The 34th Tengen-sen Start!

The 34th Tengen title matches had been started. Kono Rin, Tengen, challenged by Cho U,Meijin.
The first match was played at November 10.

Played as black, Kono Rin played a strange fuseki. The fuseki looks like a low chinese fuseki, but in fact the stone was one point lower.

I think the trade in the opening (around move 26- 41) was good for white. Another good strategy by Cho U was move 52. He thickened his group before attacked Kono's invasion stone. It's a good example of "getting thick before attacking".

I think Kono's invasion at move 109 was the losing strategy. I don't think he was thick enough to invade. The result from that trade was good for white.

Kono Rin (B) vs. Cho U (W), up to move 155, the combination White A, Black B, White C, Black D create a ko fight for black to kill white

Kono resigned at move 170, where white eliminated his potential moyo in the middle. Overall, I think Kono was outplayed by Cho in this round.

Cho U seems pretty busy. He was just finished a title match against Iyama Yuta in the Meijin title matches, and then, not even a week after, he played Kono Rin in Tengen, while at the same time, he is also playing Yamashita Keigo for Oza title (Cho won the first match. The second match will be played at November 13). He is really busy!

Kono's overall result against Cho is not good. He only won twice out of 6 times they met. He beat Cho twice in Ryusei final this year, and in this year Daiwa Shoken Cup's semi-final.

But I think Kono still has the chance despite his bad result against Cho. I think he recently played really good. He also eliminated his nickname "one title specialist" when he won this year's Ryusei (for the last 3 years, Tengen was the only title Kono has, but he defended it nicely).

I wonder if Kono able to defend his title for 4 straight years.