History of Topics 2009

  The long-awaited rematch between Iyama Yuta and Cho U finally got underway on 3 September with the first game of the 34th Meijin title match. Last year, Iyama made a great start by winning the first two games and the match went down to the wire before the defending Meijin exerted his latent strength to rebuff Iyama's challenge. Everyone agrees that the 20-year-old Iyama has gotten stronger in the intervening year, but, seemingly, so has Cho-after all, he has become the first player to hold five of the top seven titles simultaneously.
  This time Cho made the better start, coming out on the right side of a half-pointer after a fierce endgame struggle. Iyama may well find his second Meijin challenge tougher than his first.
  The opening game was played at the Keio Plaza Hotel Sapporo in Sapporo City, Hokkaido on 3 and 4 September. Fighting started early when Iyama, who had drawn white in the nigiri, attached against a corner stone with 12 and crosscut with 14. Cho Meijin played boldly and launched attack after attack on an unsettled white group. The contest in reading ability was still unresolved as the game headed into the second day. When play resumed on the 4th, Iyama succeeded in settling his group under attack and at this point, considering the loss Cho had suffered by pinning his strategy on attack, the game seemed promising for Iyama.
  However, Cho launched another attack that enabled him to rope off a large territory at the top. He then started a prolonged KO fight in which he was able to seize a minute lead.
  The second game will be played on 16 and 17 September. It will be very important for Iyama to secure a win when he plays with black.

  Iyama Yuta had already become the Meijin challenger in the penultimate round, but his good form continued and he became the fourth player since 1976 (when this title switched to Asahi Newspaper sponsorship) to win all his games in the league.
  The final four games of the 34th league were played at the Nihon Ki-in headquarters in Tokyo and Osaka on 6 August. This round was actually a bit of an anticlimax: not only had the winner already been decided but also two of the three players to drop out, so the main focus of interest was on who would be the third player to lose his place. As it happened, the two `candidates', Cho Chikun and Kobayashi Satoru, were playing each other, so the usual complicated calculations in leagues (`if A beats B and C beats D, then E will keep his place') were unnecessary. Cho Chikun won the game, so he will further extend his record in the Asahi tournament to 31 terms in the league and/or as titleholder. (The overall record for the Yomiuri and Asahi Meijin tournament is 39, held by Rin Kaiho.)
  The three players who dropped out, the other two being O Meien and Cho Riyu, will switch to the final qualifying round, where they will have to win about three games in a row to get back into the league.

Recent results:

(23 July)  Ogata Masaki 9-dan (B) beat Takao Shinji 9-dan by 3.5 points.

(6 August)  Iyama Yuta 8-dan (B) beat Ogata Masaki 9-dan by resignation.  Yamada Kimio 9-dan (B) beat Sakai Hideyuki 9-dan by resignation.  Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, (B) beat Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan by resignation.  Takao Shinji 9-dan (B) beat O Meien 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 for the 28th Women's Honinbo title, held on 23 July, Aoki Kikuyo 8-dan (W) beat Ishii Akane 1-dan by resignation. Aoki will make her first challenge for this title.
  The first game of the title match with Xie Yimin will be held on 1 October.

  Two players have made good starts in the 34th Kisei Leagues with 3-0 scores. In the A League, O Rissei is looking a serious threat with three straight wins. The former Kisei is enjoying his best form for some time (his record for the year at this point was 20 wins to 7 losses). In the B League, Cho U is the undefeated player; thanks to his number-two ranking, he needs to win only one of his remaining games to win the league. He will be hoping to make his first challenge for the Kisei title, the only one of the top seven that he hasn't won.
  The two players to drop out of the A League have been decided unusually early. Both Kiyonari Tetsuya 9-dan and Ri Ishu 7-dan have already lost three games while all the higher-ranked players have at least two wins, so they can't finish in the top four.

23 July
A League	O Rissei 9-dan (W) beat Hane Naoki Honinbo by 1.5 points.
6 August
A League	Yoda Norimoto 9-dan (W) beat Kiyonari Tetsuya 9-dan by resignation.
13 August
A League  B League	Hane Naoki Honinbo (B) beat Ri Ishu 7-dan by resignation.  Cho U Meijin (W) beat Iyama Yuta 8-dan by resignation.  25th Honinbo Chikun (W) beat Miyazawa Goro 9-dan by resignation.  Akiyama Jiro 8-dan (B) beat Kono Rin 9-dan by 2.5 points.
27 August
A League	O Rissei 9-dan (B) beat Takao Shinji 9-dan by resignation.
(3 September)
A League	Takao Shinji 9-dan (B) beat Hane Naoki Honinbo by resignation. Ri Ishu 7-dan (W) beat Kiyonari Tetsuya 9-dan by resignation.

in the chart

･ B=playing black, W=playing white   ･ 1=win, 0=loss

The 34th Kisei League

  The semifinals of the 16th Agon Kiriyama Cup were held on 6 August. The current titleholder, Cho U, (W) beat Otake Hideo, Honorary Gosei, by resignation and Hane Naoki Honinbo (B) beat Yamashita Keigo Kisei, also by resignation.

  The second semifinal of the 25th Tengen tournament was played on 13 August. Yamashita Keigo Kisei (B) beat Takao Shinji 9-dan by resignation. He will meet Kono Rin 9-dan in the play-off to decide the challenger to Cho U.

