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Older News From 28 October 2000:
INORI BACK IN FRONT
The seesaw battle between holder Chinen Kaori 3-dan and Inori Yoko 5-dan in the 19th Women's Honinbo final continued as Inori pulled ahead 2-1 on 25 October 2000.
It was a comfortable win for Inori as the pair met in the Asaka-so traditional inn inside headquarters of the sponsors, Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance in Ichigaya, Tokyo.
Game 4 will be at the equivalent Yasuda location in Osaka on 15 November.
Click here for Game 3 in a downloadable sgf version.
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Older News From 19 October 2000
CHINEN PULLS LEVEL
Holder Chinen Kaori, going for her fourth successive title, pulled back to 1-1 in the 19th Women's Honinbo final on 18 October 2000, when she overcame Inori Yoko 5-dan in just 115 moves.
Having started in the remote Okinawan island of Miyako, the players traipsed to almost the other end of Japan to play in the equally obscure quiet mountain spa of Dake, near Nihonmatsu City in Fukushima Prefecture. The locals will probably be talking about this game a hundred years from now.
Chinen got what she felt was a poor opening, but realised she had won once she knew she could capture the left side. Inori had felt impatient at being on the defensive and so chose to counter-attack with the press at 80, but that hastened her defeat. The opening had been fairly sedate, but White 56 by Inori was such a slack move it was tantamount to loss of a full move, according to Ishida Yoshio 9-dan. Chinen took up the challenge of proving it was slack, and a tense fight ensued, but the press at 80 was the real losing move. Chinen had read out the semeai perfectly - or at least her moves coincided with the experts in the press room!
Inori declared that she would like to play a less embarassing game in future (she was not satisfied with her play in Game 1 either, despite winning, because she had had to rely on an endgame error by Chinen). Her problem here, said Ishida, who was doing the public commentary, was that she had lost her rhythm in the middle game.
Game 3 in this best-of-five will see the players back in Tokyo on 25 October, at a traditional inn in Ichigaya near the Nihon Ki-in. The inn is owned by the sponsors, Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance.
Click here for Game 2 in a downloadable sgf version.
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Older News From 12 October 2000:
INORI RAINS ON CHINEN'S PARADE
The 19th Women's Honinbo final kicked off at the Hotel Atoll Emerald in Hirara City, capital of the picturesque Okinawan island Miyakojima, in honour of holder Chinen Kaori 3-dan - the local girl.
Unfortunately for her, challenger Inori Yoko 5-dan didn't read the script and won the first game on 11 October 2000. Inori has yet to win a title, whereas Chinen is going for her fourth successive Honinbo title. This is the oldest women's title match in the world, though it is a young woman's event nowadays - both players this year are 26. Just as well, as it is a gruelling best-of-five with a fair amount of travelling, unusual for female events.
At the match eve party Chinen pointed out that it was exactly 11 years ago on that day (10 October) that she left Miyako for Tokyo, and it was a dream come true to defend a title in Miyako. The stimulus is that Okinawa has taken on a high profile this year because it hosted the G8 Summit, and Chinen featured in the government's national advertising of it.
Inori, for her part, accepted that everyone there was a Chinen fan, and added that she was too. But she was reported to be "burning with quiet fighting spirit" as she promised to try her best.
This game was broadcast live by the Nihon Ki-in on Panda Net. Here is a downloadable sgf version.
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Older News From 1 October 2000:
FINAL SCHEDULE FINALISED
The schedule for the best-of-five final for the 19th Women's Honinbo has been announced. Holder Chinen Kaori 3-dan and Inori Yoko 5-dan will kick off on 11 October 2000 on the Okinawan island of Miyakojima, Chinen's family's home town.
