American Go E-Journal » 2010 » February

HANE NAOKI TO PLAY KONO RIN IN NEC CUP FINAL: Hane Naoki (NEC) and Kono Rin 9P will face each other in the 29th NEC Cup final match after winning their respective semifinal matches against Ko Iso 7P and Yamashita Keigo (K). Both victories were by sizable margins of 7.5 points. Hane was seeded into the second round, where he defeated Cho U http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=19 9P before meeting Ko Iso. Kono started off by defeating Iyama Yuta http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=379 9P, then Kataoka Satoshi http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp Click here http://www.justplaygo.com/ for the games.
– JustPlayGo http://www.justplaygo.com/

LEE CHANGHO ADVANCES TO KUKSU FINALS: Lee Changho 9P defeated Joo Hyeongwuk 5P by resignation in the semi-final match of the 53rd Kuksu (National Champion) tournament on February 10. Lee will face either Hong Kipyo 4P or An Hyungjun 2P in the tournament finals. The winner will play current Kuksu title holder Lee Sedol in the title match. Lee Changho has held the Kuksu — Korea’s highest honor in professional tournament play — nine times and played in 16 of the last 20 Kuksu title matches.
– JustPlayGo http://www.justplaygo.com/

LEE CHANGHO AND LEE SEDOL PLAY TO HELP HAITI: Lee Changho and Lee Sedol played a benefit match last week to help the victims of Haiti’s devastating earthquake. Charitable donations for the refugees were raised through the Go TV broadcast of the game and given to the UNICEF South Korea Committee.
The game was the idea of go sponsor Kingsfield Ltd, which has just signed an advertising contract with Lee Sedol. Lee has not met Lee Changho since their three-game match-up in the KBS Cup final 11 months ago, so there was great interest in their first encounter since Lee Sedol’s reinstatement in January. The players waived their usual fees. Although it was a “real game”, the result didn’t really matter, the players said, and they concentrated on producing an entertaining game. Lee Changoho won. Click here http://www.justplaygo.com/ for the game.
– JustPlayGo and CyberOro, with translation assistance from John Fairbairn

THREE-WAY TIE IN HONINBO LEAGUE: With only two more games for the players in the Honinbo League http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/pg_titlelist_detail.php?title=Honinbo to determine the challenger for the title held by Hane Naoki http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=22 9P, three players have records of 4-1. Iyama Yuta http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=379 9P, who had the lead earlier with 4-0, lost to Yamashita Keigo http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=45 9P, who is also at 4-1. The third player is Takao Shinji http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=214 9P. Of these three, only Takao has held this title–he was Honinbo for three years, 2005-2007; he lost the title to Hane in 2008, and Hane defended it successfully in 2009 against Takao as challenger.
– Go News, GoGameWorld, Sensei’s Library

RUI NAIWEI RETAINS FEMALE MYEONGIN TITLE, AGAIN: Rui Naiwei 9P http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=85 defeated Cho Hyeyeon 8P http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=104 by resignation in the third and final round of the 11th Female Myeongin (Meijin) http://senseis.xmp.net/?WomensMyeongin on February 8. Rui and Cho Hyeyeon have faced each other for the Female Myeongin title three years in a row now, and Rui has come out ahead each time. She has held this title for six straight years and won 9 out of the 11 Myeongin title matches.
– Go News, GoGameWorld, Sensei’s Library, JustPlayGo

CHO U 3-0 IN KISEI: Cho U http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=19 9P defeated Yamashita Keigo http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=45  by a whopping 8.5 points in the third round of the 34th Kisei http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/pg_titlelist_detail.php?title=Kisei title match on February 3-4. Cho U leads the series 3-0. This is the first time Cho has played in the Kisei title match and the Kisei is the only one of the top seven Japanese titles he has never held. Yamashita has held this title five of the last seven years, including the last four in a row. The fourth round in the best-of-seven match will be played on February 18-19.
–  Go News, GoGameWorld, Sensei’s Library, JustPlayGo

JAPAN KNOCKED OUT OF BC CUP: Japan’s Iyama Yuta and Yamada Kimio were both eliminated in the second round of the BC Card Cup, ending any hopes of Japan entering into the finals. China’s Niu Yutian 7P defeated Iyama Yuta 9P by resignation and Korea’s Yoo Changhyuk 9P defeated Yamada Kimio 9P by resignation as well.
Game Record (Niu Yutian vs. Iyama Yuta B+R)
Game Record (Yoo Changhyuk vs. Yamada Kimio B+R)
– JustPlayGo http://www.justplaygo.com/

KOREA TAKES WOMEN’S TEAM MATCH CUP: Korea’s Park Jieun 9P http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=86 swept the 3rd stage of the Jeongganjang Cup http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/pg_titlelist_detail.php?title=Jeongganjang%20Cup%20Women%20Go%20Contest, winning all four rounds and giving Korea their win on February 4. Park Jieun defeated China’s Li He 2P by resignation in the final round. Korea has now won five of the eight Jeongganjang Cup titles. The Jeongganjang Cup http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/pg_titlelist_detail.php?title=Jeongganjang%20Cup%20Women%20Go%20Contest is a win-and-continue tournament between five member women teams from China, Japan, and Korea. Last year the Chinese won for the third time, and it looked like they would repeat this year when the third stage started with one Japanese representative, one Korean, and three Chinese. However, the Korean rep was Park Jieun http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=86 9P and she won four games in a row to give Korea its fifth win of this Cup. The Japanese won one game this year (Mukai Chiaki http://senseis.xmp.net/?MukaiChiaki 3P beat Kim Hyeoimin http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=405 5P of Korea), which was better than last year and allowed them to at least appear in the third round.
– Go News, GoGameWorld, Sensei’s Library, JustPlayGo

IYAMA YUTA HOLDS LEAD IN HONINBO LEAGUE: Iyama Yuta http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=379 9P, current Meijin, holds the lead in the Honinbo League with a 4-0 record. The challenger for the Japanese Honinbo title is determined by an eight-player round robin league, which is about half over at this point. Everyone else has lost at least one game. In second place are Takao Shinji http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=214 9P and Yamashita Keigo http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=45 9P, both at 3-1. Iyama’s next game is against Yamashita on February 11th.
– Go News, GoGameWorld, Sensei’s Library, JustPlayGo

YOUNGEST-EVER PRO IS FEMALE: The youngest ever pro 1-dan is about to emerge in Japan and she is female. On April 1, Fujisawa Rina will be inducted at the age of 11 years 6 months, three months younger than Cho Chikun when he became 1-dan, and far ahead of Xie Yimin who was the previous youngest female 1-dan at 14 years 4 months. Rina is the daughter of Fujisawa Kazunari 8-dan, and thus the granddaughter of Fujisawa Hideyuki. She says her style is quite different from grandad’s, she likes territory and he liked thickness. Her teacher was Hong Mal-keun Saem, a Korean long time resident in Japan who himself qualified as a pro just last year. Rina qualified in the women’s section of the Nihon Ki-in’s qualification system, which is not quite as tough as the open section, but women in the Nihon Ki-in have been posting some good results lately; Mukai Chiaki beat Kudo Norio 9-dan in the Oza a fortnight ago.
– John Fairbairn, on godiscussions.com