History of Topics 2003

  The 41st Judan title went down to the wire, and it looked as if the title holder was in danger of suffering his second successive loss to a flag-bearer for the new generation. However, in the fifth game, played at the Hotel Kagetsuen in Hakone on 24 April, O Rissei (aged 44) demonstrated formidable fighting prowess to win the game and rebuff the challenger, Takao Shinji 8-dan (aged 26), 3-2. Playing black, O won by resignation after 283 moves. The game finished at 6:26p.m.; O had two minutes of byo-yomi left and Takao four.
  The major part of the game featured a large ko fight. O had made an early invasion of a large potential white territory. The result was a ko, but he had so many adjacent ko threats that he was able to live without giving up much. In fact, he answered the moves that Takao played as ko threats in the most aggressive fashion. The game was very close after the ko fight was resolved, but O seemed to have a slight edge. Takao made a dubious move in the later fighting, so O was able to secure a solid lead of ten points on the board.
  This gives O his third Judan title in a row, which makes up a little for his Kisei loss. His task now will be break a personal jinx: so far, he hasn't held a title for more than three successive terms (the Kisei and the Oza).
  Incidentally, this year's match was the second title match in which the same colour won all games. Last year white won every game, and this year the balance was redressed, with black winning every game (the komi was 5.5 points).

  The SARS influenza epidemic is having a serious effect on international tournaments. First of all, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has put out an advisory recommending deferring travel to China. As a result, the quarterfinals of the Fujitsu Cup, which were scheduled for Beijing on 7 June, have been switched to Tokyo. At least, the Chinese will avoid the embarrassment of hosting a round from which all their players have been eliminated. The Japan-China Tengen play-off, which had been scheduled for 26, 28, and 30 May in Shanghai, has been cancelled. Also, O Rissei and Hane Naoki are unlikely to travel to China to take part as guest players in the A league.
  Japan and Korea have not yet had cases of SARS (officially, anyway), but organizers are reacting with caution. The 15th TV Asia Cup, scheduled for 6 to 9 May in Seoul, has been cancelled this year. It also seems likely that the 8th LG Cup, the opening rounds of which were scheduled for 20 and 22 May in Seoul, will be adversely affected.
  All in all, this epidemic is wreaking havoc on the international go scene. At least, the World Amateur Go Championship is still on track for 8 to 12 June in Kurashiki in Japan. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

  The second of the four vacant seats in the 28th Kisei leagues has been won by O Meien Oza. In a game played at the Nihon Ki-in on 24 April, O (B) defeated Kono Rin 6-dan by resignation.
  The first of the vacant seats had already been won by Awaji Shuzo 9-dan. Pairings in the remaining two finals are: Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan vs. Takao Shinji 8-dan and Kobayashi Koichi Gosei vs. Imamura Yoshiaki 8-dan.

To 9-dan: So Kofuku (by the transitional Oteai system)
To 5-dan: Ko Iun (ditto)

  Takao Shinji 8-dan has survived his first kadoban in the 41st Judan title match. In the fourth game, played in Dogo Hot Spring, Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture on 17 April, Takao, playing black, beat O Rissei by 1.5 points. The game ended unusually early, at 4:52 p.m., after 241 moves. Despite the short time allowance of four hours each, neither player was in byo-yomi, which is surprising for a game that is played right out. Takao had 36 minutes left and O 32 minutes.
  Both players seemed to play the opposite to their usual style in this game, and probably Takao was responsible. He usually favours thickness, but he went for territory early, making a 3-3 invasion on move 15 that struck the players following the game as premature. He actually ended up taking all four corners, so O Rissei had little choice but to build thickness and take the outside, which is not his usual preference. It seems that Takao subsequently took a small lead in the middle-game fighting and was able to hold on to it. With this win, he tied the score at 2-2, so everything will be decided by the fifth game, to be played on 24 April.

  second round of the 16th Fujitsu Cup was played at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo on 14 April. The honours were evenly shared by Japan and Korea, which each got four players into the quarterfinals. These are scheduled to be held in Beijing on 7 June, but unfortunately for the host country none of its representatives survived the opening rounds.
  In the second round, the eight first-round winners are matched against the eight seeded players, with pairings between players from the same country being avoided. Perhaps the most exciting game was the one between Hane Naoki and Yi Se-tol. Hane is usually considered a fairly conservative player who tries to play a well-balanced game, but he got into a spectacular fight, involving several unsettled groups, with Yi. The latter is a very sharp, aggressive player and, after some fierce fighting, he came out on top.

