April 1995

Overcoming what he termed an "Otake complex," Yoda Norimoto has captured the Judan title. To put pressure on himself, Yoda declared that the only way to beat Otake Hideo would be to do it in three straight games, and that's exactly what he did, winning the first two by resignation in March and the third by half a point on April 6. Yoda becomes the second member of the under-thirty generation to gain a major title in recent months, following Ryu Shikun's Tengen triumph in December.

Under-thirty players were also active in the Honinbo League this year, but in the end it was veteran Kato Masao who won out. Kato beat Yo Kagen (now twenty-five) in his last regular league game, then bested Yuki Satoshi (twenty-three) in a play-off. Kato will start playing Cho Chikun for the Honinbo title on May 10 and 11 in Seoul, Korea. The final league standings were: 1-Kato, 2-Yuki, 3-O Rissei, 4-Yo, 5-Kataoka, 6-Yamashiro, 7-Kobayashi Koichi, 8-Komatsu.

Japan is making a fair bid to regain the Fujitsu Cup. The survivors after the first two rounds include the Japanese Kisei, Meijin, Honinbo, and Gosei, arguably the strongest Japanese quartet you could ask for. After winning the last two cups, Korea saw three of its leading hopefuls eliminated by men named Kobayashi, leaving only 1993 champion Yoo Changhyuk to uphold Korea's cause. China again bucked the odds by entering its three strongest players in the first round and saving the other two for the second round. This strategy succeeded in placing three Chinese players in the quarter-finals, scheduled for June 3 in Guilin, China. The full results:

----------------- Round 1 (April 1) -------------------------

Ma Xiaochun (China)        beat  Ishii Kunio (Japan)
Lee Changho (Korea)        beat  Chou Chun-hsun (Taipei)
Jang Sooyoung (Korea)      beat  Guo Juan (Europe)
Nie Weiping (China)        beat  Yoda Norimoto (Japan)
Kobayashi Satoru (Japan)   beat  Seo Bongsoo (Korea)
Minsoo Cha (North America) beat  Senfeng Wang (South America)
Komatsu Hideki (Japan)     beat  Yang Jaeho (Korea)
Liu Xiaoguang (China)      beat  Choi Myunghoon (Korea)

----------------- Round 2 (April 3) -------------------------

Rin Kaiho (Japan)          beat  Liu Xiaoguang (China)
Cho Chikun (Japan)         beat  Jang Sooyoung (Korea)
Kobayashi Koichi (Japan)   beat  Lee Changho (Korea)
Ma Xiaochun (China)        beat  Kato Masao (Japan)
Kobayashi Satoru (Japan)   beat  Cho Hunhyun (Korea)
Yoo Changhyuk (Korea)      beat  Nie Weiping (China)
Cao Dayuan (China)         beat  Minsoo Cha (North America)
Yu Bin (China)             beat  Komatsu Hideki (Japan)

          Rin Kaiho		Ma Xiaochun
          Cho Chikun		Yu Bin
          Kobayashi Koichi	Cao Dayuan
          Kobayashi Satoru	Yoo Changhyuk

Japan is also making a determined effort to win the current China-Japan Supergo series. For the first time, the Japanese team includes players of non-Japanese origin: Ryu Shikun (Tengen, born in Korea) and Rin Kaiho (Gosei, China). It also includes Kobayashi Satoru, the new Kisei. The full line-ups are:

                  China               Japan
               Hua Xueming         Kato Tomoko
               Chang Hao           Mimura Tomoyasu
               Yu Bin              Morita Michihiro
               Cao Dayuan          Ryu Shikun
               Liu Xiaoguang       Kobayashi Satoru
               Ma Xiaochun         Rin Kaiho
               Nie Weiping         Otake Hideo

In the first two games, played April 17 and 19 in Beijing, Hua beat Kato, then lost to Mimura. Mimura meets Chang on June 1 in Tokyo.

In amateur competition, a seven-man Korean team was in Tokyo to play two rounds against a picked Japanese team on April 11 and 13. Although the Japanese side included two former world amateur champions, they lost the first round 3-4 and the second round 1-6. A return match will be held in Seoul in October.