History of Topics 1999

  The third game of the Korean-sponsored world championship the LG Cup was held on May 10. Unfortunately, the Japanese representatives failed to make the best-of-five final, which was fought between Lee Chang-ho 9-dan of Korea and Ma Xiaochun 9-dan of China. The first two games were held in March and were both won by Lee. He also won the third game, so he took the title with three straight wins.

Details of the match are:
  Game 1 (March 2). Lee (B) won by resignation.
  Game 2 (March 4). Lee (W) won by 3.5 points.
  Game 3 (May 10). Lee (B) won by resignation.

  The 54th Honinbo best-of-seven title match (sponsored by the Mainichi Shimbun) has got off to start. Last year the title holder, Cho Chikun, set a new record by winning the title for the 10th successive year. This year the challenger faced with the task of preventing Cho from extending this record is Cho Sonjin 9-dan, who is making his first appearance in a top title match.
  The first game was played at the Takigawa Hotel Miura Kaen in Takigawa City, Hokkaido, on May 12 and 13. Playing black, Cho Chikun defeated the challenger by 6.5 points after 239 moves. Of their time allowances of eight hours each, Cho Sonjin had 23 minutes left and Cho Chikun one minute. The second game will be played at the Grand Hotel Koyo in Yu-no-yama Hot Spring in the town of Komono in Mie Prefecture on May 24 and 25.

  The 24th Meijin league (sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun) is approaching its final stage. Three key games were played on May 6, one of them pitting the joint leaders, Yoda Norimoto Gosei and O Rissei Oza, against each other. Playing white, Yoda won this game by 1.5 points, so he took the sole lead in the league with 5-0.
  O dropped back to 4-1. Ryu Shikun 7-dan defeated Takemiya Masaki 9-dan, so his score is now 5-1. In the third game, Kato Masao 9-dan defeated Sakai Maki 7-dan. Kato is now on 3-3 and Sakai is 1-5.