With the 14th Fujitsu Cup about to start in Japan, the line-up of 24 players from around the world has been announced. Round 1 takes place on 14 April 2001,and Round 2 on 16 April.
The qualifiers are:
JAPAN
O Rissei 9d O Meien 9d Kobayashi Koichi 9d Rin Kaiho 9d Cho Chikun 9d Ishii Kunio 9d Kono Rin 5d
KOREA
Cho Hun-hyeon 9d Yu Ch'ang-hyeok 9d Yi Ch'ang-ho 9d Seo Pong-su 9d Rui Naiwei 9d (Chinese, but affiliated to Korean Go Association) Ch'oe Myeong-hun 7d Mok Chin-seok 5d
CHINA
Ma Xiaochun 9d Yu Bin 9d Chang Hao 9d Shao Weigang 9d Zhou Heyang 8d Kong Jie 5d
REST OF THE WORLD
Zhou Junxun 9d (Taiwan) Guo Juan 5d (China/Netherlands, representing Europe) Thomas Y. Hsiang 6d ama (USA, representing North America) Fernando Aguilar 5d ama (Argentiina, representing South America)
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Older News From 8 February 2001: JAPANESE QUALIFIERS DECIDED
The last member of the Japanese contingent for the 14th Fujitsu Cup World Championship was decided on 5 February 2001 when Rin Kaiho 9-dan beat Shimojima Yohei 6-dan in the final Japanese qualifying game.
Rin, whose re-entry into the Meijin League at the end of last year was noteworthy enough, seems to have found a new lease of life - either that or the current crop of young Japanese is not up to much, a case voiced recently by no less than the head of the Kansai Kiin.
Rin will be joined in the international finals by other qualifiers Kobayashi Koichi 9d, his pupil Kono Rin 5-dan (one youngster defying the doomsayers) and Ishii Kunio 9-dan. To these will be added the recommendees: not much quarrel with O Rissei 9-dan and triple title holder, O Meien 9-dan (Honinbo) and Cho Chikun, only 9-dan!
The Korean and Chinese qualification events are due to take place in early March. The international finals start in early April.
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Older News From 26 January 2001: NORTH AMERICAN FUJITSU QUALIFIER
The 14th North American Fujitsu Qualifier took place over four rounds on January 13 and 14, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and brought a shock result. Both professional players taking part were eliminated before the final round. The winner was Thomas Hsiang, the first amateur ever to win a place main Fujitsu international pro-am through this event, to which all pro players resident in the USA are invited.
Professor Hsiang teaches at the University of Rochester, in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. His final round victory was against Jong Moon Lee from New York City, who represented the USA in last year's World Amateur. Janice Kim lost in Round 2 to the number ten seed Lianzhou Yu from St. Louis, while Korean pro "Jimmy" Ch'a Min-su fell well below the form that once saw him defeat Cho Chikun, losing a large capturing race and the game to number seven seed Ted Ning from Hawaii in the same round.
Final round game (l-r) Hsiang vs Lee With kind permission from the AGA
Sixteen players took part, making it effectively a knockout. Two Canadian players, John Yoon and Sunghwa Hong, and the Mexican Jose Chacon, competed alongside the two pros, and 11 top American amateurs selected by ranking and last year's event. More details including AGA ratings on the web page.
Older News From 12 December 2000: GUO WINS FUJITSU EUROPEAN QUALIFIER
Guo Juan 7 dan won through the European qualifying leg of the Fujitsu pro-am event, held from 8 to 10 December at the EGCC in Amsterdam. She defeated the Romanian Ion Florescu 6 dan in the final of this knock-out of 24 top tournament qualifiers, with eight seeds entering the second round. Guo's opening was superior, but she fell behind after slipping into an uncharacteristic technically poor play, and it required Florescu to outwit himself on a sequencing question to hand her the victory.
Three of the seeded players were dumped out on the way to the quarter-finals. Russian Alexandr Dinerstein 6 dan from Kazan, studying in South Korea and the 1999 European Champion, couldn't cope with a 5-5 strategy by British Champion Matthew Macfadyen 6 dan. Current Toyota Tour front-runner Victor Bogdanov 6 dan went out to Romanian Robert Mateescu 6 dan. Dutchman Geert Groenen 6 dan disposed of German Champion Franz-Josef Dickhut 6 dan in Round 2, only himself to be put ill at ease by a contrasting low-flying Macfadyen plan in the quarter-final featuring both remaining home-grown amateur players.
Also in the quarter-finals Catalin Taranu (now a 4 dan pro) lost to his compatriot, the insouciant Florescu, who studied in Tokyo for three years from 1995, and past winner Japan-based Rob van Zeijst 7 dan lost to Mateescu. Guo, having disposed of French Champion Seailles in Round 2, took out the fourth Romanian, Christian Pop 6 dan, in his mid-twenties and back as a geology student after time spent with Taranu in Nagoya.
This left Florescu-Macfadyen and Guo-Mateescu in the semis. Florescu outplayed Macfadyen with a consistently-applied centre strategy, reversing the result of their Helsinki game this summer. Guo, once a pro in China, beat Mateescu, who returned to Romania from two years of planned studies in Japan in 1994 and now is a computer science Ph.D. student in California. Guo emerged on top, but the Romanians are surely coming.
The Fujitsu Cup is sponsored not just by the Japanese computer giant Fujitsu, but also by the Yomiuri Shinbun, the Nihon Ki-in, and the Kansai Ki-in. It is the oldest fully international event.
Initially 16 representatives (amateur if necessary) were invited from Japan (five from the Nihon Ki-in, three from the Kansai Ki-in), China (four from the China Weiqi Association), Korea (three from the Hanguk Kiweon), Taiwan, North America, South America and Europe. They played a straightforward knockout.
From Term 2, this was increased to 24 players (and players were deemed to represent countries not associations). Places were then allocated: to the top three in Term 1 plus 7 from Japan, 5 from China, 4 from Korea, 2 from Taiwan, 1 from North America, 1 from South America, and 1 from Europe. Eight top players selected on the basis of tournament results were seeded into Round 2, while the other sixteen competed in Round 1. Thereafter it was a straight knockout tournament.
First prize was initially 15 million yen, later upped to 20 million yen, with 7 million yen for second place, 4 million yen for third place, and 2 million yen for fourth place. Play spans April to August.
Komi is 5.5 points with Japanese rules. Time limits are 3 hours each with 1 minute overtime.
