Setsubun is the day before spring in the old Japanese calendar. On February 2, the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park celebrated Setsubun, with hundreds of adults and children gathered outdoors in masks as evil was banished and spring welcomed with good fortune. The San Diego Go Club was invited to staff a booth at the event to teach Go to passersby. “Many were interested in learning Go,” reports Ted Terpstra, who says copies of “The Way to Go,” supplied by the American Go Foundation were given out to those interested.
Roasted soybeans were thrown by children at players wearing demon masks and bearing frightening clubs and hammers as drums beat in the background. Children shouted “”Devils out! Fortune in.” This symbolically purified the place by driving away evil spirits that bring misfortune.
“Over the years, the Japanese Friendship Garden has proven to be a fertile place to find new players and sometimes a 6-dan for the SDGC, which now has over 80 AGA members,” says Terpstra. The club is once again meeting in person with over 25-players (25-kyus to four 6-dans) attending last Thursday.
By Daniela Trinks, Korea correspondent for the E-Journal.
Wild Card Wins 5th Crown Haitai Cup
Byun Sang-il (left) and Han Seung-joon fought for the Crown Haitai title.Photo courtesy of KBA.
The Crown Haitai Cup is a Korean U25 tournament which has been held since 2017. Previous winners include Park Jeong-hwan 9p, Park Ha-min 9p, Song Ji-hoon 7p, and Lee Chang-seok 8p. In November 2021, 97 players participated in the preliminaries, and 28 made it to the main event of the 5th Crown Haitai Cup. The previous year’s winner Lee Chang-seok 8p and runner-up Seol Hyun-joon 7p were seeded, while the sponsor gave two wild cards to Byun Sang-il 9p and Cho Seung-ah 5p. The tournament employed a knock-out format and had a relatively short thinking time limit of 20 minutes plus 20 seconds per move (Fisher time). The final was held from January 24th to 27th between Han Seung-joon 9p (Korean rank #9) and Byun Sang-il 9p (rank #3). Han (26) had won the Korean President’s Cup in 2021, and he demonstrated his strength by winning the first game. However, the younger Byun (25) has more experience when it comes to title games, having already won four titles including the recent international 2021 Kuksu Mountain title. He relied on this experience to edge out a 2:1 victory and take home the title. Interestingly, Byun Sang-il has played in this tournament since its inception in 2017 without any success; he eventually prevailed on this his fifth attempt and walked away with $25,000. Runner-up Han Seung-joon received $10,000.
1st Hoban Title Winner
The Hoban Strongest Female Player’s Cup is a new tournament which began in August 2021. The sponsor is the Korean conglomerate Hoban Construction whose CEO Kang Sang-yeol has shown his interest in Go by supporting a female Go league team since 2016. In the qualifiers of this new competition 41 players competed out of which four qualified to join the three top ranked players (Choi Jeong 9p, Oh Yoo-jin 9p and Kim Chae-young 7p) and Cho Hye-yoon 9p who received the sponsor’s wild card. The main event, a round robin tournament, had a thinking time of 2 hours and a byoyomi of 1 minute three times. Choi Jeong and Oh Yoo-jin recorded the most wins, 6:1 and 5:2, respectively, and met in the finals from January 17th to 28th. In an interview before the best-of-five title match, both players were confident of winning 3:0 whereas Go experts anticipated a 3:2 result. The two rivals’ overall head-to-head score was 29:7 in favor of Choi. Last year, however, Oh Yoo-jin defeated Choi Jeong to win two major titles. As expected, the clash was very exciting and unpredictable, for instance the 3rd and 4th games took more than 5 hours to complete. In the end, Choi Jeong prevailed 3:1 to win the 1st Hoban title and her 22nd career title. She took home 30 million KRW ($25,000), while Oh Yoo-jin received 10 million KRW ($8,000).
Choi Jeong (left) and Oh Yoo-jin competed in the Hoban title match. Photo courtesy of KBaduk.
