Yamashita Defends Oza
Thursday, November 29th, 2007Yamashita successfully defended the Oza title this year, against Imamura Toshiya: he won the 4th game today, so the final score is 3-1.
Archive for November, 2007
Oza Title: 2-1 for Yamashita Kisei
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007Yamashita Keigo, who also ows the most prestigious Japanese Go Title, Kisei, took the lead again in his defense of the Oza title: he leads Imamura Toshiya by 2-1 after today’s win, and he is only one game away from winning this title match.
White (Yamashita) managed a very clean and sharp cut at move 80, in a textbook style. Imamura must have been very sad to see his position split into two groups in such a painful way. It was all due to a very skillful series of three forcing / peeping moves by Yamashita. Check out the game record for details.
Next game is in two days, on November 29th.
Cho Chikun is Kisei challenger
Monday, November 19th, 2007“Old lion still has teeth”: Cho Chikun Judan won the playoff against Cho U to earn the right to challenge Yamashita Keigo for his Kisei title, according to Go Topics.
It will be a very interesting match: Cho Chikun has already defeated Yamashita earlier this year, in his defense of the Judan title.
Let’s see how Yamashita Kisei will defend his title against Cho.
Cho Chikun seems to be the only representative of the old Kitani school which can still win titles nowadays, not giving up to the new generation of players in Japan.
Go, Cho Sensei! 
New Sydney Go Journal issue - and an incredible shodan
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007David Mitchell published a new issue of the always interesting Sydney Go Journal.
And on a different note: I think it’s for the first time in Go history that a recently promoted 1 dan professional reaches the final of an international tournament: Han Sanghoon 1 dan of Korea will meet Lee Sedol 9 dan in the final of the 12th LG Cup.
Read an interview with Han Sanghoon on Alexandre Dinerchtein’s Go News blog.
Cho U Captures Meijin Title by 4:3
Friday, November 9th, 2007Cho U won the 7th game of the Meijin Title and captured the title from Takao Shinji by 4:3.
After leading by 3:1, Cho saw Takao closing the gap and the score became 3:3. According to some statistics I read in Go World a while ago, it is most likely that whoever makes the comeback has the most chances to win the decisive game, but that wasn’t the case this time.
All Even in Meijin Title
Friday, November 2nd, 2007Takao Meijin won the 6th game by 0.5 points, so this year’s Meijin Title will go all the way to the 7th game!
On November 9th is when we’ll find out who will be the next Meijin.
