History of Topics 2006

  Yamashita Keigo 9-dan has continued his new-found winning ways and now needs just one more win to make a comeback as the Kisei titleholder. The third game of the best-of-seven was played at the Hotel Mare Takata in Maizuru City, Kyoto Prefecture, on 8 and 9 February. After a seesaw game, the issue was decided by a ko fight in the endgame. Hane Naoki overlooked two ko threats in a corner, so he lost the ko fight and the game. Yamashita (black) won by 1.5 points after 242 moves. Hane had one minute of his eight-hour time allowance left and Yamashita three minutes. The game finished at 7:03 p.m.
  Hane is now in serious trouble. On the whole, he has played well, but he has faltered at crucial points in both the first and third games; the second game was a convincing win for Yamashita, but if Hane had played more consistently in the other two the score could have been 2-1 in his favour or at least no worse than 1-2. As it is, he now faces his first kadoban in the fourth game, which will be played in Kumamoto on 22 and 23 February. Last year, he displayed impressive mental toughness in making a fightback against Yuki, but this time the deficit he has to overcome is much greater.

  Aoki Kikuyo 8-dan, the challenger, has set a record in the Women's Meijin title by becoming the first player to win it five times. She defeated Koyama Terumi 5-dan, one of two players who have won it four times (the other is Sugiuchi Kazuko 8-dan) 2-0 in the title match. Playing black, Aoki won the first game (9 February) by half a point; she increased that margin in the second game (15 February), which she won by 1.5 points.
  First prize is 5,100,000 yen.

  Mannami Kana 3-dan made a good start to her challenge for the 9th Women's Kisei title when she defeated the titleholder, Chinen Kaori 4-dan , by resignation in the first game, played on 28 January. Mannami had white. However, Chinen made a comeback in the second game, played on 1 February, winning by the same margin.

  The 61st Honinbo League seemed to be heading for a foregone conclusion: a rematch for Cho U with the player who took the title from him, Takao Shinji. However, a victory in a crucial fifth-round game by Yoda Norimoto Gosei on 9 February has changed all the calculations.
  The game was between Yoda, who was on 2-2, and Cho, who had the sole lead with 4-0. If Cho won, the chances of the other players stopping him from becoming the challenger would recede considerably; also, a loss for Yoda would place him in serious danger of demotion from the league. As it happened, Yoda, taking black, secured a win by 3.5 points. The immediate beneficiary of this result is Hane Naoki Kisei, who is the only other player with just one loss, although at this point he hadn't played his fifth-round game. Moreover, Yoda himself and two other players with just two losses now have an outside chance of becoming the challenger if the leaders stumble in the final rounds.
  On 16 February, Hane played his fifth-round game. Taking black, he defeated O Rissei 9-dan by 1.5 points, so he now has exactly the same score as Cho. By coincidence, their remaining games are against the same two players, Yamada Kimio 9-dan and So Yokoku 8-dan, so the conditions could hardly be more even.

  Two games were played in the league on 9th February. In one, Yamada Kimio 9-dan (W) defeated Imamura Toshiya 9-dan by 4.5 points; this win keeps Yamada in contention. The other game was between two league newcomers; Han Zenki 7-dan (B) defeated Ko Iso 7-dan by resignation. Han has made a good start in the league, with two wins to one loss; he has obviously profited from his painful experience in last year's Honinbo league.
  On 16 February, Takao Shinji Honinbo (W) defeated Yamashita Keigo 9-dan by just half a point. This gave him revenge for his loss in the Judan play-off. Takao goes to 3-0, so for the time being he has the sole lead, at least until Kobayashi Satoru (2-0) plays his next game.

  The first of the four nonseeded Japanese places in the upcoming Fujitsu Cup went to Yuki Satoshi (decided on 19 January). Two of the other seats were decided on 9 February, when Cho Chikun Judan (W) defeated Kataoka Satoshi 9-dan by resignation and Yamashiro Hiroshi 9-dan (B) beat Yamada Takuji 7-dan by 2.5 points. The final place was decided on 13 February when Yamashita Keigo 9-dan (B) beat Sakai Hideyuki 7-dan by 3.5 points. Incidentally, this will be only the second appearance in the Fujitsu Cup for Yamashita, which is a little surprising.
  Seeded players are Hane Naoki Kisei, Cho U Meijin and Takao Shinji Honinbo. The opening rounds will be played on 8 and 10 April.

