Toyota&Denso Cup, China Rulez

The Semi-final of Toyota&Denso Cup has been played. This time, China will 100% get the title,

because both players in the final are Chinese.

Xie He from China was beaten by his country pal, Piao Wenyao

Cho U from Japan, who was runner-up last year, was beaten by Gu Li from China

I'm quite surprised to see Piao Wenyao in the final. Now I think he has a very big chance to win this tournament. He beat Ogata Masaki, Lee Changho, Mok Jinseok, and Xie He. A great achievement.

But his opponent in the final is not easy. Gu Li is a very strong player. He beat Hikosaka Naoto, Park Yeonghun, Cho Hanseung, and Cho U during this tournament.
The best 3 matches will be played to decide who will be the winner

Toyota&Denso Cup, Down To 4

The third round of Toyota & Denso Cup has been played. Only 4 players left in the semi-final.

Xie He (W) from China beat Lee Sedol by 2.5 points

Piao Wenyao (B) from China beat Mok Jinseok by resignation

Cho U (B) from Japan beat Liu Xing from China by resignation

Gu Li (B) from China beat Cho Hanseung from Korea by 2,5 points

I'm quite surprised by Piao Wenyao's victory. I thought Mok Jinseok would won from him.
I actually thought that Lee Sedol would won, but I'm not surprised by Xie He's victory. Xie has a nice score in international tournament.

Cho U's game is the most impressive for me. He killed a group that I thought can't be killed. He is very good at Life & Death!

In the semi-final, Xie He will play against Piao Wenyao and Cho U will play against Gu Li

.It's very hard to predict who will win. Piao Wenyao is very good during this cup, but Xie He is a very good player. Gu Li is one of China's strongest player, but so is Cho U. Cho U is one of Japan's strongest player. Cho U is very good at invading and attacking, while Cho U is very good at Life & Death, especially at killing group. Cho U and Gu Li have met 2 times before, with the score 1-1.

The semi-final will be interesting.

4th Toyota & Denso Cup, Round 2

The second round of Toyota & Denso Cup has been played and the best 8 has been chosen.
Cho U (B) from Japan won against Alexander Dinerchtein from Europe by 23. 5 points (!)

Piao Wenyao (W) from China won against Lee Changho from Korea by resignation

Lee Sedol (B) from Korea won against Imamura Toshiya from Japan by 1.5 points

Liu Xing (B) from China won against Han Sanghoon from Korea by 6.5 points

Gu Li (W) from China beat Park Yeonghun from Korea by resignation

Cho Hanseung (W) from Korea won against Takao Shinji from Japan by resignation

Xie He (B) from China won against Park Chongsang from Korea by 4.5 points

Mok Jinseok (W) from Korea won against Zhou Junxun from Taiwan by resignation

Japan still has Cho U hanging on in the third round. China has 4 players in the third round, while Korea still has 3 players in the third round. Both representative from Europe and Taiwan have been eliminated.

Here is the pairing for the third round:
Xie He vs. Lee Sedol
Cho U vs. Liu Xing
Mok Jinseok vs. Piao Wenyao
Gu Li vs. Cho Hanseung

My prediction for the top 4:
1. Lee Sedol
2. Cho U
3. Mok Jinseok
4. Gu Li

I wonder whether Cho U will be in the final like last year or not. I’ll wait.

4th Toyota&Denso Cup

The first match of 4th Toyota & Denso Cup has been played. There were 16 matches at the first round.

Lee Sedol (W) from Korea won against Kono Rin from Japan by resignation

Imamura Toshiya (W) from Japan won against Christian Pop from Romania by resignation

Mok Jinseok (W) from China won against Hane Naoki from Japan by resignation

Zhou Junxun (B) from Taiwan won against Yoda Norimoto from Japan by 0.5 point

Piao Wenyao (W) from China won against Ogata Masaki from Japan by resignation

Lee Changho (B) from Korea won against Fernando Aguilar from S. America by resignation

Gu Li (B) from China won against Hikosaka Naoto from Japan by resignation

Park Yeonghun (W) from Korea won against Kim Sujun from Japan by 5.5 points

Cho U (W) from Japan won against Jiang Mingjiu from North America by 6.5 points

Alexander Dinerchtein (W) from Europe won against Li Jie from North America by resignation

