June 1994

Yoo Changhyuk and Cho Hunhyun, the Koreans who finished one-two in last year's Fujitsu Cup, showed that their feat was no fluke by defeating Kobayashi Koichi and Kato Masao in the quarter-finals this year. They had the home-town advantage, as the games were played in Kyongju, Korea. Next month they'll face Cho Chikun and Rin Kaiho on foreign soil, in Osaka. The full quarter-final results were:

         Yoo Changhyuk (Korea)  beat  Kobayashi Koichi (Japan)
         Cho Chikun (Japan)     beat  Zhang Wendong (China)
         Rin Kaiho (Japan)      beat  Hua Xueming (China)
         Cho Hunhyun (Korea)    beat  Kato Masao (Japan)

Yoda Norimoto, who has become the most feared Japanese player in Korea by consistently beating the young Korean superstar Lee Changho, had less luck against Lee's middle-aged mentor Cho Hunhyun. Returning to Seoul in June to finish playing Cho for the Tongyang Securities Cup, he rallied to take the third game by 4 1/2 points on June 20, but then lost by resignation on June 22, giving Cho the match by a 3-1 score. Cho adds the Tongyang Cup to all the other Korean titles he has bagged in his career, while Yoda is still looking for his first big title win.

The annual Tengen - Tianyuan match has gone, for the third consecutive year, to the Chinese Tianyuan. This time the Tianyuan was Ma Xiaochun, who had vowed to win at least one international match in 1994. He fulfilled his vow by beating Rin Kaiho 2-0, giving China's international go fortunes a much-needed shot in the arm.

Rin Kaiho will attempt to redeem his honor next month when he plays Kobayashi Koichi for the Gosei title. Rin won the Gosei challenger's spot by beating Cho Chikun and Kato Masao.

After losing the first game of the Honinbo title match in May, Cho Chikun went on to take the next three in a row, but challenger Kataoka Satoshi is not giving up without a fight. He won the fifth game at the end of June, bringing the score to 3-2 in Cho's favor.

Kataoka also won another game in the Meijin league, which he now leads with a 5-1 score. Cho, Takemiya Masaki, Rin, and Kato follow at 4-2.

The first stage of the Kisei tournament closed out on the last day of June, with Kobayashi Satoru defeating Hikosaka Naoto to take top honors in the 9-dan section. The complete list of dan champions is:

     9-dan   Kobayashi Satoru
     8-dan   Yuki Satoshi               4-dan   Hane Naoki
     7-dan   Morita Michihiro           3-dan   Takao Shinji
     6-dan   Yamada Kimio               2-dan   Yamashita Keigo
     5-dan   Kenmochi Jo                Shodan  Tahara Yasufumi