Full results in Round Two:
  Yi Se-tol 6-dan (Korea) (W) beat Hane Naoki 9-dan by resig.; Yu Ch'ang-hyeok 9-dan (Korea) (W) beat Gu Li 7-dan (China) by resig.; Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan (Korea) (W) beat John Lee (North America) by resig,; Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan (Japan) (W) beat Pak Yeong-hun 4-dan by resig.; Song T'ae-kon 4-dan (not 2-dan, as we wrote in our report on Round 1) (Korea) (B) beat O Meien 9-dan (Japan) by resig.; O Rissei 9-dan (Japan) (B) beat Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan (Korea) by 4.5; Takao Shinji 8-dan (Japan) (W) beat Zhou Junxun 9-dan (Chinese Taipei) by resig.; Yoda Norimoto 9-dan (Japan) (B) beat Wang Lei 8-dan by resig.

Quarterfinal pairings
  Kobayashi Satoru vs. Yi Se-tol; Yoda Norimoto vs. Yu Ch'ang-hyeok; Takao Shinji vs. Song T'ae-kon; O Rissei vs. Yi Ch'ang-ho.

  Awaji Shuzo 9-dan is the first player to secure one of the four vacant places in the 28th Kisei leagues. Awaji dropped out of the previous league with a 1-4 score (in the B league), but he has wasted no time getting back in. In the final preliminary game, played on 10 April, he defeated Arimura Hiroshi 8-dan (B) by resignation.

  The quarterfinal between Yoda Meijin and Nakano 9-dan was played on the same day as Michael Redmond's game with Cho Chikun. Yoda won, so he will be Michael's opponent in the semifinal.

  The host country has done a little better than usual, scoring four wins to two losses in the first round of the 16th Fujitsu Cup, held at the Nihon Ki-in in Ichigaya, Tokyo on 12 April. The most notable result was Yoda Norimoto 9-dan's win over Chang Hao 9-dan of China. However, China made up for this setback when Gu Li 7-dan eliminated Cho Chikun 9-dan.
  Korea made its usual good start, with Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan defeating Kato Masao 9-dan and Song T'ae-kon 2-dan, a 16-year-old Korean title holder, eliminating a danger man, Zhou Heyang 9-dan, who has done very well against Yi Ch'ang-ho in this tournament.
  Fernando Aguilar of Argentina was not able to duplicate his success in the Toyota & Denso Cup last year (he beat two 9-dans). His opponent, Takao Shinji 8-dan, treated him with due respect and scored a convincing win. The other Western competitors were Catalin Taranu 5-dan, representing Europe, and John Lee, playing for the U.S. The luck of the draw matched them against each other. John Lee made a bad start, going wrong in a joseki, but he fought back tenaciously; he was able to set up a enormous semeai (capturing race), which he won and so secured a berth in the second round. There he will need both tenacity and inspiration, as he is slated to play Yi Ch'ang-ho. Actually, John has done well against Yi, having played him three times and won all three games; however, these were three-stone games played when, as a 12-year-old, he spent two months as an insei in Seoul. Yi on even will be a different proposition.
  Full results of Round One (komi is 6.5 points):

Takao Shinji 8-dan (Japan) (W) beat Fernando Aguilar, amateur 6-dan (South America), by resig.; Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan (Japan) (W) b. Huang Yizhong 6-dan (China) by resig.; John Lee, amateur 7-dan (North America) (B), beat Catalin Taranu 5-dan (Europe) by resig.; Yoda Norimoto 9-dan (Japan) (B) b. Chang Hao 9-dan (China) by resig.; Gu Li 7-dan (China) (B) b. Cho Chikun 9-dan (Japan) by resig.; Song T'ae-kon 2-dan (Korea) (W) b. Zhou Heyang 9-dan (China) by resig.; Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan (Korea) (W) b. Kato Masao 9-dan (Japan) by 3.5 points; Hane Naoki 9-dan (Japan) (W) b. Ch'oe Myeong-hun 8-dan (Korea) by resig.

