so Japan will enter the final round one step behind Korea and China.

  The 12th annual play-off between the holders of the Japanese and Chinese Agon Kiriyama titles featured a fresh pairing: Yamashita Keigo of Japan vs. Qiu Jun of China. However, the result was the same as for the previous seven years: a victory for the Chinese titleholder. Taking white, Qiu secured a resignation after 240 moves. The game was played at the Kyoto headquarters of the Agon sect on 23 December.

  The final of the 6th Daiwa Securities Cup was played on 18 December and pitted the Kisei against the Meijin. The rivalry between Cho U Kisei and Iyama Yuta Meijin is probably the fiercest on the contemporary Japanese go scene – Cho is the top player, but he lost his precious Meijin title to Iyama two years ago, and soon Iyama will be trying to take his Kisei title from him.
  The game was played at the head office of Daiwa Securities in the centre of Tokyo, near Tokyo Station. Taking white, Iyama beat Cho by resignation.
  In the first semifinal, played on 6 November, Iyama scored yet another win over Takao Shinji 9-dan. Later in the same week, on the 11th, he also beat him in the play-off to decide the Kisei challenger. Takao seems to be bewitched by Iyama and has now lost 14 games to just one win.
  In the second semifinal, played on 13 November, Cho U beat Han Zenki 7-dan by half a point, which was actually quite a good performance, as he handicapped himself early in the game with a cursor mistake (what the Japanese call a `click miss').

  The final of the 51st Okan (Crown) title, which is restricted to members of the Nagoya branch of the Nihon Ki-in, was held at the Hotel Hodaka in Oku Hida Hot Spring in Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture on 25 November. The challenger, Yamashiro Hiroshi 9-dan, beat Hane Naoki by 4.5 points, taking white, and won this title for the first time for five years. He also extended the Japanese record for the highest number of wins in one title to 15.

  Honinbo title he lost this year. As the year ends, he has the sole lead in the 66th Honinbo League as the only undefeated player.
  Two crucial games were played on 23 December. One, between Hane Naoki and Iyama Yuta, was from the fourth round and was originally scheduled to be played in January. However, Iyama will then be busy with his Kisei challenge, so it was brought forward. Taking black, Hane defeated Iyama by resignation and took his score to 4-0.
  The other game involved Cho U Kisei, but it was the last game of the third round. Playing black, Takao Shinji 9-dan defeated Cho by 1.5 points. This was Takao's first win in the league and Cho's second loss; the chances of either of becoming the challenger look slim at present.

(25 November)	Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan (W) beat O Rissei by resignation.
(2 December)	Iyama Yuta Meijin (W) beat Seto Taiki 7-dan by resignation.
(9 December)	Cho Sonjin 9-dan (B) beat O Rissei 9-dan by resignation. Hane Naoki 9-dan (B) beat Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan by resignation.
(23 December)	Hane Naoki 9-dan (B) beat Iyama Yuta Meijin by resignation. Takao Shinji 9-dan (B) beat Cho U Kisei by 1.5 points.

in the chart

* B = playing black, * 1 = win, 0 = loss * Date: mm/dd

The 66th Honinbo League

  The first round has been completed in the new Meijin League. Perhaps the most noteworthy result so far is Sakai Hideyuki's defeat of Cho U. Sakai seems to have retained the edge over Cho he demonstrated in the Gosei title match. Securing a return match with Iyama Yuta for the Meijin title is probably one of Cho's top targets these days, but once again he has run into a roadblock.

(2 December)	Sakai Hideyuki Gosei (W) beat Cho U Kisei by half a point.
(9 December)	Yamashita Keigo Honinbo (W) beat Mizokami Tomochika 8-dan by 4.5 points. Takao Shinji 9-dan (W) beat 25th Honinbo Chikun by half a point.
(16 December)	Hane Naoki 9-dan (W) beat Rin Kanketsu by half a point.

in the chart

* B = playing black, * 1 = win, 0 = loss * Date: mm/dd

The 36th Meijin Challenger's League

  Victory in a game played on 16 December gave Mukai Chiaki 4-dan a share of the lead in the 23rd Women's Meijin League. However, it is better than a 50% share: Mukai is ranked higher than her rival, Okuda Aya 2-dan, so even if they end the league in a tie, Mukai will become the challenger without a play-off. Likewise if both of them lose their final games: Mukai again will be the challenger. Okuda needs to win her last game and needs Mukai to lose. The other players are already out of the running.
  The games in the final round will be played on the same day in mid-January.

(9 December)	Suzuki Ayumi 5-dan (B) beat Mannami Nao 2-dan by resig.
(16 December)	Mukai Chiaki 4-dan (W) beat Umezawa Yukari 5-dan by resig. Yoshida Mika 8-dan (B) beat Koyama Terumi 6-dan by resig.

in the chart

* B = playing black, * 1 = win, 0 = loss * Date: mm/dd

The 23rd Women's Meijin Challenger's League

  Takao Shinji has done well since losing in the first round of the Winners' Section of the 49th Judan title and has now reached the final of the Losers' Section. He will play Ko Iso 7-dan for a place in the play-off to decide the challenger. Unfortunately, waiting for him will be Iyama Yuta Meijin, against whom he seems to be jinxed, but he has to beat Ko first before he need worry about how to turn the tables on Iyama.

* Date: mm/dd

The 49th Judan Title Match

  This tournament got off to a start on 11 November at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo. Sixteen professional pairs competed in two blocks for places in the final, to be held on 29 January. The winners of the two blocks were the teams of Xie Yimin and O Meien (both from Taiwan) and Suzuki Ayumi and Yuki Satoshi.

  Rin Kaiho, Honorary Tengen, had the number one position in the list of players with most wins in Japan, but Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, has finally caught up. In a game played in Preliminary A of the 59th Oza tournament on 23 December, Cho scored his 1,364th win by defeating Rin Kanketsu 7-dan by resignation (Cho had black). This put him one ahead of Rin.
  Cho has 733 wins, 3 jigos and 4 no-results, for a winning percentage of 64.8. Cho, who is 14 years younger than Rin, tends to pick up a few more wins each year, so he will probably extend this lead.

  As of 24 December, with all professional games over for the year, Yamashita Keigo has first place by a comfortable margin.

1.	Yamashita Keigo 9-dan: 40-23
2.	Iyama Yuta 9-dan: 34-20
3.	Takao Shinji 9-dan: 33-22
4.	Cho U 9-dan: 32-16
5.	Cho Chikun 9-dan: 31-19
6.	Mitani Tetsuya 6-dan: 30-10; Kono Rin 9-dan: 30-16
8.	Ogata Masaki 9-dan: 29-15
9.	Yamashiro Hiroshi 9-dan: 28-7
10.	Rin Kanketsu 7-dan: 26-9; O Meien 9-dan: 26-17

  Rin Kanketsu had a winning streak of 13 that came to an end on 16 December with his loss in the Meijin League.

  To 4-dan: Ms. Komatsu Hideko (50 wins).

  Since our last report, Michael has played just two games, both with the same player. The honours are even.

(18 November) Redmond 9-dan (W) beat Tahara Yasufumi 6-dan by resignation (9 December) Tahara Yasufumi 6-dan (B) beat Redmond 9-dan by half a point

  Yamamoto Yutaka 5-dan died of respiratory failure on 27 November. He was 93 years old.
  Born on 5 August 1917 in Tokyo, Yamamoto became professional 1-dan in 1944 and reached 3-dan in 1973. He retired in 1984 and was promoted to 4-dan. In 1995 he was promoted to 5-dan.