History of Topics 1998

  The third game of the 17th Women's Honinbo title match, sponsored by Yasuda Insurance, was held in Tokyo on October 29. The defending champion, Chinen Kaori, started off the title match with two successive wins over the challenger, Kato Tomoko 4-dan. Playing black in the third game, she defeated Kato by 4 1/2 points, to defend her title with straight wins. Of their time allowances of four hours each, Chinen had 40 minutes left and kato 1 minute.

  The 46th Oza best-of-five title match has got under way. O Rissei, currrently engaged in the Meijin title match, is challenging Yamada Kimio, who is making his first title defence. The first game was played at the Four Seasons Chinzanso in Tokyo on October 29.
  Playing black, O won by 4 1/2 points after 277 moves, so, just as in the Meijin, he made a good start to his challenge. The second game will be played in Kobe on November 16.

  The first game of the best-of-three playoff to decide the challenger to Cho Chikun for the 23rd Kisei title was played on October 29. Kobayashi Koichi, who held the Kisei title for eight years in a row, made a good start by defeating Yoda Norimoto, the unsuccessful challenger earlier this year. Playing black, Kobayashi won by 3 l/2 points.

  The fifth game of the 23rd Meijin title match (sponsored by the Asahi Newspaper) was held at the ANA Hotel in Tokyo on October 22 and 23. Playing black, O Rissei fell behind in a very fierce fighting game, but he pulled off an upset win by 3 1/2 points to level the series at 2 wins each (+ one no-decision).
  Of their time allowances of eight hours each, O had one hour 24 minutes left and Cho one minute. The sixth game will be played at Ito City in Shizuoka Prefecture on November 4 & 5.