  After a bad start to the year for O Rissei, things are looking up: he now needs just one more win to defend the 41st Judan title. The third game of the best-of-five was held at the Kuroyon Royal Hotel in Omachi City, Nagano Prefecture on 10 April. It was a seesaw game, but when the fighting settled down Takao seemed to have the lead. However, O fought on tenaciously and staged one of his patented upsets. The game finished with Takao resigning at 6:37 p.m. after 269 moves. Both players were down to the final minute of byo-yomi (the time allowance is four hours each).
  The fourth game will be played at Dogo Hot Spring in Ehime Prefecture on 17 April.

  In a game played on 10 April, Michael Redmond 9-dan (B) beat Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, by 3.5 points in a quarterfinal of the 28th Gosei title. Michael has been enjoying excellent form in this tournament, having also scored wins against Kataoka Satoshi 9-dan and Ishii Kunio 9-dan. He needs just two more wins to make his first challenge for a top-seven title. His opponent in the semifinal will be either Yoda Norimoto 9-dan or Nakano Hironari 9-dan.

  Earlier we reported on the first promotions under the new system based on achievement (winning or challenging for top-seven titles). The first promotions based on number of games won were announced recently. They are:

  To 8-dan: Nakao Jungo
  To 5-dan: Tsuruyama Atsushi
  To 3-dan: Ueda Takashi

  Maetani Shingo 5-dan has retired as of 31 March.

  Here is the only other recent result of a Westerner professional, apart from the Redmond game reported above.
  (3 April) Miyagawa Fumihiko 7-dan (B) beat Catalin Taranu 5-dan by half a point (Judan tournament, preliminary C).

  In its 14 April issue, Go Weekly has published the first report on the influence of the new komi. Bearing in mind the fact that the total number of games played so far with the 6.5-point komi is still statistically insignificant, it's interesting to see if there's been any change.
  Black's winning percentage in the five years preceding the change was 51.85%. In title matches it was 51.6%. Since the first games with the new komi were played on 6 November last year, 688 such games have been played, of which Black has won 51.6%. The 'correction' is surprisingly small; it seems that Black retains the advantage of playing first.
  Of course, what the statistics don't show is how the change in komi has influenced strategy, and how professionals feel subjectively about the new komi. In any case, Go Weekly predicts that no one will be calling for a 7.5-point komi any time soon.

  Yi Se-tol, who is still only a 3-dan though he ceased to be a teenager on 2 March, has won his second international title. Moreover, he did it in the most creditable fashion: defeating the almost invincible Yi Ch'ang-ho.

  Game 1 (25 Feb.). Se-tol (B) won by resig. (149 moves).
  Game 2 (27 Feb.). Ch'ang-ho (B) won by resig. (149 moves).
  Game 3 (25 March). Se-tol (B) won by resig. (265 moves).
  Game 4 (27 March). Se-tol (W) won by 7.5 points.

  The main sponsor of this tournament is the LG or Lucky Goldstar group of companies. First prize is 250 million won (about 25 million yen or $210,000). Second prize is 80 million won.

  Cho U stumbled in the final round of the 58th Honinbo league, losing to Yamashita Keigo and so being forced into a play-off. The player who drew level with him as the runners breasted the tap was O Meien, who as Honinbo had rebuffed Cho's first Honinbo challenge in 2001. This time Cho took revenge. In the play-off, held at the Nihon Ki-in on 7 March, Cho, taking black, defeated O by 5.5 points.
  Cho just barely missed out in his previous challenge, losing 3-4. With two years more experience and maturity, he should be a more formidable challenger, so the title match with Kato Masao should be a very interesting one.
  The first game will be played on Cheju Island in Korea on 14 & 15 May.
  Incidentally, the age gap between the two sets a new record in the Honinbo title match: Kato is 56 and Cho is 23, and the difference in ages is 32 years ten months.

