O Meien 9-dan from Taiwan has won his first major title by beating holder Cho Sonjin 9-dan 4-2 in the 55th Honinbo final on 18 and 19 July 2000. He is only the 12th holder of the title in modern times.
His wife is also Taiwanese and works for a newspaper in Taiwan. No prizes for guessing who's going to get a front page splash there. Among the first to phone congratulations to O was another famous player associated with Taiwan (though actually born in Shanghai), Rin Kaiho 9-dan, himself a former Honinbo.
O claimed he was lucky in every game, and he had never been so lucky before in his life, but victory in Game 6 at the Park Hotel in Hachinohe in the far north of Japan was actually by a rather convincing 10.5 points. O rushed straight back to Tokyo to celebrate with his family. Because of his wife's connections he is happy to be around media people, does his PR job well (though wearing the same suit as Cho in the last game looked a bit of a false move), and Tokyo is the place to do it.
One of the most distinguished Honinbos of historical times, Jowa, was famous as an example of the Confucian adage "Great talents mature late." O is in the same mould. Not only is he 38 (to Cho's 30), but he has hardly set the go world alight since his last little peak of prominence as far back as 1985, when he entered the Honinbo League as a 6-dan.
But he is not the oldest first-time Honinbo. Iwamoto Kaoru was 43 when he won in 1945, and (this one probably belongs in one of Ripley's can-you-believe-it entries) Sakata Eio had to wait until he was 41 in 1961. It may cheer O up even further to note that Iwamoto then held on to his title for three years and Sakata for seven years.
Poor Cho Sonjin only held his title one year. There is a consensus that neither of the games he won this year could be called satisfying victories, and he seemed plagued by a lack of accuracy in the endgame. Wise old heads also pointed to the burden of the Honinbo title.
If the title is a burden, there may be a warning there for O. His go hitherto has been distinguished by independence, creativity and fighting power, but also by a concept pros normally only use of each other: brittleness. Clearly he has at present found the key to the annealing process, and his current results in other tournaments are no doubt part of the reason for his almost perpetual smile (he leads the Meijin league, for example). It is also true that if critics point to his amazing ladder blunder in Game 1 as an example of brittleness, they would also have to explain the resilience with which he instantly came back. Still, it will be interesting to see how he copes with the pressure of international go in the coming year.
Here is Game 6 in downloadable sgf format. The sealed move on Day 1 was 66. This rapid rate of play by both players was seen as a sign of their desire for combat. The sharp fighting after a slow-paced opening was also evidence of this, a sharpness exacerbated by O being a little greedy in the lower right. The eventual trade when Black captured White on the left masked a vast number of hidden variations.
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Older News From 6 July 2000: O CLOSES IN ON THE TITLE
O Meien 9-dan has moved to just one game of his first major title by beating holder Cho Sonjin 9-dan in Game 5 of the 55th Honinbo final. After a very difficult game on 4 and 5 July 2000 in the mountain setting of Shirabu Spa, just 15 kilometres from Yonezawa City in the north of Japan, he emerged 1.5 points ahead.
This rarely used setting - the same inn even - was last the scene of a famous victory by Takagawa Kaku when he completed victory over Sakata Eio in 1961 and so completed his record 9th consecutive victories in the Honinbo. Game 6 moves even further north to Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture on 17 July.
Title matches in Japan have developed a vocabulary and lore of their own. Games when players are level pegging 1-1 in a best-of-five or 2-2 in a best-of-seven are called Tennozan, from the famous hill in Kyoto where Hideyoshi Toyotomi won a decisive battle. This aptly sums up the psychological advantage of winning such a game. The game here was a Tennozan, and now O has the benefit of a 3-2 lead.
That makes the next game what is known as a kado-ban for Cho - a game "on the edge", or one he has to win just to stay in the match.
He has no need to despair yet, though. On the whole the games so far have been close. In Game 5 O thought the first day was awful for him, but on Day 2 (after a sealed move 59) he was able to make some headway in the negotiations in the lower left. Play in the lower right and the endgame in general were complex, and so despite his victory he found the game tough all the way through.
Cho regretted mistakes in the lower left on Day 2 and thought the game was then over, but once he was able to play 115 he thought he was back in with a chance. 169 should have been at 173, he said.