Choi Jeong had probably one of the busiest schedules amongst the pros; besides the Hoban Cup, she also competed in the Nongshim Classic Super Match, the Korean League, the Wooseul-Bongjo Cup, and the Maxim Cup. In total, she played 15 games in January 2021 alone. Impressively, she had a winning rate of 66.7%.
Obituary: KBF President Lee Jae-yoon
The president of the Korean Baduk Federation, Lee Jae-yoon passed away at the age of 73 on 21st January 2022. The Korean Baduk community mourned his sudden demise profoundly. He made great contributions to the development of amateur Go throughout his life. Just over a year ago, he was elected the 7th president of the Korean amateur Go association (KBF), and dedicated his time, energy, and financial resources to revitalize the organization which had faced many difficulties over the years. He also took leadership of the Korean Society for Baduk Studies (2008-2010) and the Daegu City Baduk Association (2020). He had a great passion for Go and sponsored the Amateur Deokyoung Cup for 39 years, as well as Daegu’s team in the Korean Amateur National Go League.
Korean Go Professional Association Elects 35th President
The Korean Go Professional Association elected Han Jong-jin 9p (43) as their new president. Han Jong-jin 9p received 168 votes (57%), 44 more votes than the current president Cha Min-soo 6p (a.k.a. Jimmy Cha). The presidency term runs for two years. Han Jong-jin will represent 392 Korean professionals, and promised to “expand the size of professional competitions, attract sponsors to launch new competitions, actively support Go promotion projects, introduce a professional referee system, and solve the problem of pro’s retirement compensation.”
Trinks is an associate professor in the Department of Baduk (Go) Studies College of Arts & Physical Education at Myongji University in South Korea.
By Daniela Trinks, Korea correspondent for the E-Journal. Trinks is an associate professor in the Department of Baduk (Go) Studies College of Arts & Physical Education at Myongji University in South Korea.
Upcoming LG Cup Title Match February 7-10 The highly anticipated title match of the 26th LG Cup will take place online at 10 a.m. (KST) on February 7th, 9th and 10th. Yang Dingxin 9p (23) from China will face Shin Jin-seo 9p (21) from Korea in the best-of-three matches. They have met ten times so far, with both winning five games each. Interestingly, both players’ first major international title was the LG Cup: Yang won the 23rd, and Shin the 24th LG Cup. Last year’s 25th Cup was won by Shin Min-joon 9p who defeated Ke Jie 9p 2:1 in the final. Who will be the next title holder? Besides fame, a high prize money is at stake: the first prize is about $250,000 and the second is $84,000.
2021 Best-Paid Go Pros in Japan and Korea in Comparison
Table: Top 10 Earners 2021 in Japan and South Korea. Female players are marked with an asterisk (*). Annual prize money converted at $1 = ¥115.1 and $1 = 1,189 KRW.
Every year, the official incomes of Go professionals who earned the most are published in Japan and Korea, while those in China are not. The table below gives the annual prize money of the top ten earners in Japan and South Korea. In both countries, the current #1 ranked players are also the top earners – Iyama Yuta 9p (from Japan) earned $1.16 million and Shin Jin-seo 9p (from Korea) earned $890,000. Iyama Yuta 9p has been at the top of the list for eleven years in a row, while Shin Jin-seo 9p only surpassed Park Jeong-hwan 9p as annual top earner in 2020. In both countries, only two female players (*) made it into the top 10, surprisingly, both are ranked #5: Fujisawa Rina 5p (from Japan) earned $278,000 and Choi Jeong 9p (from Korea) earned $202,000. Choi’s best results came in 2019 when she earned about $380,000 which put her in the #3 spot in Korea. The #2 ranked female player in Korea, Oh Yoo-jin 9p, earned about $115,000 in 2021, which put her in the top-ten list for the first time. In Japan, Ueno Asami 4p, earned $204,000, which put her on the 6th spot. Remarkably, the youngest top earners were similar in age in both countries – Japan’s Ueno and Seki (21) and Korea’s Shin Jin-seo (22). Meanwhile, the oldest top earners in Japan are in their 40s – Kono Rin (41) and Hane Naoki (46), in contrast to Korea’s Kim Ji-seok and Kang Dong-yoon who are in their 30s.