  A couple of weeks ago, we reported that Kikuchi Yasuro, amateur 8-dan, had scored a major success by defeating Ryu Shikun, then 7-dan, in the Agon Kiriyama Cup. Thanks to that win, Kikuchi won his way into the final preliminary section, the only one of the 20 amateurs who started out in the tournament to get so far.
  Kikuchi's winning streak came to an end in his first game in Preliminary A, played on 24 March, when he was matched against the redoubtable Rin Kaiho. Rin may have turned 60, but his fighting prowess has not waned. Moreover, he had black, which, even with a large komi of 6.5, made things tough for Kikuchi. The latter was forced to resignaiton on

  Yi Se-tol, who is still only a 3-dan though he ceased to be a teenager on 2 March, has won his second international title. Moreover, he did it the hard way: defeating the almost invincible Yi Ch'ang-ho. That makes him a worthy world champion.
  This is Se-tol's second title, following the Fujitsu Cup in August last year. Just for the record, he becomes the 10th player to win two or more world titles. In order, the top winners are:

Yi Ch'ang-ho: 18
Cho Hun-hyeon: 11
Takemiya Masaki, Yu Ch'ang-hyeok: 6
Yoda Norimoto: 4
Otake Hideo, Ma Xiaochun, Yu Bin, O Rissei, Yi Se-tol: 2

Full results of the title match are:
Game 1 (25 Feb.). Se-tol (B) won by resig. (149 moves).
Game 2 (27 Feb.). Ch'ang-ho (B) won by resig. (149 moves).
Game 3 (25 March). Se-tol (B) won by resig (265 moves).
Game 4 (27 March). Se-tol (W) won by 7.5 points (294 moves).

The main sponsor of this tournament is the LG or Lucky Goldstar group of companies. First prize is 250 million won (about 25 million yen or $210,000). Second prize is 80 million won.

  The last round of the 58th Honinbo league was played at the Nihon Ki-in on 3 April. The result was a tie for first place, necessitating a play-off to decide the challenger to Kato Masao Honinbo.
Results of the final-round games are as follows:

O Meien Oza (B) beat Rin Kaiho 9-dan by resignation.
Yamashita Keigo Kisei (B) beat Cho U 8-dan by resig.
  Ryu Shikun 9-dan (B) Cho Sonjin 9-dan by 5.5 points.

  Cho Chikun 9-dan (B) beat Kobayashi Koichi Gosei by 5.5 points.
  Cho U thus stumbled in the final round, suffering his first loss and ending up in a tie with O Meien, both on 6-1, for first place. Yamashita finished on 5-2; although he won his final game, he needed to have both Cho and O lose to qualify for a place in a play-off. Ironically, Kobayashi Koichi hung on to his place although he lost his final game and ended up on 3-4, which is often not good enough to stay in the Honinbo league. He was helped by the fact that the other four players scored badly, all finishing on 2-5.
  The play-off between Cho and O will be held at the Nihon Ki-in on 7 April.

  The final of the 33rd New Stars tournament was telecast on Tokyo Channel 12 on 23 and 30 March. The winner was Takao Shinji 8-dan, who defeated Kim Shujun by 1.5 points; Takao had white.
  This is Takao's third victory in this tournament. Poor Kim finished as runner-up for the third year in a row.

  (24 March) So Yokoku 7-dan (B) beat Michael Redmond 9-dan by resig.; Tsuchida Masamitsu 9-dan (B) beat Catalin Taranu 5-dan by 5.5 points (Agon Kiriyama Cup, Prelim. A; kmoin 6.5).

