Amazon army

[pajaro]

Rina got another good result. She beat Hashimoto Yujiro 9-dan in the last game of the A prelim of the Honinbo. She will play the last prelim, for a seat in the league.

She won't be alone. Ueno Asami is already waiting there, after winning her last game against Tsuneishi Takashi 5-dan. Takashi seems to be one of the strong young players out there, so this shows her level.

In the past, other women have been close to play in one of the big leagues. Close, not there.

The A prelim is about to end. We will have the last draw very soon.

[CDavis7M]

Back on the 13th there was a live steam for a game in the women's Honinbo main tournament: Koyama Terumi vs Nyu Eiko. Rin Kanketsu did commentary and had his buddies over as usual. I didn't have a chance to watch the steam yet. Just posting in case anyone else missed it.
tournament page: https://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/match/fhoninbo/041.html

At the beginning of the year Nyu Eiko made it to the main Gosei tournament, playing against Yoda Norimoto. I hope she keeps doing well.

[pajaro]

Two important games today.

First, Fujisawa Rina beat Ueno Asami in the second game of the Tachioi Cup (aka Aidu Chuo Hospital Cup). Ueno won the first one, but Rina won the second, after a semeai ended with a big loss for black (Ueno). She tried to fight back, but the game was over.

This is a 3-game match, so next 24th, we'll know the winner. Personally, I'd like Ueno to win.

The second game was played by Hoshiai Shiho and Numadate Sakiya 7-dan. This was the last game in the A prelim of the Judan, and Hoshiai won (B+2.5). It looks like a game that needed very good positional judgement. Numadate plays in the B Kisei league, so not an easy opponent. Good for Hoshiai, who is 1 or 2 games away from the main event. A first time for her.

[CDavis7M]

Thanks for the notes. Looks like the next match is beginning in a day. Same time as the Gosei title match. I'm always interested to see how many people watch the match.

Fujisawa Rina has been getting a lot of airtime lately. Her Senko tournament match is being streamed in a few days as well.

edit: And I just noticed that she is on the cover of Go World for July.

[pajaro]

So, the final game was played.

The outcome (I am glad to say), is that Ueno Asami won. In the end, it was a typical hammer win, with an unexpected kill. I didn't see it coming until it was too late.

I wanted her to win, because I like it when tournaments are won by different players. It's better for comepetition and for fans, I think. In the future, when certain player wins titles, perhaps I will have a change of heart

About this game, something interesting: quite early, there was a ko fight, and Rina made a decission that AI didn't like at all. Ueno had a won game (...) very soon. After some time, the game was even, and even Rina was ahead. But soon, the hammer set things right.

[CDavis7M]

I wanted her to win, because I like it when tournaments are won by different players. It's better for comepetition and for fans, I think.

I saw the game was running but I only caught the first part of the Gosei and haven't finished watching either match. I have to say, though, that I completely agree that it's more fun to have several title holders and at least different players challenging titles. In the main tournaments, I was very happy to see Seki Koutaro take a title. It's good to have Ichiriki's face back under title-holders.

The Aizu Central Hospital (会津中央病院) match is one of the top titles. At least that's what Go World makes me think as Ueno will get her face there at the back. But Ueno is strong, has been strong, and she's already the female Kisei. What I think was really exciting was seeing Nakamura Sumire challenge the Meijin. I'm still surprised by that actually.

So who's next? We saw the Meijin and now Aizu. Kisei was a while ago. Women's Honinbo and Senko cup are in the main rounds, discussed here already. I see now that Nyu Eiko beat Ueno Risa. Would be nice to see Nyu in a women's title match.

June 2022 - Title Holders - BW.jpg (507 KiB) Viewed 10574 times

Side topic but John Power just put out a comprehensive report on Japanese Go (https://www.usgo.org/news/2022/06/the-p ... s-updates/) and I was wondering if the Aizu Central Hospital match was the "Hollyhock" ("tachiaoi") and yes that is the "立葵" part of "会津中央病院・女流立葵杯". I think I first read that from Power as that's what he calls it in the article.

[John Fairbairn]

Ueno Risa has just (2022-06-21) been promoted to 2-dan for achieving 30 wins.

[pajaro]

Ueno Risa has just (2022-06-21) been promoted to 2-dan for achieving 30 wins.

Oh, great!

I am glad to read this. I just checked her NK profile, and there are a lot of white dots. This year she is 15-6 so far. 71% winning rate. One of the best in Japan.

Risa is very young (just turned 16, 2 days ago), and although she had some interesting wins, her results were so-so. This year she is doing better. Did she just finish junior high school? Maybe she can focus more on go?