Takao Shinji (W) from Japan won against Yang Shihai from Hongkong by 1.5 points

Cho Hanseung (W) from Korea won against Yamashita Keigo from Japan by 7.5 points

Xie He (W) from China won against Ilya Shikshin from Europe by resignation

Park Jungsang (B) from Korea won against Chang Hao from China by 4.5 points

Liu Xing (B) from China won against Hong Sungji from Korea by 1.5 points

Han Sanghoon (B) from Korea won against Yamada Kimio from Japan by 1.5 points

China sent 5 players, 4 players made it to the next round. Korea sent 8 players, 7 players made it to the next round. Japan sent 11 players and only 3 players made it to the next round. The only Taiwan player made it to the next round. Europe still has one player in the second round, while all American players have been eliminated.

I think the most interesting game was Alexander Dinerchtein's game.There was a big capturing race in the center and was won by him.

Let's Talk About: Takemiya Masaki

Takemiya Masaki was born in January 1, 1951. He was one of Kitani Minoru’s disciples. He turned to be pro in 1965.

At the age of 15, when he was already 5 dan, he was nicknamed as ”9 dan killer”, because he won several games against top rated players.

Among the go fans, he was very well known with his “Cosmic Style”. A style focusing in taking big moyo, but Takemiya Masaki prefer to call his playing style as “Natural Style”, although you will find so many strange moves in his games.

Actually Takemiya never thing about making big moyo, because it will be too easy to be spoiled, since there are so many players who are good in fighting. For sure, he won’t win so many games if he played that way.

Takemiya style is actually fighting style. His first pro teacher was Tanaka Minaichi. Takemiya was repeatedly told by him “Don’t win by taking territory; win by fighting”. Takemiya always remember that phrase and apply it in his game.

Takemiya Masaki is an intuitive player. He doesn’t try to seek the reason to play in a place, or counting. You can count territories, but you can not count thickness. Playing by intuition, for sure, would make you lose many games, but when you lose, you will reviewing the games, and your intuition will be better and better.

He has 2 books released until now (in English version), Imagination of A Go Master and This Is Go The Natural Way and a book translated into French, Le Go Cosmique.

Takemiya Masaki has won many titles during his journey. They are

• 1976: 31st Honinbo title

• 1978: 11th Hayago Championship

• 1980: 35th Honinbo title • 1981: 1st NEC Cup

• 1985: 40th Honinbo title and 5th NEC Cup

• 1986: 41st Honinbo title • 1987: 42nd Honinbo title

• 1988: 43rd Honinbo title and 1st Fujitsu Cup

Takemiya Masaki (W) vs. Kobayashi Koichi in the 1st Fujitsu Cup Semifinal. W+8.5

• 1989: 2nd Fujitsu Cup, Asian TV Cup, and 22nd Hayago Championship

• 1990: 28th Judan title and Asian TV Cup

• 1991: 29th Judan and 13th Kakusei titles, and Asian TV Cup

• 1992: 30th Judan title and Asian TV Cup

• 1995: 20th Meijin title

Iyama Yuta (W) vs. Takemiya Masaki (B) in the 17th Ryusei Preliminary. B+R

He was invited as the guest at the 2008 US Go Congress. At the congress, he gave the audience “the way to be stronger”. He asked the audience “When you sit down to play a game is your aim to win the game or to become stronger? You probably think you can do both,” he continued, “but these are quite different projects.”

“The problem with trying to win – besides the fact that it makes it hard to enjoy the game – is that you don’t trust your feelings about where to play. When you look over the board there’ll be a place find you want to play, but if you’re concerned about winning, you’re not going to trust your feeling. You’ll think and analyze and nervously play somewhere else. This is a terrible way to play go. You should look at the board and play wherever you want to. This is the way to get stronger. I say this everywhere I go, around the world, but no one believes me. Nevertheless it’s true. Of course, when you do this, you’ll lose a lot of games. So you have to review the games. That way your feelings about the game will get better and you will not only get stronger, you’ll also find that playing go is a lot of fun. And you’ll win more often. This is go the natural way.” Takemiya said.

I agree with what Takemiya said. It is very important to enjoy go. Many people leave go because they feel they are stuck and can not get any stronger. They don’t feel the fun of go. All they think is winning. This is horrible! Instead of winning, enjoying the game is much more important!

