History of Topics 2006

  Takao Shinji is showing that his 4-1 victory over Cho U in last year's Honinbo title match was no fluke. In the 31st Meijin title match, he has won the first two games, so Cho U seems to be in serious danger of losing another title to Takao. The first game was a very tight endgame contest in which Takao won by the narrowest possible margin, but in the second game he scored an impressive win through skilful use of thickness.
  The third game will be a make-or-break one for Cho; it is scheduled for 28 and 29 September.

Game One (8, 9 September). Takao (B) by half a point.
Game Two (20, 21 September). Takao (W) by resignation.

  Cho U carried the flag for Japan in the 3rd Toyota & Denso Cup, becoming the first local representative to make the final of the tournament. He is joined by the previous winner, Yi Se-tol of Korea.
  The first four rounds of the tournament were held at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo at the end of August. The opening round was a disaster for Japan, which only three of its ten representatives winning. In contrast, all seven Korean players competing in the tournament went through to the second round. However, when the dust cleared, it was China that had been eliminated.
The final, in which a prize of 30 million yen is at stake, will be held in January 2007. Full results are given below.

  At the age of 22, Wang Xi 5-dan of China has won his first international tournament and with it automatic promotion to 9-dan. In the 18th TV Asia Cup, held in Seoul from 8 to 12 August, Wang Xi won three games in a row to take the title. In the final, he scored a convincing win over the redoubtable Yi Ch'ang-ho.

Round 1 (8 Aug.).
   Wang Xi 5-dan (China) (B) defeated Yu Ch'ang-hyeok 9-dan (Korea) by 14.5 points.
Round 1 (8 Aug.).
   Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan (Korea) (B) d. Imamura Toshiya 9-dan (Japan) by 6.5.
Round 1 (9 Aug.).
  Hane Naoki 9-dan (Japan) (B) d. Luo Xihe 9-dan (China) by resig.
Semifinal 1 (9 Aug.).
  Wang (B) d. Cho U 9-dan (Japan) by resig.
Semifinal 2 (10 Aug.).
  Yi (W) d. Hane by 2.5.
Final (11 Aug.).
  Wang (W) d. Yi by resig.

  The first two rounds of the 11th Samsung Cup were held in Seoul in early September, and China and Korea have both got four players into the quarterfinals. Japan had only four players in the tournament to begin with (out of 32), mainly due to lack of past success in this tournament, in which many of the seeded places go to previous winners and place-getters. Of these, only Yamashita Keigo managed to pick up a win, before being eliminated.
  One of the seeded players was the 53-year-old Seo Pong-su, who hasn't played much international go in recent years. He repaid the faith in him of the sponsors by winning both his games. At the same time, some new stars have also done well: the 18-year-old Piao Wenyao of China and the 20-year-old Pak Hong-seok of Korea have both reached the quarterfinals.   However, China's 16-year-old Chen Yaoye, who took second place in the LG Cup earlier in the year, was eliminated in the second round.

Round One (Seoul, 6 Sept)
  Yamashita Keigo 9-dan (Japan) (B) d. Cho Han-seung 8-dan (Korea) by 3.5.
  Ko Keun-t'ae 5-dan (Korea) (B) d. Cho Chikun 9-dan (Japan) by resig.
  Ch'oe Ch'eol-han 9-dan (Korea) (B) d. Kono Rin 8-dan (Japan) by resig.
  Pak Hong-seok 4-dan (Korea) (B) d. Kim Shujun 7-dan (Japan) by resig.
  Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan (Korea) (B) d. Hu Yaoye 8-dan (China) by resig.
  Yi Se-tol 9-dan (Korea) (W) d. Han Weijing 1-dan (China) by 11.5.
  Pak Yeong-hun 9-dan (Korea) (W) d. Rui Naiwei 9-dan (Korea) by resig.
  Seo Bong-su 9-dan (Korea) (W) d. Zhang Wei 5-dan (China) by resig.
  Luo Xihe 9-dan (China) (W) d. Yun Chun-sang 4-dan (Korea) by resig.
  Chang Hao 9-dan (China) (B) d. An Tal-hun 7-dan (Korea) by resig.
  Gu Li 9-dan (China) (B) d. Pak Cheong-sang 9-dan (Korea) by resig.
  Yu Bin 9-dan (China) (B) d. Kim Hyeong-u 1-dan (Korea) by 2.5.
  Zhou Heyang 9-dan (China) (W) d. Pae Chun-heui 1-dan (Korea) by resig.
  Piao Wenyao 5-dan (China) (W) d. Yu Ch'ang-hyeok 9-dan (Korea) by resig.
  Chen Yaoye 5-dan (China) (B) d. Kang Tong-yun 5-dan (Korea) by resig..
  Wang Yao 6-dan (China) (B) d. Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan (Korea) by resig.

Round 2 (Seoul, 8 Sept.)
  Piao (B) d. Yamashita by 3.5.
  Wang (W) d. Yi Se-tol by resig.
  Chang (B) d. Pak Hyeong-hun by resig.
  Yu (B) d. Ko by resig.
  Yi Ch'ang-ho (B) d. Zhou by resig.
  Ch'oe (W) d. Gu by half a point.
  Seo (W) d. Chen on time.
  Pak Hong-seok (B) d. Luo by 5.5.

  Japan and China have both got off to good starts in the 8th Nong Shim Spicy Noodles Cup, the opening round of which was held in Beijing in September. For the second year in a row, Hane Naoki won the first two games, after which it was the turn of Peng Quan of China. Korea has made an uncharacteristic start, with no wins in the round, but no one will be ruling its team out yet.

