History of Topics 2005

  At the age of 24, Kono Rin has made a breakthrough, joining the small group of elite professionals who have won a top-seven title. In the 31st Tengen title match, he beat Yamashita Keigo 3-2 to take the title. After going down 1-2, Yamashita had struck back in the fourth game to even the series, but Kono proved his worth in the showdown in the final game, playing first-rate go under pressure to win the match. This win also secured him promotion to 8-dan.
  The fourth game was played at the Hotel Okura Kobe on 15 December. Taking black, Yamashita won by resignation after 177 moves. The fifth game was played at the Hotel Clement Tokushima on 20 December. Kono had white and won by 4.5 points.
  Incidentally, the first title won by Kono's teacher, Kobayashi Koichi, was also the Tengen title and it was at the same age. Kono will be doing well if he can continue to emulate Kobayashi.

  So far this team tournament has been dominated by two players. First of all, Wang Shangyun 1-dan, who had just turned professional on 26 September after winning the Chinese Women's Championship, won all the games in the first round, played in Beijing in November. When she continued with a win in the first game of the second round, played in Seoul, it looked as if she might win the tournament for China single-handed. However, Korea's Yi Min-chin 4-dan stopped her in the sixth game.
Japan's Chinen Kaori 4-dan then took over, winning three games in a row, but China's Rui Naiwei 9-dan put a stop to her winning run before she had matched Wang.
  China now has an overwhelming lead, with three players left to one each for Korea and Japan.

The Seoul round
  Game 5 (18 Dec.). Wang (B) beat Osawa Narumi 3-dan (Japan) by resig.
  Game 6 (19 Dec.). Yi Min-chin 4-dan (Korea) (W) beat Wang by resig.
  Game 7 (20 Dec.). Chinen Kaori 4-dan (Japan) (W) beat Yi by half a point.
  Game 8 (21 Dec.). Chinen (B) beat Han Weijing 1-dan (China) by resig.
  Game 9 (22 Dec.). Chinen (W) beat Yi Yeong-sin 4-dan (Korea) by resig.
  Game 10 (23 Dec.). Rui Naiwei 9-dan (China) (W) beat Chinen by resig.

  In the Losers' Section of the 44th Judan Tournament, Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan (B) defeated Cho U Meijin by resignation. The game was played on 15 December.
  The other semifinal was played on 22 December. With only a day's rest to get over the shock of losing the Tengen title, Yamashita Keigo 9-dan bounced back to defeat Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan. Taking white, Yamashita secured a resignation.
Waiting for the winner of the final between these two is the winner of the Winners' Section, Takao Shinji Honinbo.

  The remaining game in the first round of the new Meijin League was played on 22 December. Takao Shinji Honinbo, who is making his debut in the league, defeated Sakai Hideyuki 7-dan by resignation. Takao had black.
  There two are old friends, having played their first game 20 years earlier at one of Fujisawa Shuko's training camps. They have probably played more than 100 unofficial games, but finally they met in one of go's top arenas.

  Two games were played in the Honinbo League on 22 December. In one, Cho U Meijin (B) defeated Cho Sonjin 9-dan by 1.5 points. Cho goes to 3-0 and shares the lead with Hane Naoki Kisei. In the other game, Yoda Norimoto Gosei finally picked up his first win when, taking white, he defeated Yamada Kimio 8-dan by 1.5 points.

  Takemiya Masaki 9-dan's winning streak finally came to an end after 16 straight wins. On 12 December, in Preliminary A of the qualifying tournament for the 3rd Toyota & Denso Cup, he lost to Omori Yasushi 8-dan (W) by 3.5 points.

