History of Topics 1999

  The 21st World Amateur Go Championship was played over eight rounds in a Swiss-system tournament from June 8 to 11. With 55 players from around the world competing, it was the largest-scale tournament so far. Yoo Jae-Sung, a 19-year old former insei from Korea, won all eight games to score a decisive victory. Yoo's triumph is the second in a row for Korea; last year Kim Chan Woo scored Korea's first victory ever in this tournament, also with a perfect eight wins. Second place was taken by Sakai Hideyuki of Japan with 7-1. He lost to Yoo in the sixth round and that turned out to be the decisive game of the tournament. Sakai is one of Japan's top amateurs and he also does quite well against professionals in the Agon Kiriyama Cup (known as the Acom Cup until last year), which is the only tournament in Japan open to both professionals and amateurs, but he was not quite a match for Yoo.

The top place-getters are listed below.
  1. YOO Jae-Sung (Korea) 8-0.
  2. SAKAI Hideyuki (Japan) 7-1.
  3. RI Pong-Il (DPR Korea) 6-2.
  4. YU Cheng-Juei (Chinese Taipei) 6-2.
  5. Xin WEI (Canada) 6-2.
  6. KAN Ying (Hong Kong China) 6-2.
  7. SUN Yi Guo (China) 6-2.
  8. Ted NING (USA) 6-2.

  Just failing to get one of the prizes was Diana Koszegi, a 15-year-old from Hungary, who also scored 6-2. This was the best result by a European and earned her 9th place. Yoo was formerly an insei at the Korean Kiwon, but he ran into the age limit of 18 without making it to professional shodan. However, there was a provision made many years ago that if a Korean won the WAGC he could become a professional. Last year's winner Kim Chan Woo took advantage of this and is now a professional. Yoo hopes to follow in his footsteps. This year the tournament was hosted by the City of Oita, which is noted for its fish cuisine. The participants received a great welcome from the city and throughly enjoyed their stay.

  After leading all the way with a perfect record, Yoda has stumbled in the closing stages of the 24th Meijin league, thus opening the path to the challengership to other players.
  During June the following four games were played in the 7th round of the league.

Kobayashi Koichi Judan (B) beat Yoda Norimoto Gosei by 1.5 points.
Kato Masao 9-dan (B) beat O Rissei Oza by resignation.
Takemiya Masaki 9-dan (W) beat Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan by 3.5 points.
Mimura Tomoyasu 8-dan (W) beat Sakai Maki 7-dan by 1.5 points.

  As a result, Ryu Shikun, who had a bye in this round, drew level with Yoda on 5-1. They are closely followed by Kobayashi Koichi and O, who have both lost two games. Next is Kato Masao, with 4-3. With a score of 1-6, Sakai has already lost his place in the next league. Three players, Kobayashi Satoru, Takemiya and Mimura, will vie for the remaining league place.

  Cho Sonjin is proving to be a more formidable challenger to Cho Chikun Honinbo than expected. Although this is his first challenge for a big title, he seems to have adapted to the special atmosphere and pressure of two-day games quickly. So far he has won both of his games with black, so the score is 2-2. It looks as if the first player to win a game with white will take the series. The fourth game of the 54th title match was played at the Hotel Sekia in the town of Minami-Seki in Kumamoto Prefecture on June 10 and 11. The game finished at 8:40 pm on the second day. Playing black, Cho Sonjin won by 0.5 point after 284 moves.
  Both Cho Chikun and Cho Sonjin were down to their last minute of byo-yomi. The fifth game will be played at Harazuru Hot Spring in the town of Haki in Fukuoka Prefecture on June 22 and 23.

