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Top players do
well in Oza
Recently, the top players are all
showing great form. Final qualification stages of the Kisei
and Ryu-O had almost no players from Junisen classes lower than
B1. The same pattern applies to the Oza challenger finals. Nakahara
(B1) beat Abe (B2) and Kato (A) beat Kitahama (B2) to join Goda
(B1), Fujii (Ryu-O), Sato (Meijin), Moriuchi (A) and Maruyama (A).
The only possible surprise left can come from Arimori (B2), who
plays the final remaining game against Tanigawa (A). We are only
in the quarterfinal stage, but the challenger of Habu will not be
a big surprise this year.
Oi leagues
In the Red group of the Oi, Tanigawa
decided the fight for first place with Nakagawa in his favour
to get to 3-1. This was not easy, as Tanigawa lost the opening fight
and then made a big mistake that could have cost him the
game immediately. Tanigawa saw it only after he had played his move
and must have been agonising a little when Nakagawa was thinking
about his reply. Fortunately for Tanigawa, Nakagawa was too focussed
on repairing the final weakness in his position to notice the chance
he was given. Nakagawa still had chances to win after that, but
in the end rushed his attack and lost.
In
the white group a survival game between Namekata and Suzuki
Daisuke. Both players had a 1-2 score, but still had a chance to
win the group if they would win their two remaining games. Namekata
won convincingly, but only looked forward after the game. After
all, even though this win still gives him an outside chance to become
Oi challenger, losing the final game against Fukaura will mean that
he relegates from the Oi league. So there is still a big game coming
up.
Ryu-O tournament
In the Ryu-O the games in the preliminary
groups are in the final stages and the challenger knock-out
is taking shape. Last week two former Kisei title holders added
their names to the list of challenger finalists. In group 2 Yashiki
reached the finals with a win over Urano. In group 4 Miura qualified
with a win over Iizuka. It is only the first time that Miura managed
to qualify which is a bit surprising for a player of his caliber.
Ladies Osho
Shimizu
is looking to get the Ladies Osho title back that she lost to Ishibashi
last year. This will not be easy as the young Ishibashi is getting
stronger and stronger. Ishibashi was controlling the pace of the
first game as well, but when she rushed her attack, Shimizu managed
to turn the tables and win. It did not seem to bother Ishibashi
much, as immediately after the game the challenged visiting Suzuki
Daisuke to some 10 second byoyomi games that did not finish until
late in the evening. I think being able to play with so much enthusiasm
after a painful loss in a title match game is amazing and
to me this is showing that Ishibashi (not even 20 yet) has a bright
future.
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