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The Power Report (2): Cao wins World Go Legends; Cho Chikun first to 1500 wins

by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal

Cao wins World Go Legends:The Japan-China-Korea World Go Legends Tournament is a special tournament (a one-off?) held in Zhejiang Province to commemorate the start of the City A League, which seems to be the most popular tournament in China. The sponsors invited a number of players who starred in international go in the late 20th century to participate. The results are given below. Long-term go fans will recognize the names, though there are some notable absentees (presumably not available). In the final, held on April 27, Cao Dayuan 9P of China (W) beat Kobayashi Koichi 9P of Japan by half a point (both these players were at their peak in the 90s). Results listed on the Nihon Ki-in homepage are given below, but are incomplete.

Round 1 (April 25). Cao Dayuan 9P (China) beat Kim Soojang 9P (Korea); Takemiya Masaki 9P (Japan) beat Liu Xiaoguang 9P (China); Ma Xiaochun 9P (China) beat Pak Seongho 9P (Korea); Yoda Norimoto 9P beat Yang Jaeho 9P (Korea); Nie Weiping (China) beat Suh Bongsoo 9P (Korea); Kobayashi Koichi 9P (Japan) (W) beat Hua Yigang 9P (China); Yu Bin 9P (China) beat Yamashiro Hiroshi 9P (Japan); Ko
bayashi Satoru 9P (Japan) beat Suh Neunguk 9P (Korea).

Quarterfinals (April 25). Yoda (B) beat Ma; Yu Bin beat (B) Kobayashi Satoru; Kobayashi Koichi (B) beat Nie; Cao (B) beat Takemiya.
Semifinals (April 26) Cao (W) beat Yoda; Kobayashi Koichi (W) beat Yu Bin.

Cho Chikun first to 1500 wins: On April 27, a win by Cho Chikun (right) against Kataoka Satoshi 9P in the second round of the 7th Masters Cup was his 1500th official win. He is the first player in Japan to reach this mark. His record is 1500 wins, 821 losses, 3 jigos, and  4 no-results, for a winning percentage of 64.6. Rin Kaiho is in second place with 1409 wins. Cho was surprised when a large of reporters came into the room, as he had had no idea he was approaching a landmark. As usual, this record generated a lot of trivia, so here goes. Cho’s age is 60 years ten months, and it took him 49 years to rack up 1500 wins. He has played games against 307 different opponents. His most frequent opponent is Kobayashi Koichi: they have played 129 games, of which Cho has won 66. He has scored most wins against the late Kato Masao, his record being 71-42-1 no result. Against Iyama Yuta, his record is a quite respectable 5-7. His top year just for wins was 2001, when he won 47 games. He has never had a minus record, the closest he came being 21-21 in 2009.