November 1994

Yoshida Mika prevailed over her shodan challenger Tsukuda Akiko, by 5 1/2 points on November 6 and a narrow half-point on November 16, to remain Women's Honinbo. That keeps at least one professional title in the possession of the Kansai Kiin.

Yamashiro Hiroshi beat Ogata Masaki by a point and a half on November 10 to claim his ninth Okan title. He now holds the record for most victories in this event, which is confined to players belonging to the Nagoya branch of the Nihon Kiin. Yamashiro specializes in winning the Okan, since it is the only title that he has gained so far in his career, but he has also challenged for some of the biggest titles in Japan, and is hot in contention right now for a world title as well.

Four days after winning the Okan, Yamashiro Hiroshi beat Yoo Changhyuk, one of Korea's best, in the quarter-final round of the Tongyang Securities Cup in Seoul. The semi-finals, scheduled for next March, will match Yamashiro and the current Tongyang title-holder, Cho Hunhyun, against two Chinese opponents, Nie Weiping and Ma Xiaochun. Full results of the first three rounds are given below (with apologies for doubtful spelling of Korean names).

     Round 1 (October 16) 
	Lee Changho (Korea)        beat  Zhang Wendong (China)
	Jang Suyong (Korea)        beat  Takemiya Masaki (Japan)
	Yamashiro Hiroshi (Japan)  beat  Seo Bongsoo (Korea)
	Chen Yung-an (Taipei)      beat  Yang Keon (Korea)
	Yoon Hyeonseok (Korea)     beat  Kataoka Satoshi (Japan)
	Kim Dongyeop (Korea)       beat  Komatsu Hideki (Japan)
	Qian Yuping (China)        beat  Alexei Lazarev (Europe)
	Otake Hideo (Japan)        beat  Yang Hui (China)
     Round 2 (October 18) 
	Nie Weiping (China)        beat  Lee Changho (Korea)
	Yoda Norimoto (Japan)      beat  Jang Suyong (Korea)
	Yamashiro Hiroshi (Japan)  beat  Cho Chikun (Korea)
	Yoo Changhyuk (Korea)      beat  Chen Yung-an (Taipei)
	Ma Xiaochun (China)        beat  Yoon Hyeonseok (Korea)
	O Rissei (Taipei)          beat  Kim Dongyeop (Korea)
	Qian Yuping (China)        beat  Jimmy Cha (USA)
	Cho Hunhyun (Korea)        beat  Otake Hideo (Japan)
     Round 3 (November 14) 
	Nie Weiping (China)        beat  Yoda Norimoto (Japan)
	Yamashiro Hiroshi (Japan)  beat  Yoo Changhyuk (Korea)
	Ma Xiaochun (China)        beat  O Rissei (Taipei)
	Cho Hunhyun (Korea)        beat  Qian Yuping (China)

Aoki Kikuyo has taken the Women's Kakusei title for the third time. She defeated Kusunoki Teruko by a point and a half on November 19. The game was played in Tokyo's domed baseball stadium as part of a weekend festival celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Nihon Kiin.

On the next weekend, the fifth international amateur pair-go championship was held in Tokyo. The winners were a Japanese pair, Sakai Hideyuki and Umezawa Yukari, who beat the Korean pair in the final game.

After four Oza games, Kato Masao and Cho Chikun are tied 2-2. The showdown will come on December 8.

The Tengen match is also tied, at 1-1. Challenger Ryu Shikun took the opener, but Rin Kaiho came back to win the second game.

The next Kisei challenger will be named Kobayashi, but it could be either Koichi or Satoru. The two Kobayashi's are tied 1-1 in the best-of-three play-off that caps the elaborate challenger-determining process. The deciding game will be played on December 1.

In the computer go championship held this month in Taipei, Ken Chen's Go Intellect, David Fotland's Many Faces of Go, and Cheng Zhixing's Handtalk took top honors, each finishing with only one loss. Tie-break points put Go Intellect first, Many Faces second, and Handtalk third.