September 1991

The 1991 World Baduk Go Championship Tongyang Securities Cup came down to one of those dream match-ups that will probably be talked about for years to come: Lee Changho, the young star of Korean baduk, versus Rin Kaiho, who won the Japanese Meijin and Honinbo (and Judan and Oza) titles before Lee was even born and has been the most consistently successful player of the past quarter century.
Despite the disparity in age (16/49) and rank (5-dan/9-dan), the early indications are that Lee and Rin are closely matched. Rin, playing black, won the first game by half a point. Lee, playing black, won the second by 1 1/2. These two games were played in mid-September in Taipei. The best-of-five series now breaks for a couple of months, which will let Rin get the Meijin match out of the way before meeting Lee for the showdown in Seoul.

In that Meijin match, defender Kobayashi Koichi won the first game, played September 11-12 in Singapore, by 2 1/2. Challenger Rin Kaiho won the second game, played September 25-26 in Japan, by 1 1/2. In this case both games were won by white.

This year's Shinjin-O play-off matched Cho Sonjin 6-dan and Ryu Shikun 4-dan, two 21-year-old Koreans who have opted for careers in Japan. Both study under men active in the International Go Federation: Cho is a pupil of Ando Takeo 6-dan; Ryu is a pupil of Oeda Yusuke 8-dan. Ryu has a karate-like style of play while Cho's style is more judo-like. Ryu's power found its mark in game two, but Cho prevailed in games one and three, so Cho becomes the second of Ando's pupils to win the Shinjin-O title. The first was Yoda Norimoto who won it five times.

China and Japan have split the latest round of the Super series. Zhang Wendong came from behind to pull out a point-and-a-half win over Japan's Kataoka Satoshi, who is no slouch at the endgame himself. Then Zhang almost staged the same type of upset against Japan's next player, Awaji Shuzo, but Awaji hung on and managed to eke out a half-point victory. Overall, the series stands even at four wins apiece.

Takemiya Masaki has won the Asian TV Go Championship for the third straight year, crushing China's Cao Dayuan in an aerial battle in the final game. Nearly half of Cao's stones were dead when he resigned. Takemiya's comment: "I'm always up for international games."

Fujisawa Shuko is about to make his first appearance in a title match since losing the Kisei in 1983. The title: the Oza, held by Hane Yasumasa. Fujisawa won the right to challenge Hane by beating Otake Hideo, Yoda Norimoto, Hashimoto Shoji, and Kataoka Satoshi.
Now 66 years old, Fujisawa has abandoned his former extravagant drinking habits and been following more serious pursuits, including vegetable farming, calligraphy, running a business, and training the rising generation of go players. As for go playing, he admits to having less stamina than before but contends that his game is more brilliant than ever and less blunder-prone. It should be an interesting match.

Kobayashi Chizu will challenge Nakazawa Ayako this year for the women's Honinbo title. The first game is set for November 10 at the Ilikai hotel in Honolulu.

Japan's player in the 14th World Amateur Go Championship next spring will be Kikuchi Yasuro. Kikuchi last played in the WAGC in 1986, taking second place.

What's new in go? Green stones. Suffering from acute eyestrain, Natsuki Shizuko, Japan's noted mystery novelist, was advised by her doctor to spend less time looking at high-contrast objects. Specifically, she was told to take a break from writing and playing go, get outside, and bathe her eyes in the restful color green. Willing to stop writing but not to stop playing go, Natsuki-san had 50 sets of dark- and light-green stones made. She brought one set to the Japanese Literary Meijin tournament, where she had to endure remarks about The Mystery of the Green Stones but was reportedly able to finish a full day of go-playing without eye discomfort.