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

Hane Naoki Took Revenge

After lost in the first 3 matches, Hane Naoki took revenge in
the fourth game of 63rd Honinbo.

This time, Hane Naoki defeted title holder, Takao Shinji by resignation.
First 41 moves

The problem for Takao came after he tried to split black's group.
It did success, but at the same time, it made white group in the
bottom weaker and caused a family fight, ended up with black killed white in the corner,
while the profit white gained in the center couldn't give him enough points to win.

The splitting move

Hane Naoki did very great. Eventhough in a great pressure, he still can won
the match.

The fifth match will be played in Chosi, Chiba

Will Hane Naoki again win the match and make the gap smaller, or will Takao Shinji
keep his title for another year? We will now at July, 1st and 2nd live in IGS

Visit Indonesia Year 2008

Visit Indonesia Year 2008
This year, Indonesia celebrates its 100 years of national awakening. National awakening was the turning point when people in Indonesia realized that they will never free if they didn’t holding hands together.
Due to its 100 years celebration, Indonesia created “Visit Indonesia Year 2008”. It is a program to get more tourist to visit Indonesia. With this program, hopefully, this year 7 million visitors will come to Indonesia.

Some people pessimist that the number will get that much, but it’s not impossible, after last year’s number surpass 5.5 million tourists expectation.
I hope the number will surpass 7 million this year. I hope you can spend holiday here, in Indonesia. I am very happy if you will come, but if you don’t , I’m still happy because you have read this.
Toraja's House

For more information, please visit:
http://www.my-indonesia.info/

Takao Shinji Has the Lead

Hane Naoki is in a great pressure now. After lost to Takao Shinji in the second title
match, he lost again in the third match.

Hane Naoki played oomoyo strategy in the beginning, but Takao manage to destroy it.
In my opinion, White didn't get much after his moyo destroyed. White's wall wasn't very good.

After 245 moves, Hane resigned.

Now Hane Naoki is in a trouble. He must win the last 4 matches if he want to capture
the title from Takao Shinji. Will it be a miracle comeback? Time Will tell.

63rd Japanese Honinbo, Title Match #2

After beating Hane Naoki in the first match, Takao Shinji beat him again in the second match.

This time Takao Shinji (W) won by resignation after he cut Hane Naoki's hane stone and got about 10 points lead.

With this won, Takao has the lead by 2-0.

Hane Naoki must fighting hard to win the third match or he must won 4 straight matches to win the title.