I just realise the final game I read earlier was a replay. The original one ended in a very rare triple ko situation.

http://www.go4go.net/go/games/sgfview/37138

I call this rare because white has the option to get out of the triple ko. But that would result in a ordinary ko fight and black happens to have one vital ko threat (K2) left at the bottom side.

This isn't very obvious, but hopefully with my hint above people can work out how the triple ko situation is inevitable.

I watched the final on TV. Kobayashi Koichi was giving the comentary. When Yamashita claimed the triple ko, suddenly Michael Redmond walked on screen. It turns out that he was the referee. The two players had a 30-minute break and then played again. The second game was 30-second byo-yomi but without the usual 10 1-minute thinking periods. Michael Redmond was the commentator for the second game. OK, so Kobayashi and Michael changed roles for game two I thought.

It turns out that was not the case according to a friend of mine. Kobayashi had an unbeakable commitment and had to leave. What to do now? No problem, Yamashiro Hiroshi 9p happened to be there watching the game so he could take over. But wait a minute. It sees that Yamashiro did not have a necktie (or whatever, he hadn't expected to be working) and was not considered well-dressed enough to do the commentary in front of the cameras. So instead he was drafted as the replacement referee and Michael took over the commentary.

BTW the replay was much more watchable than the typical television game due to the absense of think time. Typically when pros play and use their think time early in the game, the commentators have little or nothing to say and are stuck trotting out absolutely stock lectures on the fuseki or simply settling for silence. For some reason neither Igo/Shogi Channel (for the Ryusei) nor NHK (for the NHK Cup) are willing to edit dead time out of the beginning of the game, although they often do so late in the game even in quite interesting positions. The replay was quite exciting with Yamashita pressuring Kono Rin from the beginning. According to Michael Redmond, however, Yamashita wasn't accomplishing much due to Kono Rin's skillful defense. Michael was in the middle of explaining how Kono seemed to be slightly ahead when Yamashita played at the vital point (N11) and it turned out White was dead!

In the interview after the game Yamashita said that he has recently been playing a lot online and thought that he had improved at hayago as a result.

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Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

I wonder if anyone knows Yamashita's account(s)?

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Occupy Babel!