April 1997

Kato Masao returned to the ranks of the major title-winners by taking the Judan title from Yoda Norimoto on April 17, and he did it in a style that vindicates the way he has been playing for the past twenty hears. In his early days Kato, who is slight of build and quiet and modest in manner, earned the nickname of "koroshiya" (killer). Plotting the murder of large groups of stones is not supposed to be the best way to win at go, but Kato made this strategy work time and time again. Between 1969 and 1975 he won his way into eight title matches. Unfortunately, he lost all eight matches. Kato then abandoned his attack-and-kill style and concentrated on improving his endgame. This shift in strategy paid of handsomely. He captured the Gosei and Judan titles in 1976, added the Honinbo in 1977, and took a career record of over forty assorted titles into his Judan match with Yoda. But Yoda was favored to win the match. Victor in three big title contests last year, Yoda is a rising star in Japanese go. As for Kato, while he annually turns in one of the best won-lost records in the Nihon Kiin, since 1988 he has succeeded in taking only one of the seven major titles. That is the Oza, which he won most recently in 1993. Age was also supposed to give Yoda the advantage over Kato, who turned fifty on March 15. Kato won the first game of the five-game match, but Yoda came back to take the next two, and continued to dominate in the morning and afternoon of the fourth game. When that game adjourned for dinner after a hundred five moves, Kato thought he was about four points behind, and saw little chance of catching up. Yoda was running out of time, however, and after dinner, hoping to win quickly, he made a badly-judged cut. Kato, who had plenty of time left, read out the tesuji that captured the cutting stone, and played on through a nip- and-tuck endgame to a half-point victory. Then Kato bested Yoda in another tight endgame duel to win the fifth game by half a point. To recap the match:

    Game 1 (March 6, Sapporo)   Kato won by 3 1/2
    Game 2 (March 19, Nishiura) Yoda won by 10 1/2
    Game 3 (April 3, Omachi)    Yoda won by resignation
    Game 4 (April 10, Hakone)   Kato won by 1/2
    Game 5 (April 17, Iwamuro)  Kato won by 1/2

To add to his triumph, Kato won the Honinbo league, so Cho Chikun will face a challenger with momentum when the Honinbo title match starts next month. Kato's comment: "I should have lost the Judan match 1-3. I'll have to play better to beat Cho."

For Yoda, there was a certain irony in the defeat. After winning the Samsung Cup in Korea last November, Yoda decided not to compete in the Korean Tongyang Cup, so that he could concentrate on winning the Japanese Kisei title instead. But Yoda failed even to become Kisei challenger. That position was won by Kobayashi Satoru, who also became one of the two Tongyang finalists. Writing in Kido before the Judan match started, Yoda said "I feel as if I've been slapped on the wrist by the God of Go," who has now administered a harder slap by reducing Yoda's rank from Judan (10-dan) to Kudan (9-dan).

Other items:

Honinbo League, final standings:

    (1) Kato Masao
    (2) Ryu Shikun
    (3) Hikosaka Naoto
    (3) Cho Sonjin
    (5) Kataoka Satoshi
    (6) Rin Kaiho
    (7) Yo Kagen
    (8) Komatsu Hideki

Kato challenges Cho Chikun starting May 12-13

Tongyang Securities Cup: Cho Hunhyun defeated Kobayashi Satoru 3-0

     Game 1 (March 31, Seoul)  Cho won by 6 1/2
     Game 2 (April 2, Seoul)   Cho won by resignation
     Game 3 (April 18, Seoul)  Cho won by resignation

Fujitsu Cup,

First round (April 12, Tokyo)

     Zhou Heyang (China)              beat  Choi Myunghoon (Korea)
     Chou Chun-hsun (Chinese Taipei)  beat  Otake Hideo (Japan)
     Seo Bongsoo (Korea)              beat  Rob van Zeijst (Europe)
     Yuki Satoshi (Japan)             beat  Cho Hunhyun (Korea)
     O Meien (Japan)                  beat  Wang Lei (China)
     Yu Bin (China)                   beat  Jimmy Cha (N. America)
     Yoo Changhyuk (Korea)            beat  Senfeng Wang (S. America)
     O Rissei (Japan)                 beat  Yang Jaeho (Korea)

Second round (April 14, Tokyo)

     Zhou Heyang (China)       beat  Lee Changho (Korea)
     Takemiya Masaki (Japan)   beat  Chou Chun-hsun (Chinese Taipei)
     Kobayashi Koichi (Japan)  beat  Seo Bongsoo (Korea)
     Chang Hao (China)         beat  Yuki Satoshi (Japan)
     Ma Xiaochun (China)       beat  O Meien (Japan)
     Rin Kaiho (Japan)         beat  Yu Bin (China)
     Cho Chikun (Japan)        beat  Yoo Changhyuk (Korea)
     O Rissei (Japan)          beat  Liu Xiaoguang (China)

Pairings for the third round (June 7, Beijing, China)

     Takemiya Masaki (Japan)  v. Zhou Heyang (China)
     Kobayashi Koichi (Japan) v. Chang Hao (China)
     Ma Xiaochun (China)      v. Rin Kaiho (Japan)
     Cho Chikun (Japan)       v. O Rissei (Japan)

First results by European-born Nihon Kiin professionals

     Taranu Catalin: lost to Takei Takashi 3-dan (Oteai)
                     beat Tanimiya Ayako 2-dan (Oteai)
                     lost to Ikezaki Tokinori 4-dan (JT Cup)
     Hans Pietsch:   beat Shinkai Hiroko 4-dan (JT Cup)
                     lost to Suzuki Yoshimichi 3-dan (JT Cup)

ERRATA

1. Japan's victory drought in international professional competition, which ended in 1996, began in 1994, rather than 1993 as reported last November. (Otake Hideo won the Asian TV Cup for Japan in 1994.)
2. In March 1996, it was incorrectly reported that two players of the Kansai Kiin had married. Apologies are extended for any embarrassment caused by this mistake.

NOTICE

This concludes this series of postings of go news from Japan. Japanese go news is available on the World Wide Web at: Nihon Ki-in (english) or Kiseido.