History of Topics 2005

  Yoda Norimoto's good form in the 30th Gosei title match has continued and he has defended his title with three straight wins. This is his third Gosei title in a row and his sixth overall. It takes his tally of titles won to 35, which puts him in equal 6th place with Rin Kaiho.
  The third game was played at the Kagoshima Sun Royal Hotel on 26 July. Playing black, Yoda forced a resignation after 169 moves. Once again, Yuki has failed to take a title. This was his third unsuccessful challenge for the Gosei title.

  Three games were played in the Kisei Leagues on 21 July. In the A League, Yuki Satoshi 9-dan (B) defeated Yoda Norimoto by 6.5 points, thus getting a little revenge for his Gosei setback, and Kato Atsushi 8-dan (W) defeated Honda Kunihisa 9-dan by resignation. Both Yuki and Kato have made good starts and share the lead with Cho U on 2-0.
  In the B League, Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan (B) beat Imamura Toshiya 9-dan by resignation. Both players are on 1-1.

  One game was played in the 30th Meijin League on 21 July. Yamada Kimio 8-dan (W) beat Ogata Masaki 9-dan by resignation. Yamada's final-round game with Yoda Norimoto, scheduled for 4 August, will probably decide which of the two, who are both on 3-4, will keep his league place (though Yoda might keep it even if he loses, depending on the result of the Kobayashi Satoru-O Meien game).

  Yoda Norimoto went through one of the worst stretches of his career in the first half of this year, but everything seems to be falling into place in the 30th Gosei title match. After a one-sided win in the first game, Yoda made slightly the worse start in the second game, but took advantage of a slip by his opponent to seize the initiative and score another convincing win.
  The game was played in the town of Nonoichi in Ishikawa Prefecture on 15 July. Yoda had white and secured a resignation after 156 moves.
  Yuki Satoshi now has his back to the wall: he faces a kadoban in the third game, scheduled for 26 July.

  So far, the joint leaders in the 30th Meijin League are both standing up to the pressure as the race enters the home stretch. Both Kobayashi Satoru and Yamashita Keigo won games played on 14 July, so they remain tied on 6-1. Since they don't meet each other in the final round, there's a strong possibility of a play-off to decide the challenger to Cho U.
  Kobayashi played one of two players who still had an outside chance; that was Sakai Hideyuki, who had made a brilliant debut in his first league. Taking black, Kobayashi forced a resignation. Sakai dropped to 4-3 and is now completely out of the running. The only consolation for him is that he can't lose his league place; he is certain to end up in 6th place or higher.
  Yamashita, also playing black, defeated Cho Sonjin by resignation. On 1-6, Cho is in equal last place.

  One game was played in the A League of the 30th Kisei tournament at the Nihon Ki-in on 14 July. Cho U Meijin (B) defeated Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan by resignation. Cho has made an excellent start in the league, being the first player in either league to score two wins; he is showing no after-effects from his setback in the Honinbo title.
  Mimura is now 0-2, so the challenge for him now is to keep his league place.

  The semifinal pairings in the 53rd Oza title are O Meien vs. Yamashita Keigo and Ryu Shikun vs. Nakaonoda Tomomi. The titleholder is Cho U.

  In a game played in Preliminary B of the Gosei tournament on 14 July, Michael Redmond 9-dan (B) defeated Matsubara Taisei 5-dan by resignation.

