TAKAO WINS
Takao Shinji 7-dan won the 9th Ryusei tournament by winning the final game broadcast on 1 September 2000. Runner-up was Takaga Shoichi 9-dan. Both had some impressive scalps to their credit on the way to the final. The final eight included the Meijin, Judan and Kisei title holders, but when the smoke cleared the last four were all new faces. Takao is just 23 and he had to face the youngest player, 20-year-old Cho U, yet their semi-final game (given here) featured what most people regard as a very old-fashioned opening - the Small Avalanche. Takao had tried the Small Avalanche against the other Cho, too, (Chikun) in Round 1.
Full results of final knockout:
Quarter-finals:
- Cho U 6d 1-0 Otake Hideo 9d
- Takao Shinji 7 1-0 Cho Chikun 9d
- Takagi Shoichi 9 1-0 Kobayashi Koichi 9d
- Imamura Toshiya 9d 1-0 O Rissei 9d
Semi-finals:
- Takao 1-0 Cho
- Takagi 1-0 Imamura
*****
Older News From 12 August 2000:
BOILED DOWN
The very long preliminaries of the 9th Ryusei tournament - involving 96 players this year (2000) - have at last boiled down to final eight, who are currently engaged in a the final knockout.
The eight qualifiers were:
- Otake Hideo 9-dan
- Cho U 6-dan
- Cho Chikun 9-dan
- Takao Shinji 7-dan
- Takagi Shoichi 9-dan
- Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan
- O Rissei 9-dan
- Imamura Toshiya 9-dan
A couple of first round games have already been played in August:
- Takao beat Cho
- Takagi beat Kobayashi
Takagi's appearance makes a refreshing change because of his trademark opening takamoku. Having earned his place with four successive wins in the qualifying block, he was confident enough to play on the 5-4 point in answer to Kobayashi's star point opening move and ended up by winning by a massive 12.5 points. Takao's performance was just as impressive but he's a bit of an old hand in this event - it's his third successive appearance in the final knockout.
RYUSEI CUP ARCHIVES
HOW DOES THE RYUSEI TOURNAMENT WORK?
The Ryusei is a uniquely organised tournament sponsored by
Satellite Culture Japan Inc. It is televised nationally on Sky PerfecTV, and began when
cable TV (CATV) was first being laid down in Japan.
Top prize is 5 million yen.
Fifteen seeded players and 81 who have won through from
preliminary rounds (which any pro can enter) are divided into four ranked blocks (A, B, C,
D) of 24 players each.
The seeds are based on the year's prize money rankings for
both the Nihon Ki-in and the Kansai Ki-in.
Each block is run on a Paramas system (a kind of bubble
sort) where the two bottom ranked players start; the winner plays the next higher ranked
player; the winner of that does likewise.
Eventually two players from each block join a final
knockout of eight players: the player who has won most games (the higher ranked if there is
a tie) and the last player in who won a game. (Terms 5 and 6 were run slightly differently,
with blocks of 12 players each.)
This can cause wide discrepancies in the number of games
played. In the 1998 event, for example, Yamashita Keigo 5-dan worked his way up in Block B
from near the middle by winning 11 games - a record - whereas Kato Masao, who joined him in
the final knockout from the same block, only had to win one game.
The final is a single game held in September held at the
sponsors headquarters in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Thinking time is 1 minute for up to 10 moves,
otherwise 30 seconds a move, in the final and the block tournaments. In the preliminaries it
is 1 hour each with 1 minute a move overtime.
Komi has always been 5.5 points.
The word Ryusei (Dragon Star) is the name of a star
in one of the 28 Chinese traditional zodiacal constellations, but puns partly on the
Japanese word for satellite.
RYUSEI FINALISTS
(No event held in 1995)
