I haven't seen it mentioned here, but there are two new foreign pros at the Nihon Ki-in. They qualified last year but have only just appeared on the roster of pro results. They don't start till April, so haven't actually played any games, but... And even when they do, it might be a long time before they see a lot of action. Antti Törmänen has just had 1 game this year, compared to, say, Sumire's 9 (4-5).

The newcomers are Rafif Fitrah Shidqi (Indonesian) and Chang Fukang (Malaysian). Both have appeared in the World Amateur in recent years. They qualified through the new scheme for fast-tracking foreigners.

Rafif, 17, is a foreigner to the Japanese, but would not be regarded as such in many other countries. He was born and raised in Japan. His father, an engineer, works there. Chang has spent some time in Japan as an insei.

Meanwhile, off the ranch, Yoda Norimoto appears a lot of people upset to have with postings on Twitter and Google Groups. I don't subscribe to any social media and can't find anywhere else what he is specifically alleged to have done, though it seems to include putting the Masters Cup in jeopardy by upsetting sponsor Fumikilla. Beyond purportedly not acting as a role model for society (one of the obligations of a NK pro which has blocked paths for certain western pros ) and talking to the press, I can't see what was said, although it is well known that social media causes the gearbox between mouth and brain to go haywire, so nothing would surprise me. There is nothing on Fumikilla's web site, but the Kiin has banned him from games for 6 months. Anybody more au fait?

Via reddit but not really making it any clearer:



On the other note: I'd really like to see more official games by Antti : )

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In case people wonder, Yoda's wife is also a pro, Hara Sachiko 4-dan.

It may or may not also be pertinent that the head of the NK board of directors is Kobayashi Satoru (who was once a naughty boy, too, so you can recover from these situations). And, in addition, it happened to be he who defaulted first in Round 1 of the latest Masters Cup (to Komatsu Hideki). And it was Komatsu who got to the final (where he lost to Cho Chikun) as the beneficiary of Yoda's default. Sounds potentially very tit-for-tat (or maybe tit-for-tit, or even tat-for-tat, in this case ).

This Masters Cup is for players over 50. Somehow you'd think they would have grown up by then. (Can I have my lollipop now, pleathe?)




With the demise of the Oteai, the only way to get lots of games nowadays is to win and go to the next round in each tournament. Antii lost his game in the Gosei. Incidentally, he played Yoda last year in the Tengen (and lost), but in that year he scored 5-11, which I thought was not at all bad. He is also being used by the Nihon Ki-in as a lecturer for English-speakers.

According to this article Yoda is back to playing again temporarily, as he appealed the case to the district courts, who in turn advised the Ki-in to let him play until they could come up with a verdict in the case. So he should be back to playing again at least until the end of April. We'll have to wait and see what happens after that.

Yoda Norimoto already lost few games by default ( he is in Kisei A league and had 1-0 record till default, that must be a pain), i must admit its a real pity. From other point its good that we have 2 more pros (according to Nihon Ki-in fb page they did pretty well in honsen, both went 9-5).