KATO TAKES THIRD HAYAGO FINAL
Kato Masao 9-dan was too quick on the draw for Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan in the final of the
32nd Hayago (Quickplay) Championship in October.
It is Kato's third victory in this event.
FINAL KNOCKOUT RESULTS 1999
The results of the final knockout so far are:
Round 1:
Hikosaka 1-0 Sonoda Y.
Kato 1-0 Kobayashi K.
Ryu 1-0 Mimura
O Rissei 1-0 Yamada K.
Rin 1-0 Cho S.
Kobayashi S. 1-0 Yoda
Tono 1-0 Kataoka (holder)
Cho C. 1-0 Yuki
Quarter-finals:
Kato 1-0 Hikosaka
Ryu 1-0
O Rissei
Kobayashi 1-0 Rin
Cho 1-0 Tono
Semi-finals:
Kato 1-0 Ryu
Kobayashi 1-0 Cho
HOW DOES THE HAYAGO CHAMPIONSHIP WORK?
The Hayago Championship is a year-long lightning tournament sponsored by TV Tokyo (Channel 12). It is strictly for the top players but there is a
junior version by the same sponsor called the Shin'ei Tournament.
Top prize is 4 million yen. The losing finalist gets 800,000 yen.
24 players are selected from the major title winners and the top money winners in the Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in. After a one-round preliminary among the lower seeds, these are whittled down to 16 who play a final knockout.
The games are all televised. The final is in November.
Time limits are 5 minutes each (used to be 10 minutes) with 30 seconds a move overtime. Each player also gets two spells of 3 minutes to think about tricky moves.
Hayago means lightning go (as here) or quick go (1-2 hours each).
To see a list of past Hayago Winners click here.