  The players representing Japan in the 6th Chunlan Cup, a Chinese-sponsored tournament now held every two years, will be Hane Naoki, Yoda Norimoto, Kono Rin, Cho Chikun, and Yuki Satoshi. Michael Redmond will play for North America. The opening rounds will be held in Beijing on 11 and 13 March.

  After 40 years and ten months as a professional, Takemiya Masaki 9-dan has won his 1,000th game. He is the eighth player to reach this mark in Japan.

  Two players have earned promotions by the cumulative-wins system recently. They are Kubo Hideo, who goes to 6-dan with 90 wins, and Ms. Nakamura Kuniko, who goes to 2-dan with 30 wins.

  The 43rd Shusai Prize for the outstanding player of the previous year was awarded to Takao Shinji for winning the Honinbo title. The committee that decides the prize met on 15 February.

  Michael Redmond 9-dan has picked up his first win of the year in his second game. In the final preliminary section of the Oza tournament, he defeated Yata Naoki 9-dan by resignation; Michael had white.

  A week and a half after winning the opening game of the Kisei title match, Yamashita Keigo 9-dan scored another triumph: defeating Takao Shinji Honinbo in the play-off to decide the challenger to Cho Chikun for the 44th Judan title. The game was played at the Nihon Ki-in on 26 January; taking black, Yamashita secured a resignation after 159 moves.
  The same two players had met in the Judan play-off three years ago. On that occasion, Yamashita had won the winners' section and Takao the losers'. This time it was the other way around, with Yamashita making a comeback after losing in the semifinals in the winners' section, but once again the winner of the losers' section won the play-off. For Takao, this was the third year in a row he had reached the play-off; last year he lost to Cho Chikun, who went on to take the title from O Rissei. Yamashita was also making his third appearance in the play-off - he lost to Nakano Hironari six years ago.
  The first game of the title match will be played on 8 March. If past results are anything to go by, Yamashita should be the favourite: his career record against Cho is nine wins to three losses. However, Cho is at his best in title matches.

  Yamashita Keigo's good form has continued. In the second game of the Kisei title match, which was played at the Suimeikan Inn in Gero Hot Spring in Gifu Prefecture on 1 and 2 February, he scored an impressive win and has taken a 2-0 lead. In contrast to the first game, in which he fought back from a bad start, Yamashita was never behind in the second game. Playing white, he built up a large moyo and skilfully used his thickness to attack Black when he invaded. Hane perhaps displayed too much fighting spirit, choosing all-out rather than safe moves, which made for a very exciting and complicated game, but he was unable to upset Yamashita's lead.
  The game ended 6:19 pm. on the second day after 244 moves. Yamashita won by 6.5 points. Hane was in the final minute of byo-yomi, while Yamashita had 22 minutes of his eight-hour time allowance left.
  This game leaves one with no doubt that Yamashita is back. Hane's defence is already in trouble, and the third game, being played on 8 and 9 February, will be crucial for him.

  The final of the 12th Ricoh Cup, played at Ebisu in Tokyo on 4 February, pitted a husband in one team against his wife in the other. The husband, who was Cho U Meijin and who was partnered with Suzuki Ayumi 3-dan (they had white), prevailed against his wife, Kobayashi Izumi 6-dan, who was playing with Yamashita Keigo 9-dan. The game was decided by a resignation.
  The winning team gets a prize of five million yen, but one million of this is donated to buy go equipment for schools throughout Japan. Second prize is one million yen.

  One game was played in the 61st Honinbo League on 26 January. Taking black, Yoda Norimoto Gosei defeated O Rissei 9-dan by resignation. Yoda evens his score on 2-2 and O will have to worry about his league place, as he drops to 1-3.
  On 2 February, Cho Sonjin 9-dan picked up his second win in the league when he beat. Yamada Kimio 9-dan by 2.5 points with black.

  On 2 February, Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan (black) defeated Yoda Norimoto Gosei by 2.5 points. That gave him a share of the lead in the 31st league with Takao Shinji Honinbo.