  The 43rd match between the professional and amateur Honinbos was held at the Sunshine City Culture Hall in Ikebukuro on 4 December. The handicap changes by a quarter of a stone every year; this year it was two stones + a 6.5-point komi for the amateur.
  These playoffs changed to the uchikomi system (i.e. adjusting the handicap) in the 21st year. The starting point was a 5.5-point komi for the amateur. The closest the amateur side ever got was a 2.5-point komi; three wins in a row would have secured a game on even. Soon after this, Cho Chikun started his ten-year reign as Honinbo and he not only forced the amateur side to three stones for 4 games, but even managed to win one of them (defeating one of the top amateur players of the last half century, Harada Minoru).
  Another feature of this play-off, since the 33rd year, is the free placement of the handicap stones.
  This year both players were making their debut in the play-off. The amateur was Hiraoka Satoshi, who has won the World Amateur Go Championship. If he lost, the amateur side would suffer the indignity of being forced to three stones again. In the game, against the new Honinbo Takao Shinji, he played solidly and managed to win by five points. However, Takao was satisfied because he won on the board.

  To commemorate the first 30 years of the Asahi-sponsored Meijin tournament, the Asahi Newspaper held a special game between the winners of the 1st and 2nd titles, Otake Hideo and Rin Kaiho. It was played at the Atami Sekitei Inn, which has been the venue of a number of celebrated games in the Meijin tournament. The result was a win for Otake, who held black, by resignation after 143 moves.

  Takemiya Masaki has been a keen backgammon player for three decades. On 24 December, he won Japan's top backgammon tournament, the 12th Saint of the Board title. The 54-year-old Takemiya defeated the former champion, the 25-year-old Ms. Abe Akiko in the final.

  Three players have announced their retirements recently. One is Magari Reiki 9-dan, who is the leading disciple of Iwamoto Kaoru 9-dan. He retired earlier this month, shortly after his 81st birthday.
  The other two are Ito Makoto 8-dan, a member of the Nagoya branch of the Nihon Ki-in, and Nishimoto Kinya 2-dan. Nishimoto had already retired once, in 1974, but he made a comeback in 1993 and won promotion to 2-dan in 1997 (he was born in 1940).

  Michael Redmond has won one and lost one in the second half of December. In Preliminary B of the 62nd Honinbo tournament, Michael (B) lost to Takanashi Seiken 8-dan by resignation. The following week, on 22 December, however, he picked up a big win in the final preliminary of the Oza tournament. Playing black, he defeated Yuki Satoshi 9-dan by resignation.

  Just in time for the first anniversary of the death of Kato Masao, the Nihon Ki-in has published a two-volume deluxe collection of his games. The title translates something like 'Games Records of Raging Billows' (Doto no Fu). The metaphor of 'raging billows' or 'angry waves' is often applied to players with a very aggressive style.
  The collection includes 200 of his games spread over a total of 1,024 pages. It's a 'must have' for anyone interested in Kato or late 20th-century go in Japan. A bonus DVD comes with the set, though this may not be playable in different zones.

  The final of the 7th Women's Strongest Player was held at the Nihon Ki-in on 8 December. Kobayashi Izumi 6-dan (W) beat Konishi Kazuko 8-dan of the Kansai Ki-in by 3.5 points, thus winning this title for the first time. The first prize is 4,500,000 yen.
  This is Kobayashi's tenth title, so she draws level with her mother, the late Kobayashi Reiko 7-dan, and Sugiuchi Kazuko 8-dan for the record number of titles won by a woman. She is also the first player to win all four of the current women's titles. Just for the record, she has won the Women's Honinbo title three times, the Women's Meijin also three times, and the Women's Kisei twice. (Note that the order of ranking of the women's titles is the reverse of the open titles, with the Honinbo being top.) Her other title is the JAL Women's Haya-go title.
  Actually, Kobayashi had been without a title since she lost the Women's Meijin in March, so this win restores her to the ranks of the titleholders. Being six months pregnant apparently didn't affect her play.

  December always marks the beginning of the new Meijin League, this year exactly one month after the conclusion of the title match. Each of the first three games in the first round was played at a different venue.
  At the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo, Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan (B) beat Han Zenki 7-dan by resignation. At the Osaka branch of the Nihon Ki-in, Yamada Kimio 8-dan (B) beat Ko Iso 7-dan by resignation. The third game was played at the Kansai Ki-in, also in Osaka, and Yoda Norimoto Gosei (W) beat Imamura Toshiya 9-dan by resignation.
  There are now 33 games remaining in the league.

