History of Topics 2005

  Yuki Satoshi 9-dan has taken the lead in the 29th Kisei best-of-seven title match and now needs just one more win to take the title from Hane Naoki. In the fifth game, Yuki played his usual aggressive style and got a favourable position early in the game when Hane adopted a slightly dubious strategy for moving into the centre. As a result, Yuki surrounded a fairly secure territory of 80 points on the left side. Hane had to resort to unreasonable measures in an attempt to match this, and left himself open to attack. Playing with confidence, Yuki punished his overplays and wrapped up a win after 151 moves.
  This was the first win for black in the series and it gives Yuki two chances to secure the first-ever Kisei title for a Kansai Ki-in player. The question will be whether Yuki can keep his nerve and play his normal game with the excitement of the big prize dangling in front of him.
  The fifth game was played in Shima City in Mie Prefecture on 24 & 25 February. It finished at 6:16 p.m. on the second day.   Hane was down to his final minute of byo-yomi while Yuki had 22 minutes left (the time allowance is eight hours each).
  The sixth game will be played on 9 & 10 March.

  The Korean team put up its worst performance yet in the 6th Nong Shim Spicy Noodles Cup, with its first four players winning only one game between them. However, its final player was the ever-reliable Yi Ch'ang-ho, Korea's iron goalkeeper.
  In a preview of the final round, Go Weekly speculated that surely China or Japan, which each had two players left, to Korea's one, would win this year's cup. Moreover, Yi had just lost a title match in Korea 0-3 to Ch'oe Ch'eol-han (who had scored Korea's only win), but he showed that on the international scene his lustre is undimmed. His team may have had its back to the wall, but he probably just thought that the odds were even. Displaying impeccable form, he relentlessly cut down the opposition in the final round and maintained Korea's monopoly in this team tournament.

The Shanghai Round
  Game 11 (23 Feb.). Yi (B) defeated Cho U 9-dan (Japan) by resignation.
  Game 12 (24 Feb.). Yi (W) defeated Wang Lei 8-dan (China) by resignation.
  Game 13 (25 Feb.). Yi (W) defeated O Meien 9-dan (Japan) by resignation.
  Game 14 (26 Feb.). Yi (B) defeated Wang Xi 5-dan (China) by resignation.

  Kobayashi Izumi recently lost one of her titles, the Women's Honinbo, but she has a good chance of defending the Women's Meijin, as she has started with a win in the best-of-three. However, she had more than her fair share of luck. The challenger, Koyama Terumi 5-dan, seemed to have the game 90 percent wrapped up, but she was careless with a large group and suffered an upset loss. Koyama made a fateful overplay in the large endgame and that gave Kobayashi a chance to kill the group.
  The first game of the 17th title match was played at Kinugawa Hot Spring in Tochigi Prefecture on 24 February. The second game is scheduled for 2 March and the third, if needed, for 9 March.

  O Rissei Judan has finally picked up his first win in the 60th Honinbo league, but he has left it dangerously late for keeping his place in the league. However, by winning, he has also endangered the place of Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan. By losing to O in their game on 24 February, Mimura has dropped to 2-4 while O is 1-5. Both will need other players to do badly to survive.

60th Honinbo league (7 October 2004 to spring 2005)
Title-holder: Cho U

  The crucial fourth game of the 29th Kisei best-of-seven was played at the Hotel Grand Palace Isahaya in Isahaya City in Nagasaki Prefecture on 16 & 17 February. The fourth game has a big influence on the direction of a series, especially if it makes the difference between a score of 2-2 and 3-1. In particular, there was a lot of pressure on Yuki for two reasons: because he had white and because he let a good position slip out of his grasp in the previous game.
  Yuki with white took territory on the first day and Hane built influence. Hane seemed to have a reasonable game, but Yuki took the lead in the middle game fighting on the second day. Hane started an unreasonable fight in an attempt to catch up, but had to resignaiton when he lost a large group. The game finished after just 124 moves, which is a little unusual for a title-match game, but the third time it has happened in this series (Hane won in 132 moves in Game One and Yuki in 128 moves in Game Two).
  This has turned out to be a very exciting series and it looks as if it might go all the way. The fifth game will be played on 24 & 25 February in Shima City in Hane's home prefecture of Mie.

  Immediate past Meijin Yoda Norimoto has maintained his unblemished record in the 30th Meijin league. In a game played at the Nihon Ki-in on 17 February, he defeated O Meien 9-dan (B) by 1.5 points to pick up his third win and draw level with Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan. O dropped back out of the running a little with 1-2.
  In another game, played on the same day at the Osaka headquarters of the Nihon Ki-in, the number two Kansai Ki-in star these days, Sakai Hideyuki 7-dan, scored his second win in the league; taking white, he defeated Yamada Kimio 8-dan by 2.5 points. The more we see of Sakai, the more impressed we are with how he has adapted to professional go. He is now 2-1 and is looking like keeping his league place. Yamada has made a poor start and is on 0-2.

