by John Power, Japan correspondent for the E-Journal
Iyama defends Honinbo title, matches Cho’s record
As of our previous report (June 4), the 76th Honinbo title match between Iyama Yuta, also known as Honinbo Monyu, and Shibano Toramaru Oza was tied 1-1. When the defending champion won the first game, Shibano fans would have been worried that this match might follow the path of last year’s Honinbo and Meijin title matches, both of which were one-sided, ending in 4-1 victories for Iyama. However, Shibano roared back in the second game, crushing Iyama in 96 moves.
The third game was played at the Hotel Agora Osaka Moriguchi in Moriguchi City, Osaka Prefecture, on June 1 and 2. Taking black, the challenger, Shibano Toramaru Oza won by resignation after 149 moves. In the opening, Shibano staked out a large moyo. Iyama was confident he could erase it, but a large group of his inside the moyo got into trouble. When he was unable to save it, he had to resign. This was another convincing win for Shibano, who incidentally took a lead over Iyama for the first time in a best-of-seven.
The fourth game was held at the Art Hotel Kokura New Tagawa on June 10 and 11. This game also featured aggressive fighting and once again Shibano came out on top, capturing a large group. Iyama (black) resigned after just 124 moves. O Meien 9P, the newspaper commentator, said: “I felt Shibano’s reading was awesome. Iyama can’t often have been outread like this. It was a convincing win for Shibano.” This was the first time Iyama had fallen behind 1-3 in the Honinbo title.
Game Five was the first kadoban (a game that can lose a series) for Iyama.It was played at the Matsumoto Hotel Kagetsu in Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, on June 21 and 22. The game started peacefully. In the middle game, a kind of trade took place, with Iyama (white) capturing a group in exchange for letting Shibano put a large white group into ko. The game was dominated by this ko, which went on for 90 moves. In the end, Shibano captured the group, but was forced to let White take a fair bit of profit with his ko threat. Shibano resigned after White 218. Yamashita Keigo, the newspaper commentator, said: “There’s no move that I can clearly label as bad among the Honinbo’s moves.” This convincing win by Iyama changed the flow of the match.
Game Six was played at the Todaya hotel in Toba City, Mie Prefecture, on June 29 and 30. Iyama (B) took a small lead on the first day. In the middle game, the lead became confused, but Iyama was saved by a mistake made by Shibano, who resigned after move 153. Iyama saved his second kadoban and tied the match. He now seemed to have better momentum than the challenger.
The final game was held at the Tokiwa Hotel, Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, on July 6 and 7. Iyama drew white in the nigiri. He convincingly outplayed Shibano and won by resignation after 180 moves. He made an excellent recovery after losing three games in a row by returning the courtesy to his opponent. Having won the title ten years in a row, he matched Cho Chikun’s record. Shibano missed out on his chance to become the youngest tournament Honinbo. First prize is 28 million yen (about $254,500).
4th Wu Qingyuan Cup
The opening rounds of the 4th Wu Qingyuan (Go Seigen) Cup World Women’s Go Tournament were held on the Net on July 18 to 20 with 16 players competing. Of these, three Chinese players and one Korean survived to make the semifinals. For Japanese fans, the highlight of the tournament was Nakamura Sumire’s scoring her first international win. The best performer for Japan was Fujisawa Rina, who picked up two wins. The dates of the semifinals and final have not yet been decided. Below are the results so far.
Round 1 (July 18). Fang 4p (China) (B) beat Stephanie Yin 1p (US) by resig.; Oh Yujin 7p (Korea) (W) beat Natalia Kovaleva 5d (Russia) by resig.; Cho Seunga 3p (Korea) (W) beat Hei Jiajia 7p (Ch. Taipei) by resig.; Li Xinyi 3p (China) (W) beat Manuela Marz 3d (Germany) by resig.; Lu Minquan 6p (China) (B) beat Xie Yimin 6p (Japan) by 1.5; Ueno Asami 4p (Japan) (W) beat Luo Yuhua 3p (Ch. Taipei) by 0.5; Suzuki Ayumi 7p (Japan) (W) beat Feng Yun 9p (US) by resig.; Nakamura Sumire 2p (Japan) (W) beat Kim Jaeyoung 6p (Korea) by 0.5.
Round 2 (July 19). Fujisawa Rina 5p (W) beat Li by 2.5; Yu Zhiying 7p (China) (W) beat Ueno by resig.; Wang Chenxing 5p (China) (W) beat Suzuki by resig.; Zhou Hongyu 6p (China) (W) beat Nakamura by resig.; Choi Jeong 9p (Korea) (W) beat Lu by resig.; Fang (B) beat Rui Naiwei 9p (China) by resig.; Cho (B) beat Tang 4p (China) by 1.5; Oh (W) beat Li He 5p (China) by 2.5.
Quarterfinals (July 20) Yu (W) beat Fujisawa by resig.; Fang (W) beat Cho by resig.; Wang (W) beat Oh by resig.; Choi (B) beat Zhou by resig.
Semifinal pairings (date undecided). Wang v. Yu; Choi v. Fang