  In the second Oza semifinal, held on 23 July, Yamada Kimio 9-dan (W) defeated Kono Rin 9-dan by resignation. He will meet Yoda Norimoto in the play-off.

  The first vacant seat in the 65th Honinbo League went to Mimura Tomoyasu 9-dan. In the play-off, held on 23 July, he defeated Shuto Shun 6-dan (W) by resignation. This will be Mimura's third Honinbo league.
  Iyama Yuta 8-dan (W) beat Yoda Norimoto 9-dan by 11.5 points in a game played on 30 July. Iyama will make his debut in this league.
  On 20 August, Takemiya Masaki 9-dan (W) beat Ishida Atsushi 9-dan by 3.5 points. Takemiya, who has been in excellent form this year (which he attributes to his daily ballroom-dancing practice), makes a comeback to the league after missing 15 years. This matches the league record, shared by Kubouchi Shuchi 9-dan and Hane Yasumasa 9-dan, for the longest period before a comeback (the overall record is held by Ohira Shuzo 9-dan, who had a 17-term gap in the Meijin League). Takemiya has won the Honinbo title six times, but his longest streak was four, so he has not qualified for the title of Honorary Honinbo (the condition being five successive terms or ten in total).
  Also on 20 August, Yuki Satoshi 9-dan (B) beat Oya Koichi 9-dan by resignation. Yuki makes a comeback after a gap of eight years and will play in his fifth league.
  None of the four players who dropped out of the previous league was able to regain his place. The new league will start in October.

  At present, Suzuki Ayumi 4-dan, on 2-0, has the lead. Results to date are given below.

23 July   Suzuki Ayumi 4-dan (B) beat Chinen Kaori 4-dan by half a point.

(30 July)   Yoshida Mika 8-dan (B) beat Okuda Aya 2-dan by resignation.

(13 August)   Umezawa Yukari, Women's Meijin, (W) beat Okuda Aya 2-dan by resignation.

(20 August)   Mukai Chiaki 3-dan (B) beat Kato Keiko, Strongest Woman Player by resignation.

(3 September)   Kato Keiko 6-dan (W) beat Chinen Kaori 4-dan by 1.5 points.   Suzuki Ayumi 4-dan (B) beat Mukai Chiaki 3-dan by resignation,

1=win, 0=loss

* Date: mm/dd

The 22nd Women's Meijin Title Match

  The final of the 3rd Daiwa Securities Cup Net Igo Ladies Open featured a clash between the winner of the 1st cup, Kobayashi Izumi 6-dan, and the winner of the 2nd, Xie Yimin, Women's Meijin & Honinbo. Xie made it two in row by beating Kobayashi (W) by 3.5 points. The game was played on 18 July.

  At the age of 72, Chino Tadahiko has become the 34th player at the Nihon Ki-in to win 700 games. His record at this point was 700 wins, 561 losses, 7 jigos, for a winning percentage of 55.5%. His 700th win was actually a forfeit: his scheduled opponent was Aoki Shinichi 9-dan, who has been appointed an Ambassador for Cultural Exchange. Aoki has left Japan for a five-month teaching tour of Europe.
  Only 34 players have reached this milestone, so it's a considerable feat, but within that group Chino was the third oldest on reaching 700 wins, the second slowest, at 56 years five months, and had the lowest winning percentage.

To 3-dan: Shida Tatsuya (40 wins)

(20 August) Kataoka Satoshi 9-dan (B) beat Michael Redmond 9-dan by 7.5 points. (Preliminary A, 35th Kisei tournament).
(27 August) Redmond (B) beat Hashimoto Yujiro 9-dan by resignation (Preliminary B, 49th Judan tournament).

  At a meeting of the Go Hall of Fame Awards Committee, held at the Nihon Ki-in on 28 August, to decide the 6th induction into the Hall of Fame, Segoe Kensaku 9-dan (1889-1972) was chosen. The players nominated this time were Yasui Santetsu (also known as Shibukawa Shunkai or Harumi), Inoue (Gen'an) Inseki, Masaoka Shiki (a haiku poet who wrote many poems on go themes), Kita Fumiko, Segoe Kensaku, Iwamoto Kaoru, Hashimoto Utaro, and Kitani Minoru. Quite a few of these figures are destined for induction sooner or later.
  No one received the minimum number of required votes from the eight-member selection committee (which included Otake Hideo, as Nihon Ki-in chairman, Yoda Norimoto, as chairman of the Professional Go Players Association, and Rin Kaiho) on the first vote, so there was a run-off among Segoe, Yasui, and Kitani.
  Segoe played a major role in go history in the first half of the 20th century. He was a pioneer in spreading go internationally and was the teacher of Go Seigen, Hashimoto Utaro and Cho Hun-hyeon. He also compiled such major works as the complete Castle Games of the Edo period and Meiji Gofu, a collection of Meiji period (1868-1912) games, besides writing numerous original works.

  The final round of the 55th Amateur Honinbo tournament was held at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo from 28 to 30 August, with 55 qualifiers from the various regional tournaments held around Japan and 20 invited players taking part.
  In the final, the 38-year-old Hiraoka Satoshi beat the 29-year-old Sato Yohei, winning this title for the second time. Hiraoka resisted the recent wave of rejuvenation that has been sweeping through Japanese amateur go and which saw an 18-year-old, Tsuneishi Takashi, win the Amateur Meijin tournament in July.