Also, Risa has to bear 2 important burdens: she is the young sister of the rising Ueno Asami, and she became pro with Nakamure Sumire, who has been having great results, and became 2-dan more than 1 year before.

Comparisons are hateful.

[CDavis7M]

Fujisawa Rina posted a picture of the "Hollyhock" flower that the Aizu central hospital tournament is named after: https://twitter.com/rinafujisawa/status ... 2912544768


Meanwhile, @twi_mako posted a portrait: https://twitter.com/twi_mako/status/1522085349350322178

[pajaro]

Two important games today.

In the last prelim tournament of the Honinbo, Ueno Asami and Fujisawa Rina made their first appearance. If I am not wrong, Suzuki Ayami has played before (and reached the last game), but this is the first time that 2 Amazons play.

Asami lost to Hikosaka Naoto 9-dan. I saw only a bit, and she was fighting for her life. A big group was cut and part died, part barely lived. Better luck next year.

But Rina won. She beat Nakamura Shinya 9-dan. You might remember him from "Raising Nakamura Sumire"... and not many other stories. I am happy for Fujisawa. She will play Murakawa Daisuke 9-dan and then, perhaps, Otake Yu 6-dan (this is my prediction). It would be great to see her playing in the Honinbo league.

The Nakamuras must be not very happy with Rina...

[pajaro]

The semifinals of the Seiko Cup have been played today.

Gazzawhite has already commented a bit in the Sumire thread, but it's an Amazon event, so I'd like to add a few things...

Sumire beat Rina, for the first time. It's their 3rd official game, but the probably know each other well, since they are in the Ichiriki study group, and the national squad. It was a close game in the end. But Sumire held well, although there were a couple of moments when...

In the other game, Nyu Eiko beat Ueno Asami. The hammer got hammered, and Nyu will play the final, well deserved.

This final will be important. For some time, the winner of the female tournaments has been either Fujisawa or Ueno (and most of the times, the runner-up too), so a new winner will bring some fresh air to the scene. I will be rooting for Sumire, but if the winner is Nyu... I can live with that.

[pajaro]

The Seiko Cup finished.

The winner was Nyu Eiko 4 dan. Congratulations to her.

For most of the time, the game was even or with Sumire leading. But in the beggining of yose, she made a mistake, acording to AI, and the situation changed. Nyu didn't waste her chance, and won her first title.

In the audience (and here as well), most people were rooting for Sumire. So young, a new record... but the goban doesn't know about this.


This should be a boost in morale for Nyu, and a good lesson for both of them. In the future, I hope they will do even better.

[CDavis7M]

Very cool for Nyu Eiko. I remember they played before months ago and Nakamura Sumire won. But Nyu had been doing well, even in the open tournaments. I was excited when she made it to one of the main tournaments--Gosei I think.

I wonder whether Sumire winning would have set why record, and it's a bummer she felt so bad about this.

But I don't feel less happy for Nyu. She's strong and earned the win. I hope to see her playing more in the main tournaments.

------

The Senko Women's Strongest title is one of the major women's titles. At least it gets your face in the back of Go World. Looking there I see that Fujisawa Rina had won the past 5 times (of 6).

So Nyu should definitely get on the cover of Go World for this right? I don't know if I've seen an interview with her yet. This is a big deal!

[pajaro]

If Sumire had won, she would have been the youngest title holder ever. That's the record she was aiming for. When she became a pro, she said that she wanted to win a title while she was in school. Sumire could probably see the goal very, very close.

I feel bad for Nyu. She was the winner. She had to fight hard, as much as anyone else, and she deserves the title. But overall, all I read is about the player who lost. "Sorry for spoiling everything, how selfish of me" she must be thinking. But of course, she didn't say this. The few comments I read about her talk about her nice words after the game.

You must know how to lose, and how to win.

[HKA]

It seems appropriate to jump in here with a rare post. And I make an offering to the fact checking gods for doing so without my usual confirmations.

Of course we all love to follow Sumire, but I want to amplify pajaro's remarks and put in a good word for the victor.

It was a pleasure meeting her at the US Go Congress in Wisconsin where she won the US Open. She visited with her mother, Niu Lili, and was following in her footsteps - mom had visited two of the early U.S. Go Congresses. Niu Lili can be seen with Go Seigen in the Surrounding Games film, and she is the sister of Niu Xianxian, Michael Redmond's wife.

So, Western Go fans, certainly U.S. ones, should certainly reserve some fandom for her.