  The 21st World Amateur Go Championship was played over eight rounds in a Swiss-system tournament from June 8 to 11. With 55 players from around the world competing, it was the largest-scale tournament so far. Yoo Jae-Sung, a 19-year old former insei from Korea, won all eight games to score a decisive victory. Yoo's triumph is the second in a row for Korea; last year Kim Chan Woo scored Korea's first victory ever in this tournament, also with a perfect eight wins. Second place was taken by Sakai Hideyuki of Japan with 7-1. He lost to Yoo in the sixth round and that turned out to be the decisive game of the tournament. Sakai is one of Japan's top amateurs and he also does quite well against professionals in the Agon Kiriyama Cup (known as the Acom Cup until last year), which is the only tournament in Japan open to both professionals and amateurs, but he was not quite a match for Yoo.

The top place-getters are listed below.
  1. YOO Jae-Sung (Korea) 8-0.
  2. SAKAI Hideyuki (Japan) 7-1.
  3. RI Pong-Il (DPR Korea) 6-2.
  4. YU Cheng-Juei (Chinese Taipei) 6-2.
  5. Xin WEI (Canada) 6-2.
  6. KAN Ying (Hong Kong China) 6-2.
  7. SUN Yi Guo (China) 6-2.
  8. Ted NING (USA) 6-2.

  Just failing to get one of the prizes was Diana Koszegi, a 15-year-old from Hungary, who also scored 6-2. This was the best result by a European and earned her 9th place. Yoo was formerly an insei at the Korean Kiwon, but he ran into the age limit of 18 without making it to professional shodan. However, there was a provision made many years ago that if a Korean won the WAGC he could become a professional. Last year's winner Kim Chan Woo took advantage of this and is now a professional. Yoo hopes to follow in his footsteps. This year the tournament was hosted by the City of Oita, which is noted for its fish cuisine. The participants received a great welcome from the city and throughly enjoyed their stay.

  The third game of the 54th Honinbo title match was played at the Miyako Hotel in Kyoto on May 31 and June 1. Playing black, Cho Chikun, the defending champion, won by 7.5 points after 231 moves to take a 2-1 lead in the series. Although he lost the game, Cho Sonjin, the challenger, was far from disgraced. The game was another aggressive affair like the second game, being one fierce, large-scale fight after another. Although he went into byo-yomi on move 121, the Honinbo skilfully steered his way through the series of fights and came out ahead at the end. Of their time allowances of eight hours each, Cho Chikun was down to his last minute and Cho Sonjin had one hour one minute left.
  Cho Chikun spent three hours 40 minutes on his sealed move at the end of the first day. That is the slowest move in the Honinbo title match since the time allowance was reduced to eight hours in 1989. The fourth game will be played in Kumamoto Prefecture on June 10 & 11.

  The challenger Cho Sonjin has evened the score in the 54th Honinbo best-of-seven title match. In the second game, played at the Grand Hotel Koyo in Yuno-yama Hot Spring in the town of Komono in Mie Prefecture on May 24 and 25, Cho Sonjin, playing black, forced Cho Chikun to resignaiton after 203 moves. The game ended at 7:47 pm on the second day. That gave Cho Sonjin his first win and evened the series at 1-1.
  Both sides played aggressively, so the second game was marked by a series of fights. At one stage, Cho Chikun seemed to have a reasonable position, but Cho Sonjin kept on fighting and finally took the lead.
  Of their time allowances of eight hours each, Cho Chikun had one minute left and Cho Sonjin two minutes.
  The third game will be played at the Miyako Hotel in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City, on May 31 and June 1.

  The playoff to decide the challenger to Yoda Norimoto for the 24th Gosei title (sponsored by the Newspaper Igo Federation) was held at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo on May 27. It featured the same pairing as the recent Judan title match, that is, Hikosaka Naoto 9-dan vs. Kobayashi Koichi Judan, and was a chance for the former to take revenge for losing that title to the latter. However, Kobayashi, playing white, won by resignation and so earned the right to challenge Yoda. Kobayashi already holds the Judan and Tengen titles, so this will be chance to try for a triple crown. The title match, which will be first ever between Yoda and Kobayashi, will start in Kyoto on July 9.