May 1995

The number of international amateur go tournaments keeps growing. On May 3-7, three-man amateur teams representing cities in China (thirteen teams), Japan (six teams), Hong Kong (three teams), Korea (two teams), Taiwan (one team), and Singapore (one team) met in Hong Kong for the first Hitachi Cup. The winning trio, after eight rounds of Swiss-system competition, was Korean. A Japanese team finished second, while individual honors were won by Liu Jun of Shanghai.

Three-time world amateur champion Imamura Fumiaki continues to monopolize the title of Japan's Strongest Amateur. The challenger this year, Sakai Hideyuki of pair go renown, fared no better than his predecessors in past years, losing to Imamura in two straight games on May 5 and 6. The komi in both games was set by the players at 6 1/2 points, and Black won both times.

On May 13 and 15 there was some international competition at the pro level in Shanghai. Ma Xiaochun, fresh from a defense of his Chinese Tianyuan title, took on Ryu Shikun, who holds the equivalent Japanese Tengen, title. Ma's greater experience weighed in and he dispatched Ryu in two straight games. In Tianyuan-Tengen competition, the Tianyuan has now won every game for the last four years.

A week later Ma was in Seoul to finish playing Nie Weiping for the Tongyang Securities Cup. Notching another two straight wins, Ma took the cup by a 3-1 score to earn his first professional world championship. (He was amateur world champion in 1983.)

The World Amateur Go Championship was held in Tokyo May 23-26 with a record forty-four countries and territories participating, including new entries from Indonesia and Slovakia. For the first three days it was a one-woman show, as Kan Ying of Hong Kong defeated one strong opponent after another, culminating in wins over Park Sung-Kyun of Korea and Hirata Hironori of Japan. On the fourth day, however, Kan suffered consecutive losses to Shi Hongyi of China and Jong-Moon Lee of the United States. Hirata beat Park by half a point in what proved the deciding game in the final round to capture his first world championship in six tries. Shi was second by one SOS point. Final standings:

 1  H. Hirata (Japan)           7-1 | 23 E. Shaw (UK)               4-4
 2  H. Shi (China)              7-1 | 24 K. Mai (Singapore)         4-4
 3  Y. Kan (Hong Kong)          6-2 | 25 L. Matoh (Slovenia)        4-4
 4  S. Park (Korea)             6-2 | 26 K. Chairasmisak (Thailand) 4-4
 5  J. Lee (USA)                6-2 | 27 J. Pons Semelis (Spain)    4-4
 6  W. Wang (Chinese Taipei)    6-2 | 28 I. Zagorodny (Ukraine)     4-4
 7  B. Chi (Australia)          5-3 | 29 S. Koch (Switzerland)      4-4
 8  E. Rittner (Germany)        5-3 | 30 C. Asato (Argentina)       3-5
 9  R. Schlemper (Netherlands)  5-3 | 31 T. Yeo (Malaysia)          3-5
 10 R. Mateescu (Romania)       5-3 | 32 S. Jakubec (Slovakia)      3-5
 11 V. Laatikainen (Finland)    5-3 | 33 L. Willfor (Sweden)        3-5
 12 J. Seailles (France)        5-3 | 34 C. Torres (Mexico)         3-5
 13 R. Saifullin (Russian Fed.) 5-3 | 35 O. Dodinval (Belgium)      3-5
 14 A. Gondor (Hungary)         5-3 | 36 W. Djap (Indonesia)        3-5
 15 S. Hong (Canada)            5-3 | 37 M. Vitari (Italy)          3-5
 16 J. Flood (Norway)           4-4 | 38 K. Karaerkek (Turkey)      3-5
 17 G. Chow (South Africa)      4-4 | 39 S. Flinter (Ireland)       3-5
 17 B. Phease (New Zealand)     4-4 | 40 J. Carrillo (Chile)        2-6
 19 T. Heshe (Denmark)          4-4 | 41 A. Cymbalista (Brazil)     2-6
 20 R. Nechanicky (Czech Rep.)  4-4 | 42 P. Schmit (Luxembourg)     2-6
 21 F. Huttler (Austria)        4-4 | 43 L. Faria (Portugal)        1-7
 22 J. Kraszek (Poland)         4-4 | 44 S. Romero (Venezuela)      0-8

In Japanese professional go, Cho Chikun and Kato Masao are tied at one win apiece in the Honinbo title match. Cho won the first game by 3 1/2 points, but lost the second by resignation after misjudging the lead under time pressure.

Between those Honinbo games, Cho turned in a fifth straight win the Meijin league. Whatever the Honinbo outcome, Cho seems bent on regaining the Meijin title this year.