History of Topics 2003

  The final of the 1st Toyota & Denso Cup World Go Oza was held at the Hotel Grand Palace in Tokyo on 29 January. Playing black, Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan of Korea (aged 27) forced Chang Hao 9-dan of China (aged 26) to resignaiton after 175 moves. The game finished at 5:56 p.m. Both players were down to the last minute of byo-yomi (out of a time allowance of three hours each).
  The players started cautiously, but Chang Hao made a slip-up in a fight in the top left corner quite early in the game; as a result, he was forced into an unfavourable swap (furikawari) in the lower left. After taking the lead, Yi played faultlessly, weathering a do-or-die attack Chang launched on his centre group, and easily wrapped up the game.
  First prize is 30 million yen, with a deluxe Celsio car thrown in as a bonus. This is Yi's 17th victory in an international tournament - and he's still only 27. One can only wonder how many titles he will end up with.

  After much discussion and agonizing among professionals over the last couple of years, the Nihon Ki-in has finally decided to abolish the rating tournament or Oteai. This decision reflects a lack of public interest in the Oteai - there is no forum for publishing its games - and also a lack of interest by many professionals themselves.
  For really strong professionals, there is not much incentive for taking part in the Oteai, as the game fees are very low and there are no large prizes to aim at. For example, Ryu Shikun, who is clearly one of the top ten professionals in Japan - he's won the Tengen title four times, the Oza once and has challenged for the Kisei and Honinbo titles - is still only 7-dan because he stopped playing in the Oteai a few years ago.
  The Oteai will be replaced by a promotion system based upon results in newspaper tournaments. There are three ways of gaining promotions.

1.	Winning a title   Winning the Kisei, Meijin, Honinbo or an international title will earn promotion to 9-dan. Winning the Judan, Tengen, Oza or Gosei title once will earn promotion to 8-dan, twice to 9-dan.
2.	Number of wins   For example, if an 8-dan wins 200 games, he will be promoted to 9-dan; if a 4-dan wins 70 games, he will be promoted to 5-dan; to go from 1-dan to 2-dan will require 30 wins.
3.	Prize money rankings   For example, the 6-dan who wins the most prize money in one year will be promoted to 7-dan; the top two 1-dans will be promoted to 2-dan, etc.   The above information comes from a short article in Go Weekly, which doesn't give full details. The subheading of the article is: 'making it more severe'. In one way, it doesn't seem more severe: if an 8-dan plays enough games, you'd think he'd reach 200 wins sooner or later. However, when you look at the results for last year, you find that the 42 Nihon Ki-in 8-dans averaged only 12.9 wins each last year, at which rate it would take 15.5 years on average to go from 8-dan to 9-dan. The highest tally was 45 wins, so even that player would take nearly 4.5 years, compared with a minimum of three years by the Oteai system. This does give one the impression that the new system may put a brake on dan inflation at the top. At the bottom, there's a pool of perennial 1-dans who now have a good chance of moving up.   One consequence of this reform is that no-komi games will now disappear from professional go.

  The 36th Kido Prizes were chosen by a group of go journalist representing the main newspaper and television sponsors on 20 January. In some cases, especially the top prize, the choices were not as clear-cut as usual, and repeated votes had to be taken in some cases. The final selection was as follows:

1.	The most outstanding player: Kato Masao Honinbo. Normally this prize would have gone to O Rissei, who defended the Kisei and Judan titles, but he had a negative record last year (23 wins, 26 losses) and this customarily rules you out. Although the jury decided that this should not be a rule, it still gave the prize to Kato by a narrow margin.
2.	Outstanding players: O Rissei and Cho U 7-dan.
3.	Top woman player: Kobayashi Izumi 5-dan
4.	New star: Kono Rin 6-dan
5.	International prize: the late Hans Pietsch 6-dan
6.	Most wins: Cho U
7.	Most games played: Cho U
8.	Best winning percentage: Cho U.
9.	Most successive wins: Kobayashi Satoru (17)

  For the second year in a row, the team of Inori Yoko 5-dan and Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, has won the Ricoh Cup Pair Go tournament. In the final, held at The Garden Hall in Ebisu, Tokyo on 26 January, they beat the Yoshida Mika 7-dan/Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan pair. First prize is five million yen, one million of which is donated to buy go sets for schools around Japan.

