Japan

British Go Journal No. 62. July 1984. Page 12.

Professional Tournaments

In this year's Honinbo Tournament Rin Kai Ho faces the challenge of Awaji Shuzo 8 dan. When we last heard, Awaji was losing 2-1. Until three years ago he was an ordinary 7 dan pro in his thirties - guaranteed a comfortable living, but never likely to reach the top. He decided that this was not enough, and embarked on a programme of study designed to make him the best player in the world. So far he has done pretty well.

Last year he challenged Kataoka for the Tengen title, and Otake for the Gosei. Both challenges were unsuccessful, but he keeps trying. Bookies, however, are not impressed by his chances against Rin.

Judan: Kobayashi Koichi has beaten Kato 3-2 in the final. Kobayashi - another product of the prodigiously successful school of Kitani Minoru disciples (which includes Ishida, Kato and Takemiya) - has come very close to winning many titles recently. The latest results we have show him leading this year's Meijin league with 4 wins and 1 loss, but his only other major tournament win was the second Tengen in 1977.

Even Professionals Make Mistakes

As reported in the last journal, Cho Chikun has retained his Kisei title against Rin Kai-ho. However the result might well have been different had not Rin thrown away a won position in the first game. Rin actually overlooked a chance to kill a large group of Cho's. Then later in the game an even larger group of Rin's was surrounded and killed by Cho.

Rin's mistake seemed to haunt him in the 2nd and 3rd games in which he was outplayed. He then rallied to win the next two games, but could not repeat his feat in the Honinbo match of pulling back to win from 3-0 down. The psychologically important first game is at the end of this article.

Japan - Western Players

Over the last few years several westerners have made their homes in Japan. Among those still trying to make the grade as professionals are:

Marc Gooskens - a Dutch shodan when he arrived in Japan a year or so ago, Marc is now around 6 dan, and hopes to become a professional within two more years.

Rob van Zeijst - the 1981 European champion, Rob is currently about half way up the second division of the Insei league in Tokyo divisions are of 14 players, the top 4 or so get promoted to professional each year from the first division).

Michael Redmond is doing well as a 3 dan professional, and expects to reach 4 dan this year. He intends spending his life in Tokyo and reaching the top.

The psychologically important first game

Black: Cho Chikun
White: Rin Kai Ho
The game-file in SGF format.

Figure 1 (1-100) 62 ko at 54, 65 ko at 59, 68 ko, 71 ko, 74 ko, 78 at 66, 81 ko, 84 ko, 87 ko, 92 ko.

• Cho thought for 55 minutes over Black 7.
  The result of this joseki was to provoke a furious fight in the bottom left corner which was to spread throughout the board and last until the byo-yomi.
• Black 43: The sealed move on the first day. Cho avoids the severest continuation at A.

Figure 2 (101-200) 106 ko at (54), 109 ko at 101 (59), 112 ko, 115 ko, 118 ko, 121 ko.

• White 138: Rin's blunder. According to the commentator, Takemiya, white could have captured Black's group by playing at B.

Figure 3 (201-237)

White resigns after 237.