  At just 22 years of age, Yi Se-told 9-dan of Korea has become the first player ever to win the Fujitsu Cup three times. In the final of the 18th Cup, held at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo on 4 July, Yi, playing white, defeated his compatriot Ch'oe Ch'eol-han 9-dan by 2.5 points and took the first prize of 15 million yen. In the play-off for 3rd place, Yu Ch'ang-hyeok 9-dan (W) bested Song T'ae-kon 7-dan by 3.5 points.
  The final got off to a fierce start. The Korean style is to start fighting earlier in the game than is the fashion in Japan, but even so Ch'oe launched an attack that was a little unreasonable; it ended up with his having three weak groups, so already the game was favourable for Yi. Ch'oe's position got even worse when he gave Yi a ponnuki in exchange for capturing five stones. This tactic shocked the Japanese professionals following the game at the Nihon Ki-in; Yi simply commented later that it was'impossible'.
  At this point, after fewer than 70 moves, Yi already had a won game and he started trying to wrap it up as quickly as possible. However, he perhaps underestimated his opponent. Ch'oe bided his time, then made a violent attack, a placement that killed a corner white group. Unfortunately for him, this didn't quite secure an upset, as Yi skilfully set up a squeeze on the outside. That rounded off a large centre territory that gave him just enough for a win.
  This year the semifinals were monopolized by Koreans. Among them, Yu Ch'ang-hyeok, at 39, was the veteran. Yi, at 22, was the next oldest; his opponent in the final was 20, and Song, who had to be content with 4th place, was still only 18. Korea has now won the Fujitsu Cup eight years in a row; with players like the above quartet representing it, that monopoly is likely to continue.

  Yoda Norimoto has made a good start in his defence of the Gosei title, convincingly outplaying the challenger Yuki Satoshi 9-dan in the opening game. Going into the title match, Yuki had seemed to be enjoying better form than Yoda, but the latter rose to the occasion, more than matching Yuki's aggression, so at this point his chances of keeping his title look excellent.
The first game of the 30th title match was played at the Fukuyama New Castle Hotel in Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture, on 7 July. Playing black, Yoda forced a resignation after just 133 moves.
  Yuki will have to stage a fightback when he has black in the next game, scheduled for 15 July. If he can summon up the fighting spirit he displayed in the Kisei title match, he should still have a chance.

  Imamura Toshiya 9-dan of the Kansai Ki-in won an important game in the 30th Meijin League on 7 July. Playing white, he defeated O Meien 9-dan by resignation and so took his score to 5-2. If Yamashita Keigo or Kobayashi Satoru falter in their final two games, Imamura still has a chance of becoming the challenger.
  The other player still with a chance is Sakai Hideyuki, who is on 4-2. He could be the key man, as his final two games are against Kobayashi and Yamashita.

  Komatsu Hideki 9-dan has picked up his first win in the B League of the 30th Kisei Leagues. Playing white, he defeated former Kisei Yamashita Keigo Tengen by resignation. Both these two are now 1-1, but their reactions to this result are probably different. Komatsu can begin to hope that he might keep his place in the league; Yamashita will be disappointed, as a big dent has been put in his hopes of making a comeback as Kisei.

  The 16-year-old Iyama Yuta 4-dan has pulled off the biggest upset of his short career, defeating Cho U Meijin in the main tournament of the 20th Agon Kiriyama Cup. Iyama is the youngest player ever to play in the main tournament in this title. His first opponent was Cho, but Iyama was not overawed; playing white, he secured a resignation. This was actually the first time ever that Cho has lost a game to a Japanese player younger than he is.
  Iyama is expected to develop into a top player in the near future. The unspoken hope in Japan is that he might be able to rival the young Korean stars, although that is asking a lot of him.

  Michael Redmond 9-dan has been eliminated from the main tournament of the 44th Judan tournament. In his first game in the Losers' Section, he lost to Kono Rin 7-dan, who had black, by resignation. The game was played on 7 July.

