November 1991

The China-Japan Super-Go series continued its seesaw course on October 31 and November 2 in Dalian, China. Awaji Shuzo put Japan briefly in the lead by beating Chen Linxin in the ninth game, but Yu Bin restored the balance by getting Awaji into trouble with a risky, offbeat joseki in game ten. Each side now has five wins.

Twenty-one Japanese pairs and eleven pairs from overseas gathered at the Edmont Hotel in Tokyo November 24 for five rounds of knockout competition in the Second International Amateur Pair Go Championship. The Chinese pair of Xie Yuguo and Zhang Chenghua took first place and won a trip to Hawaii. Last year's winning pair of Komori Shoji and Minatogawa Sachiko (Japan) finished second. The pairs from Taipei and Hong Kong also placed in the best ten, the French pair (Pierre Aroutcheff and Dominique Naddef) distinguished themselves by knocking out the Korean pair in the first round, and the Dutch pair (Rob Kok and Loes Bieckmann) won a best-dressed prize. Other prizes were given out by the barrelful (prizes for a parallel handicap tournament, retracted-move prizes, lost-on-time prizes, I-love-Japan prizes, you name it--they had it), making this probably the most lavish one-day shindig in the history of the game.

On the Japanese professional circuit, Rin Kaiho chalked up another victory over Kato Masao in the Tengen match, putting him just one win away from a third straight Tengen title.

Following that game, Rin and Kato headed for Seoul along with Takemiya Masaki, Yoda Norimoto, and Komatsu Hideki to play in yet another international pro tournament, this one sponsored by Korean SBS television. Similar to the China-Japan Super-Go series, the tournament pits five-man teams from China, Japan, and Korea against each other in lightning games. The winner of each game goes on to play an opponent from the third country. The loser drops out, his place taken by the next member of his team. Rin and Kato will have to fight hard because Komatsu, Yoda, and Takemiya all lost their first games.

After two games Nakazawa Ayako and Kobayashi Chizu are tied 1-1 in the Women's Honinbo match. The deciding third game will be played December 2.

Continuing her winning ways, Aoki Kikuyo beat Ogawa Tomoko to earn the right to challenge for the Women's Meijin title she lost to Sugiuchi Kazuko last February.

The elaborate process by which the challenger for the Kisei title is chosen came down to a three-game play-off between Cho Chikun and Yamashiro Hiroshi. They split the first two games. The challenger will be known on December 5.

A conference on Computer Go sponsored by the Institute for New Generation Computer Technology (ICOT, Japan's so-called fifth-generation computer project) naturally included a tournament, which was won by Mark Boon's Goliath program. This came only a week after Goliath's triumph in the World Computer Go Championship sponsored by Ing Chang-ki, which was held in Singapore. Ken Chen's Intellect finished second in both tournaments. Mark rates Goliath at about 8 or 9 kyu.