Xie Yimin Won Daiwa Ladies Cup for the Second Time

Xie Yimin (Female Meijin, Female Honinbo) repeated her success last year by winning the 3rd Daiwa Ladies Cup.
Xie Yimin met the 1st Daiwa Ladies Cup's champion, Kobayashi Izumi (6 dan).



Kobayashi Izumi who played white in this game opened the game agressively. She didn't take the last empty corner, instead she directly approach black.
Xie played by the ame fighting spirit, by playing a pincer to response Kobayashi's ikken takagakari (one space high approach). Black's answer at move 11 is rather rare nowadays, but perhaps
Xie was afraid of the possible variation (11 B-O4, W-O2, B-R2, W-R3, B-P2, W-N2), as the ladder was favorable for white.


The game was commented by Shuto Shun and the move reader was Suzuki Ayumi

The game proceed difficultly and the battle spreaded all over the board. After 343 moves, Xie Yimin won the game by 3.5 points.
Xie Yimin won the cup for two concecutive years. She also met Kobayashi Izumi in the final last year.