Next to Cho Chikun, she is my favorite professional. I saw she was promoted the other day and thought I'd start a discussion. She was dominant in the woman's tournaments a few years ago. Does anyone think she can reclaim a title (or two)?

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"For we are like tree trunks in the snow. In appearance they lie smoothly and a little push should be enough to set them rolling. No, it can't be done, for they are firmly wedded to the ground. But see, even that is only appearance." Kafka

Very cool. I see Xie Yimin mentioned in "The Power Report" and I've seen her face in Go World. I believe she is playing in the Sin Ryusei Sen tournament from IgoShogi, isn't she? That's here in the corner, huh? This advertisement reminds me of The Breakfast Club!




But I don't know much about her. Which games of hers are your favorite?

By the way, I feel bad for Iyama taking all those titles but no one bothers discussing him on here anymore it seems. Better luck to Xie.

Both Xie Yimin and Kobayashi Izumi were promote to 7-dan on making the requisite number of wins (120), rather than on winning titles. But both have a plus score this year, and Xie's is especially good (20-10). But the younger fry appear to have a lock on the titles, although Xie still leads on number of official titles won, at 27.

We are seeing the same thing in the amateur ranks. The newest Amateur Meijin (Kitashiba Masashi) is just 18, and the runner-up was 19. How long before go rules have to incorporate regulations for nappy-changing timeouts, including checks for hidden Katapoo?

Ask them to compare notes. Cho Chikun's revival was a story for the ages.



Poor sniffers...

I suspect the guys reared in the Godokoro would have said the same with, since he's already been mentioned, Cho Chikun's record.
The current generation has been reared between Hikaru (so, the talent pool was bigger than usual) and Alpha and servers. They've had chances to train no one had ever had, at the age they can dedicate the most time.

I think it's good that they can attract new fans. And we have our idols. Maybe they can't win as much as they did. They're still great players. I'd prefer to have more games with them, but...

Take care

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一碁一会

Seems like her good results recently just haven't translated into title wins. As mentioned above, maybe like Cho Chikun she can have a second wave in her career. There are some good NHK Tournament videos on YouTube with her playing. Here is a good one against Hane Naoki.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MObfCxOYOTQ&t=4728s

It shows her fighting spirit, and I love the opening she uses.

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"For we are like tree trunks in the snow. In appearance they lie smoothly and a little push should be enough to set them rolling. No, it can't be done, for they are firmly wedded to the ground. But see, even that is only appearance." Kafka

Her good results just took her to the last prelim of the Meijin. And, BTW, this is true for Cho Chikun too.

A deciding game to enter the league? Xie vs. Cho?

Last year the last preliminary tournament consisted of three separate single elimination brackets with 8 players each. That means three more wins to enter the league, so close but still a huge obstacle for both Cho and Xie.

Looks like Cho Chikun won on 9/2 and Xie Yimin lost http://njk.nihonkiin.or.jp/UI/01INFO/news.php

Does anyone know where to get the game records?

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"For we are like tree trunks in the snow. In appearance they lie smoothly and a little push should be enough to set them rolling. No, it can't be done, for they are firmly wedded to the ground. But see, even that is only appearance." Kafka

Sort of...



Take care

PS: it's apparently on Tencent, but my Aq keeps crashing when I try to get it. I suppose in some days it'll be available through the usual channels.

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一碁一会

I do know where to get the records but we have to wait until June 2022 when the 2022 Yearbook comes out (with games from 2021). Besides the yearbook, if you click around the link below, you can sometimes find links to videos or the Nihon Kiins own SGF player. But game records seem to not ever be available for qualifying rounds lower than the final round to determine the challenger. And usually there are no qualifying game reports given at all. In this case, there is a video of Cho Chikun's qualifying match from last month https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NGNNZPg_yk. Nothing for his most recent win.

Also, did Xie Yimin lose? I'm just using computer translation but doesn't the top of the page says that the triangle is first (black?) and the left is the winner. Also, there are tournament-by-tournament reports and it seems like Xie won vs Hirata Tomoya.

https://www-nihonkiin-or-jp.translate.g ... =ajax,elem

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My understanding is that the Nihon Kiin holds legal rights to the game records but that individual players are allowed to share their own records in some circumstances (like a study group) but I don't know any details. I don't believe that the members of the Nihon Kiin are allowed to present the games of others without some business arrangement. And while the Nihon Kiin keeps their own records of the games these definitely not normally shared. Qualifying matches are just lost to us.

No, she won.

I know that to win the last prelim you have to win 3 games, as it's a knock-out tournament of 8 players for each seat. But I was talking about the chance of Xie vs. Cho in the last game of a group. First, they have to be in the same group, in the right places, and win their first 2 games. Still a long way to go.

Oh cool! I've been reading that page wrong (thought the triangle next to the name indicated the winner), I'm glad they both won!

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"For we are like tree trunks in the snow. In appearance they lie smoothly and a little push should be enough to set them rolling. No, it can't be done, for they are firmly wedded to the ground. But see, even that is only appearance." Kafka

I found a nice quote for that...

"One cannot win the Meijin in his 20s" --Sakata Eio

That and 640Kb will get you a cup of coffee.

Take care.

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一碁一会

Regarding SGFs...

Cho Chikun's game is available on Go4Go. I don't know if Xie Yimin's was also in the Meijin; that's not up yet, but I don't think it'll take too much. You need to be registered, but that's about it.

Take care.

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一碁一会

Not gonna happen.

They are in the same group. But they are going to play the first game.

At least, one of them will be only 2 games away from the league.

Looks like Xie Yimin lost yesterday in the Kesei C league. Does anyone know how many they can lose and still continue?

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"For we are like tree trunks in the snow. In appearance they lie smoothly and a little push should be enough to set them rolling. No, it can't be done, for they are firmly wedded to the ground. But see, even that is only appearance." Kafka

Judging from https://gotoeveryone.k2ss.info/news/jp/kisei/46/ and similar brackets from previous years it looks like a 5 round Monrad but with players simply being kicked out when they have 3 losses, and it looks like if you get 2 wins you stay on until next years.

It looks like a much more sensible qualifying tournament format than the single-elimination that appears to be used 99% of the time by pros.

Correct, you stay in the league until you lose 3 times. Once you lose 3 times you get demoted (DM on the gotoeveryone page) and you go back to qualifying next year. But if you do well (say 2 wins and 3 losses) you have to win only one game to get back to the C league. The more wins you have the fewer games you have to win next year to get back into the C league.

Those with 3 wins 2 losses stay in C league for next year.
Those with 4-1 get promoted to the B league (marked with PM on the gotoeveryone page).
The 5-0 winner gets promoted to B league and also goes to the playoff for the title.

October 7th

Take care

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一碁一会

This match has begun. Enjoy.