Tsumego (6)

Here is another tsumego question. White to move and kill. Enjoy

Xie Defended Herself

The second game of the 28th Female Honinbo title matches was held at October 9.

Xie Yimin Female Honinbo played as white, while Aoki Kikuyo the challenger played as black.



The game started with Aoki opened the game by her favorite opening, the low Chinese fuseki. Up to move 46, both shared a tough poistion in the left side


Board position up to move 86

Xie won by resignation at move 208. Aoki was behind about 7 points.

Iyama Won the Fourth Game

Iyama Yuta made a bigger gap from the title holder Cho U in the Meijin sen.

In the last game, Iyama challenger played as black. The game started with Iyama played the low Chinese fuseki. Cho made the usual N4 approach and Iyama answered with a pincer.


Board position up to day 1

Day 1 ended with Iyama did the sealing move. The position in the bottom board is already settled for both sides. The rest of the game will be decided by the fight in the upper board.


Iyama handled the sealing move to the referee

In day 2, a fight arose in the upper left corner when Iyama played tsuke at C16. The situation turned out to be a little tricky, but Iyama handled it well and in the end he killed Cho's group.

Now Iyama Yuta is only one win away from capturing the title.

The fifth game ill be played at October 14-15.

Taiwanese Players' Showdown

The two winners from both league A and league B in the 34th Japanese Kisei have been decided.

In league A, O Rissei (9 dan) made clear swept ater his last victory from Lee Ishu by 1.5 moku. O beat Yoda Norimoto, Takao Shinji, Hane Naoki, Kiyonari Tetsuya, and Lee Ishu to won his right for the challenger decision match's seat.


O Riseei

We have Cho U (Meijin, Judan, Tengen, Oza, Gosei, Agon) as the League B winner with 4-1 result. He beat Iyama Yuta, Cho Chikun. Miyazawa Goro, and Akiyama Jiro to became O Rissei's opponent in the challenger decision match.

Yoda Norimoto the previous League B winner ended up in second place with 3-2 result, while the demoted players are Kiyonari Tetsuya and Lee Ishu who both gained their seats through the preliminaries early this year.

In League A the second placer is Akiyama Jiro who won his seat from the preliminaries this year. Iyama Yuta who was League A winner last year didn't do well this time. He ended up at the fourth place. Lucky for him that his rank in the league was better from Cho Chikun. As the result, Iyama was saved from the demotion, while Cho along with Miyazawa Goro got demoted.


Cho U

If Cho U win the right to be challenger, it will be his first shot for this title. Kisei is the only top 7 title in Japan that he never won before. O Rissei has won the title three times before. He won it concecutively from 2000-2002, before he lost it to Yamashita Keigo. For Yamashita Keigo Kisei, winning the title is very important. If he won the title again, it will be his fifth concecutive victory, which mean that he will be honored the title Honorary Kisei

Kono Rin's 500 Victories

Kono Rin (9 dan) of Nihon Kiin just scored his 500 victories mark in the Japanese pros world, after his victory over Cho Chikun (Honorary Honinbo) in the League B of the 34th Japanese Kisei. He won by 0.5 moku as white.


Kono Rin (9 dan)

This makes him the 88th person in the history to achieve 500 wins. His records are 500 wins 188 loses and 1 draw with an excellent 72.57% winning percentage.

So far Kono has won 6 titles with Tengen as his most remarkable title, though he lost it to Cho U last year.

おめでとう 河野 先生.

Tsumego (5): Answer

Here is the answer for tsumego(5) .

White first play 1 and black will answer with 2. After the trade, the cut at 3 is the capturing tesuji. Black can't answer with A2, because black will clearly dead.


What if black play at B1? The result is the same. White will extend at 5 and black of course will reply with 6. White will play at 7, and black will capture the stones with A1, but then white throws in with 9, followed by black 10 and white 11, and the rest is easy for white.

Aoki's Good Start

The 28th Female Honinbo title matches has begun. The first match was played at October 1st.

Based on the nigiri, Xie Yimin (Female Honinbo, Female Meijin) started the series by playing black and Aoki Kikuyo (8 dan) the challenger played white.


Xie Yimin

The first game was won by Aoki Kikuyo after he killed black in the upper board.


Aoki Kikuyo