by John Power, Japan correspondent for the E-Journal
Murakawa takes Judan title: The third game of the 57th Judan title match was held at the Kuroyon Royal Hotel in Omachi City, Nagano Prefecture, on April 11. In the second game (March 29), Murakawa had finally put an end to a losing streak of 13 games against Iyama, but the following week Iyama had reasserted his supremacy with a win in the Meijin League (details in our last report), so this was an important game for Murakawa. Early in the game, Murakawa made an oversight, letting Iyama take the lead in territory. However, Iyama also went wrong, making a forcing exchange based on an oversight. He then played aggressively, but for once his policy of always playing the strongest move backfired. The above-mentioned dubious exchange handicapped him in a large-scale fight that broke out, so he had to resign after 151 moves. This is only the second time Murakawa has taken the lead in a title match with Iyama.
The fourth game was played on April 18. Taking white, Murakawa won by resignation after 226 moves, so he won his first Judan title and his second top-seven title (he won the 62nd Oza title in 2014, beating Iyama 3-2). This game was played at the Kansai headquarters of the Nihon Ki-in in Osaka on March 19. There was an interesting start to the game: Iyama played his first move on the 3-3 point and Murakawa immediately did the same in the opposite corner. That did not lead to a territorial contest, however, as the game was marked by continuous fighting. It featured an unresolved ko fight in the opening, that is, a potential ko that neither side could start until they were sure of their ko threats. Murakawa eventually started it on move 100 and ignored Iyama’s ko threat. After hectic middle-game fighting, the outcome was decided by a much bigger ko fight; it was a big white group at stake, but White had good ko threats, so he also won this fight. Black’s compensation was inadequate, so Iyama resigned. Murakawa had turned his losing streak into a winning streak. “Before when I won a title,” Murakawa said, “I was lazy after that, so this time I’m going to be serious and study to get stronger.” The Judan prize is 7,000,000 yen (about $63,000). It is the last of the top seven open titles. (It used to be ranked fourth when the prize money was 15,000,000 yen. It was reduced as of the 51st term.)
This loss leaves Iyama with “just” four titles: Kisei, Honinbo, Oza, and Tengen. It also puts a third simultaneous grand slam out of reach for some time. Incidentally, this was the last title match of the Heisei era, which yielded to the Reiwa era on May 1.
Ke Jie wins new tournament: The first Japan-China-Korea Ryusei tournament was held in the Ryusei Studio, located in the basement of the Nihon Ki-in, from April 11 to 13. This is where the Go and Shogi Channel, which sponsors the Ryusei tournament, makes many of its go programs. The new tournament is for the holders of the Ryusei titles in the above-mentioned three countries and follows the NHK format (30 seconds per move plus ten minutes thinking time to be used in one-minute units) and is an irregular knock-out. Previously it was the China-Japan Ryusei Play-off, but recently a Korean Ryusei tournament was also founded, so it has become a three-way play-off. The tournament started well for Japan, with Ichiriki Ryo 8P defeating Ke Jie 9P of China, who is one of the world’s top two, but Ke survived the play-off with Kim Jiseok 9P of Korea and took revenge on Ichiriki in the final. The tournament proceeded as follows.
Round 1 (April 11). Ichiriki (W) beat Ke by resig.
Round 2 (April 12). Ke (W) beat Kim Jiseok 9P (Korea) by resig.
Round 3 (April 13). Ke (W) beat Ichiriki by resig.
It’s hard for a knock-out among three players to be fair. The players in the first game get two chances, but the player seeded into the second game gets no second chance if he loses.
Takao wins 1,000 games: Takao Shinji 9P scored his 1,000th win on April 18 when he beat Onishi Kenya 3P in Preliminary A of the 75th Honinbo tournament (Takao had white and won by resig.). He is the 26th player to reach this mark. He has 468 losses, two jigo and one no-contest, for a winning record of 67.9%
Tomorrow: Shin Minjun wins 6th Globis Cup; China starts well in 9th Huanglongshi Cup; Nakamura Sumire makes pro debut; Gosei challenger: Ichiriki or Hane
