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Today Yamashita Keigo 9p easily beat Cho Chikun. Yamashita Keigo take white stone and play very intersting go from the beginning of the game. After quik kakari with black 3 white don’t play one space hasami but play tenuki to occupy the empty corner Cho Chikun decide to play second kakari from other side.

Recently the double kakari joseki is developing very quickly and we can see many innovations in past few years. The interesting things is the Kisei title match is 2-day game, when in 1 day players play only few moves and one made a sealing move for the next day. In this game it was Yamashita Keigo 9p to make a sealing move. The fun part of this story is that the sealing move is new move in this double kakari joseki, so the second day start very interesting.

After fight on left side Yamashita Keigo takes a lead, so Cho Chikun decide to sacrifice some stone to build a moyo in upper side but Yamashita easily make a living group there. I think black 103 was move asking for too much.

1 Game Yamashita Keigo 9p vs Cho Chikun 9p W+R
2 Game Cho Chikun 9p vs Yamashita Keigo 9p W+R
3 Game Yamashita Keigo 9p vs Cho Chikun 9p W+R

Dia.1 Rare joseki

Yesterday Cho Chikun 9p fight with Yamashita Keigo 9p. Previous game Yamashita won by resignation, but in Kisei one must win 4 game to obtain a title so leading by one game is nothing. Yesterday game was very interesting because of very rare fuseki. Cho Chikun was White. Yamashita start with nadare joseki but don’t end it and play tenuki. Next he play very rare joseki: Muramasa Sword. After black 7 from Dia.1 black cannot play O15 because the ladder is favourable for white. Yamashita start very complicated fight by extending to 8 but Cho found great reply White 9. White hane to corner will give black good shape in corner, but in the game yamashita had problem with very bad aji in corner.

Dia. 2 Black is leading

In following battle Yamashita made a questionable move (Black 31). Instead of this he should play Black 1 in Dia.2 After this the fight will be in black favour. In the gamYamashita must overlook the white wedge with 36.

Dia.3 - Losing move ???

Cho won first fight and earn many points on right side. Of course Black build big moyo with black 91 but Cho is very good in sabaki so he invade with 94. Yamashita reply with sharp attack but in middle of the figtht he made another questionable move Black 127 (a on Dia.3). Black 1 to 3 will give very even game. In the game start do-or-die fight. Unfortunately lost in big ko fighting. Yamashita resign after 248 moves. Cho Chikun again show that he is very good in fights. I think the only way to hold by Yamashita Keigo is to play solid go without any unneeded fights.

Next fight will be at 6-7 February.

1 Game Yamashita Keigo 9p vs Cho Chikun 9p W+R
2 Game Cho Chikun 9p vs Yamashita Keigo 9p W+R

Kisei is major Japanese Title with long time final. In final two players play in best of 7 game. every game is two days fight between titleholder and challenger. This year challenger is Cho Chikun 9p who beat in preliminary Cho U 9p.
In 1 Game Cho Chikun 9p was black and Yamashita Keigo 9p ws white. Yamashita is very famous of his modern aproach to the game. In fuseki he surprised me with white 6. Playing hasami in diagonal fuseki after first aproach is very uncommon, but Yamashita had a plan, playing tsuke (white 8). Thanks to hoshi in button right corner black had two cutting point so he need to play black 9.
The sequence to white 30 we can call new joseki. However white corner is not very strong and there is many bad aji. Very interesting start :]
Later game was more or less peaceful until Cho dubious move Black 123 and Yamashita start a sequence in upper right corner. It was very funny to see that someone is making a live group in Cho territory. Cho is known from his great sabaki and deep reading, so when Yamashita forced him to resign after made a live gorup in his territory was very enjoyable :] After White 18 from last diagram Cho resign. Next game will be at 30 Junuary in Japan. Good bye samba, good bye Brazil.