Table: Top 10 Earners 2021 in Japan and South Korea. Female Players are marked with an asterix sign (*). Annual prize money converted at $1 = ¥115.1 and $1 = 1,189 KRW.
The table lists the official prize money, before tax and other deductions. Furthermore, game earnings from for example the LG Cup and Ing Cup (finals are yet to be played), and Iyama’s winning streak money from the Nongshim Cup are not included.
Nongshim Special Match: Korea vs. China
Nongshim Korea-China Supermatch. Team Korea (left) won against Team China 5:4. Photo courtesy of KBA.
The Nongshim Korea-China Classic Super Match was held January 10th-12th as a side event of the on-going current 23rd Nongshim Cup. It is a binational team competition, similar to the legendary NEC Japan-China Super Go matches in the 80s and 90s. Each team consisted of one player each in their 60s, 40s, and 20s, out of which two were male and one female. Team Korea was represented by the legendary Cho Hoon-hyun 9p (69) and Lee Changho 9p (47), supported by #1 female player Choi Jeong 9p (26), while team China was represented by Liu Xiaoguang 9p (62), Chang Hao 9p (46) and Yu Zhiying 7p (25). They played three rounds so that each player would meet the other team’s player once. The Chinese team started off well with a 2:1 lead, but team Korea came back strongly and won the subsequent rounds of games 4:2. For their prize, team Korean took home $50,000; additionally, Choi Jeong 9p received a bonus of $4,200 for winning all her games.
Meanwhile, the main 23rd edition of the Nongshim Cup will resume this year. The highly anticipated 3rd round will begin on February 21st, with three Japanese players, two Chinese players, and one Korean player left to battle it out. Will Iyama Yuta 9p extend his four-game winning streak, and lead team Japan to their first victory in 16 years? We have to wait and see – and cheer for our favorite team.
The 2022 Zheng Cup, originally scheduled to be played February 5th-6th in Irvine, California, has been postponed indefinitely due to the current COVID-19 situation. As previously reported, the AGA is asking chapters to delay tournaments and to consider pausing club meetings until the latest wave of the Omicron variant has passed. -Kyle Fenimore
When the COVID pandemic forced the closure of the popular Osaka Go Camp, the Kansai-Kiin’s Ryo Maeda 6P — like many — went online. The result was the International Osaka Go School. In operation since September 2020, the school provides students with online lectures and the opportunity for professionally reviewed games. The teaching staff includes Ryo Maeda 6P, Ting Li 1P, and Francis Meyer 1P, and Michael Redmond 9P is also available for game reviews.
The school welcomes players ranging from 15kyu to 6d, and there are multiple membership tiers available. For example, the two-month membership plan ($200USD) provides students with eight games played between the school’s league members, two teaching games with an instructor, and four lectures. Each game is personally reviewed by one of the teaching staff, and all the games and lectures are made available as video links, which are archived and accessible to members. A cheaper Observation plan allows students to access the lecture and game review videos. The wealth of learning opportunities is immense. Players can even request reviews of games played outside of the Osaka School.