I hope you also enjoy your game :)

Kristy Lee Cook's 15 Minutes Of Shame

This year American Idol’s Finalist, Kristy Lee Cook, released a single called 15 Minutes of Shame.

The song is talking about a “sweet revenge” to boy who cheated her and she tells the world about him in the radio and she hope he will enjoy his 15 minutes of shame.

15 Minutes of Shame is one of ten tracks in Kristy Lee’s new album, Why Wait. Until now, three songs have been known in her album. Other than 15 Minutes, the album includes Lee Greenwood’s patriotic and the 1984 top 10, God Bless the USA, which she covered in this album. This song is also one of her performance during the show which was very well praised by the judges. Simon Cowell called this song “The best song choice I ever heard in years.” The third song is Not Tonight, a song written by Brett James (15 Minutes’ producer), Chris Lindsey and co-written by the Grammy winning singer, Carrie Underwood.

The song was peaked at #58 in Country song chart, a week before it was released.Kristy’s album, Why Wait will be released at September 16, 2008.

My single rating: 3.5/5

Hane Naoki, The New Honinbo

After losing the first 3 matches, Hane Naoki, this year Honinbo challenger, won the last 4 matches along with the title with Takao Shinji.

The fifth match (picture right) was played at 07-01.02 atChoshi, Chiba
Hane Naoki took white in this game. Takao Shinji chose to play low Chinese fuseki this time. White 6 is kinda unusual for me. Usually white play oogeima instead of keima.

The game began to heat with black 45. Starting an attack at white’s group.


In my opinion, white’s splitting move at move 78 is the winning move. Black group was splitted into 2 weak groups. The game ended at move 180, where black lost the semeai.

The sixth game was played at 07-16,17 at Izu, Shizuoka

The opening was pretty usual, unless black 27 where black played the stone high. Usually the stone is played low, but the high move is typical to Japanese players.

The game ended after Takao Shinji misread a cut which would kill one of his groups.


The seventh game (picture below) was played at 07-22,23 atMyoko, Nigata
Hane Naoki, as black, took a moyo oriented opening. In my opinion, up to move 29, white’s position at the left is a little overconcentrated.

The game turned out to be semeai, with white chasing black’s group. But black managed to live, so white resigned at move 135

Making A Go Club In My City

Recently I'm working on making a go club in my city, Surabaya with several friends.

I hope this go club would really created. Surabaya go players could play and improve together when the club has done :)

Hope we could really make it soon

Iyama Yuta and Cho U

Recently, there is a rivalry in Japanese go world. It’s between the 5 titles holder (Meijin,Gosei,Agon,Ryusei, and NHK), Cho U (photo at the left) and the new rising star Iyama Yuta (Title holder of Shinjin O and Daiwa Cup Grand Champion).

Iyama Yuta (photo at the right) who recently promoted to 8-dan, due to his position as this year Meijin challenger, will play a best of 7 matches against Cho U. The first game will be played in Aomori, 09-04, 05.

Up to now, They have met 6 times with 5-1 score for Cho.

Let’s take a look at their rivalry.
Both will play in final of Oza to determine who will challenge Yamashita Keigo for the title.

Both of them are leading in the 33rd Kisei tournament, Iyama at League A with 2-0 (along with Takao Shinji) and Cho at League B, also with 2-0 (the only one in League B), but of course it would be too fast if I predict both of them will play for the Challenger Decision Match.

They met at the first round of 15th Agon Cup, with Cho U’s victory (B+0.5)

If both of them win their first round at Ryusei cup and NEC cup, they will play each other at second round (Iyama will play Takao Shinji at Ryusei and Kono Rin at NEC and Cho will play Kanda Ei at Ryusei and Ko Iso at NEC ).

They met at third round of 55th NHK cup. Cho win the game by 3.5 points.

They met at the final of the 1st Daiwa Cup Grand Champion. Iyama won the match along with the title by resignation.

As I mentioned before, Iyama will challenge Cho for his Meijin title. First match will be played in September.

Until August 2008, Iyama is at the top of Japanese ranking with 35 wins and 10 loss, with 78% winning rate. Cho comes second with 26 wins and 6 loss, with 81% winning rate.

I hope they will play until the 7th round at Meijin title. It would be interesting ;p