History of Topics 2009

  Hu Yuqing of China scored his second victory with a perfect 8-0 record in the 30th World Amateur Go Championship, held in the city of Fukuroi in Shizuoka Prefecture from 27 to 30 May. Hu also won the 26th WAGC.
  Comprehensive day-by-day reports, game commentaries and reviews may be found at Ranka Online.

  The quarterfinals of the 22nd Fujitsu Cup were held at the Seoul headquarters of the Korean Go Association on 6 June. Playing on home ground, Korea took the honours, securing three of the semifinal places. The fourth went to Chang Hao of China, whose recent good form continues. In contrast, Yi Se-tol seems to have entered a trough in his career, being eliminated in this tournament and in the first round of the LG Cup (see story below and the LG report).
  The players carrying the flag for the tournament's host country were both eliminated. Yamashita Keigo has now played six games with Yi Ch'ang-ho and lost all six. This time Yamashita made a good start, but Yi used all his guile to complicate the game and upset his lead.
  Kono Rin played his second game with Pak Yeong-hun, two-time Fujitsu Cup winner. Kono had defeated the current titleholder Gu Li in the second round, but he was outplayed by Pak. Kono has lost both their games.

  In his article on the Fujitsu Cup quarterfinals, Ueda Atsushi, the Go Weekly reporter, had some surprising news about Yi Se-tol. In his speech at the party held the night before this round, he said: `This may become my final game, so I am approaching it with determination.' As it happened, he lost it. The background to his comment is that he has announced that he will be temporarily retiring from 1 July this year to 31 December next year.
  Apparently Yi has been having clashes with the Korean Go Association. He has been absenting himself from opening ceremonies and awards ceremonies for domestic titles and he has been quarreling with the association over the margin it takes from international prize winnings (this margin from domestic and international prizewinning is one of the principal sources of revenue for professional go associations). His refusal last month to compete in the Korean League, one of the most important tournaments in Korea, widened the gulf between him and the association. Apparently there has been pressure on the Korean Professional Baduk Players Association to impose some kind of sanctions on him. Although no concrete step had yet been taken, Yi responded by announcing his retirement. The Korean Go Association tried to persuade him to retract this step, but Yi refused to engage in talks. He has now officially presented his notification of intention to retire.
  Yi is one of the greatest talents in the history of go, so one can only hope that the impasse between him and the Korean Go Association is resolved.
  The diagram shows a scene from his game with Chang Hao in the Fujitsu Cup. When Chang, playing white, tried to reduce Yi's right-side moyo with 1, Yi stubbornly tried to capture all his stones. Chang answered calmly and ended up killing Black's corner.

  China has done well in the 14th LG Cup, taking five of the quarterfinal places. Joining it with three places is Korea. Japan, which started out with only four places out of 32 in the 1st round, has been eliminated, though Iyama Yuta and Hane Naoki did score wins in the opening round.
  The top prizes are 250 million and 80 million won. Results to date are given below.

Round 1 (18 May):  Gu Li 9-dan (China) (B) d. Mok Chin-seok 9-dan (Korea) by resig..  Kong Jie 7-dan (China) (B) d. Yi Se-tol 9-dan (Korea) by 2.5 points.  Piao Wenyao 5-dan (China) (B) d. Hong Min-p'yo 6-dan (Korea) by resig.  Hu Yaoyu 8-dan (China) (B) d. Kim Seung-chae 2-dan (Korea) by resig.  Qiu Jun 8-dan (China) (B) d. Kang Tong-yun 9-dan (Korea) by resig.  Shi Yue 4-dan (China) (W) d. Kim Chi-seok 5-dan (Korea) by resig.  Wang Haoyang 5-dan (China) (B) d. Paek Tae-hyeon 7-dan (Korea) by 2.5 points.  Heo Yeong-ho 6-dan (Korea) (B) d. Chang Hao 9-dan (China) by resig.  Pak Yeong-hun 9-dan (Korea) (W) d. Chen Yaoye 9-dan (China) by resig.  Ch'oe Ch'eol-han 9-dan (Korea) (W) d. Ding Wei 9-dan (China) by resig.  Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan (W) d. Tuo Jiaxi 3-dan (China) by resig.  Weon Seong-chin 9-dan (Korea) (W) d. Yamashita Keigo 9-dan (Japan) by 6.5 points.  Kang Yu-t'aek 2-dan (W) d. Cho Chikun 9-dan (W) by resig.  Iyama Yuta 8-dan (Japan) (B) d. Yun Chun-sang 7-dan (Korea) by resig.  Hane Naoki 9-dan (Japan) (B) d. Pak Cheong-sang 9-dan (Korea) by resig.  Chen Shiyuan 8-dan (Taiwan) (W) d. Wang Xi 9-dan (China) by 2.5 points.

Round 2 (20 May):  Gu (W) d. Hane by resig.  Yi Ch'ang-ho (W) d. Iyama by resig.  Pak (B) d. Wang by resig.  Ch'oe (W) d. Shi by resig.  Hu (B) d. Weon by 1.5 points.  Piao (B) d. Heo by resig.  Kong (B) d. Kang by resig.  Qiu (W) d. Chen by resig.

  Kong Jie has scored his first win in an international tournament, defeating Yi Se-tol in the final of the 21st TV Asia tournament. On his way to the final, Kong also defeated two other prominent Korean players, namely, Kang Tong-yun in the first round and Yi Ch'ang-ho in the semifinal. With his final win, Kong took revenge for his loss to Yi Se-tol in the final of the 13th Samsung Cup (he also beat him in the opening round of the LG Cup - see above).