The school’s mission, along with conveying the charm of the game of go and providing accessible learning for go fans of all levels, is to ensure that learning during the pandemic remains fun. “It is still a severe time,” says Ryo Maeda 6P, “but we hope as many people [as possible] can have a joyful go experience.” – Edited by Hailey Renner
By John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal
Here is a statistical overview of Japanese go in 2021
Most prize money won The Nihon Ki-in published the list of top prize-money winners on January 24. There were few surprises. Iyama Yuta took first place for the 11th year in a row and topped 100,000,000 (called “ichi-oku”) yen for the 10th year in a row. Only four players have reached this impressive figure, the others being Kobayashi Koichi (three times), Cho Chikun (four times), and Cho U (also four times). 1. Iyama Yuta: ¥133,849,290 ($1,160,073 at $1 = ¥115.38) 2. Ichiriki Ryo: ¥44,285,702 3. Shibano Toramaru: ¥41,139,960 4. Kyo Kagen: ¥37,422,211 5.Fujisawa Rina: ¥31,993,482 6. Ueno Asami: ¥23,509,352 7. Kono Rin: ¥20,784,000 8. Seki Kotaro: ¥17,824,300 9. Hane Naoki: ¥13,609,000 10. Motoki Katsuya: ¥11,285,600
Most wins Ueno Asami, Women’s Kisei, had the lead in the list of most wins for most of the year, helped, of course, by the boom in women’s go tournaments but also by her good results against male players. Sumire, boosted by her astonishing winning streak of 13 at the beginning of the year, kept her company. Even so, other players were in the running until the end of the year, when Ueno suddenly built a big lead. She is the first woman player to top this list. Below are the top ten. 1. Ueno Asami: 54 wins, 25 losses 2. Kyo Kagen Judan: 45-21 3. Nakamura Sumire 2-dan: 43-18 4. Fukuoka Kotaro 3-dan: 39-12; Ichiriki Ryo 9-dan: 39-20; Shibano Toramaru 9-dan: 39-24 7. Fujisawa Rina, Women’s Honinbo: 38-15 8. Seki Kotaro Tengen: 37-14; Iyama Yuta Kisei: 37-16 10. Nyu Eiko 4-dan: 34-17
Prizemoney promotions Every January there are eleven automatic promotions based on prizemoney won in the top-seven titles. To be specific, the top two 1-dans to 5-dans and the top 6-dan are promoted. Players who earned promotion in other ways are excluded. The 2021 promotions were announced early in January and are given below. To 7-dan: Koike Yoshihiro To 6-dan: Hirose Yuichi, Otake Yu To 5-dan: Tsuneishi Takashi, Cho Zuiketsu To 4-dan: (Ms.) Nyu Eiko, Muramoto Wataru To 3-dan: Fukuoka Kotaro, Nishioka Masao To 2-dan: (Ms.) Tsuji Hana, Chan Fukan (from Malaysia)
“As an adolescent, I fancied myself a devotee of the ancient Chinese board game Go. I had never actually played it, but in one of my favorite novels — “Shibumi,” by Trevanian — the super-assassin hero praised Go as a fitting pastime for the kind of warrior/poet/lover he was and that I hoped to become. “Go is to Western chess what philosophy is to double-entry accounting,” he says, probably before killing someone with a toothpick. Sadly, when I actually tried to play Go, it turned out be … a board game, and a difficult one at that. I gave it up when I realized that in return for the labor of truly learning Go, I would become not an enlightened international assassin, but just a guy who could play a game.” Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” reviews Oliver Roeder’s “SEVEN GAMES A Human History” in The New York Times; read more here.
“Reminder to register for the 2022 AGHS School Team Tournament! Registration closes on February 4th.” says AGHS Co-President Sophia Wang, “Students from the same school or educational institution can form teams of 3 to compete for their school and for prizes including t-shirts and plaques. There will be four rounds held over two Sundays, February 6th and 13th, at 10am and 1pm PST. See more details regarding eligibility and rules on the rules document and register here.”
By John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal
International tournament for seniors
O Meien
The final international event of 2021 was yet another special tournament for senior players, the 1004 Islands Shin-An International Senior Baduk Championship. Sixteen former top players took part, with eight players from the host country of Korea, three each from Japan and China, and two from Taiwan, though those two were actually the Nihon Ki-in players O Rissei and O Meien. The time allowance was just 30 minutes per player plus 30-second byo-yomi x 3; there were two rounds per day. The tournament was held on the net on December 21 and 22. Reaching the final were Yoo Changhyeok of Korea and O Meien. The latter took the lead early in the game, but Yu pulled off a late upset and won by half a point. First prize was 30 million won (about $25,000). O had to be content with half that. Results are given below, but full details for most of the games are not available to me. (All players are 9-dan.)