Other key moves included White 38, which raised the temperature of the game. Cho spent 51 minutes on his reply. He sank into thought again for 58 minutes after White 62. Move 91 also preoccupied him for a long time. O's longest think was 51 minutes for White 92.
An interesting feature of this game was that the Taiwanese-born O Innin (Wang Weiren in Chinese) 3-dan was reporting for a Chinese newspaper in the pressroom. The scorekeeper was Han Zenki (Pan Shanqi) 5-dan, another Japanese-based player with a Taiwanese background. The players themselves were Korean and Taiwanese. At least the referee, Otake Hideo 9-dan, was Japanese.
Holder Cho Sonjin 9-dan achieved that most satisfying of victories - a come-from-behind win - when he overcame O Meien 9-dan in Game 4 of the 55th Honinbo title match. Game 5, at the other end of the country in Yonezawa City, Yamagata Prefecture, now takes on awesome importance for both players, with the score tied at 2-2.
In the latest game, in Oita City on 28 and 29 June 2000, Cho fell behind early on and O agreed the game was going at his pace. Day 1 ended after very long thought on the sealed move, 41. But by move 94 Cho had pulled back sufficiently to make the game close, and observers were predicting yet another endgame struggle as in the previous two games.
But O made what he called an "awful" move at 113 (it should have been on the centre left around 114, he said) and by the time Cho was able to play 158 the game was effectively over.
Older News From 24 June 2000:
O MEIEN DRAWS AHEAD FOR THE FIRST TIME
Challenger O Meien 9-dan won Game 3 and moved into a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven title match of the 55th Honinbo title match. Playing Cho Sonjin in the Hotel Nikko in Chitose City in Hokkaido on 21 and 22 June 2000, he emerged a comfortable 4.5 point ahead in a game that began as a moyo battle then segued into an endgame contest.
One pleasing feature of this game was that the referee was the legendary Sakata Eio, no longer looking as frail as he did recently.
Here is Game 3 in downloadable sgf format. The key points of this game were, first, move 13 on which Cho spent 39 minutes, the previous moves having all been played rapidly. O answered at once at 14, and came away with sente to play 32. This move did not just pit moyo against moyo at the top, but also hung a Damoclean sword over the Black area at the bottom.
O took 45 minutes to play White 42, a forcing move, though no doubt it was really 44 he was thinking about. Play ended on Day 1 with Black 47.
The sealed move and the subsequent play along the lower side appeared to go exactly as both players expected, then O turned smoothly to 64 to expand his centre only to be disconcerted by Black's response. He spent 27 minutes on White 66 and 24 minutes on 68, yet Cho was still able to create a confusing semeai with Black 73. This ended in a trade (Black life for White thickness) with no apparent advantage to either side, and so it became an endgame battle. White got move 100, which was big, but so was Black 101, and the result was still unclear.
Game 4, on 28 June, is in the Toyo Hotel in Oita, which will be known to several westerners as the venue for the 21st World Amateur.
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Older News From 08 June 2000: O MEIEN DRAWS LEVEL
The imperturbable O Meien 9-dan fought back after his Game 1 debacle to take Game 2 of the 55th Honinbo title match by just half a point. This was held in a French hotel - between a Taiwanese and a Korean - in the city most associated with traditional Japan, Kyoto, on 7th and 8th June 2000.
As with Game 1 - and the rest of the best-of-seven match to come - it was simultaneously broadcast on the IGS go server, now operating out of Kyoto. Whether many cyber fans were tempted to stay on-line on Day 1 is doubtful. Just 40 moves were played. On Day 2, O was taken by surprise when White played 110, but he said that once he had played Black 179 he knew he had won.
Older News From 25 May 2000:
O MEIEN FALLS OFF A LADDER
The first game of the 55th Honinbo final ended almost farcically after 59 moves when O Meien 9-dan was caught out by a fairly simple ladder. Not the best way to start your title-busting career, though he seemed remarkably unperturbed by it afterwards.
The game took place on 25 May 2000 on Floor 34 of the Lotte Hotel in central Seoul, home territory for winner and current Honinbo Cho Sonjin 9-dan. It was also broadcast live on the international go server IGS, the first time a major Japanese title event has been put on the internet. Many western viewers assumed O has misread the ladder, but he hadn't - he just hadn't noticed it, he said.
