October 1993

What looked like becoming an interesting Meijin match turned into a rout -- Kobayashi Koichi won the fourth and fifth games by resignation to take the series 4-1 and earn his seventh Meijin title (1985, and 1988 to 1993). All the games were close fights, but Kobayashi's confident, hard- hitting style proved too much for Otake Hideo, who continually lamented his inability to make things go according to plan. Otake has now lost eight Meijin title matches in his career, and won four.

With the Meijin match over and Kobayashi Koichi apparently in top form, attention shifts to his next title match, which will be the Kisei in January. As of the end of October, the race for the challenger's spot had been narrowed to three familiar names: Kato Masao, Otake Hideo, and Cho Chikun.

In the meantime, the Oza title match is on. Defender Fujisawa Shuko played the first two games well but lost both on blunders. His mistake in the first game was to prevent two live groups from linking up on the first line. His mistake in the second game was to allow such a link-up. Challenger Kato Masao is now just one win away from regaining the Oza title he lost in 1990.

The lightning tournament sponsored by TV Tokyo wound up in a final between Kataoka Satoshi and Yoda Norimoto. Yoda may have been the favorite, for he has been coming on strong in lightning go this year, but it was Kataoka's patient opening and middle game, followed by his usual sharp endgame, that carried the day by 2 1/2 points. This gives Kataoka a good send-off into the Tengen title match, in which he challenges Rin Kaiho next month.

China's top ten amateurs were in Tokyo on October 10-11 for games against two top-caliber Japanese amateur teams. World champion Sun Yiguo starred for China: he sneaked past three-time former world champion Imamura Fumiaki by half a point on the 10th, and forced Nakazono Seizo, number one among Japan's current Best Ten, to resign in only 100 moves on the 11th. The team victory went to Japan, however, by a 6-4 score on both days. This event has now been held four times, with Japan winning twice, losing once, and drawing once. Plans are afoot to enlarge it into a five-way team tournament involving China, Japan, Taiwan, and North and South Korea by the turn of the century.