Round 1 (Dec. 21). Yoda Norimoto (Japan) beat Kim Jongsoo (Korea); Kim Yonghwan (Korea) beat Kobayashi Koichi (Japan); Yoo Changhyeok (Korea) beat O Rissei; Yu Bin (China) beat Seo Nun-uk (Korea); O Meien beat Cho Hoonhyun (Korea); Rui Naiwei (China) beat Kim Ilhwan (Korea); Seo Bongsoo (Korea) beat Takemiya Masaki (Japan); Nie Weiping (China) beat Choe Kyupeong (Korea).
Round 2 (Dec. 21). Yoda beat Kim Yonghwan; Yoo beat Yu; O (B) beat Rui by resig.; Seo beat Nie.
Semifinals (Dec. 22). Yu (B) beat Yoda by 2.5 points; O beat Seo on time.
Final (Dec. 22). Yu (B) beat O by half a point.
77th Honinbo League
As of the end of the year, with three rounds completed, Yo Seiki 8P of the Kansai Ki-in had the sole lead as the only undefeated player.
(Nov. 1) Tsuruyama Atsushi 8P beat Sada Atsushi 7P by 3.5 points.
(Dec. 2) Kyo Kagen Judan (B) beat Motoki Katsuya 8P by resig.; Yo Seiki 8P (B) beat Hane Naoki 9P by resig.
(Dec. 10) Yo (W) beat Ichiriki by resig.
(Dec. 13) Shibano (W) beat Tsuruyama by resig.
(Dec. 16) Hane (W) beat Sada by resig.
Meijin League
The three vacant seats in the 47th Meijin League went to three 8-dans: Yo Seiki, Ida Atsushi, and Shida Tatsuya. The deciding games were all played on November 11. Shida (B) beat Kono Rin, who has been a regular in the league for many years, by resignation and will make his league debut. Ida (B) beat Xie Yimin 7P by 2.5 points, so once again the debut of a woman player in a major league has been put off (recognizing as “major” only the Meijin, Honinbo, and Kisei S Leagues). Ida, a former Honinbo challenger, will make his debut in the Meijin League. Yo (B) beat Fujita Akihiko 7P by resignation, so he made an immediate comeback after losing his place in the previous league. Results of games played last year follow.
(Dec. 3) Ichiriki Tengen (W) beat Ida Atsushi 8P by resig.
(Dec. 9) Hane Naoki 9P (W) beat Motoki Katsuya 8P by half a point.
(Dec. 18) Yo Seiki 8P (W) beat Kyo Kagen Judan by resig.
This report follows on from my report published on November 10 and takes Sumire to the end of the year. Her final record was 43 wins to 18 losses, which put her in third place in the most-wins list after Ueno Asami on 54-25 and Kyo Kagen Judan on 44-21.
(Nov. 11) Sumire (B) lost to Suzuki Ayumi 7P by half a point (25th Women’s Kisei main tournament, round 2).
(Nov. 13) Sumire (B) beat Ueno Asami, Women’s Kisei, by 1.5 points (Women’s Brains Match, details given earlier in this report); Sumire (W) lost to Xie Yimin 7P by resig. (final of the Brains Match). These are both unofficial games.
(Nov. 18) Sumire (W) lost to Kaneko Maki 2P by 4.5 points (round 1, prelim., Teikei Cup Young Stars).