30th Meijin league (10 December 2004 to summer 2005)
Title-holder: Cho U

  Michael Redmond played a game in the Preliminary B of the 31st Meijin tournament on 17 February. Taking white, he beat Anzai Nobuaki 2-dan by 1.5 points.

  Takao Shinji 8-dan has kept his share of the lead in the 60th Honinbo league, winning his fifth-round game against O Meien 9-dan, a past Honinbo. Playing black, Takao won by half a point in a game played in the top playing room, the Yugen Room, at the Nihon Ki-in on 10 February.
  Takao, who has made a brilliant debut in the league, shares the lead on 5-0 with Cho Sonjin. Following this win, the race for first place is now limited to these two, as at worst one of them will end up on 6-1 and everyone else has already lost two games or more. They meet in the final round.
  O Meien drops to 2-3, so now he has to start worrying about keeping his league place.

60th Honinbo league (7 October 2004 to spring 2005)
Title-holder: Cho U

  Ogata Masaki 9-dan has picked up his first win in the 30th Meijin league, defeating Cho Sonjin 9-dan by resignation with white. Having lost his first two games, Ogata must have been relieved to score his first win in a league.
  Cho Sonjin's form in the Meijin league is quite a contrast to his performance in the Honinbo league. He is now 0-3.

30th Meijin league (10 December 2004 to summer 2005)
Title-holder: Cho U

  The last three nonseeded Japanese seats in the 18th Fujitsu Cup were decided in games played on 10 February. Ishida Yoshio 9-dan (W) beat Aoki Shinichi 9-dan by resignation; Yamashiro Hiroshi 9-dan (B) beat Yamada Kimio 8-dan by half a point; and Yuki Satoshi 9-dan (B) beat Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan by 2.5 points.
  The other two nonseeded seats have gone to O Meien 9-dan and Nakaonoda Tomomi 9-dan. They join the seeded players, who are Hane Naoki Kisei, Cho U Meijin Honinbo, and Yoda Norimoto Gosei.

  Cho U Meijin Honinbo was awarded the 42nd Shusai Prize on 9 February. He previously won it in 2002.

  The 32nd Kansai Ki-in prizes for the top players of 2004 were decided on 28 January. Yuki Satoshi 9-dan has received the prize for the most outstanding player of the year. Besides becoming the Kisei challenger, Yuki played in the Fujitsu and Toyota & Denso Cups and scored 47 wins to 15 losses. This is the third year in a row and the seventh time overall that he has received this prize.

The other prizewinners are:
  Risen prize (fighting spirit): Imamura Toshiya (mainly for coming 3rd in the Meijin league) (third year in a row);
  Dogen prize (special merit, for players under 9-dan): Sakai Hideyuki 7-dan (for winning a place in the current Meijin league, coming second in the King of the New Stars title, winning a place in the 2nd Toyota & Denso Cup; score last year: 48 wins to 13 losses) (second year in a row)
  Most successive wins: Sakai (12);
  New Face prize: Ha Yon-il 3-dan (age 19);
  Yamano prize (for popularizing go): Ms. Tamura Chiaki 1-dan
  Nagai prize (for future potential): Murakawa Daisuke 2-dan (age 14).

  Chinen Kaori 3-dan has made a good start the 8th Women's Kisei best-of-three title match. She lost this title to Mannami Kana, then 2-dan, last year after holding it for three years in a row. Playing black, Chinen took the first game of the rematch by 3.5 points. The game was played in Hiratsuka City in Kanagawa Prefecture.

  White has kept winning in the 29th Kisei title match, which means that Hane Naoki Kisei has once again taken the lead. The third game of the best-of-seven was played at the Hotel Heiseikan in Hakodate in Hokkaido on 2 and 3 February. Hane won by 1.5 points after 238 moves.
  Although the score was counted-for the first time in the seven encounters between these two to be counted-that does not mean that the game was any less aggressive than the first two of the series. The first day, on which 55 moves were played, was peaceful, but Yuki started a fight on the second day that ended in a large ko. Hane seems to have overlooked the tesuji that set up the ko.
  Hane won the ko, but Yuki used his ko threats to set up a moyo. At this point, the game seems to have been even, but Hane played a slack move, letting Yuki take a definite lead. However, Yuki missed his chances to secure a win, and Hane, who had been plugging along patiently, took advantage of a mistake in direction by Yuki to reduce his moyo and score an upset. Hane commented later that at one point he had resigned himself to losing this game. This is a big win for him, and puts a lot of pressure on Yuki to win the next game with white.
  The fourth game will be played in Isahaya City, Nagasaki Prefecture, on 16 and 17 February.

  Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, will be playing in his first domestic title match for a little over two years. In the play-off with the winner of the Losers' Section of the 43rd Judan tournament, Takao Shinji 8-dan, Cho, taking white, won by 1.5 points. The first game of the title match with O Rissei will be played in In-no-shima on 3 March.
  Cho's last title match was the 8th Samsung Cup final in December 2003. His last domestic title match was the 50th Oza in October to December 2002 . His last appearance in a Judan title match was his unsuccessful challenge to Takemiya Masaki for the 29th Judan in 1991. He will be seeking to improve his record title tally of 67. His opponent, O Rissei, will be shooting for the title of Honorary Judan by winning the title for the fifth year in a row. The two are very closely matched in previous encounters, with O having won 37 games to Cho's 40.

  Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan is continuing his good form of last year in the 30th Meijin league. In a game played at the Nihon Ki-in on 3 February, he defeated Yamashita Keigo (B) by resignation. That took him to 3-0 and gave him the sole lead, though Yoda Norimoto Gosei could catch up when he plays his third-round game.
   Kobayashi started out badly with two losses in the previous Meijin league, but then won six games in a row to secure a tie for first place. He did lose the league play-off to Cho U, but that obviously didn't discourage him. How far will his winning streak go this time?

30th Meijin league (10 December 2004 to summer 2005)
Title-holder: Cho U

  Cho Sonjin 9-dan and Takao Shinji 8-dan are the only undefeated players in the 60th Honinbo league. In the fourth round, Takao played his game earlier and so put the pressure on Cho to catch up. In the fifth round, the tables have been turned, with Cho playing a week earlier. On 3 February, he defeated Mimura Tomoyasu (B) by resignation and became the first to score five wins. To match him,Takao will have to defeat O Meien 9-dan in their game on 10 February.
  If both players keep winning, the league will be decided by their final-round encounter.
  Two other league games were played on the same day. In one, Yoda Norimoto (B) defeated O Rissei Judan by 1.5 points; in the other, So Yokoku 7-dan (W) defeated Han Zenki 7-dan by resignation. Both Yoda and So go to 3-2, so they have a good chance of keeping their league places. That would be quite an achievement for the latter, who is making his league debut. The other league debutant, Han, is having a dismal time, with no wins to five losses. O Rissei, a top player in anyone's book, is on the same score. He's going to have to pick up a little to handle Cho Chikun's upcoming challenge for the Judan title.

60th Honinbo league (7 October 2004 to spring 2005)
Title-holder: Cho U

  In-laws Cho U Honinbo and Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan were matched up in the semifinal of the 24th NEC Cup, played on 29 January. Taking white, Cho won by 4.5 points.

  Playing black, Michael Redmond 9-dan lost a game by resignation to Kojima Takaho 9-dan in the A Preliminary of the 61st Honinbo tournament. That makes him 1-1 for the year.

  Yuki Satoshi got a big boost for his self-confidence by scoring his first win ever in a two-game game. The second game of the 29th Kisei title match was held at the Bokoro hotel in Hawai Hot Spring in the town of Yurihama in Tottori Prefecture on 26 and 27 January. The name of the hotel literally means Lakeview Tower; the hotel has fine views of Lake Togo.
  Playing white, Yuki took an early lead in territory while Hane built thickness; in other words, both sides were playing the opposite of the styles usually identified with them. However, professional commentators pointed out that recently Yuki has become more territory-oriented. For his part, Hane has declared that he is going to make a point of playing an attacking game in this series, and so far he has been as good as his word.
  Using the support of his thickness, Hane started a fight in the middle game, but this was welcomed by Yuki. He secured the lead, but stumbled later on, letting Hane catch up. However, Hane slipped up when he tried to wrap up the game and lost a large group. He resigned after just 128 moves, making this game four moves shorter than the opening game. It's very unusual for two successive games in a title match to finish so early; it looks as if this is going to be a stormy series.
  The third game will be played in Hakodate City on 2 and 3 February.

  China led all the way in the 3rd Cheongkwanjang Cup, but Pak Chi-eun 5-dan fought back for Korea at the end of the Shanghai Round, eliminating two Chinese players before falling victim to the world's number one woman player Rui Naiwei.

Game 12 (18 Jan.). Pak Chi-eun 5-dan (Korea) (W) d. Xu Ying 5-dan (China) by 8.5 points.
Game 13 (19 Jan). Pak (W) defeated Zhang Xuan 8-dan (China) by 4.5 points.
Game 14 (20 Jan.) Rui Naiwei 9-dan (China) (B) defeated Pak by resignation.

