Go writers are running short of adjectives to describe the
current form of Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan. Having scaled the heights of the go world once, only
to slump while his wife was terminally ill, he is now back with a vengeance and holds five
titles, including two majors.
One of those, the Tengen, he defended on 18 November by racking up a 3-0 victory against
repeat challenger Kudo Norio 9-dan.
Game 3 in sgf format can be downloaded by clicking here.
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Older News From 10 November 1999: KOBAYASHI MOVES INTO TWO-GAME LEAD
With the scene moving from the far north to the Hotel Omoto
in Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan won the second game of the 25th Tengen final by 5.5 points in 212 moves.
Game 3 of the best-of-five moves even further south to the Hotel Okura in Fukuoka City on
18 November.
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Older News From 5th November 1999: KOBAYASHI TESTS VETERAN'S NERVES
Back on home territory in Hokkaido, Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan comfortably took the first game of the 25th Tengen final in Urakawa on 4 November. He defeated Kudo Norio 9-dan in a repeat of last year's match.
Indeed, the opening was a repeat of Game 3 of that match up to move 20, but Kudo varied first and paid the penalty. Black 21 was too good, and Kudo had to go through a difficult semeai at the bottom, but - still trailing - he launched 122 and 134 in an effort to create winning chances.
Kobayashi coolly captured the white stones in the centre and forced a ko with 139. After the inevitable trade, Black had a territorial lead and was able to coast. Actually, Kobayashi thought he had an easy game after Black 29!
Game 2 of the best-of-five is in Matsumoto City on 10 November.
Click here to download Game 1 and here to download Game 3 of the 1998 final in sgf format.
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Older News From 15 October 1999: KUDO IN MAJOR FINAL AGAIN AT AGE 59
Veteran Kudo Norio is in his third successive Tengen final - he won two years ago - after defeating Yamashita Keigo 6-dan. The first game of the 25th Tengen final is due on 4 November 1999.
The Tengen is the direct descendant of the Nihon Ki-in Championship and the Kansai Ki-in
Championship, which were thus merged. The sponsors of both the old and the new events are
the Shinbun Sansha Rengo, a federation of three newspaper companies.
The number of regional newspapers carrying the event is currently 12: the main newspapers Hokkaido Shinbun (published in Sapporo, Hakodate, Asahikawa and Kushiro), Tokyo Shinbun, Hokuriku Chunichi Shinbun (Kanazawa), Chunichi Shinbun (Nagoya, Tokyo, Kanazawa and Hamamatsu), Kobe Shinbun, Tokushima Shinbun and Nishi Nippon Shinbun (Fukuoka), plus the sports papers Doshin Sports, Tokyo Chunichi Sports, Chunichi Sports, The Daily Sports and Nishi Nippon Sports.
The winner's prize money is 10.4 million yen.
All players in the Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in are eligible. Two preliminary tournaments are held. The first is a partial knockout for 1-dan to 4-dan players to give the last eight players (six from the Nihon Ki-in, two from the Kansai Ki-in) who proceed to the second preliminary, where they join with the 5-dan to 9-dan players in another partial knockout.
This produces around 30 players (just over half from the Nihon Ki-in), who go into a main knockout with the previous challenger (or losing title holder) and semi-finalists to find a challenger to the title holder. Because the actual numbers usually exceed 32, there are usually a couple of playoff games to get down to that number.
Time limits are now 5 hours each (used to be 6 hours). Komi has always been 5.5 points.
Tengen (origin of Heaven), although originally a Chinese word, acquired a special go sense of centre of the board. This is attributed to the Imperial astronomer Shibukawa Shunkai (1639-1715; he was 7-dan in go). The go sense has been borrowed back into Chinese Tianyuan), and also into Korean (Chunweon), as the name of tournaments. Although they are organised separately, there are international matches between the respective champions.
The old Nihon Ki-in Championship was a knockout for all players but with players of 5-dan and above seeded into a Chuken Kishi (core players) section. Komi here was 4.5 points and time limits in the final were 10 hours each.
Because there were holders of both the Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in titles to respect when the Tengen was formed, the first term did not have a title holder. But the incumbent champions were compensated by being made honorary holders.
The Kansai Ki-in Championship, which was sponsored by the Kobe Shinbun, ran from 1959.
