December 1993

The 8th China-Japan Supergo series ended in Shanghai and was won by Japan. Nie Weiping kept China's hopes alive by defeating Komatsu Hideki on December 6, but bowed to Yoda Norimoto two days later. Both players thought they had won by half a point, but Nie had miscounted. Yoda thereby finished the job he began in 1988, when he bowled over six Chinese opponents in a row in the 4th Supergo. Although he was then beaten by Nie, his feat led to Japan's first Supergo victory. Now Yoda and Japan have evened the score at four Supergos apiece.

A week after the Supergo, Shanghai hosted the annual Mingren-Meijin match, which pitted the recognized top players of China and Japan, Ma Xiaochun and Kobayashi Koichi, against each other for the fifth straight year. The local crowd must have been optimistic when Ma dominated and won the first game, but Kobayashi rallied to victory in the next two games to capture the series 2-1. After a string of reverses in international go, Japan ends the year on a strong note.

Having defended the honor of the Japanese Meijin title, Kobayashi Koichi's next task will be to defend his Kisei title against the onslaught of Cho Chikun. Cho beat Kato Masao twice after losing once to win the challenger's spot.

The first six games of the Jinro-SBS Cup, a Korean-sponsored team-of-five event, were played December 7 to 13 in Seoul. Yamashiro Hiroshi got Japan off to a good start by winning the opener, but then Seo Bongsoo of Korea went on a four-game winning rampage, which was finally stopped by Yoda Norimoto. The tournament continues next month in Beijing, where Yoda will face either Ma Xiaochun or Nie Weiping in his next game. Which of these two he will play will not be officially known until 30 minutes before the game starts, because in this tournament the team captains are free to shuffle their line-ups. Results so far:

     Yamashiro Hiroshi (Japan) beat  Cao Dayuan (China)
     Seo Bongsoo (Korea)       beat  Yamashiro Hiroshi (Japan)
     Seo Bongsoo (Korea)       beat  Yu Bin (China)
     Seo Bongsoo (Korea)       beat  Ishida Yoshio (Japan)
     Seo Bongsoo (Korea)       beat  Liu Xiaoguang (China)
     Yoda Norimoto (Japan)     beat  Seo Bongsoo (Korea)

Rin Kaiho defended his Tengen title by besting challenger Kataoka Satoshi in the third and fourth games, bringing an otherwise indifferent year to a good close. Rin also becomes the first player to earn an Honorary Tengen designation, given to those who take the title five years in a row.

The Tokyo C team, led by Ishida Akira, triumphed in this year's Kirin Cup. In the final match they defended their home ground against a team from the Kinki area around Osaka. Heroine of the defense was Nakamura Chikako, a former insei and now a go writer, who came up with enough ko threats to win a cliffhanger after the six men on her team (three pros and three amateurs) had split their games.

But Osaka also had a heroine this month. Yoshida Mika, the young (22) 6-dan pro from the Kansai Kiin, won the first title of her career by beating Kato Tomoko in the Women's Honinbo. Kato took a commanding lead in the middle of the deciding third game, but couldn't quite hold onto it and finds herself ex-Honinbo at the age of 24.

The blossoming of young female talent in Japanese professional go seems to have infected other games as well. While Yoshida Mika was becoming Women's Honinbo, Nakai Hiroe (age 24) was defeating Ikeda Shuichi in the preliminary rounds of the Ryuo (Dragon-King) shogi tournament. This was the 39th game between shogi pros of opposite sexes, and the first ever won by the woman.

The fourth international amateur pair-go tournament, held December 22-23 in Tokyo, was again dominated by Japanese pairs, with Yoshida Akira and Baba Tomoyumi taking first place. Although this tournament is conducted in a party atmosphere, the standard of play has become quite high, and overseas pairs found the competition stiff. Only the Chinese duo lasted as far as the quarter-finals (they took fifth place). The sponsors are hoping that go will replace contract bridge as the world's premier intellectual game for mixed pairs. In Japan, that may already have happened.