  It is developing into quite a race between Takao Shinji 8-dan and Cho Sonjin 9-dan in the current Honinbo league. Takao played his fourth-round game earlier and won it, which put some pressure on Cho, but the latter maintained his excellent form and remains tied with Takao. On 20 January, Cho beat Han Zenki 7-dan, forcing a resignation with black.
  Cho and Takao are both on 4-0. They are a clear two points ahead of the field, so it is unlikely that anyone else will feature in the race for the challengership. They haven't played each other yet, so that's going to be an interesting game.
  Han is making a painful debut in the league; with four losses to no wins, his demotion is almost certain (the other four players are all on 2-2). His only remaining target is to win a game to save face.

  Two games were played in the 30th Meijin League at the Nihon Ki-in on 20 January. Fellow Kansai Ki-in players Sakai Hideyuki 6-dan and Imamura Toshiya 9-dan met in a clash in which victory went to the latter; taking white, Imamura secured a resignation. Both players are now on 1-1.
  In the other game, last year's challenger Yamashita Keigo Tengen, who had a bye in the first round, beat O Meien 9-dan (white) by resig. Yamashita thus made a good start, while O is now 1-1.

  Takao Shinji 8-dan is eager to have another crack at O Rissei for the Judan title, but first he will have to get past Cho Chikun. In the final of the Losers' Section, held on 20 January, he defeated Rin Kaiho by resignation; Takao had white.
  The play-off to decide the challenger will be held on 3 February.

  The play-off to decide the challenger for the 17th Women's Meijin title was held at the Nihon Ki-in on 19 January. Koyama Terumi 5-dan defeated Aoki Kikuyo 8-dan and so will challenge Kobayashi Izumi for the title. Koyama held this title for three years in a row, from 1996 to 1998 (the 8th to 10th titles).

  The final of the 11th Ricoh Cup Professional Pair Go Championship was held in Beijing on 23 January. It was won by the team of Aoki Kikuyo 8-dan and Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan, who defeated Kato Keiko 4-dan and O Rissei Judan, who held black, by resignation. The winners then played a goodwill match with the Chinese team of Xu Ying 5-dan and Nie Weiping 9-dan; taking white, the Japanese team won by half a point.
  These games were played before a full house of 500 Chinese fans, who included many children. This is the first time this tournament has held an overseas game. Chinese fans gave the players a warm welcome and took a keen interest in the game. The large number of children in the audience was quite a contrast to Japan.
  The prize for the winning team is five million yen, of which one million is used to buy go equipment for schools.

  Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, became the third player to score 1,200 wins when he defeated Yamashita Keigo Tengen in the second round of the final section of the 30th Gosei tournament. The game was held at the Nihon Ki-in on 27 January; holding black, Cho forced a resignation.
  Cho's win tally is bested only by Rin Kaiho, Honorary Tengen, who has 1,265 wins, and the late Kato Masao 9-dan, who won 1,253 games. It took Cho 37 years to reach this mark. He did it by defeating a player who has been his nemesis. In the eight years since his first game with Yamashita, who was then 5-dan, Cho had won only two of the 11 games they had played (Cho had lost all the games the two had played in the Kisei, Meijin and Honinbo leagues).

  The first two of the five nonseeded Japanese seats in the 18th Fujitsu Cup have been decided. One went to O Meien 9-dan, who will be playing in this tournament for the fifth year in a row. In the play-off, held on 27 January, O (B) defeated Kim Shujun 7-dan by resignation.
  The other seat went to went to Nakaonoda Tomomi 9-dan, who will be making his international debut. He beat Matsuoka Hideki 8-dan in a play-off held on the same day; Nakaonoda had black and won by resignation.
  The pairings in the other play-offs are: Yamashiro Hiroshi 9-dan vs. Yamada Kimio 8-dan; Yuki Satoshi 9-dan vs. Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan; and Ishida Yoshio 9-dan vs. Aoki Shinichi 9-dan.

  The magazine Kido is defunct, but the Kido Prizes are still with us. They are awarded early each year to the outstanding players of the previous year. To no one's surprise, the unanimous choice for the Most Outstanding Player prize was Cho U Meijin Honinbo. He also won it last year. The others were distributed as follows:

Outstanding Player: Yamashita Keigo Tengen
New Star: Kim Shujun 7-dan
Women's Prize: Chinen Kaori, Women's Honinbo
Special Prize: Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo
Most wins: Takao Shinji 8-dan (44-15)
Best winning percentage: Tsuruyama Atsushi 5-dan (75%)
Most successive wins: Takao Shinji (15)
Most games: Yamashita Keigo (71)

  The winners were chosen on 21 January by a panel of newspaper and television go reporters. The International Prize was not awarded, as no Japanese representative won an international tournament last year. The Special Prize was awarded to Cho Chikun in recognition of his feat in increasing his tally of titles won to 67 (he topped Sakata's record the previous year).