The rest of the schedule is:
- Game 2 - 18 October in Fukushima
- Game 3 - 25 October in Tokyo
- Game 4 - 15 November in Osaka
- Game 5 - 22 November in Tokyo
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Older News From 13 September 2000:
FIRST TITLE CHALLENGE BY INORI
Inori Yoko, just promoted to 5-dan, won the battle to challenge Chinen Kaori 3-dan for the 19th Women's Honinbo title on 13 September 2000. Her opponent in the challengers' final, and hot favourite, was Yoshida Mika 7-dan, playing on home territory at the Kansai Ki-in.
Inori, a 26-year-old pupil of Kobayashi Koichi 9-dan, visited the Milton Keynes tournament in Britain around this time last year, along with Umezawa Yukari 4-dan. What did she learn that made the difference!?
The title match is a best of five and has been pencilled in to start in early October.
Full results of the final stage:
Round 1
- Yoshida Mika 1-0 Izawa Akino 2d
- Yashiro Kumiko 3d 1-0 Sakakibara Fumiko 5d
- Kusunoki Teruko 7d 1-0 Okada Yumiko 4d
- Umezawa Yukari 4d 1-0 Ogawa Tomoko 6d
- Koda Akiko 1d 1-0 Sugiuchi Kazuko 8d
- Inori Yoko 5d 1-0 Mizuta Yukari 2d
- Kobayashi Izumi 4d 1-0 Koyama Mitsuru 5d
- Aoki Kikuyo 7d 1-0 Osawa Narumi 2d
Round 2
- Yoshida 1-0 Umezawa
- Yashiro 1-0 Kusunoki
- Inori 1-0 Koda
- Kobayashi 1-0 Aoki
Semi-finals
- Yoshida 1-0 Yashiro
- Inori 1-0 Kobayashi
WOMEN'S HONINBO ARCHIVES
HOW DOES THE WOMEN'S HONINBO
TOURNAMENT WORK?
This tournament was originally simply called the Women's Championship (or more fully, the All-Japan Women's Go Championship) but became the Women's Honinbo in 1982. These could easily be treated as two separate events, but they are usually grouped together.
The original sponsor of the Women's Championship was the Tokyo Times. Kyodo News Agency took over in 1982 and renamed it the Women's Honinbo, but Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance joined them from Term 14 inclusive and the name changed yet again to the Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Cup Women's Honinbo.
In addition, 14 (used to be 15) regional newspapers subscribe to the games. It is not only the oldest annual women's tournament, but is also one of the oldest in the whole professional calendar. It is also the most prestigious and richest women's event.
Top prize is 5.1 million yen. The losing finalist gets almost a third of that.
The event is open to all female pros in the Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in. The format has changed over the years, not just because of the changes in sponsorship but as the number of females pros has grown.
Term 1 was a one-game final. In the following terms the holder was challenged to a best-of three final in April by the winner of a four-player league. The bottom three players dropped out and were replaced by the winners of three parallel preliminary knockouts.
Nowadays, all players up to 4-dan compete in a preliminary knockout to win places not filled by seeds (5-dans and above plus previous year's top performers) in the final knockout of 16 players. The winner plays a best-of-five title match with the holder in October.
Time limits were 6 hours each in the early days but are now 4 hours each with one minute per move overtime. Komi is now 5.5 points but was 4.5 points up to 1974 inclusive (Term 20 of the Women's Championship).
The Honinbo title is the oldest in Japan. Originally it was the priestly name of a Buddhist monk Nikkai, from his abode in the Jakkoji temple in Kyoto. He was later (1605) known as Honinbo Sansa and was appointed the first Meijin by the Shogun in 1612.
The successive heads of the school he founded took the title of Honinbo until the 21st and last hereditary holder, Shusai, surrendered it to the Nihon Ki-in for an annual event. The main Honinbo for men and, technically, women began in 1941. The women's own event with this name began in 1982.
To see a list of past Women's Honinbo Winners click here.
FAMOUS MOMENTS
In Game 4 of the final of this event in 1997, as Chinen Kaori was expecting her first baby any day, she and challenger Yoshida Mika sat on chairs. This invoked huge press coverage.
To download this game in sgf format, right-click here and choose to save the link on your machine.
