American Go E-Journal

by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal

Fujisawa Rina wins Women’s Honinbo: The fourth game of the 35th Women’s Honinbo title match was held at the Nihon Ki-in headquarters in Tokyo on October 24. Playing black, Fujisawa defeated the titleholder Xie Yimin by resignation after 147 moves. Fujisawa played positively from the opening on and held on to the initiative, but it was not clear to the spectators how she could wrap up a win. The game ended early when Fujisawa found a deadly technique for killing a corner white group. The players following the game in the anteroom had expected a ko, but Xie’s teacher, Ko Mosei 9P, suddenly exclaimed: “It’s unconditional [death]!” He added: “[If this happens,] it’d be beautiful.” Sure enough, that was how Rina played. Though his disciple lost the game, Ko seemed happy at Fujisawa’s fine play. After losing the first game, Fujisawa won three in a row to regain the title she first won two years ago. At present, she seems to be Xie’s only real rival. This victory perhaps made up for her bitter experience last year, when she won the first two games but lost the next three to Xie. Xie may have lost this title, but she still has four women’s titles to her name. (Note: in Taiwan, her name is Romanized as Hsieh I-min.)

Takao wins Meijin title, breaks Iyama’s monopoly: After starting with three straight losses, Iyama Yuta had clawed his way back into contention with wins in the fourth and fifth games in the 41st Meijin best-of-seven. In view of his bad record in the past against Iyama, Takao Shinji probably found this an ominous development. The sixth game was played at the Imaiso, a traditional inn in the town of Kawazu, Kamo County, Shizuoka Prefecture on October 26 and 27. Takao turned 40 on the first day of the game, but he didn’t get a birthday present from Iyama. Taking black, Iyama dominated the game and forced a resignation after 185 moves. Takao is known for his fondness for thickness, but in this game centre thickness built by Iyama played a part in his win. Takao was also handicapped by an oversight he made near the end of the game, so he resigned early. Finally, Iyama had drawn even in the title match.
The statistics were now slightly in his favor. This pattern of one player winning the first three games and the other the next three had come up in Japanese go ten times previously, and the player staging the recovery had won the seventh game six times. On the other hand, in the most recent five cases, the player who won the initial three games made a comeback and took the seventh four times. Go reporters like these kinds of statistics, but probably the players themselves don’t pay much attention to them.
The seventh game was played at the Tokiwa Hotel in Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture on November 2 and 3. The nigiri was held again, and Iyama drew black. As usual, Takao built thickness on the first day, then on the second day developed it into a vast moyo based on the top left. Next, he succeeded in reducing Black’s moyo and took the lead. He then parried Iyama’s attempts to catch up by playing thickly and maintained a small lead until the end. White won by 2.5 points after 251 moves.
Takao made a comeback as Meijin after a gap of nine years; he had won the title just once, in the 31st term, and at the same time held the Honinbo title. This success was all the more welcome for Takao because he lost two Meijin challenges to Iyama 0-4. He has now won 15 titles.

Iyama lost his septuple crown after holding it for a little over half a year — 197 days, to be exact; he lost his monopoly of the top three titles, the Kisei, Meijin, and Honinbo, after 1113 days — he won ten successive top-three title matches. He held the Meijin title for three years in a row and earlier held it for two terms; he needs another five wins to qualify for an honorary Meijin title.
The three vacant seats in the new Meijin league have been decided. On November 3, playing black, Sakai Hideyuki beat Uchida Shuhei 7P, who had dropped out of the 41st league, by half a point. Sakai returns to the league after a gap of three years. On November 7, Hane Naoki 9P (W) beat Ichiriki Ryo 7P by 1.5 points. Hane regained his place immediately after dropping out of the previous league. On November 10, Yo Seiki 7P (W) beat Hirata Tomoya 7P by half a point.
Yo will make his debut in the league. Hirata played in the previous league, but just missed out on regaining his place. He played an adventurous opening, with his first move on the 15-5 point and his third move on the 9-5 point, but Yo kept his nerve. The Kansai Ki-in has three players in the upcoming league: Murakawa Daisuke, Sakai, and Yo. The first round will be played in December.

Second of four reports. Tomorrow: Cho U doing well in Kisei knock-out; Women’s Meijin League; Kobayashi Satoru wins 1,100 games

by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal

72nd Honinbo League: The first round in the new league was completed on October 20 when Hane Naoki 9P (W) beat Takao Shinji 9P by resignation. Two games in the league were held on November 3. Ko Iso (W) beat Yamashita Keigo 9P by resig., and Cho U (B) beat Mitani Tetsuya 7P by resig. On 2-0, Cho holds the provisional lead, but Motoki Katsuya 7P and Hane Naoki 9P, who are on 1-0, could catch up.

Ichiriki evens score in Tengen: Autumn is a season that called on all of Iyama Yuta’s power of endurance, as he was being attacked on three sides. In the Meijin title match, he had his back to the wall. Most of Iyama’s title matches have been played with older players like Takao, who was 39 (at the start of the Meijin title match) to Iyama’s 27. However, the other two title matches are both against younger players, the 21-year-old Yo Seiki in the Oza and the 19-year-old Ichiriki Ryo in this match. The younger generation is gradually making its presence felt, so Iyama v. his juniors will surely soon become the main pattern in title matches. Already for a few years Ichiriki has been viewed as the top teenager in Japan
and recently his promise has been converted into concrete results (see my report on his winning the Ryusei). This title match would be his biggest test so far.
The first game of the 42nd Tengen title match was played at the Kashikojima Hojoen inn in Shima City in Mie Prefecture on October 21. The challenger drew white, and the game became a contest between Ichiriki’s attack and Iyama’s survival skills. In the middle game, Iyama landed a fierce counterpunch, backed up by deep reading, and at one stroke secured the lead. Ichiriki resigned after Black 139.
This was Iyama’s fourth successive win over the three title matches he was engaged in. He seemed to have recovered from his slump in the first half of the Meijin title match.
The second game was played at the Otaru Asari Classe Hotel on November 11, with Ichiriki playing black. The game was fiercely competitive, starting with a ko fight in the opening. Iyama made a miscalculation late in the middle game and resigned after 205 moves. Ichiriki evened the score and showed he posed a threat to Iyama’s sextuple crown.

Iyama increases lead in Oza: The result of the first game of the 64th Oza title match was given in my previous report, but I have some more details below. Challenging the 27-year-old Iyama was the 21-year-old Yo Seiki (Yu Zhengqi in Pinyin), the top player of his age group (low 20s) not only at the Kansai Ki-in but in Japan as a whole. Yo, who had black, acquitted himself very well, and the lead seesawed back and forth during some fierce fighting. After the macro endgame, the spectators all thought that Yo had the lead, but Iyama unleashed a devilish move that made the game tilt in his favor. He picked up a win by 1.5 points after 283 moves. The time allowance is three hours per player: both players were down to their last minute of byo-yomi (to which the last five minutes are allocated). Yu was satisfied that he had been able to go toe to toe with Iyama, but he will have to win games like this if he wants to take a title.
The second game was played at the Naka-no-bo Zuien inn, on November 7. Taking black, Iyama forced a resignation after 169 moves. Once again, Yo played well, and Iyama commented that he was quite worried in the middle game. In an interview after the game, he said: “With correct play by White, I might have collapsed.” The third game will be played on the 18th of this month.

First of four reports. Tomorrow: Fujisawa Rina wins Women’s Honinbo; Takao wins Meijin title, breaks Iyama’s monopoly