History of Topics 1998

  Yoda won thu 3rd game of the 23rd Gosei title match (Sponsored by tbe Newspaper Igo Federation) on July 28th at Naha-city, Okinawa.
  Yoda, playing black, forced challenger Sonoda to reslgn after 193 moves making the score 3-0. Of their time allowance of four hours each, Yoda left four minutes and Sonoda three minutes.
  Thls is his third Gosei title in a row.

  The 38th Amateur Best Ten Tournament was held on July 19 through 21 in Tokyo. Mr. Yasuro Kikuchi defeated Mr. Hiroshi Miura on the final game and got the title which is his 8th victory of this tournament renewing his own record of seven victories.

  The sixth game of the 53rd Honinbo title macth (Sponsored by the Mainichi Newspaper) was played at Oji-cho, Ibaraki on July 13 and 14. Cho Chikun defended the title getting the 4th win of the series after 154 moves.
  Cho made a record of keeping tne title for 10 successive term since 1989. The former record of 9th successive term was made by the late Takagawa Shukaku from 1952 untill 1960.

  The 23rd Gosei title match, a best-of-five sponsored by the Newspaper Igo Federation, has got off to a start. Sonoda Yuichi 9-dan of the Kansai Ki-in is challenging Yoda Norimoto 9-dan, who is aiming at his third Gosei title in a row. The first game was played at the Nagano Hotel Saihokukan in Nagano Prefecture on July 9.
  In a relatively short game, Yoda, playing black,
forced Sonoda to resignaiton after 103 moves and so got off to a good start in his title defence.
  Of their time allowances of four hours each, Yoda had one hour 13 minutes left and Sonoda one hour 15 minutes. The second game will be played on July 17.

  The semifinals of the 11th Fujitsu Cup were held on July 4 at the Toyo Hotel in Osaka. Playing black, Hikosaka Naoto Judan, Japan's last player in the tournament, lost to Lee Chang-ho 9-dan of Korea by 5 1/2 points, so Japan's hopes of winning the cup for the second year in a row vanished. In the other semifmal, Chang Hao 8-dan of China defeated Yoo Chang-hyuk 9-dan of Korea and so reached the final for the first time. The final and the playoff for third place will be held in Tokyo on August 1.

  A crucial game in the 23rd Meijin league was played at the Nihon Ki-in on July 6 between O Rissei, leader in the league on 6-0, and Yoda Norimoto, who on 5-1 was the only other player still in the running to become the challenger. After a game lasting 230 moves, O (black) defeated Yoda by 3 1/2 points and so secured the right to challenge Cho Chikun for the title regardless of his result in the final round. This will be the second best-of-seven match in a row between these two. The match is scheduled to begin in September.

  The fifth game of the 53rd Honinbo title match (sponsored by the Mainichi Newspaper) was played in Tomakomai City in Hokkaido on June 29 and 30. Playing white, O Rissei forced the defending champion, Cho Chikun, to resignaiton after 172 moves and so survived his first kadoban (a game that could lose a series).
  This win made the score 3-2 in Cho's favor.
  Of their time allowances of eight hours each, Cho had one minute left and O two hours 14 minutes. The sixth game will be played on July 13 and 14 at the Fukuroda Hot Spring Hotel in Ibaraki Prefecture.