Posts Tagged ‘cho chikun’
Kisei Title: the final game
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
The first day of game 7 of the Kisei title has ended. This is the last game of the series because the Kisei title follows a “best of seven” system, and the score so far is 3-3.
The following diagram shows the position at the end of day 1. The last move was Yamashita’s (White) 44. Cho will likely play the sealed move as a jump to the left of his stones in the center, putting pressure on the White group in the center-left.
Kisei title goes all the way to the 7th game
Friday, March 14th, 2008
Cho Chikun won game 6 of Kisei by 4.5 points and evened the score to 3-3 (after being led 3-1 earlier).
Kisei Title, game 6, day 1
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
Yamashita leads 3 to 2 after the first 5 games: one more win and he can keep the Kisei title one more year, while Cho needs 2 consecutive wins to capture the title.
After day 1 in game 6 I like Yamashita’s (Black) position more: after the first 47 moves or so White had to invade Black’s deep moyo and felt under attack, so Black built a lot of thickness in the center. And the attack is not over yet.
Judan Title: Takao Shinji – Cho Chikun 1-0
Thursday, March 6th, 2008
The challenger in the Judan Title, Takao Shinji (who is also the Honinbo Title holder) won the first game against Cho Chikun (who is also playing the Kisei Title match) by resignation.
Here is the beginning of the game (Takao played Black):
Here’s a nice photo montage from the Nihon Ki-in site:
Kisei Title: Cho closes the gap
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Kisei game 5 ended with Cho’s 3.5 points victory.
Kisei Title, game 5, day 1
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
Game 5 of the Kisei title started today: Cho (Black) played the last move of day one (49, in the upper-right corner) before Yamashita sealed his next move.
While Cho cannot afford to lose any other game, Yamashita has a comfortable 3-1 lead so he only needs to win one of the next 3 games (including this one) in order to win this match and keep the title.
Kisei Title – can Cho recover from 1-3?
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
The next Kisei Title game between Yamashita Keigo and Cho Chikun will be today. Yamashita leads Cho 3-1, which means that one more win will assure Yamashita of keeping his title again this year.
Will Cho be able to make a recovery from this uncomfortable score?
The Nihon Ki-in website published a table with the history of best-of-seven titles where one of the players recovered from 1-3 (or even from 0-3) to win the title.
Out of 10 such cases, Cho recovered 3 times from 0-3 to win the title: against Fujisawa Shuko in Kisei, 1983, against Otake Hideo in Meijin, 1984, and against Kobayashi Koichi in Honinbo, 1992. Cho also came back once from 1-3 to win the Honinbo title in 1990, also against Kobayashi Koichi.
Cho was also on the the other side of “miraculous comebacks” once: he led 3-0 against Rin Kaiho in Honinbo 1983 before losing the title 3-4.
Yamashita just one win away from defending Kisei Title
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
Yamashita Keigo leads Cho Chikun 3-1 in the Kisei Title match.
Yamashita won game 4 in which Cho seemed to have had a comfortable position for the first 160 moves or so.
White’s slack play a little bit earlier allowed Black to play a beautiful double purpose move with 165 (the circle marked Black stone in the lower right) which threatens White’s positions on both lower and right sides. In the game Cho defended his right hand side group and Yamashita laid wasted on White’s lower side territory. The diagram shows what happens if White defends the lower side instead: his right side group dies.
Kisei game 4 started today
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
Kisei game 4 started today, it will conclude tomorrow.
This is an important game: at 2-1 for Yamashita, one more win will bring him just one step away from defending his title against Cho.
Here is the situation so far (click on the board image to download the game record). It is amazing how quickly the position turned into a non-standard variation in the lower-left corner.
On a related note, Cho Hye Yeon 7p of Korea was wondering what did Cho Chikun think about during day one of game 3 (when only 25 moves were played). Read her wonderful “Only a matter of TIME” article – it is very interesting and informative with respect to (decreasing) time limits in professional tournaments.
Takao Shinji (Honinbo) is Judan challenger
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
Takao Shinji (on the right hand side in the photo) defeated Cho U in the playoff for becoming Judan challenger. (link to the game)
