26th Meijin League standings as of 17 March 2001. As O Meien faltered and posted his first loss, veteran Rin Kaiho joined him as frontrunner. More important psychologically, it was Rin who beat O and Rin has so far played the higher-ranked players.
There is clearly something in the water in Japan, as a whole clutch of "oldies" have suddenly started doing well again - Rin, Kato, Cho, Ishida, Kobayashi...
Ryu Shikun also woke up at last and posted his first win.
CC
OM
OR
HN
RS
KM
RK
CS
KH
1
Cho Chikun 9d
-
1
0
0
=
1-2
2
O Meien 9d
-
1
1
0
1
=
3-1
3
O Rissei 9d
-
0
1
1
=
2-1
4
Hane Naoki 8d
0
-
0
0
1
=
1-3
5
Ryu Shikun 7d
0
0
1
-
0
=
1-3
6.
Kato Masao 9d
1
-
1
0
=
2-1
7
Rin Kaiho 9d
1
1
0
1
-
=
3-1
7
Cho Sonjin 9d
0
1
0
-
=
1-2
7
Komatsu Hideki 9d
1
0
0
1
-
=
2-2
*****
Older News From 2 March 2001: MEIJIN NEARS HALFWAY STAGE
26th Meijin League standings as of 2 March 2001. Ryu Shikun has denied that his horrible start to the year has anything to do with being the victim in the Chunkan Cup incident with Kobayashi Satoru. But the questions imply that others don't agree.
*****
Older News From 2 February 2001: MEIJIN LEAGUE UNDER WAY
The 26th Meijin League is under way with 6 non-Japanese and only two Japanese players. Nostalgic readers will welcome the reappearance of Kato Masao and Rin Kaiho, but Honinbo O Meien is the man in form.
*****
Older News From 3 November 2000: AMATEURS MOSTLY FALTER AT FIRST HURDLE IN QUEST TO BE MEIJIN
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Amateur Best Ten tournament, the top five were allowed to participate in the 27th Meijin at the First Preliminary stage. Two made it past the first round. One was Nakazono Seizo, who defeated Kin En. Kin is from Shanghai and recently was promoted to 2-dan.
The other amateur through was Kikuchi Yasuro, by virtue of a bye. Kikuchi had double good fortune in his second-round game, because his opponent on 18 October 2000 was his pupil, Osawa Narumi 2-dan. She appeared below par, yet even so got ahead, only to allow a 2.5 point upset victory by her teacher. If Kikuchi continues to do well, he could meet Germany's Hans Pietsch in the final of his section.
Nakazono went out in the second round, but by a mere half point, against Rin Kanketsu 2-dan on 25 October.
Note that that was the 27th Meijin, even though we have only just seen the conclusion of the 25th. It is possible for three Meijin tournaments to be running simultaneously. In the 26th, which is at the stage of determining who plays in the next League, Komatsu Hideki 9-dan has made a return - he last appeared in the 17th League - by beating Cho U 6-dan on 26 October. Komatsu, a pupil of Yasunaga Hajime, has also appeared in six Honinbo leagues (46th to 50th, and 52nd). In a nice piece of "his and hers", his wife is called Hideko. She is 3-dan and won fame as the first 1-dan to defeat a 9-dan in an even game (as Ninomiya Hideko in 1988).
New Chikurin winner Takao Shinji 7-dan and new Kisei challenger Cho Sonjin 9-dan will play-off for another of the three available League places, and the other vacancy will be occupied by the winner of the game by Rin Kaiho 9-dan who beat Yamashiro Hiroshi 9-dan on 2nd November.
By qualifying Rin extends his record for number of years in the Meijin League. He has been either the title holder or in the League for 35 consecutive terms, from the 3rd Old Meijin to the 23rd New [i.e. current] Meijin. In that period, he has won the title 8 times and appeared in the final a further 6 times. The next best record is 19 consecutive league/title appearances by Otake Hideo 9-dan.
The Meijin tournament is now sponsored by the newspaper Asahi Shinbun. It was previously sponsored by the Yomiuri Shinbun, but after a dispute with the Nihon Ki-in over funding, the Yomiuri switched to the Kisei tournament and their version of the Meijin, which ran from 1962 to 1975 - when it was the most important tournament - is now referred to as the Old Meijin.
Top prize is 28 million yen.
The title holder is challenged each Autumn by a challenger who is the winner of a nine-man all-play-all league. The bottom three in the league are demoted. Entry to the league is via preliminary tournaments held in three stages. The Third Preliminary comprises three separate knockouts, and the winners of each take one of the vacant league places.
Ties for first place are resolved by a playoff (between the two top ranking players if there are more than two tied). Ties for demotion places are decided according to previous performances in the tournament.
In the final (best-of seven) each player has 8 hours thinking time over two days. Each game of the final is played in a different city. In all other games thinking time is 5 hours each. Komi has always been 5.5 points.
The word Meijin (Mingren in Chinese, Myeongin in Korean) derives from Chinese and denotes a Master of something esoteric, such as medicine. In go it was famously first applied to Honinbo Sansa by the military ruler Oda Nobunaga at the end of the 16th century. Since then it became the lifetime title of the senior player of the age, and was equivalent to 9-dan. The last lifetime Meijin was Honinbo Shusai who died in 1940 after bequeathing his titles to the Nihon Ki-in. The first 9-dan who was not a Meijin emerged in 1949 (Fujisawa Kuranosuke).
Honinbo Shusai is the subject of the novel "Meijin" by Nobel prize winner Kawabata Yasunari (translated by Edward Seidensticker as "The Master of Go"). It is a slightly fictionalised account of Shusai's famous last game against young star Kitani Minoru. It can be seen as an elegiac comment on the passing of the old ways in Japan.
The format of the tournament sponsored by the newspaper Yomiuri Shinbun was similar but the komi was 5 points, White winning jigo (ties). A win by jigo was classed as less than other wins, and this affected the outcome of the first term which was decided by a 13-man league.
