January 1997

The first event of the year on the Japanese go calendar is a collegiate event: the three-way Asian University Go Championship. This year it was held in Ichon, a Korean town southeast of Seoul, known for pottery-making. Academically, the three competing schools were among the best in their countries. Korea was represented by a team from Seoul National University, China by a co-educational team from Fudan University in Shanghai, and Japan by a team from Waseda University in Tokyo, led by former insei and current Student Honinbo Sakamoto Shusaku.

For the Waseda team, the trip to Ichon began last spring. On May 4 Waseda won the spring Kanto league tournament, a round-robin among teams from universities in Tokyo and the surrounding area. In the fall Waseda finished second to the Tokyo Institute of Technology, but they struck back on November 3 to win the play-off 3-2, thanks to a half- point victory by Waseda's Seki Hyoma in the deciding game. That put Waseda into the nationals.

Japan's national university championship is a four-day, eight- team round-robin affair that tests the participants' stamina as well as their playing skills. Waseda emerged with flying colors, beating all opponents to finish with a perfect 7-0 score. This time it was Sakamoto who notched the key victory, a half-pointer in Waseda's 3-2 win over Hokkaido University on December 27.

So after the new-year holidays, the Waseda team found itself in Ichon. On the line was Japan's unbeaten past record of five straight wins since the Asian championship began in 1992. Drawing a bye in the first round, Waseda watched the Fudan team defeat Seoul University 4-1 in the morning of January 6, then took on Seoul themselves in the afternoon. At one point it looked as if Seoul was going to win 4-1, but Waseda rallied to pull out two lost games and prevailed, 3-2.

In the deciding match on January 7, Seki Hyoma got Waseda off to a good start by quickly defeating Fudan co-ed Ye Jinjin, but then Japan's luck ran out. Wu Qi, Zhang Qi, Han Xun, and Yao Hongfei pounded the rest of the Waseda team unmercifully, winning two games by resignation, a third by 18 1/2 points, and a fourth game by 21 1/2, to capture the match 4-1 and make Fudan Asia's new collegiate champs.

Fudan University owns a prominent place in modern Chinese history, and was a focal point of resistance to Japanese incursions earlier in this century. Perhaps it was inevitable that Fudan would end Japan's reign on the collegiate go board. Now that Japan's last bastion has fallen, Japanese players can look forward to tough competition from Chinese and Korean opponents at every level of the game.

Other items:

Ricoh Cup (professional pair-go championship, Jan. 18, Honolulu)

     Championship game: Chinen Kaori and Yuki Satoshi defeated 
                        Tsukuda Akiko and Otake Hideo by 3 1/2 points

Kisei title match: Cho Chikun leads Kobayashi Satoru 2-0

     Game 1 (January 15-16, Ko Olina Resort) Cho won by resignation
     Game 2 (January 29-30, Takayama)        Cho won by resignation

Women's Meijin title: Ogawa Tomoko will challenge Nishida Terumi.

     First game: February 26

Tongyang Cup

1st round (January 7, Seoul)


     Kato Masao (Japan)       beat  Seo Bongsoo (Korea)
     Kobayashi Koichi (Japan) beat  Choi Myunghoon (Korea)
     O Rissei (Japan)         beat  Yoo Changhyuk (Korea)
     Wang Lei (China)         beat  Kang Hun (Korea)
     Chang Hao (China)        beat  Seo Nungwook  (Korea)
     Cao Dayuan (China)       beat  Jang Sooyoung (Korea)
     Ryu Shikun (Japan)       beat  Kim Soojang (Korea)
     Kim Younghwan (Korea)    beat  Chou Chun-hsun (Chinese Taipei)

Second round (January 9, Seoul)


     Lee Changho (Korea)      beat  Kato Masao (Japan)
     Ma Xiaochun (China)      beat  Kobayashi Koichi (Japan)
     Cho Hunhyun (Korea)      beat  O Rissei (Japan)
     Wang Lei (China)         beat  Takemiya Masaki (Japan)
     Cho Chikun (Korea)       beat  Chang Hao (China)
     Kobayashi Satoru (Japan) beat  Cao Dayuan (China)
     Ryu Shikun (Japan)       beat  Nie Weiping (China)
     Kim Younghwan (Korea)    beat  Liu Xiaoguang (China)

Pairings for the next round (February 13, Seoul)


     Lee Changhao vs. Ma Xiaochun
     Cho Hunhyun  vs. Wang Lei
     Cho Chikun   vs. Kobayashi Satoru
     Ryu Shikun   vs. Kim Younghwan