  It was announced in the 15 June issue of Go Weekly that the sponsors have discontinued the Toyota & Denso Cup World Go Oza Tournament after four terms. No reason was given. We have seen a suggestion overseas that the cause is the failure of Japanese players to win the tournament, but that is speculation. A more likely cause is the turmoil in the world's automobile markets. Toyota Motor Corporation, the main sponsor, suffered its first operating loss in 71 years in 2008, and things haven't improved this year. If business is bad for Toyota, it can't be good for the co-sponsor Denso Corporation, as its main business is supplying parts to Toyota.

  Hane Naoki is showing that his `miraculous upset' in last year's Honinbo title match was no fluke: he has now taken a 2-1 lead in the return match with the previous titleholder Takao Shinji.
  In the first game, Hane had pulled off an upset win after a bad start. The second game was played on 27 and 28 May at the Usa Shrine in Oita Prefecture in Kyushu. Takao (white) fell behind in the opening fighting, but after that he played patiently and tenaciously, waiting for a chance to get back into the game.
  When Hane made a slack move, Takao countered with a do-or-die attack and staged an upset. Hane resigned after 212 moves
  The third game was played at the Hotel Hakodate Royal in Hakodate City, Hokkaido, as one of the events celebrating the 150th anniversary of the opening of the port to trade with the West. Hane adopted with one of the strategies that is his forte: letting the opponent attack and building thickness while himself taking the lead in territory. Having secured the lead, he stifled Takao's attempts to catch up. Takao was forced to play riskily and he had to resignaiton when Hane captured a large group.
  The fourth game is being played on 18 and 19 June.

Results to date:

Game 1 (13, 14 May). Hane (W) by 2.5 points. Game 2 (27, 28 May). Takao (W) by resig. Game 3 (10, 11 June). Hane (W) by resig.

  In the Meijin league, it's looking more and more as if Iyama Yuta is heading for his second successive league victory. In an important game on 11 June, his nearest rival, Yamada Kimio, dropped back into the pack when he suffered his second loss. All Iyama has to do to become the challenger is to win one of his two remaining games. If he lost both of them, any of the three players with just two losses could come into the equation (that is, make a play-off with Iyama).

Recent results

(4 June)	Takao Shinji 9-dan (W) beat Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, by 1.5 points. Ogata Masaki 9-dan (B) beat Cho Riyu 7-dan by resig. Sakai Hideyuki 7-dan (W) beat O Meien 9-dan by 3.5 points.
(11 June)	Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan (B) beat Yamada Kimio 9-dan by resignation.

in the chart

･ B=playing black, W=playing white  ･ 1=win, 0=loss  * Date: mm/dd

The 34th Meijin Challenger's League

  In the play-off to decide the challenger to Cho U for the 34th Gosei title, held at the Kansai Ki-in on 28 May, Yuki Satoshi 9-dan of the Kansai Ki-in (B) defeated Iyama Yuta 8-dan by 1.5 points. Yuki will be making his fourth challenge for this title: he lost 1-3 to Yoda Norimoto in 1997 (22nd Gosei), 1-3 to Kobayashi Koichi in 2002 (27th), and 0-3 to Yoda in 2005 (30th). This will also be Yuki's first top-seven title match since his unsuccessful Kisei challenge four years ago. The hopes of the Kansai Ki-in will be riding on him, as it has not won a top-seven title for 28 years (the last was Hashimoto Shoji's Oza title in 1981).
  Incidentally, this is Iyama's third successive failure to become a challenger: he also lost last year's Oza and Kisei play-offs.
  For Cho U, this will be the first defence of a title in his quintuple crown. He has won his most recent five games with Yuki; overall, the score is 9-5 in his favour. The title match will start on 26 June.

The 34th Gosei Challenger's Tournament

  The 34th Kisei Leagues got off to a start on 4 June. Perhaps the most notable result so far is that Iyama Yuta, who won one of the leagues last year, lost his opening game.
  Games will be played at the rate of a round a month until October.

(4 June)
(A League)	O Rissei 9-dan (B) beat Kiyonari Tetsuya 9-dan by resig. Hane Naoki Honinbo (B) beat Yoda Norimoto 9-dan by 3.5 points.
(B League)	Cho U (W) beat Akiyama Jiro 8-dan by 5.5 points.
(11 June)
(B League)	Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, (B) beat Iyama Yuta 8-dan by resig. Kono Rin 9-dan (B) beat Miyazawa Goro 9-dan by resig.

  Three of the semifinal places in the 35th Tengen tournament have been decided. They have gone to Takao Shinji 9-dan, Kim Shujun 8-dan, and Kono Rin 9-dan. The remaining quarterfinal pits Yamashita Keigo Kisei against Yukawa Mitsuhisa 9-dan.

  Muramatsu Ryuichi was promoted to 8-dan by the cumulative-win system in May (150 wins). In June Ms. Nakajima Mieko earned promotion to 2-dan with 30 wins.

  A win on 28 May in Preliminary B of the 36th Tengen tournament by Miyazawa Goro 9-dan (aged 59) was the 800th of his career (taking black, he beat Ando Kazushige 4-dan by 9.5 points). He is the 26th player to reach this landmark. His record was 800 wins, 524 losses, 6 jigos, for a winning record of 60.1%. It took him 43 years 1 month since he became a professional in 1966, which makes him the 19th fastest to this landmark.

(25 May)
  Redmond (B) beat Arimura Hiroshi 8-dan by resignation.
  Mochizuki Kenichi 7-dan (W) beat Redmond 9-dan by 5.5 points. (Both games were in Preliminary B of the Ryusei tournament.)