This is the shortest title game in the long history of the Honinbo, of course, overtaking the 89 move game in 1979 between Kato Masao and Rin Kaiho (Game2 of the 34th term). A quick perusal also suggests it is also the shortest game in any title match, beating the 61-move loss incurred by Takemiya Masaki in the 1996 Meijin.
Game 2 will be at L'Hotel de Hie in Kyoto on 7 June. Game 3 is in Hokkaido on 21 June at the Hotel Nikko in Chitose. Game 4 is at the Toyo Hotel in Oita City on 28 June. If Games 5 to 7 are needed they will be in Yonezawa (4 July), Hachinohe (17 July) and Atami (26 July).
It is hard to tell how far the match will go. Neither player is particularly experienced in two-day matches, though clearly holder Cho Sonjin has an edge. Past form barely exists. They have played five times. Cho won in the Oteai in 1990. O won the next three in the 1995 Ryusei, 1997 Fujitsu and 1998 Honinbo, then Cho won in the 1999 Honinbo.
Otake Hieo 9-dan won the demotion play-off against Ryu Shikun 7-dan by a mere half point on 13 April 2000, and so retains his place in next year's league. It was sweet revenge for losing a couple of half-pointers in the league proper, one against Ryu himself!
It has been a feature of the last three leagues that even players with a positive 4-3 win-loss record have had to play off to keep their places.
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Older News From 21 April 2000: 55th League Final positions as of 3 April 2000
O Rissei and Rin Kaiho are definitely demoted. Otake Hideo and Ryu Shikun have to play off to decide the third demotion.
The first game of the best-of-seven final between Cho Sonjin and challenger O Meien will be held in the Hotel Lotte, Seoul, on 24 and 25 May.
C
H
O
Y
R
O
O
R
1
Cho Chikun 9d
-
1
1
1
0
0
1
0
=
4-3
2
Hikosaka Naoto 9d
0
-
1
0
1
0
0
1
=
3-4
3
O Rissei 9d
0
0
-
1
1
0
0
0
=
2-5
4
Yamada Kimio 7d
0
1
0
-
1
1
0
1
=
4-3
5
Rin Kaiho 9d
1
0
0
0
-
1
0
0
=
2-5
5
Otake Hideo 9d
1
1
1
0
0
-
1
0
=
4-3
5
O Meien 9d
0
1
1
1
1
0
-
1
=
5-2
5
Ryu Shikun 7d
1
0
1
0
1
1
0
-
=
4-3
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Older News From 20 March 2000: JAPAN STILL FROZEN OUT IN HONINBO
The most traditionally Japanese title will be contested, for the third year in a row, entirely by foreign-born players, in its 55th term. On 3 April, O Meien 9-dan from Taiwan defeated Hikosaka Naoto 9-dan in the last game of the League, to clinch the right to challenger Cho Sonjin, born in Korea.
It is 12 years since a true-blue Japanese last held the Honinbo title. Indeed, since 1980 only one Japanese, Takemiya Masaki, has held the title, though he did manage it for five terms.
Like Cho, O Meien has been a bit of a slow burner, not featuring heavily in title races so far. He was born in 1961 and moved to Japan when he turned 14. He has two brothers who are also pros in Japan, Tei Meiko and Tei Meiki. His Chinese name is Wang Mingyuan.
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Older News From March 2000: 55th League as of 20 March 2000:
Although Cho Chikun is very much in the driving seat to win a crack at regaining his title, the most astonishing happenings in this year's league are the inevitable demotions of long-time regular Rin Kaiho and the new Kisei, O Rissei.
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Older News: October 1999
CHO CHIKUN BACK IN 55th HONINBO LEAGUE
The long grind of the Honinbo League is under way again, and
deposed holder Cho Chikun is having to reacquaint himself with the
procedures after so long away. He held the title for 10 consecutive years until Cho Sonjin took it from him in July 1999.
But he has not forgotten how to win - his first game against new star Yamada Kimio 7-dan ended in victory for him. The winner of the league challenges Cho Sonjin for the title.
O Rissei (Wang Licheng) and O Meien (Wang Mingyuan) are both from Taiwan but are not brothers. However, O Meien does have two pros for brothers in Japan: Tei Meiko 9-dan and Tei Meiki 7-dan. Meiko is active in trying to program go.