  The first two games in the third round of the 61st Honinbo League were played on 8 December. After two rounds, the league was evenly divided between winners and losers, with four players on 2-0 and four on 0-2. The symmetry was maintained when Hane Naoki Kisei (W) beat O Meien 9-dan by resignation, as the former went to 3-0 and the latter to 0-3. However, in the other game one of the players on 0-2, O Rissei 9-dan, beat one of the players on 2-0, So Yokoku 8-dan; taking white, O also won by resignation. That means that Hane has the provisional lead, at least until Cho U and Yamada Kimio play their next games.

  Takemiya Masaki's winning streak continues. On 8 December, he beat Hikosaka Naoto 9-dan in the main tournament of the 31st Gosei tournament and took his total of successive wins to 16. That tops the previous best for the year, Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan's 15, so Takemiya has made sure of the Kido prize for most successive wins. The question now is whether he will be able to continue the streak into the new year.
  The Japanese record, held by Sakata Eio Hon. Honinbo, is 29, which is still a long way off.

  The third game of the 53rd Oza title match was held at the Nara Hotel in Nara City on 1 December. Playing black, Cho U Meijin won by 9.5 points after 288 moves. He thus defended his title with three straight wins and ensured that he ended the year as a dual titleholder (referring only to the top seven domestic titles - Cho also holds two international titles, the LG Cup, the TV Asia Cup, and two fast-go titles, the NHK and NEC Cups).
  This game was full of fighting, but Cho's play was a little sharper than Yamashita's. By winning the match 3-0, Cho improved on his performance last year, when Yamashita managed to win a game. These two have been expected to be two of the leading rivals of the early 21st century, but so far Cho definitely has the edge, having won the only two titles matches they have played. In individual encounters, Cho U also has a lead, with 16 wins to Yamashita's 10.

  Cho Han-seung 8-dan of Korea beat Takao Shinji 9-dan of Japan in the final game of the Pusan Round (we mistakenly located the round in Seoul in our previous report) of the 7th Nong Shim Spicy Noodles Cup, so Japan has fallen one step behind its rivals. Taking black, Cho won by 2.5 points; the game was played on 28 November.
  Japan now has just one player left; this is Yoda Norimoto, who usually does better than his compatriots in international competitions, so Japan still has some hope. However, he will have to overcome tough competition. First, someone has to stop Cho's run, after which Korea has its trump card, Yi Ch'ang-ho. China still has Kong Jie and Chang Hao, who will also be hard to beat.
  It will be interesting to see what colour Yoda draws in the nigiri for his game. Japan has so far drawn white in all seven games.

  The Okan (Crown) title is open only to the 46 members of the Nagoya or Central Japan branch of the Nihon Ki-in. First prize is 1,300,000 yen.
  This year the one-game play-off for the 46th title was held on 28 November, with Yamashiro Hiroshi 9-dan challenging Hane Naoki Kisei. Playing black, Yamashiro won by resignation after 283 moves. Yamashiro thus extended his record total in this title to 14 terms, which is also a record for all titles in Japan.

  Cho U won't be repeating as NEC champion in the 25th Cup. In a quarterfinal played on 26 November, Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan (W) defeated him by 3.5 points, thus securing a small measure of revenge for his Meijin defeat.
  In the semifinal, Kobayashi will play the winner of a game between Yamada Kimio 8-dan and Miyazawa Goro 9-dan. The other semifinal pits Cho Sonjin 9-dan against Takao Shinji Honinbo.

  On 1 December, Otake Hideo 9-dan (W) defeated Michael Redmond 9-dan by resignation in Preliminary A of the 31st Kisei tournament.

  Homma Akio 7-dan, a member of the Tokyo branch of the Nihon Ki-in, has announced his retirement as of 22 November.