in the chart

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

Title-holder: Kato Masao

in the chart

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

Title-holder: Yoda Norimoto

  Korea made a great start to the 4th Nongshim Spicy Noodles Cup when the 17-year-old Pak Yeong-hyeon won all four games played in the first round. However, that performance was surpassed by Hu Yaoyu 7-dan of China. Starting in the second round, Hu, who turned 21 on 18 January this year, defeated five players in a row. Unfortunately, that was not enough to secure China its first victory in this team tournament, as the Korean side had one player left: the redoubtable Yi Ch'ang-ho, who is as close to being unbeatable in international go as you can get.
  As we noted in our earlier report on the second or Pusan Round, Hu defeated Kobayashi Koichi Gosei (Japan), Kim 7-dan of Korea, and Kato Masao Honinbo (Japan). The results of the final or Shanghai Round are given below.

Game 11 (20 January 2002).
Hu (W) beat Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan (Korea) by 1.5 points.

Game 12 (21 January).
Hu (B) beat Yoda Norimoto Meijin (Japan) by half a point.

Game 13 (22 January).
Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan (Korea) (B) beat Hu by 5.5 points.

Game 14 (23 January).
Yi (W) beat Luo Xihe 8-dan (China) by resignation.

  This was a marvellous peformance by Hu: he beat Cho Hun-hyeon, second in international go only to Yi Ch'ang-ho, and three Japanese title holders. However, in the end Yi proved to be an insuperable barrier.Japanese go fans have an image of Yi as the player who always puts a spoke in their wheel in international tournaments, but actually Chinese players have suffered much more heavily at his hands. Once again, he proved to be their nemesis.
  Korea has now won all four terms of the Nongshim Cup and all five terms of its predecessor, the Jinro Cup. Its monopoly of the international titles shows no signs of coming to an end.

  Kato Keiko had made a good start in her challenge for the 6th DoCoMo Cup Women's Kisei title. In the first game, held at the Hotel Sun Life Garden in Hiratsuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture on 24 January, Kato (W) defeated Chinen Kaori, Women's Kisei; holding white, Kato forced a resignation after 164 moves. Kato took the lead thanks to a brilliancy in a hectic middle-game fight.
  Kato challenged Chinen for this title in 2001 and lost 1-2. She now seems to have a good chance of stopping Chinen from keeping the title for four years in a row.

  O Meien Oza had gone one step in front when he scored his fourth successive victory in the 58th Honinbo league, but Cho U 7-dan has now caught up. In his game with Kobayashi Koichi Gosei, played on 23 January, Cho (B) won by 11.5 points, taking him to 4-0. Kobayashi fell back to 1-3, which means he'll have an uphill struggle to retain his league place.
  In another game from the fourth round of the league, played on the same day, Yamashita Keigo 7-dan (B) beat Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, by resignation. Yamashita improves to 2-2, while Cho drops to the same score as Kobayashi.
  These two results and the Meijin game reported below really bring home to one the generational changeover that has been taking place in Japanese go in the last couple of years.

  One game was played in the 28th Meijin league on the 24th. Playing black, Mizokami Tomochika 7-dan defeated Takemiya Masaki 9-dan by resignation, thus earning his first win in the league. He is now 1-1,while Takemiya is 0-2.

  (23 January) Michael Redmond 9-dan (W) beat Ishii Kunio 9-dan by resignation (main section, Gosei tournament).

  Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan of Korea has scored yet another international success, winning the 7th Samsung Cup play-off 2-0. For a change, his opponent wasn't another Korean but a Chinese player, Wang Lei 8-dan. However, the Korean monopoly of the international titles continues unbroken. In the first game, played on 13 January, Cho (W) won by 12.5 points. In the second, played the next day, Cho forced a resignation.
  This is Cho's 11th international title.

  Yamashita Keigo 7-dan, the youngest-ever Kisei challenger, has made a great debut in two-day go, winning the first game of the 27th Kisei title match while playing his favourite centre-oriented style.
  Unusually, this year, the first game of the title match was not held overseas. Instead, the venue was the Palace Hotel in Marunouchi, Tokyo. The game was played on 16 and 17 January, with Yamashita playing white. On the first day, O Rissei seemed to be doing well when he started reducing a large moyo Yamashita had set up. However, on the second day, Yamashita kept up the pressure and contrived to split Black into two weak centre groups. Very difficult fighting followed. O managed to save both his groups, but Yamashita managed to squeeze out enough extra profit from his greater thickness to win the game by one point on the board. Since the Kisei komi is still 5.5 points, that meant a win by 6.5.
  The game ended at 7:46 p.m on the second day. Both players were down to the final minute of byo-yomi (the time allowance is eight hours each). Winning the first game with white is an excellent way to start the series, as attacking players like Yamashita usually do better with black. He now has a 5-1 lead over O in individual encounters, so he must be given a good chance of taking the Kisei title.
  The second game will be played in Fukushima City on 29 and 30 January.

