O RISSEI KEEPS HIS THRONE
O Rissei 9-dan confirmed his position as king of the castle as he retained his Oza title in the 47th final, completed on 9 December 1999. By beating Cho Chikun 9-dan in Game 4 he took an unassailable 3-1 lead.
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Older News From 4 November 1999:
O RISSEI GETS HIS NOSE IN FRONT
Playing Game 2 of the 47th Oza Final in his home country seemed to give O Rissei 9-dan a lift. Accompanied to Taipei by fellow Taiwanese Rin Kaiho and Yo Kagen, acting as game commentators, he had the confidence even to try the 21st-century go style he is copying from Go Seigen. The result was an early victory against challenger Cho Chikun 9-dan that brought him back on level terms.
In Game 3, back in Kanezawa, O continued in the same vein and won in 186 moves. It is accepted that the top three players in Japan at present are Cho, O and Kobayashi Koichi. Cho and O have already played each other a dozen times this year. This final is about more than just the Oza title.
Game 4 is scheduled for 9 December in Yokohama.
HOW DOES THE OZA WORK?
The Oza is sponsored by the main Japanese economic newspaper, Nihon Keizai Shinbun (Nikkei).
Top prize is 10.4 million yen. The losing finalist gets about 2 million yen.
All pros in the Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in are eligible.
Nowadays the title holder is challenged by the winner of a final knockout of 16 players. Entry to this knockout is from a series of three preliminaries. The first is a partial knockout for 1- to 4-dans from which 8 players (6 Nihon Ki-in, 2 Kansai Ki-in) go on to the next stage, which is two separate knockouts for these players plus the 5- to 9-dans, one in the Nihon Ki-in and one in the Kansai Ki-in.
The top 16 and 4 players respectively go to the last preliminary stage, where they are joined by winners of Rounds 1 and 2 of the previous year's event. 12 players survive from this stage and are joined by the previous year's losing finalist and the three other semi-finalists for the final knockout. In earlier years the system was broadly the same but the numbers and seedings differed slightly.
The final, held in November~December, has been a best-of-five since Term 16 inclusive. Previously it was a best-of-three.
In the early years, special matches between the new Oza and Go Seigen were also held.
A parallel competition used to be run for the public called Tsugi no Itte (Next Move), and this was so popular it became a standard phrase in go.
Time limits are now 5 hours each throughout, but used to be 6 hours, with 10 hours in the final. Komi was 4.5 in Terms 1 and 2, 5.5 points thereafter.
Oza means throne.
OZA FINALISTS