Beijing Round
  Game 1 (12 Sept.). Hane Naoki 9-dan (Japan) (W) d. Wang Lei 8-dan (China) by 1.5 points.
  Game 2 (13 Sept.). Hane (W) d. Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan (Korea) by half a point.
  Game 3 (14 Sept.). Peng Quan 6-dan (China) (W) d. Hane by 3.5.
  Game 4 (15 Sept.). Peng (W) d. Ch'oe Ch'eol-han 9-dan (Korea) by 3.5.

  The final of the 31st King of the New Stars title match, a best-of-three, is tied between Ko Iso 7-dan and Matsumoto Takehisa 6-dan. Playing black, Ko took the first game (13 September) by resignation, but his opponent bounced back in the second (20 September), forcing a resignation. The deciding game will be played on 4 October.

  In the play-off to decide the challenger to Cho U for the 54th Oza title, held at the Nihon Ki-in on 31st August, Yamashita Keigo Kisei (B) defeated Kobayashi Satoru by resignation and so will make his third successive challenge in a row. In the past, he has done badly against Cho, winning just one game in the best-of-five in 2004 and suffering a shut-out last year. He will be hoping that third time is lucky.

  The final to decide the challenger to Kono Rin for the 32nd Tengen title was held in Yugen, the top playing room at the Nihon Ki-in, on 14 September. Taking black, Yamashita Keigo Kisei defeated Takemiya Masaki 9-dan by resignation. This gives him a chance to regain the title Kono took from him last year.
  Without prejudice to Yamashita, who at 28 is one of the top stars of Japanese go, we can say that quite a few go fans were disappointed by the result of the play-off. The 55-year-old Takemiya Masaki, whose spectacular cosmic style produced some very exciting title matches in the 80s and 90s, had been displaying marvelous form in this tournament, and many fans were looking forward to seeing him brighten up the go scene with his first title challenge for quite a few years. However, it was not to be.

  As of late September, one player has the sole lead in one of the the 31st Kisei Leagues, but the other is tied.. In the A League, Hane Naoki is well on the way to securing victory in the league, as he is the only undefeated player, with three wins. The player he'll be watching warily over his shoulder is Cho U, who has 3-1, but, because of his lower rank, Cho will need both Yoda Norimoto and Honda Kunihisa to help him out by defeating Hane.
  In the B League, Kobayashi Satoru and the dark horse Kato Atsushi are tied on 3-1. The former has the edge because of his higher rank.
  Below are full results since our last report.

(10 August)	B League	Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan (W) beat O Rissei 9-dan by resig.
(17 August)	A League	Hane Naoki 9-dan (W) beat Komatsu Hideki 9-dan by half a point. Cho U Meijin (W) beat Yoda Norimoto 9-dan by 1.5 points.
	B League	Imamura Toshiya 9-dan (W) beat Yuki Satoshi 9-dan by resig.
(7 September)	A League	Honda Kunihisa 9-dan (W) beat Komatsu Hideki 9-dan by resig.
	B League	Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan (W) beat Yuki Satoshi 9-dan by 2.5 points.
(14 September)	A League	Cho U Meijin (W) beat Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan by resig.
	B League	Kato Atsushi 8-dan (B) beat O Rissei 9-dan by 3.5.
(21 September)	Imamura Toshiya 9-dan (W) beat Cho Chikun Judan by resig.

  Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan has made a comeback to the Honinbo League after an absence of seven years. He won a seat in the 62nd League by defeating Cho Chikun Judan (B) by resignation on 17 August. He will be making his third appearance in the league.
  The other two places already decided have gone to former Honinbos Cho Sonjin and O Meien. The fourth place went to So Yokoku 8-dan, who defeated Sakai Hideyuki 7-dan in the play-off held on 31 August. Taking black, So won by 6.5 points; he thus made a comeback immediately after losing his place in the 61st league and will be playing in his third league in a row.

  When Yamashita Keigo Kisei defeated Yoda Norimoto 9-dan in the final round of the Meijin League, he set two records: the youngest player (27) to win 600 games and the fastest (13 years four months). Previously, the youngest was Takao, at 29. Yamashita's record at this point was 600 wins, 215 losses, 1 jigo.
  A milestone we missed earlier in the year was the 700th win for Sakai Takeshi 9-dan, which he scored in April. His record at that point was 700 wins, 422 losses, 2 jigo.
  In September, Koyama Terumi 5-dan became the 14th woman player to score 300 wins. Her record was 300 wins to 292 losses and one drawn game. The record for a woman player is held by Sugiuchi Kazuko 8-dan, with 553 wins.

  In his first game after his summer break, Michael Redmond 9-dan (W) defeated Kataoka Satoshi 9-dan by half a point in Preliminary A of the 33rd Tengen tournament.

  Takao Shinji is showing that his 4-1 victory over Cho U in last year's Honinbo title match was no fluke. In the 31st Meijin title match, he has won the first two games, so Cho U seems to be in serious danger of losing another title to Takao. The first game was a very tight endgame contest in which Takao won by the narrowest possible margin, but in the second game he scored an impressive win through skilful use of thickness.
  The third game will be a make-or-break one for Cho; it is scheduled for 28 and 29 September.

Game One (8, 9 September). Takao (B) by half a point.
Game Two (20, 21 September). Takao (W) by resignation.