(Nov. 22) Sumire (B) beat Fujii Koki 1P by 4.5 points (prelim., 47th King of the New Stars)
To 2-dan (30 wins): Toyoda Hirohito (as of Nov. 12); Miura Taro (as of Nov. 26)
To 3-dan (40 wins): Kuwabara Shun (as of Nov. 23); Sakai Yuki (as of Dec. 24)
To 4-dan: Sotoyanagi Sebun (50 wins, as of Dec. 7)
Retirements
Otake Hideo 9P, one of the top players of the second half of the 20th century, retired on December 15 after a go career of 65 years. He was born in Kita Kyushu City in Fukuoka Prefecture on May 12, 1942. He became a disciple of Kitani Minoru in 1951 and made 1-dan in 1956. He won his first title, the Nihon Ki-in No. One Position, in 1966 and monopolized it for the five years of its existence. He won the 14th Yomiuri Meijin title in 1975 and the 1st (1976), 3rd (1978), and 4th (1979) Asahi Meijin titles. He acquired the nickname of “the Meijin man” when he played in the Meijin title match nine times in the decade from 1975 to 1984. He and Rin Kaiho 9P, who was born in the same year, were great rivals and this period was called “the age of Otake and Rin.” He won a total of 48 titles, which is fifth best, including seven Gosei, five Judan, and one Oza among the top-seven titles, and five NHK Cups. A winning streak of six years in the Gosei earned him the title of Honorary Gosei. He also won two international titles, the 5th Fujitsu Cup in 1992 and the 6th TV Asia tournament in 1994. His career record is 1319 wins, 846 losses, 5 jigo, 1 no-contest. He served as chairman of the Nihon Ki-in board of directors from 2008 to 2012.
Chino Tadahiko 9P retired as of December 16. Chino was born in Chiba Prefecture on July 4, 1937. He became a disciple of Nakamura Yutaro 9P and made 1-dan in 1953. He reached 9-dan in 1983. He played twice in the Honinbo League.
Obituary: Kikuchi Yasuro
Kikuchi Yasuro, the leading amateur player of the second half of the 20th century and founder of the Ryokusei Igo Gakuen (Igo College), died of old age on November 3. Kikuchi was born in Tokyo in 1929. In 1948, he entered Senshu University and established himself as the top university player. In 1957, he won the 3rd Amateur Honinbo Championship; in all, he won it 13 times. In 1992, he won the 14th World Amateur Go Championship; he made five appearances in this tournament in all. He also won the Amateur Best Ten nine times. Winners of the Amateur Honinbo and the Amateur Best Ten got to play games with professionals, and, playing on a handicap of reverse komi or two stones, he enjoyed quite a good winning percentage. For example, taking black with a reverse komi of five, he beat Sakata Eio by eight points in 1957. In 1979, he founded the Ryokusei Igo Gakuen with the goal of giving children a healthy upbringing through go. It was not meant to be a training school for professionals, though about 20 of his pupils did become professionals, starting with Muramatsu Ryuichi 8P and including Yamashita Keigo, former Kisei, Aoki Shinichiro 9P, and his sister Kikuyo 8P. His last pupil to become a pro was Hoshiai Shiho 3P. I recall reading that when he was young, he consulted Segoe Kensaku 9P about whether he should become a professional. Segoe’s answer was that he had enough talent, but that he would be “just another 9-dan,” whereas as an amateur he would have a more illustrious career.
By John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal
Iyama regains Oza title
In contrast to his other recent title matches, Iyama never fell behind in the 69th Oza best-of-five. Rather, it was the titleholder, Shibano Toramaru, who had to play catch-up in the second game and then save a kadoban in the fourth. The final game, played on December 9, was the last title-match game of the year. Iyama got black in the nigiri. The game was very close and in the end was decided by a small slip in judgment by Shibano, who resigned after move 161.
With this win, Iyama regained the title that he lost to Shibano two years ago. He was also once again the holder of a quintuple crown. Of the top seven titles, he is missing just the Tengen and the Judan, but he has already been eliminated from the 60th Judan tournament, so there is no immediately prospect of his getting another grand slam. Results follow (note that Black won all the games). Incidentally, the Go Weekly reporter worked out that during 2021 Iyama’s record in kadoban games (that is, games in which he could have lost a match) was eight successive wins. The Oza prize is 14,000,000 yen (about $123,000). This is Iyama’s 67th title.