  Hiroe Katsuhiko 7-dan, a member of the Nagoya branch of the Nihon Ki-in, retired on 31 January. Born on 7 February 1941, Hiroe became 1-dan in 1960 and reached 7-dan in 1981. His son Hiroyuki is a 9-dan.

  Below is a round-up of Japanese go statistics for the 2005 tournament year, preceded by a report on the Kido Prizes.

  The meeting to decide the 39th Kido Prizes for the top players of 2005 was held at the Nihon Ki-in on 20 January. The members of the selection committee were ten go journalists from newspapers and TV channels that sponsor go tournaments.
Before the prizes were chosen, a discussion was held about the selection criteria and a big change was made. Previously, players 4-dan and under were not eligible for the prizes for most wins etc. that are decided automatically (the last four listed below). However, with the change in the tournament system three years ago, in which players from 1-dan to 9-dan all start out in the same preliminary section of a tournament, it was decided that this rule was no longer meaningful, so it was dropped. As it happened, the change made no difference for last year.

The prizes were decided as follows:
  Most outstanding player: Cho U Meijin (for the third year in a row- just for the record, Cho also won the Oza, NHK and NEC Cups and two international titles, the LG Cup and the TV Asia, last year).
  Outstanding players: Hane Naoki Kisei, Takao Shinji Honinbo
  New star: Iyama Yuta 7-dan
  Women's Prize: Yashiro Kumiko Women's Honinbo
  International Prize: Cho U
  Most wins: Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan (46 wins)
  Best winning percentage: Iyama Yuta (75.47%)
  Most successive wins: Takemiya Masaki (16)
  Most games played: Cho U (63)

Most prize money won
  1. Cho U: ¥123,438,564 (about $1,055,000 at $1=¥117)
  2. Hane Naoki: ¥55,657,330
  3. Takao Shinji: ¥47,231,810
  4. Kobayashi Satoru: ¥34,925,000
  5. Yoda Norimoto: ¥31,058,820
  6. Yamashita Keigo: ¥28,244,123
  7. Kono Rin: ¥23,020,822
  8. O Rissei: ¥22,829,129
  9. Cho Chikun: ¥21,731,054
  10. O Meien: ¥21,248,512

  The next nine players all made over ten million yen, but number 20 dropped below this mark. Only one woman made the top 20. That was Cho's wife Kobayashi Izumi, who was number 19 with ¥ 10,253,405. This is the fifth time she has been top woman prize money winner.

Most wins
  1. Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan: 46 wins-16 losses.
  2. So Yokoku 8-dan: 43-15
  3. Kono Rin Tengen: 41-15
  4. Iyama Yuta 7-dan: 40-13
  5. Cho U Meijin: 39-24
  6. Takao Shinji Honinbo: 35-14
  7. Kim Shujun 7-dan: 33-16; Yamashita Keigo 9-dan: 33-20; Yamada Kimio 8-dan: 33-21
  10. Komatsu Hideki 9-dan: 31-12

  Among prominent players not making the top ten were: Hane Naoki Kisei, who was 15th with 28-18; Kobayashi Izumi 6-dan, the top woman player, in 17th place with 27-23; Cho Chikun Judan and Yoda Norimoto 9-dan were equal 20th, with 26-16 and 26-26 respectively. Yoda just avoided losing more games than he won for the first time in his career.

  The top players in the 4-dan-and-under group were two women players, Kato Keiko 4-dan, on 28-14, and Xie Yimin 2-dan, on 28-18.

Most games played
  1. Cho U Meijin: 63
  2. Kobayashi Satoru: 62
  3. So Yokoku, O Meien: 58
  4. Kono Rin: 56
  5. O Rissei: 55
  6. Yamada Kimio: 54
  7. Yamashita Keigo, Iyama Yuta: 53
  9. Yoda Norimoto: 52
  10. Kobayashi Izumi: 50

Most successive wins
  1. Takemiya Masaki: 16
  2. Kobayashi Satoru: 15

Best winning percentage
  1. Iyama Yuta 7-dan: 75.5% (40-13)
  2. Kobayashi Satoru, Yanaka Katsunori 8-dan (23-8): 74.2%