In what appears to be a record, Ryu Shikun 7-dan took the 26th Tengen title by winning each of the first three games by half a point.
The decisive Game 3 took place at the Kaigetsu Tea Garden in Chinzei-cho, Higashi-Matsuura-gun, Saga Prefecture, way down in Kyushu. It is an area that has a long tradition of go, and one noteworthy item is a stone board excavated from the ruins of nearby Nagoya castle. As befits the ultra-traditional setting for this game, the room, the board and the stones were all specially chosen. The board was a tenchimasa grain version that was worth 5 million yen (about 50,000 dollars), though that is cheap by the standards of the best shihomasa boards - currently starting at about 20 million yen.
The room was decorated by a scroll saying Ichigo Ichie (roughly "once in a lifetime") written by the Kyoto priest Kobayashi Taigen. Maybe it gave some inspiration to the other Kobayashi, Ryu's opponent and holder Koichi 9-dan, for he began well enough. Indeed, the players in the press room thought he had a lead most of the time and prominent among those commentators was the newest 9-dan, Michael Redmond, whose comments were relayed to public in Nagoya Museum (that's Nagoya in Saga, not the central Japan one).
But Ryu is nothing if not dogged, and he was able to hold out to win by that magical half point to take back the title he last held four years ago.
One of the abiding mysteries of Japanese go is that Ryu remains at 7-dan. Promotion depends on results in the Oteai, not on title matches, of course, but there are rumours that may change. The Nihon Ki-in is finding it increasingly difficult to support the Oteai, and may abolish it. It has apparently already had to cut players' salaries by about 8 per cent a couple of years ago (though tournament sponsorship seems healthy enough). Proponents of a new system would prefer high dans to be awarded to title winners. Under one proposed system Ryu would get 8-dan for winning the Tengen - only the big three titles would get 9-dan.
The combatants in the 26th Tengen moved to Awara spa in Fukui Prefecture for Game 2 on 16 November 2000. In typical spa fashion, the two players were dressed at the match-eve party in almost identical fetching blue numbers - the Japanese dress supplied by the hotel.
As it turned out, there was hardly any difference between the players on the board too, a half-point margin just as in Game 1. Trouble was, for holder Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan, it was Ryu Shikun 7-dan who held the slightly bigger territory again. Given the contemporaneous Gore-Bush saga, Kobayashi may have been tempted to demand a recount, but excuses such as being confused by Ryu's moves or having to wear the same costume may not have carried much weight - and Japan is mercifully free of lawyers.
As a native, Kobayashi may win the popular vote, but Korean-born Ryu is out to prove yet again that anyone can become a titleholder in Japan, the land of go freedom.
OLder news From 9 November 2000: RYU WINS ON THE ROAD
Ryu Shikun 9-dan won the first game of the 26th Tengen by beating Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan in his own backyard on 9 November 2000. The game took place in the industrial city of Asahikawa on Hokkaido, though far above the grime in the 15-storey Asahikawa Palace Hotel, which reckons itself as the plushest place in town.
The local Hokkaido Shinbun newspaper, hoping to capitalise on a local boy angle gave prominent space to a long interview between Kato Masao 9-dan and Michael Redmond 9-dan (the significance of these two being that Kato is a co-pupil with Kobayashi of Kitani Minoru, whilst Ryu and Redmond are pupils of Oeda Yusuke).
They effectively predicted victory for Ryu. Redmond pointed out that pros tend to try harder the further away they are from home (Ryu is from Korea), to which Kato reminded Redmond that no-one was further away than him. Redmond laughed and promised to try harder. But there were also serious statistics that it was difficult to quibble with. Ryu is the man in form. In the current season his score stands at 36-17, whereas Kobayashi is hobbling along on 18-20. Kato pondered whether it was the first time Kobayashi had been in such doldrums - acerbated of course by the recent loss of his Gosei title to Yamashita Keigo.
More specifically, Kato considered that Kobayashi had lost some of his usual accuracy in the endgame. That may have been significant in this game - Ryu won by a mere half point. On the other hand the result may have been a typical Ryu outcome - according to Redmond Ryu wins many games through coming from behind.
Kato remarked on the fact that the last four in the Tengen challengers' tournament were all foreigners, and said: "It's the same in every tournament; it is the achievements of the Koreans and the Taiwanese that stand out." An innocuous enough remark, but significantly one that would hardly ever have been made until very recently.
Ironically, Ryu moved to Japan to see more action, having been on the verge of becoming a pro in Korea. He was a friend of Yi Ch'ang-ho and good rival. Now it is Korea that is centre-stage.
As to the content of the games, Kato expected Kobayashi to grab territory early on and thus force Ryu to play catch-up, but since Ryu was happy with using thickness he would not mind that. Endgame play could be decisive. Since both players had a track-record of being able to fight back when in a tight spot, he thought the match could go the full length, a best-of-five.
Game 2: 16 November (Kaikatei, Awaracho-Onsen, Sakai-gun, Fukui Prefecture)
Game 3: 30 November (Kaigetsu Tea Garden, Nagoya-jo, Chinzei-cho, Higashimatsuura-gun, Saga Prefecture)
Game 4: 6 December (Hotel Okura Kobe, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture)
Game 5: 21 December (Isuien Inn, Tokushima City, Tokushima Prefecture)
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Older News From 21 September 2000: RYU TO CHALLENGE KOBAYASHI
The all-Korean challenge final to find a challenger to Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan in the 26th Tengen ended in victory by Ryu Shikun 7-dan over Cho Sonjin 9-dan on 21 September 2000.
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KOREAN BOUND TO CHALLENGE FOR 26th TENGEN
The challenger to Kobayashi Koichi in the 26th Tengen will be either Cho Sonjin 9-dan or Ryu Shikun 7-dan, two expatriate Koreans.
After semi-finals played on 17 and 24 August 2000, Cho emerged victorious against Rin Kaiho 9-dan, and Ryu beat Cho Chikun 9-dan.
The date of the final of the challenge knockout has yet to be decided but will be in
September.
The remaining quarter-final results not so far given were:
Cho Chikun 1-0 O Rissei
Ryu Shikun 1-0 Kobayashi Satoru
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Older News From 24 June 2000:
CHALLENGERS WHITTLED DOWN
The knockout to determine the challenger to Kobayashi Koichi in the 26th Tengen is reaching
its final stages.
Seven of the eight are known, as of late June 2000: Kataoka Satoshi 9-dan, Rin Kaiho 9-dan,
Cho Sonjin 9-dan, Yo Kaei 7-dan, Cho Chikun 9-dan, Ryu Shikun 7-dan and Kobayashi Satoru
9-dan. The last place was between Cho U 6-dan and O Rissei 9-dan.
But one side of the draw is actually more advanced than the other, and two quarter-final
games have already been played. In these, Rin beat Kataoka and Cho Sonjin beat Yo.
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.