Game 1 (Oct. 29). Iyama (B) by resig.; Game 2 (Nov. 12). Shibano (B) by resig.; Game 3 (Nov. 19). Iyama (B) by resig.; Game 4 (Dec. 3). Shibano (B) by resig.; Game 5 (Dec. 9). Iyama (B) by resig.
The Teikei tournaments
In 2021, three new tournaments were founded by one sponsor, the Teikei Corporation. This is actually a massive family of companies whose core business seems to be providing security services of various kind. The three tournaments are described below.
The Teikei Cup New Stars Tournament is for players of 25 or under, as of April 1 of the tournament year (this date applies to the other two tournaments also). The top 12 players in a preliminary tournament qualify for two all-play-all six-player leagues, the winners of which meet in a best-of-three final. First prize is 10,000,000 yen (close to $88,000), the most generous of the three tournaments. Unusually for a Japanese tournament, the leagues were held at the rate of a game a day from December 20 to 25 (the 23rd was a rest day). In the A League, Shibano Toramaru tied on 4-1 with Ichiriki Ryo, but Shibano took precedence because he won their encounter in the league. Kyo Kagen Judan dominated the B League with a score of 5-0. Shibano and Kyo will meet in the final in March.
The Teikei Cup Legends Tournament: for players 60 and above. Players start out in a preliminary tournament, but honorary titleholders and the top four players in the Women Legends (see below) are seeded into the main tournament, which is a standard knockout. In the 1st term, 17 players are in the main tournament. First prize is 5,000,000 yen.
The Teikei Cup Women Legends Tournament: for players 45 and older. First prize is 2,000,000 yen. Actually the 1st term of this tournament has already been completed. Thirteen players took part in a knock-out tournament, with three of the players being seeded into the second round. In the semifinals, Aoki Kikuyo 8P (B) beat Hosaka Mayu 3-dan by 4.5 points (played on November 25) and Kato Tomoko 6P (W) beat Tsukuda Akiko 6P by resig. (December 2). In the final, held in the Ryusei Studio in the basement of the Nihon Ki-in on December 11, Aoki (W) beat Kato Tomoko by 4.5 points. All four of these players are seeded into the Legends Tournament.
Ueno wins Young Carp
The main tournament of the 16th Hiroshima Aluminum Cup Young Carp Tournament was held at the Hotel MyStays Hiroshima on November 20 and 21. In the final, Ueno Asami (B) beat Nishi Kengo 5P by resignation. Last year this tournament was won by Fujisawa Rina; this year it was the turn of her main rival in women’s go, Ueno. She didn’t get an easy draw, either; her defeated opponents, in order, were Otani Naoki 4P, Koike Yoshihiro 6P, recognized as one of the top young players, and Mutsuura Yuta 7P, who has played in the Meijin league. First prize is 3,000,000 yen (about $26,360).
Ida sets record in Crown title
Ida Atsushi 8P
This is a title open only to players at the Central Japan (Nagoya) branch of the Nihon Ki-in, who number about 50. The final of the 62nd Crown title was held in the Hodaka Hotel in Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, on November 30. Taking black, Ida Atsushi 8P, the titleholder, beat the challenger Otake Yu 5P by resignation. Ida surprised his opponent by unveiling a new move in a large-scale corner fight in the opening; he said later that it was a move that AI doesn’t give and which he discovered for himself. It turns a seki into a winning capturing race for Black. Otake found a way to live but at the cost of having other stones come under severe pressure. After this opening, AI assessed Black’s winning chances at 90%. Ida’s own assessment was that he gained about five points. He has now held this title for six years in a row, which is a new record. First prize is 1,700,000 yen (just under $15,000).
Tomorrow: Choi wins 4th Go Seigen Cup; China wins Agon Kiriyama Cup play-off; Shibano wins Ryusei; Suzuki to challenge for Women’s Kisei; Kuksu Mountains World Championship
