Kisei title and Cho-Kobayashi rivalryThe Kisei title is the
most prestigious in the go world. It was founded in 1976, under the
sponsorship of The Yomiuri Shimbun, and today it offers a winner's
purse of 33 million yen.
Three players have dominated this title: Shuko Fujisawa, Koichi
Kobayashi and Cho Chikun. Fujisawa won the initial tournament for
the title in 1977 and defended it for five straight years against
Japan's strongest players. But in 1983, he came up against the great
Cho Chikun, who was 27 years old at the time and had won the six
other big Japanese open titles. In the seven-game match, Cho lost
the first three games, and it looked as if Fujisawa was going to
sweep the series. But Cho fought back, and won the next four games
and the match 4-3.
Cho defended the title two more times, but in 1986, just a few
days before his third defense, he was hit by a car while going to
the aid of another accident victim. Although seriously injured and
in great pain, he insisted on playing--in a wheelchair--against
Kobayashi. Even though Cho's injuries had no doubt taken their toll
on his concentration, he lost by a respectable score of 4-2. Most
people believe that if it had not been for the accident, Cho would
have easily won.
Now it was Kobayashi's turn to dominate the Japanese tournament
scene. He defended the Kisei title seven times until he lost it in
1994 to Cho, who, after completely recovering from his injuries, was
on the comeback trail. Kobayashi also won the Meijin title in 1988
and held it for seven consecutive years. There was one title,
however, that eluded Kobayashi--the Honinbo. Cho had won this title
in 1989 from another great player, Masaki Takemiya. The following
year, Kobayashi appeared as the Honinbo challenger, but, although he
had Cho on the ropes with three wins, he was unable to win the
crucial fourth game, and Cho successfully defended the title. He
challenged Cho again in the following two years, but both times
failed in his bid to hold the top three titles simultaneously.
Kobayashi eventually lost the Meijin title to Takemiya, and Cho
won it from Takemiya the following year to again become the
triple-crown champion. But the next year Kobayashi was back as the
challenger. He lost 4-2.
Last month, Kobayashi beat Norimoto Yoda in the playoff to decide
the Kisei challenger. Kobayashi is considered to be Cho's most
dangerous opponent--with victories in 16 best-of-seven titles he is
second to Cho's 25. Because of their intense rivalry over the years,
the upcoming match is sure to produce some exciting games. The first
game will be played in Paris on Jan. 13 and 14. NHK satellite
television, BS2, will carry the games live in the morning and late
afternoon on the days they are played. The broadcast schedule will
be posted in this column.
Triple koIn last week's column, I showed a double ko that
occurred in the fourth game of the 1998 Meijin title match between
Cho Chikun and O Rissei. The game ended in a no-result because of a
triple ko.
Diagram 1 shows the position just before the triple ko
started. Black's last move was at the marked stone (Black 213 in the
game). White starts a ko with 1. Cho believed that he would lose the
game if he lost this ko, so he plays Black 2, capturing a white
stone in a ko, forcing White to capture the other ko with 3.
Black goes back and captures the ko at the top of the board with
4 in Diagram 2. White captures with 5, and Black must capture
with 6. But this is the same board position as Diagram 1.
After this, Cho and O played the same sequence two more times, at
which point, O said, "it's a no-result, isn't it?" Cho hesitated for
a moment, then nodded in agreement.
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