Kubo downs Maruyama yet again
The challenger of Kio Habu is down to three players as Goda was waiting the winner of the game between Meijin Murayama and Kubo. Maruyama has been in a slump after winning the meijin title, but recently his results have been improving. On the other hand, Kubo has had a career season so far, battling for the lead in the winning percentage table with Habu. His first appearance in a title match does not seem to far away. Furthermore, he had won the last two games against Maruyama, so he went into the game with confidence.
It is hard to imagine a Meijin losing three times in a row against a 6-dan, but this is exactly what happened. Maruyama had the early lead, but Kubo turned the tables and finished with some accurate endgame play, showing that Maruyama's dangerous looking attack was actually quite harmless. Kubo will now have to beat Goda twice in a row to become the challenger of Habu.
No surprises in Ryu-O tournament
After all the excitement over the wins by the amateurs Yamada and Segawa over professionals in the Zen Nihon Pro tournament and the Ginga-sen, no new upsets in the Ryu-O tournament.
In group 6 we had a Watanabe encounter as amateur Watanabe met pro Watanabe, but without much success. The young professional star got an advantage in the middle game and won from there even though it was quite close in the end.
No chance for former amateur Meijin, amateur Ryu-O and amateur Osho Hayasaki, who played rookie Chiba. Hayasaki's special opening system was crushed by the professional.
Also no luck for the ladies, as Shimizu overlooked a nice combination by Ito No and that left her position in ruins. Ito cleaned up very quickly after that. This year only Yoshizawa defended the honour of the amateurs and reached the second round.
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