Lee Ishu Won the 34th Shinjin O Cup

Lee Ishu who early this year promoted to 7 dan as a result of entering the 34th Kisei League, won the 34th Shinjin O Cup.


Lee Ishu (7 dan)

The first game was played in September 16. Lee entered the final after beating Tamai Shin (2 dan) in the semi-final. The other finalist was Mitani Tetsuya (5 dan) who won his final seat from Seto Taiki (6 dan). Lee who played white won the first game by 1.5 points. The game was peaceful with no big fight involved.

The second game was played in September 25. This time the colors were reversed. Lee who played black won the game by resignation, after he killed Mitani's group in the right side.


The second game. Lee (far left) vs. Mitani (right)

Lee's career seems to be quite bright. He became shodan in the 2004 and only needs 5 years to achieve his 7 dan status. Of course this is not the fastest promotion record, but obviously he is the one to count in between the Japanese pros.

Interesting Third Game

The third game of the 34th Meijin title match has been played. Both Cho U, Meijin and Iyama Yuta the challenger share 1-1 point and whoever won the third game will lead the title match. The game was played at September 24-25 in Takarazuka, Hyogo.

Cho (who played as black) opened the game by building influence in the bottom board. A semeai started as black chased white's invading stone. Cho split white's groups and tried his best to attack it.

Day one ended by Iyama (for the third time in the series) did the sealing move for move 86.


Iyama handled his sealing move.

Day 2 started by Iyama playing K5, his sealing move. Cho played a ko fight in return, and the game became very difficult for both of them.


The start of day 2

At move 138, the game became more interesting, as Iyama started another ko fight, while the previous ko fight was not concluded yet. Twenty moves later, the third ko fight appeared.


Cho U vs. Iyama Yuta board position up to move 86

Iyama's decision to continue the ko fights was brave. He didn't want to share the ko with Cho. Cho cut Iyama's group at move 205 and the game would be decided by whether white's group can survive or not.

The battle went complicated, until Iyama tried the cut at move 244. Cho played G10, answering Iyama's cut, however it was a big mistake. Iyama played E13 which gave him miai between D13 and E12. Black should played F11 instead and won the game. Perhaps Cho was already exhausted from a long and difficult game.

Iyama lead the title matches by 2-1.

Aoki Kikuyo Concluded the First Stage

The last round of the first stage of the 8th Jeongganjang Cup has been played. This time, the match is between Wang Chenxin (2 dan) from China against Aoki Kikuyo (8 dan) from Japan.


Wang (left), Aoki (right)

The game is somewhat full of Chinese style. Aoki who played black opened the game with the low Chinese opening. Wang played the two spaces low approach to counter black's opening. The approach was invented by Yu Bin (9 dan) from China several years ago.


Aoki Kikuyo vs. Wang Chenxin board position up to move 89

Aoki Kikuyo played pincer in response of white's approach. Some say that the pincer is not good in this condition, since it gives white a big corner and suggest the hit shoulder at O4. However, the pincer seem to be Aoki's favorite move. She also played the same opening last year in her game against Song Ronghui (though she lost that game).

The first big trade was made early in the game. At move 68, Wang chose to capture black's stone in the center in return of her corner. However, white played a tesuji at L17 to capture black's group in the upper board, but it seems that black was ready to sacrifice the group.

Another big trade was made at move 123, where Aoki got the bottom left corner in exchange of her group in the left side. After the trade, black was ahead in territory.

The game looked close when the yose started, but later Wang made a blunder when she connected her stones with K12. It let Aoki played a tesuji at L14 and captured Wang's group. Wang should connect at K14 instead of K12 so the game would be very close.

Wang resigned at move 241. She was behind about 6 points including komi.


Wang Chenxing

With this victory, Aoki Kikuyo from Japan sealed the first stage and will open the second stage by playing one of South Korea's team member. Before that, Aoki will challenge Xie Yimin for her Female Honinbo title in the early October.


Aoki Kikuyo

Wang's Third Victory

Wang Chenxing (2 dan) really rocks the first stage of the 8th Jeongganjang Cup. After her two previous victories, today Wang won another game against Yun Jihee (2 dan) from South Korea.


