These ages seem wrong - particularly Ishida and Rin...They played in the 1971 Honinbo...which would make Ishida 12 and Rin 18 at the time...

Add 10 years for the right age.

There is a new tournament starting in Japan next month (Feb 2010), and it baffles me in several ways. Others may wish to speculate.

First, it is for veterans, a first in Japan. China and Korea have veteran tournaments but these were introduced for a very specific reason. With the rise of the teenyboppers, many vets in C and K were wondering where the next bowl of rice was coming from. That's hardly been a problem in J, even with its bloated 9-dan population, but still one wonders whether this is a sign of things to come. Mystery 1.

However, the new event, the Go Masters Cup, is clearly not intended as an alms house. It is limited to players of 50 and up who hold or have held one of the major seven titles. These are people who have already made it big, and sometimes even have a nice pension from their title-winning exploits. Why would other, more needy, players sanction such an exclusive event? Mystery 2.

We can see what the sponsors might get out of this. Access to big names, and not too many players (11 in Term 1), so reducing the sponsorship bill mightily. But oldies only? Yesterday's men? Mystery 3, unless this is a touch of nostagia.

The biggest bafflement, Mystery 4, is the commercial goals of the sponsors. There are two. There is S T Corporation, which makes a wide range of household goods and Fumakilla which makes things like insecticides. What on earth is the association between go and fly spray and geriatrics? It's women in Japan who buy the hosuehold goods and pesticide cans, anyway. I sense a possible explanation in the fact that the semi-finals of this knockout event are to be held in Hiroshima. Hiroshima is the area of Japan that is probably the most go devout and full of the strongest amateurs. It may be that one or both of the companies has a big presence in Hiroshima, though as far as I know they are both headquartered in Tokyo. The executives may be go players from Hiroshima but these are companies with shareholders, not private fiefdoms. So there may even be hidden motives, such as finding a way to lobby the go-mad prime minister. One way or another, a bit of a mystery.

What do you make of this deuced problem, Watson? And, by the way, Mrs Hudson, we shan't be staying for tea.

Déjà vu...

... all over again.

For those L19 readers not shaving yet (and that includes the women - no sexism here!), Cho-Kobayashi is a legendary rivalry, characterised by the vast number of games, from the days when great beasts roamed the go world. Go BOARDS were then twenty cubits wide and each black stone had to be hewn by each player by hand from the vast quarry of iNachi and each white stone involved a mighty duel with the whoring clam iMeretrix. Only the great and grumptious gods could watch these games atop the fabled Mount iFuji.

Now, however, you can see all these games in the equally fabled GoGoD database - and without the i. There are 131 games between them, of which three were pair go. Of the 128 "real" games, Cho has won 65 and Kobayashi 63.

Is there a schedule for the next games in the Igo Masters Cup?

Nice to see one of the great go rivalries continue. Two of the greatest players in the 20th century who were fortunate to be at their peaks at the same time. Makes me think of Genjo and Chitoku. Are there any other famous rivalries that involve so many games between the rivals?

There is a new tournament starting in Japan next month (Feb 2010), and it baffles me in several ways. Others may wish to speculate.

First, it is for veterans, a first in Japan. China and Korea have veteran tournaments but these were introduced for a very specific reason. With the rise of the teenyboppers, many vets in C and K were wondering where the next bowl of rice was coming from. That's hardly been a problem in J, even with its bloated 9-dan population, but still one wonders whether this is a sign of things to come. Mystery 1.

However, the new event, the Go Masters Cup, is clearly not intended as an alms house. It is limited to players of 50 and up who hold or have held one of the major seven titles. These are people who have already made it big, and sometimes even have a nice pension from their title-winning exploits. Why would other, more needy, players sanction such an exclusive event? Mystery 2.

We can see what the sponsors might get out of this. Access to big names, and not too many players (11 in Term 1), so reducing the sponsorship bill mightily. But oldies only? Yesterday's men? Mystery 3, unless this is a touch of nostagia.

The biggest bafflement, Mystery 4, is the commercial goals of the sponsors. There are two. There is S T Corporation, which makes a wide range of household goods and Fumakilla which makes things like insecticides. What on earth is the association between go and fly spray and geriatrics? It's women in Japan who buy the hosuehold goods and pesticide cans, anyway. I sense a possible explanation in the fact that the semi-finals of this knockout event are to be held in Hiroshima. Hiroshima is the area of Japan that is probably the most go devout and full of the strongest amateurs. It may be that one or both of the companies has a big presence in Hiroshima, though as far as I know they are both headquartered in Tokyo. The executives may be go players from Hiroshima but these are companies with shareholders, not private fiefdoms. So there may even be hidden motives, such as finding a way to lobby the go-mad prime minister. One way or another, a bit of a mystery.

What do you make of this deuced problem, Watson? And, by the way, Mrs Hudson, we shan't be staying for tea.

I think the rivalry of two such great, almost equally matched players is a remarkable thing. They were Kitani disciples together and career-long rivals. I'm happy to see them in the final of the veterans' tournament.