  The second game of the 41st Judan title match was held at the Ginba-so, a traditional Japanese inn, in Nishiura Hot Spring in Gamagori City in Aichi Prefecture on 27 March. Playing black, Takao Shinji 8-dan, the challenger, defeated O Rissei by 1.5 points. The game finished at 6:47 p.m. after 291 moves and both players were down to the last minute of byo-yomi (the time allowance from this year is just four hours each).
  As his first win in a title match, this was a memorable game for Takao. It started in typical fashion, with O developing rapidly and taking territory while Takao plugged away solidly. O secured a large territory, but Takao caught up by putting pressure on a weak white group. He secured a small lead in the endgame.
  With the score tied at 1-1, the match is heating up. The third game will be played at the Kuroyon Royal Hotel in Omachi City in Nagano Prefecture on 10 April.

  Some reorganization of haya-go or fast-go tournaments is taking place. The Kakusei tournament (time limit: one hour, with the final five minutes being allotted to byo-yomi) and the Haya-go Championship (five minutes + 30 seconds a move + two 3-minute thinking periods) have been combined into the JAL Super Haya-go tournament. The Kakusei was sponsored by Japan Airlines and the Haya-go by Channel 12. First prize will be almost the same as the Kakusei, 5 million yen.
  The New Stars (Shin'ei), a companion tournament to the Haya-go for young players, is to be reborn as the JAL New Stars Haya-go. It is open to players under 7-dan and 30 years of age. Prize money has been increased from 800,000 yen to 1.5 million yen.
  The Women's Kakusei tournament becomes the JAL Women's Kakusei. Prize money has gone down from 3.5 to 2.5 million yen.

  Rather than the title matches, the real highlight of the Chinese go scene in recent years has been the team league, which pits four-player teams from different areas of China against each other. The top teams play in the A league, while the others compete in the B league for vacant seats in the A league. Local loyalty attracts sponsors, which in turn means that teams can afford to hire out-of-town talent to boost their strength. Players from Korea have been much sought after, and quite a few have served terms as guest players. Last year they included the top two Korean pros, Cho Hun-hyeon and Yi Ch'ang-ho.
  Last year they were joined by two players from Japan, Rin Kaiho and Kono Rin, both of whom played in the A league. Rin Kaiho played for the Guizhou team led by Nie Weiping; he scored 2-2. (Rin commented that his score was reasonable, because it was the same as Yi Ch'ang-ho's.) Kono played for the Zhejiang team led by Ma Xiaochun and scored 2-3.
  This year six players from Japan have been invited to participate. O Rissei Judan and Hane Naoki Tengen will both play for the Beijing team (led by Chen Zude), which has a place in the A league; So Yokoku 7-dan, Ko Reibun 4-dan, Seto Taiki 4-dan and Mannami Kana 2-dan will play for teams in the B league. O and Hane will probably play between four and eight games, depending on how their schedules work out. The B league plays its games over a short period, so the guest players may be able to take part in more matches.
  The Chinese B league teams have selected an interesting range of players. Ko Reibun is a member of the Nihon Ki-in, but he has a top Chinese pedigree: he is the son of Nie Weiping 9-dan and Kong Shangming 8-dan. So Yokoku hails from Guangzhou in China, so, like O Rissei, he will have no language problem. Seto Taiki 4-dan, who turned 19 on 27 March, is the top young player at the Kansai Ki-in; he is just the right age for this kind of experience to make a big difference in his development. Mannami Kana is also still a teenager (she turns 20 on 16 June); she will play for a Zhejiang team that's said to be made up solely of beautiful women players.
  We hope to present reports on their progress during the year.

  On 1 March a go meeting dedicated to the memory of the late Hans Pietsch 6-dan was held at the Shibamata Igo & Shogi Salon in Katsushika Ward, Tokyo. Hans had taught go to the members of this club once a week for four and a half years. His pupils honoured his memory with a memorial go meeting. After relating their memories of Hans, they split up into the Hans Class and the Pietsch Class to hold a memorial tournament. Hans's pupils hope to hold this event on a regular basis to keep alive their memories of him.