Wang (left), Yun (right)

The game started with a strange sequence in the top right corner, starting with a rare three spaces high pincer by Yun who played as black. Instead of the normal move at R18, white played a tobi tsuke at P15. The sequence up to move 28 is a new sequence for me.


Wang Chenxing vs. Yun Jihee board position up to move 83


Another strange development in this game is black's nobi at move 89. Usually black will directly enter the corner.

Black 133 is the losing move. I don't see what black wanted to accomplish by playing yhis move. It's not sente and the worst is, black let her big group in the corner die!

Later Yun tried to kill white in the middle, but Wang was calm and played a ko fight which is impossible for black to win, because she was short of ko threats. White won by resignation.

Wang is one step closer of repeating Song's 6 concecutive victories in the previous Jeongganjang Cup.

Wang Chenxing's Second Victory

It seems that Wang Chenxing from China doesn't want to stop yet. After a victory from Kim Yunyoung in the first round, she marked another victory by beating Yoshida Mika from Japan.


I wonder who are the three kids in the picture. Future pros?

The game started by Yoshida Mika (who played as black) playing the famous Japanese joseki in the bottom right corner. The joseki is considered as bad for black, but Cho U who holds 5 from 7 big titles in Japan played the joseki a lot.


Yoshida Mika vs. Wang Chenxing board position up to move 73

I think black's opening was slow. Especially move 39. The move gave white chance to invade with P17. Would it be better for black to enclosure the corner?

In the end black lost the game by resignation because run out of ko threat.

China is surely has a good start. I wonder if Wang will repeat Song's success last year.

8th Jeongganjang Cup

The 8th Jeongganjang Cup has been started. The three teams from China, South Korea, and Japan will fight all the way for victory.

The first game has been played. It is between Wang Chenxing (2p from China) and Kim Yunyoung (1p from South Korea) in Canton, China.


Kim Yunyoung (who played black) started the game by occupying 3 corners. White played for influence by pressing black in the upper right corner. Black entered white's corner with sansan invasion at move 37. For some reasons, I think the timing is dubious, since it allows white to got a big moyo in the left. Black tried to reduce the moyo by playing F12, but later white successfully captured the group, by attacking black's weak group in the bottom.


Kim Yunyoung


Wang Chenxing

In the end, white won the game by a big margin. White won by 10.5 points. This is a good example of a winning game, even though one lost all 4 corners.

Though she won by a big margin, Wang doesn't seem to be pleased by her game. I wonder why.


Though she later cheered up when Song Ronghui came.


Wang will play Yoshida Mika from Japan in the next round.

Jeongganjang (some say that the correct spelling is Cheongkwanjang) Cup is a female team tournament, sponsored by a Korean ginseng company. I'm curious how ginseng tastes...

Tsumego (5)

Let's try another tsumego.



Black just played B3. White to play to show that black's last move was a big mistake

A Joke

Recently I'm writing many unrelated go things in this blog, since recently I'm running out of idea =_=

I found this joke which I think a great joke and maybe teachers can use it to know whether a group of students were lying or not :p
Enjoy..

Four friends have been doing really well in their calculus class: they have been getting top grades for their homework and on the midterm. So, when it's time for the final, they decide not to study on the weekend before, but to drive to another friend's birthday party in another city - even though the exam is scheduled for Monday morning. As it happens, they drink too much at the party, and on Monday morning, they are all hung over and oversleep. When they finally arrive on campus, the exam is already over.
They go to the professor's office and offer him an explanation: "We went to our friend's birthday party, and when we were driving back home very early on Monday morning, we suddenly had a flat tire. We had no spare one, and since we were driving on backroads, it took hours until we got help."
The professor nods sympathetically and says: "I see that it was not your fault. I will allow you to make up for the missed exam tomorrow morning."
When they arrive early on Tuesday morning, the students are put by the professor in a large lecture hall and are seated so far apart from each other that, even if they tried, they had no chance to cheat. The exam booklets are already in place, and confidently, the students start writing.
The first question - five points out of one hundred - is a simple exercise in integration, and all four finish it within ten minutes.
When the first of them has completed the problem, he turns over the page of the exam booklet and reads on the next one:

Problem 2 (95 points out of 100): Which tire went flat?

Libur Lebaran!!!!

Setelah melewati minggu yg berat dan penuh perjuangan, akhirnya LIBUR!!!! Yeah!!