  Takao Shinji 8-dan has finally joined the ranks of the titleholders, defeating Cho U 4-1 to win the 60th Honinbo title. After winning the first three games, Takao's challenge met with a major hitch when he was decisively outplayed by Cho in the fourth game, but he fought back in the fifth game and pulled off a win by half a point. At the age of 28, Takao has reached the top.
  The fifth game was played in the hot spring of Miyama in Chichibu City, Saitama Prefecture, on 27 and 28 June. The game finished at 7:36 after 305 moves, with both players down of the final minute of byo-yomi.
  Many pundits expected the series to go to a sixth game, as Cho has a winning percentage of close to 80% playing black and they thought it unlikely he would lose on this colour for a third time in a row in the same match. But that is what happened.
  Interviewed after the game, Takao commented: 'I thought I'd be doing well if I won one game in the series. Even after winning the first three games, I didn't think I could take the title. I'm still not strong enough, so I'll start studying over again.'
  Cho's comment: 'I was completely outplayed. I was in trouble many times, so it's only natural that I lost. I made too many awful mistakes. But that's my level.'
  Takao won the Honinbo league on his first appearance and has now won the title on his first challenge. In fact, this was only his second challenge for a top-seven title - two years ago he made an unsuccessful challenge to O Rissei for the Judan title. Takao has now caught up with the other members of a group dubbed the 'four stars' of the go world; they are Hane Naoki Kisei, Yamashita Keigo Tengen, and Cho U Meijin Oza, who have more or less dominated the tournament scene in recent years. Incidentally, before the league began Cho U predicted that Takao would become the challenger. Although he hadn't won a title yet, Takao was highly respected by his fellow professionals, who considered it just a matter of time until he reached the top. Cho of course is familiar with his style because the two have spent a lot of time studying together in the past.
  Takao was originally a disciple of the prominent amateur player and go writer Taoka Keiichi, who later introduced him to Fujisawa Shuko, whose disciple he then became. He qualified as professional shodan in 1991 and reached 8-dan in 2002. Winning the Honinbo title brings with it automatic promotion to 9-dan. He has won six minor titles, including the King of the New Stars in 1996. Takao favours a thickness-oriented style; fellow professionals have commented that he is the player who has inherited most of the good points of Shuko. He is also obviously very good at the endgame, as he held his own here against Cho, who is considered an endgame master.
  Takao is the 14th tournament Honinbo. Cho's reign has finished after two terms, though no one doubts that he will be back as challenger before very long.

Cho U vs. Takao Shinji

  The semifinals of the 18th Fujitsu Cup were held at the Nihon Ki-in on 2 July. Ironically, all the competitors were Koreans, who had to make the trip to Japan to play each other. Despite the failure, for the first time ever, of a Japanese representative to make the semifinals, there was a good turnout for the public commentary on the game given by O Meien 9-dan and Shirae Haruhiko 8-dan. They were rewarded with two entertaining games that demonstrated the severity of Korean go.
  Playing white, Yi Se-tol 9-dan, a five-time world champion, defeated Yu Ch'ang-hyeok 9-dan, a six-time world champion; Yi now has a chance to catch up with Yu. In the other semifinal, between players who so far have fallen just one win short of winning a world title, Ch'oe Ch'eol-han 9-dan (B) defeated Song T'ae-kon 7-dan by resignation.

  One game was played in each league on 30 June. In the A League, Yuki Satoshi 9-dan (B) beat Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan by resignation. In the B League, O Rissei 9-dan (W) beat Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan by half a point.

To 9-dan (as of 29 June): Takao Shinji, for winning the Honinbo title.
To 8-dan (as of 1 July): Okumura Hideo (scored 150 wins as a 7-dan).
To 3-dan (as of 30 June): Murakawa Daisuke (Kansai Ki-in).

Sakai Isao 6-dan retired as of 30 June.

  Michael Redmond 9-dan (B) beat Doi Makoto 8-dan by 9.5 points in Preliminary A of the 15th Ryusei tournament.

  Despite his loss of the Honinbo title, Cho U still tops the list of game winners in Japanese go at the halfway point for the year.

The top group is as follows:
  1. Cho U Meijin Oza: 24 wins, 10 losses
  2. Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan: 21-4
  3. So Yokoku 7-dan: 19-5; Cho Chikun Judan: 19-9
  5. Takao Shinji Honinbo: 18-9
  6. Kono Rin 7-dan: 17-5; Cho Riyu 7-dan: 17-7
  8. Kim Shujun 7-dan: 16-11
  9. Komatsu Hideki 9-dan: 15-6; Yamashiro Hiroshi 9-dan: 15-7; Ryu Shikun 9-dan: 15-8; Yamada Kimio 8-dan: 15-10; O Meien 9-dan: 15-14.

  The top woman player is Kobayashi Izumi, who is equal 14th with 14-13.