  One game was played in the 58th Honinbo league on 16 January. Playing white, Rin Kaiho 9-dan beat Cho Sonjin 9-dan by resignation. That takes Rin to 2-2, just barely keeping alive his chances of becoming the challenger, while Cho, now on 1-3, drops out of the running.

  Whatever happens, there's going to be a new face as Judan challenger this year. Yamashita Keigo 7-dan won the winners' section some time ago. His opponent in the play-off with the losers' section has now been decided: Takao Shinji 8-dan. At 26, Takao is two years older than Yamashita, but for some time now he has been expected to take his share of the spotlight.
  In the final of the losers' section, Takao, playing black, defeated Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, on 16 January by 4.5 points.

  In the play-off to decide the challenger for the 6th Women's Kisei title, held recently, Kato Keiko 4-dan (W) defeated Izawa Akino 3-dan by resignation. Kato thus got the chance to make a second challenge to Chinen Kaori for this title - she lost her previous challenge in 2001 1-2.

  (16 January) Michael Redmond 9-dan (B) beat Watanabe Reiji 5-dan by 8.5 points (2nd prelim. section, Honinbo tournament).   Sakaguchi Ryuzo 9-dan (B) beat Catalin Taranu 5-dan by resig. (2nd prelim. section, Tengen tournament).

  Elsewhere on this site, the Nihon Ki-in has published an official obituary for Hans Pietsch 4-dan, who was shot and killed by a robber in Guatemala on 16 January. Full details of this tragedy are not yet available. According to the newspaper report, when Hans, Nagahara Yoshiaki 6-dan and Edgardo Caceres, president of the Guatemala Go Association, were held up by two robbers, they handed over their valuables, so why one of the robbers felt it necessary to shoot Hans is a mystery.
  We would like to offer our condolences to Hans's family in Bremen and to all those close to him. Hans was a very popular figure at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo. His go talent was demonstrated by his rapid promotion to 4-dan. He was unfailingly cheerful and friendly, and he was becoming well known as a teacher. Recently he had been in charge of a popular beginners' course and was often prominently featured in Nihon Ki-in advertising for go courses. He was due to act as the recorder for the second Kisei game. His premature death is a great loss to the go world.
  Otake Hideo, Honorary Gosei, paid him tribute in the Yomiuri Newspaper report on his death. To quote: 'Hans Pietsch was gentle and courteous and was loved by his fellow go professionals. His loss is all the greater because he was an indispensable figure for the internationalization of go.'

  In the semifinals of the 4th Chunlan Cup, Hane Naoki 9-dan defeated Luo Xihe 8-dan of China and so became the only Japanese player to reach the final of an international tournament in 2002. His opponent will be Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan of Korea, who defeated Chang Hao 9-dan of China in the other semifinal. The winners both had white and they both won by resignation.
  The date for the best-of-three final has not yet been decided.

  Two games were played in the Meijin league on 9 January. In one, Yamashita Keigo 7-dan (W) beat O Rissei Kisei by 1.5 points. In the other, Rin Kaiho 9-dan (B) beat Cho U 7-dan by half a point. Both these games were played with a 6.5-point komi.
  As a result, Yamashita and Rin are both 2-0, Cho is 1-1, and O is 0-2.

  The first game in the fourth round of the league was played at the Nihon Ki-in on 9 January. O Meien Oza (W) beat Ryu Shikun 7-dan by 4.5 points. O Meien thus takes the sole lead on 4-0, at least until Cho U plays his 4th-round game. Ryu Shikun drops to 1-3, so he chances of keeping his league place don't look good.

  Marriages between professionals are not uncommon. The 12th such couple was created when Han Konyu 1-dan and Kurotaki Masanori 7-dan got married in December. The wedding was held in Han's homeland of Taiwan. We thought Japanese weddings were elaborate, but they are far outdone by the Chinese. Apparently, as much time and trouble are taken over the commemorative photos as in making a promotional video.
Han Konyu made her debut as a professional in April last year. Her older brother is Han Zenki 6-dan. Kurotaki also comes from a go-playing family. His younger brother is Kurotaki Masaki 5-dan.