Untuk sementara g mikirin tugas dulu. Libur kali ini kumulai dengn membersihkan kamar (yang berantakannya minta ampun...) terus diisi dengn jalan2.

Buat semuanya yang lagi libur, selamat liburan yah. Buat yang mudik, hati-hati di jalan!!

Iyama Won the Second Game

After a pitiful 0.5 point lost in the first game of the 34th Japanese Meijin title match, Iyama Yuta won the second game by resignation.

The game was played in Kuwamoto with Iyama played black this time, while Cho played as white.

The game started unusually, with Cho's joseki choices in both upper right and left corner. He chose to play nadare at both corner. Iyama accepted the first nadare invitation by playing O17 which lead to oonadare, but he played C17 in the second nadare to avoid the complication. The first day ended with Iyama did the sealing move for his move 79.


Iyama handled the sealing move to the referee.

Day 2 started with Iyama connecting his stones with Q8. Iyama's decision to played move 81 was brave. He chose to abandon the easy connect at S10, though in the end he managed to save the groups with a clever sequence.

In the end, Iyama won the game at move 256. I think black was leading about 6 or 7 points on the board.


Iyama Yuta - Cho U : 1- 1

Curhat Colongan

Ok. ini bener2 curhat colongan di blog ini (soalnya gak berhubungan dengan igo sama sekali + dtulis dalam bahasa Indonesia :p)

hiks. akhir2 ini kena flu sama batuk dikit2. udah mendingan sih, tapi tetep aja mengganggu aktifitas. makan gak enak, tidur pun tak lelap (dikira sakit tuh pacar apa?)

terus tugas kuliah menumpuk ditambah lagi banyak banget ujian minggu ini (belajar sana!! jangan ngeblog terus!!). begitulah....

semoga minggu ini bisa dilalui dengan selamat sentosa. untuk sementara belajar igonya dihentikan dulu sampe minggu depan.

A Game To See (3)

Another day, another interesting game. This game came from the 62nd Japanese Honinbo league.

Black: Yamada Kimio (9 dan)
White: Kobayashi Satoru (9 dan)


White 10 The appropriate move. The ladder is unfavorable, so white must not attach at F17, since it allows black to get a strong position (10. W-F17,B-G17,W-G16,B-E17,W-F18,B-F15,W-E18,B-H16)

White 14 A strange move. Usually white play the suberi at F18. The outcome of the attachment only strenghtening black.

White 20 is an urgent move. It prevents black from creating a strong formation in the left side.



White 24 It is better to play R7 to settle the lone stone.

Black 29 is a good move. Punishing white's early mistake.

Black 39 The sequence from 32-39 is favorable for black. The position is hard for white now.

White 46 I wonder if the block at N12 is better.

Black 49 is a brave move. It's better to save the group completely by playing M13 or L12

White 56 is slow. I think it's better to leave the group and play tenuki

White 58 starts a fight, but the fight is not easy for white, due to black's thick position in the left.

White resigns at move 73. I think it's too fast to resign, perhaps white should defend with bamboo joint first at J13, then see what happen with the fight in the left.

Cho U's Good Start to Defend His Title

The first title match of Meijin title has been played. This year, Iyama Yuta (8 dan) rechallenge Cho U for his Meijin title. Last year Iyama also the challenger for the Meijin title, but he lost to the Meijin by 4-3 score.

The first game was played at September 3-4 in Sapporo.

Cho U played as black and Iyama played as white.
The first fight came early, as Iyama played a cross cut in the corner at move 14. Cho U attacked the group and Iyama tried to save it and stabilized his group in the right. The first day ended by Iyama Yuta did the fujite for move 84.


Iyama handed over the fujite move to Ishida Yoshio the referee.


Board position at the end of day 1

Day 2 started by Iyama playing J9, his fujite move.
Iyama tried to control the center by playing L14 at move 94. He aim for three black's weak stones in the center and to destroy black's top moyo. Iyama got some profit by attacking here.

The game became very close in the end and everything depend on the yose. I wonder if move 214 is the losing move for white. I think the move is rather slow and there are bigger points to play, like B11 or O14. After 304 moves, Cho U won the game by 0.5 points.


Cho U is smiling. He won the first match by very small gap.