Kobyashi Koichi 9-dan retained his Judan title on 5 April 2000, winning the third game of the best-of-five final of the 38th term in Omachi City, Nagano Prefecture. Although both the score in the match (3-0) and the scores on the board were decisively in favour of Kobyashi, challenger Nakano Hironari 9-dan put up a respectable showing.
He couldn't quite find the right sort of strategy to unsettle Kobayashi, who was thus able to play his normal territorial game, forcing Nakano into slugfests in an attempt to turn the tables.
Here are the games of the final in downloadable sgf format:
Older News From 31 March 2000: SECOND BLOOD TO KOBAYASHI
Having started comfortably with a 6.5 point win in Game 1 of the 38th Judan final, holder Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan doubled up by winning the second game against Nakano Hironari 9-dan by a massive 13.5 points on 23 March 2000. Nakano may make a supreme effort in Game 3 so that he can at least force the event into a fourth game - which will take him into home territory in Aichi Prefecture. But Kobayashi is not noted for lapses once he is ahead and one more win is enough to retain his title.
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Older News From 09 March 2000: FIRST BLOOD TO KOBAYASHI
Holder Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan started his defence comfortably with a 6.5 point win in Game 1 of the 38th Judan final on 9 March 2000.
The schedule for the rest of the best-of-five final (all games in spa towns) is:
Game 2: 23 March (Ehime Pref.) Game 3: 5 April (Nagano Pref.) Game 4: 20 April (Aichi Pref.) Game 5: 27 April (Gunma Pref.)
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Older News From 26 February 2000: 38th JUDAN FINAL ALMOST HERE
Thirty-year-old Nakano Hironari 9-dan from the resurgent Central Japan (Nagoya) Branch of the Nihon Ki-in reversed the result of the winners' section final of the 38th Judan when he beat Yamashita Keigo 6-dan in the game that mattered - the play-off between the winners of the Winners' Section and the Losers' Section. He now goes on to challenge holder Kobayashi Koichi in March 2000.
They have rarely played together before, but Kobayashi holds a 3-0 lead. Kobayashi regards the challenger as one of the "fighting school." He was challenged by another Nagoya-based player, Hikosaka Naoto, last year, and says a characteristic of the current crop of players from there is their tenacity. He is expecting a tough time in the best-of-five final.
Game 1 starts on 9 March in Niigata.
To complete the results below: Nakano's final step to the playoff final was to beat Cho Chikun.
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Older News From 19 December 1999: JUDAN ENTERS THE LAST FURLONG
New faces are continuing to push through in Japan, but most are from the Nagoya-based Central Branch of the Nihon Ki-in. Yamashita Keigo 6-dan has won the Winners' Section of the 38th Judan, and now he awaits the outcome of the final game in the Losers' Section between Nakano Hironari 9-dan and Cho Chikun 9-dan.
The winner of the two sections will go on to challenge holder Kobayashi Koichi in March 2000.
RESULTS 1999
The results of the final knockout so far are:
Winners' Section
Round 1:
Cho Chikun 1-0 Hane Naoki
Yamada Kimio 1-0 O Meien
Hikosaka 1-0 Mimura
Yamashita 1-0 Rin Kaiho
Otake 1-0 Redmond
Nakano 1-0 Kobayashi Satoru
Yoda 1-0 Matsuoka Hideki
Takemiya 1-0 Imamura Toshiya
Round 2:
Cho 1-0 Yamada
Yamashita 1-0 Hikosaka
Nakano 1-0 Otake
Takemiya 1-0 Yoda
Semi-Finals:
Yamashita 1-0 Cho
Nakano 1-0 Takemiya
Final:>Yamashita 1-0 Nakano
Losers' Section
Round 1:
Hane 1-0 O Meien
Rin 1-0 Mimura
Redmond 1-0 Kobayashi
Matsuoka 1-0 Imamura
Round 2:
Hane 1-0 Rin
Matsuoka 1-0 Redmond
Yamada 1-0 Hikosaka
Yoda 1-0 Otake
Round 3:
Hane 1-0 Matsuoka
Yamada 1-0 Yoda
Cho 1-0 Takemiya
Round 4:
Nakano 1-0 Hane
Cho 1-0 Yamada
HOW DOES THE JUDAN WORK?
The Judan Championship is sponsored by large daily national newspaper, the Sankei Shinbun (originally known as the Sangyo Keizai Shinbun). It is the successor to the Hayago Meijin.
Top prize is 10.6 million yen. Runner-up gets one fifth as much. Game fees are graduated not just according to the stage of the event but also according to rank.
The structure of the tournament is unusual in that it incorporates a repechage, though it has been copied several times. The purpose is to ensure that the strongest players do not suffer from an accidental loss.
The main section begins with a 16-player knockout (the Winners' Section), but the losers cross over to a parallel Losers' Section knockout. The level at which they enter depends on the level at which they were knocked out of the Winners' Section.
The winners of the two sections eventually play off to decide who challenges the title holder in a best-of-five (in Term 1, however, the play-off was a best-of-five to decide the first holder). With one exception, a player thus drops out only once he has lost two games.
The exception is the winner of the Winners' Section. If he loses the play-off against the winner of the Losers' Section, he gets no second chance.
All those who win two or more games in the main section retain their places the following year. The other eight players drop back to the qualifying stage.
The event is open to all pros from the Nihon Ki-in and the Kansai Ki-in. The preliminary stages are divided into three. First is a knockout tournament for all 1-dans to 4-dans (giving four from the Nihon Ki-in and two from the Kansai Ki-in), and then comes another knockout for the Stage 1 qualifiers and all 5-dans to 9-dans, to find 24 qualifiers for the third stage knockout, where they are joined by the eight players demoted from the main event.
In Term 1, all 9-dans (11) seeded to the main event.
Time limits are now 5 hours each but used to be 6 hours each. Komi is 5.5 points.
Judan means 10-dan (normally 9-dan is the highest rank awarded).
The Hayago Meijin (1956-1961), also sponsored by the Sankei Shinbun (then briefly known as the Sankei Jiji; the name was changed to Sankei Shinbun in 1956), was originally comprised of separate tournaments for East and West Japan, and the respective winners (meijins) were pitted against each other in a telegraph match for the overall title. This was because the Sankei Jiji had separate editions in Tokyo and Osaka.
Although Hayago means "quick go" or "lightning go", in those days it meant games of 5 hours each played in one day, rather than the 10 hours and two days of the main title matches. The final was a best-of-three and komi was 4.5 points.
