Yamashita Keigo (Still) Honinbo!

The tense of this year's Honinbo was in the air when Hane Naoki played his sealed move to start day 2 of the 66th Honinbo game 7.



Hane Naoki (left) vs. Yamashita Keigo (right)

A big fight started at the center when Yamashita attacked Hane's group. Black found his way out with black 95 and 97. The second big fight started after white played white 102. The fight was really difficult and a ko fight will determine the result. White finally got to play A16 to save his group. Black then struggled to save his black group and achieved it by sacrificing his group at the lower left.


Hane Naoki once again failed to win a title

The game was very close until the end and Yamashita finally pulled it off together and won by 4.5 points. This year's Honinbo is very interesting! Yamashita excited all his fanse by winning the first 3 games. Then, it's Hane's turn to excite his fans by winning the next 3 games! However, Yamashita avoided the fightback's stereotype (where the one who fightback often won the last game) and defends his title. Congratulations for Yamashita!


Yamashita Keigo Honinbo

Throughout the series, I threw a poll and 68% of the readers chose Yamashita as this year's Honinbo. Congratulations guys! You got it right!

Here is the game record:
Yamashita Keigo (white) vs. Hane Naoki (black). Result: W+4.5

(;CA[Windows-1252]SZ[19]AP[MultiGo:4.4.4]GN[Rated game]EV[66th Honinbo title match, game 7]
DT[2011-07-20,21]PB[Hane Naoki]BR[9p]PW[Yamashita Keigo]WR[9p]KM[6.5]HA[0]RE[W+4.5]
MULTIGOGM[1]
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