  Takao Shinji has won promotion to 8-dan, as of 10 January.

  Iguchi Hideichiro has changed his name to Iguchi Toyohide (as of 9 January).

  Western professionals have made a bad start to the new year, playing two games in the first week of play and losing both. Michael Redmond 9-dan (B) was forced to resignaiton in his game with Cho Sonjin 9-dan in the main section of the Tengen tournament. Playing in the 2nd preliminary section of the Honinbo tournament, Catalin Taranu 5-dan (W) lost by resignation to Sakaguchi Ryuzo 9-dan.

  Most wins
  Cho U set a new record, beating the old record, set by Hane Naoki in 2001, by seven. However, because he didn't lose many games, he failed to break the record for most games played in one year set by Hane (88) in that year.

1. Cho U 7-dan: 70-14
2. Yamashita Keigo 7-dan: 61-17
3. Takao Shinji 7-dan: 54-15
4. Yamada Kimio 8-dan: 45-15
5. Kono Rin 6-dan: 43-16
6. Kim Shujun 7-dan: 42-15
7. Nakano Hironari 9-dan: 41-12
8. So Yokoku 7-dan: 39-16; Yashiro Kumiko 5-dan: 39-16; Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo: 39-26.

  Yashiro Kumiko had the best results for a woman player. Hane Naoki dropped to 17th place with 31-21, but it's usually hard to maintain a high winning percentage when you are playing in title matches and leagues.
  Below are the results of some notable players who failed to make the top ten. Perhaps most noteworthy is O Rissei's rare failure to win a majority of his games.

11. O Meien Oza: 34-27
19. Kobayashi Koichi Gosei: 29-20; Kato Masao Honinbo: 29-22; Ryu Shikun 7-dan: 29-25
33. Rin Kaiho 9-dan: 24-20
40. Michael Redmond 9-dan: 23-9; O Rissei Kisei: 23-26
47. Yoda Norimoto Meijin: 22-14
52. Takemiya Masaki 9-dan: 20-16

Best winning percentage
(Limited to players who have played 30 or more games)
1. Cho U: 83.33%
2. Takao Shinji: 78.26%
3. Yamashita Keigo: 78.21%
4. Iguchi Hideichiro 7-dan: 77.78% (28-8)
5. Nakano Hironari: 77.36%
6. Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan: 75.76% (25-8)
7. Yamada Kimio: 75%; Kudo Norio 9-dan: 75% (24-8)
9. Kim Shujun: 73.68%
10. Kono Rin 6-dan: 72.88% (43-16)

Most successive wins:
1. Kobayashi Satoru: 17
2. Iguchi Hideichiro: 16
3. Yamashita Keigo: 14
4. Obuchi Morito 9-dan, Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan, Yamada Kimio: 12
7. Nakano Hironari, Akiyama Jiro 8-dan, Yamashita Keigo, Cho U, Umezawa Yukari: 11

  As we reported earlier, Hane Yasumasa 9-dan became the 7th Japanese player to score 1,000 wins in professional play in Japan. He reached this mark on 8 November 2001. Cumulative winnings were published at the end of 2002, so we would like to update the list we gave then of the top winners. The main change is that the number one and number two players have switched places.

1. Kato Masao: 1219-620-2 jigo
2. Rin Kaiho: 1216-725-1
3. Cho Chikun: 1129-565-3
4. Kobayashi Koichi: 1124-551-2
5. Otake Hideo: 1053-628-5
6. Sakata Eio: 1028 wins
7. Hane Yasumasa: 1026-500-5

  It will be a couple of years before any new players join this group. The top contenders (all active players with 800+ wins ? we don't have the statistics for retired players), plus some other notable players, are given below.

Takemiya Masaki: 940-558-2
Ishida Yoshio: 888-517
Kudo Norio: 880-515-4
O Rissei: 872-426-1 jigo
Yamashiro Hiroshi: 861-418-7
Ishii Kunio: 826-470-1
Kataoka Satoshi: 825-410-4
Awaji Shuzo: 798-450-3
Kobayashi Satoru: 779-353-1
Yoda Norimoto: 742-326-2 jigo
O Meien: 723-351-2
Michael Redmond: 412-256-2

  One player who is certain to join the top group in the future is Hane Naoki, whose record is 511-184-3 after just 12 years as a professional.