Kobayashi Izumi 4-dan won Game 2 of 13th Women's Meijin final on 28 February 2001, and so took the title from Aoki Kikuyo 8-dan.
Izumi's father Koichi has been the men's Meijin several times, and now his daughter has given the family the full set. Obviously this is a record of sorts. Izumi stuttered a little at the final stages of several events last year, but appears to have found the will to make the final push.
She is still just 23, and apart from having a famous go dad, her mother was Kobayashi Reiko 6-dan, daughter of the great Kitani Minoru. He never got to see her, though, as he died two years before she was born.
Game 2 was played at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo. Once again it was a very close game, Kobayashi inching ahead by 1.5 points after 301 moves.
Older News From 22 February 2001: KOBAYASHI SCRAPES THROUGH GAME 1
Kobayashi Izumi 4-dan won the opening game of the the 13th Women's Meijin final by a mere half point against holder Aoki Kikuyo 8-dan on 21 February 2001.
She is bidding to reverse the 0-2 result she suffered last year, so is already halfway there in this best-of-three. Aoki is looking for her third Meijin title in a row.
The game was played at the Hotel Edmont in Iidabashi, Tokyo but was also relayed live on the internet. Kobayashi, playing for territory against Aoki's thickness, tried a speculative invasion but got away with it and established a lead. She then had to hang on grimly as Aoki whittled it back in the endgame. Kobayashi conceded it was a tough game after the opening and admitted she was lucky to win. Although she thought she had a good middle game, she was surprised at how well Aoki came back.
Aoki simply thought that there was a lot on the game to be reconsidered. There will be plenty of opportunity for that, because the game is also splashed in Yukan Fuji and featured on NHK tv.
Game 2 is scheduled for 28 February at the Nihon Ki-in, and Game 3 for 14 March.
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OLder News From 20 January 2001: KOBAYASHI RISES TO THE CHALLENGE
Kobayashi Izumi 4-dan won the right to challenge for the the 13th Women's Meijin title when she beat Kato Tomoko 4-dan on 17 January 2001.
She will meet holder Aoki Kikuyo 8-dan in a best-of-three series on dates yet to be announced.
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Older News From 8 January 2001: KOBAYASHI ON TRACK TO REPEAT CHALLENGE
Kobayashi Izumi 4-dan is still in the frame to repeat her challenge to holder Aoki Kikuyo 8-dan in the 13th Women's Meijin, and we now know that she will play Kato Tomoko 4-dan in the final of the challengers' section.
Kato won the final of the losers' repechage section on 27 December 2000 when she beat Umezawa Yukari 4-dan of Hikaru no Go fame. Kobayashi has already won through with a clean sweep in the winners' section, overcoming Tsukuda Akiko 4-dan on 16 November.
Kato may well be the favourite as she beat Aoki Kikuyo 8d recently in the 2nd Women's Saikyo for the Tokyo Seimitsu Cup. Kobayashi has faltered several times in the late stages of tournaments.
Formerly more fully known as the All-Japan Women's Go Meijin Tournament, this event has always been sponsored by the evening newspaper Yukan Fuji, now joined by NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation).
Winner's prize money is 4.5 million yen. Runner-up gets 900,000 yen.
The current structure is based on the repechage system of the Judan. The main section begins with a 16-player knockout (the Winners' Section), but the losers cross over to a parallel Losers' Section knockout. The level at which they enter depends on the level at which they were knocked out of the Winners' Section. The winners of the two section eventually play off to decide who challenges the title holder in a best-of-three final. With one exception, a player thus drops out only once he has lost two games. The exception is the winner of the Winners' Section. If loses the play off against the winner of the Losers' Section, he gets no second chance.
All those who win two or more games in the main section retain their places the following year. The other eight players drop back to the qualifying stage.
The event is open to all pros from the Nihon Ki-in and the Kansai Ki-in. Amateurs have also been allowed to join in the qualification stage. This was the first event in Japan to allow amateurs and pros to play together.
The final parts of Terms 1 and 2 were run on a four-round Swiss system for eight players, with ties decided by sum of opponents' scores. This was the first time a Swiss had been used in Japan.
Time limits are 5 hours each. Komi is 5.5 points.
This event was preceded briefly by another event also called Women's Meijin, sponsored by NTV in 1973 and 1975. It was a 16-player knockout with time limits of 2 minutes then 30 seconds a move. Komi was 5.5.
Meijin 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. As a woman's title, however, it has no special history beyond this tournament. There are equivalent women's tournaments in Korea (Myeongin) and China (Mingren).
