August 1994

After letting challenger Kataoka Satoshi pull even in games five and six of the Honinbo match, Cho Chikun won game seven on July 22 to retain his title. In that game the two players stayed neck-and-neck for the first 95 moves, but Kataoka's White 96 was a trifle thin. A few moves later Cho was able to start a ko fight and capture one of White's groups, and that decided the game. Though Cho ran short of time toward the end (as he almost invariably does), he won by 3 1/2 points.

Yamashiro Hiroshi has tied the China-Japan Super-Go Series for Japan. On July 30 he out-dueled China's toughest fighter Liu Xiaoguang to win by 3 1/2, then on August 1 he sweated out a 4 1/2-point victory over Chen Linxin. ("Sweated" is meant literally--the air conditioning broke down, and the weather in Tokyo was hot!) Next Yamashiro will face Cao Dayuan in October, in China.

Cho Hunhyun beat Yoo Changhyuk by resignation on August 6 in Tokyo to win the Fujitsu Cup, while Rin Kaiho defeated Cho Chikun to take third place. "I should have won this cup earlier," Cho said afterward, "because I've been fortunate to have two excellent teachers -- Segoe Kensaku and Fujisawa Shuko." This drew a big ovation from the Japanese spectators, who turned out in large numbers to watch a live commentary on the all-Korean final game. Cho is the first player to have won all three major international professional titles: the Fujitsu Cup, Tongyang Cup, and Ing Cup.

The Gosei title has a new owner -- Rin Kaiho. After losing the opener of the five-game series, Rin reeled off three straight victories, thereby ending a six-year reign by Kobayashi Koichi. "Kobayashi may have been exhausted from the pressure of constant title matches," said Rin, "whereas I was well rested up because I haven't been appearing in any title matches recently." Kobayashi played six multi-game title matches last year and has played three so far this year, losing all three.

Next month, Rin Kaiho will challenge Kobayashi Koichi again for the Meijin title. The Meijin League ended with Cho Chikun, Rin Kaiho, and Kato Masao tied at 6-2. League rules ordain a single play-off between the pair who finished highest the previous year, so Kato (6th) had to stand aside while Rin (5th) beat Cho (2nd) on August 15. The final standings were 1-Rin, 2-Cho, 3-Kato, 4-Kataoka, 5-Takemiya, 6-Awaji, 7-Otake, 8- Yoda, 9-Sato. The Meijin title match starts September 7 in Tokyo.

Two major Japanese amateur tournaments were completed in August, and both were won by university men. First place in the Amateur Best Ten went to Hirata Hironori, the ageless algebraist from the Showa Pharmaceutical College, while the Amateur Honinbo was won by Takano Hideki, the Student Meijin from the University of Osaka.