Yamashita Keigo Hit 700 Victories

Yamashita Keigo (below) the current Kisei title holder hit his 700 victories mark after beating Mimura Tomoyasu in the 65th Honinbo league. He won the game by resignation as white.



With his victory, Yamashita is the 35th person to reach the 700 victories mark.

Yamashita needs 3 years to collect 100 victories. He hit the 600 victories milestone in August 3, 2006.



Yamashita will play the winner between O Rissei and Cho U to defend his Kisei title. He has been the title holder for 4 consecutive years. One more defend and he will be honored the title Honorary Kisei because he won for five consecutive year

Online Playing Troubles

Recently I encounter troubles on playing online go.

When I play at KGS, the lag really drives me crazy. Lag in KGS is not something new, but it's just terrible for me now. I could even lagged for 5 minutes :(

So when KGS really turns me off, I will play at CyberOro. When I started it today, it did an automatic update. When it finished, it was not CyberOro anymore. It changed to WBaduk and I cannot connect to it (well, it said it was connected, but no player name appeared on window, including my name) :(

So I'm back with my old IGS id :) though I must rework my rank there.

Xie Yimin Won the Third Game

The third game of the 28th Female Honinbo Title was held at October 21. Xie Yimin Female Honinbo and Aoki Kikuyo the challenger both shared 1-1 position. The third game was played at Chiyoda, Tokyo.



Xie played as black and Aoki played white. The game opened with a crosscut joseki in the lower left corner. Aoki played nobi at move 20 to finished the joseki, but I think it's better to play ikken biraki since it's more flexible.

In response of white 20, black played a kakari in the left side. Aoki didn't directly try to create base with a pincer, but prefer to play a solid move at E10. Up to move 43, Aoki made some points in the left side, but ended up with a sealed corner.


Board position up to move 83

After both played for solid corners, Xie Yimin tried to separate white's group at move 85. The plan was a success. Xie got some profits in the lower right due to the attack.

The endgame started after Aoki connected her weak group to her bottom's base. After 271 moves, Xie Yimin won the game by 2.5 points.

With this victory, Xie lead the title matches by 2-1. One more win and she'll defend her title.

Hane Naoki Honinbo Won 16th Agon Cup

The final of the 16th Agon Cup was held at October 17. This time, Hane Naoki Honinbo met Cho U Gosei,Tengen,Oza,Judan,and the previous Agon Cup winner.


Cho U

Cho played black in this game while Hane got white. Cho opened the game by playing nadare in the bottom left corner to create a shimari in the bottom board. A battle started in the bottom board where white invaded black's area. In the end, black sacrificed his 5 stones to saved his group. Up to move 120, white was leading on territory.


Board position up to move 83

Cho resigned at move 198. He was behind about 10 points excluding komi on the board. It seems that he is not fully recovered after a long and hard fight during the Meijin title match. His play wasn't as good as usual.


Hane Naoki

Agon Cup is an open tournament for both amateur and professional players , sponsored by Agon, a Buddhist organization. The prize for the winner is ¥10,000,000.

Iyama Meijin

The fifth game from seven title matches game between Cho U Meijin and Iyama Yuta challenger has been played at October 14-15.


The fifth game of the 34th Meijin title matches

The title holder, Cho U, played as black, while Iyama Yuta held white.

The game was opened by Cho played a Micro-Chinese fuseki in the bottom board. Iyama chose to play a joseki that very popular in Japan when Cho approach the upper left corner. Cho U used this joseki a lot and he has a good record with it, especially when he holds white. The trade ended with Iyama gained solid territory, while Cho went for influence.

Day 1 ended with a fight in the center. Iyama must survived his group or he will lose. Cho U did the sealing move for the first time in this series. In his blog, Takao Shinji mentioned the possibility of playing A or the sequence from B-D.


Board position at the end of day 1


Cho handed the sealing move

Day 2 started with Cho tried to cut white off with K10. However, Iyama played a clever sequence and connected his group at move 108, though Cho also got a nice influence in the right side.


Day 2

Move 101 rises question for me. I wonder if Cho can played L7 and survived his group in the bottom to killed white.

Cho resigned at move 176, after Iyama stole his corner for the second time.

Iyama is in a super shape this year. He fix his record against Cho U and he won two titles over Cho U. He won Ryusei after beat Cho in the final and he stole Meijin that Cho has held for 2 years.

To Sir, With Love

Recently I really love this song "To Sir, With Love". It is a very old song came as soundtrack for the 1967 (that's why I called it very old. My parents were still not born at that time O_o) film with the same title. The song was brought by British singer, Lulu. This song topped Billboard Hot 100 for 5 weeks and titled as #1 song of 1967.

I just accidentally know about this song from the internet and I quickly fell in love with this song. The song is simple, but catchy and fun ^o^

Here is the lyric

Those schoolgirl days, of telling tales and biting nails are gone,
But in my mind,
I know they will still live on and on,
But how do you thank someone, who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn't easy, but I'll try,

If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters,
That would soar a thousand feet high,
To Sir, with Love

The time has come,
For closing books and long last looks must end,
And as I leave,
I know that I am leaving my best friend,
A friend who taught me right from wrong,
And weak from strong,
That's a lot to learn,
What, what can I give you in return?

If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start,
But I, would rather you let me give my heart,
To Sir, with Love

A Game to See (4)

This is an interesting game from the 14th Samsung Cup. This game is a very long game. A 361 moves game (but I think it's 362) that involves many ko fights.

White: Park Yeonghun (9 dan) from South Korea


Black: Wang Yao (6 dan) from China


Move 11 A rare move. It's more usual to play D13 or play the Mini-Chinese in the bottom
Move 24 It's easier to defend with P12.


Move 81 is the only move. No time to connect first.
Move 146 started the first important ko fight
Move 159 Nice timing! It threats white's corner and also as a ko threat.
Move 198 after 52 moves, white won the ko fight, but as a result, white's corner became threatened.



Move 205 Started the second ko fight.
Move 216 White dcided to save the corner, in return of a re fight of white group in the center.
Move 232 White defended his center group, in return of losing his bottom territory, as black saved his earlier died group.
Move 234 A nice probe. Later it turned out to be seki.
Move 236 A huge move!



The game record ended at move 361, but I think White should throw in first at R9 or S9 to create the seki.

After a long fight, Park Yeonghun (White) won the game by 0.5 point. A pitiful lose for Wang.