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by John Power, Japan correspondent for the E-Journal

24th LG Cup: The first and second rounds of the 24th LG Cup were held in Gimpo City in Korea on May 27 and 29. As in the previous cup, China took five of the quarterfinal places and Korea the other three. Iyama Yuta survived the first round, but lost to Ke Jie of China in the second. Some of the results are given below.
Round 1 (May 27) Iyama (B) beat Li Xianhao 7P (China) by resig.; Zhao Chenyu 7P (China) (B) beat Cho U 9P (Japan) by resig.; Tao Xinran 7P (China) (B) beat Kyo Kagen (Xu Jiayuan) 8P (Japan) by resig.
Round 2 (May 29). Ke Jie 9P (China) (W) beat Iyama by resig.

Korea wins 9th Huanglongshi: Unlike the Nong Shim Cup, the women’s team tournament Huanglongshi is split into just two rounds. The second round was played in Taizhou City in the province of Jiangsu in China from June 9 to 12. The opening round was dominated by China (see my report of May 11), but, thanks mainly to the efforts of Oh Yujin 6P, backed up by Choi Jeong 9P, the tournament was won by Korea. This is its fourth win in this tournament. First prize is about $65,000. Results in the second round:
Game 8 (June 9) Oh Yujin (Korea) (B) beat Zhou Hong 4P (China) by resig.
Game 9 (June 9) Oh (B) beat Nyu Eiko 2P (Japan) by resig.
Game 10 (June 10) Oh (B) beat Li He 5P (China) by resig.
Game 11 (June 10) Oh (W) beat Ueno Asami 2P (Japan) by resig.
Game 12 (June 11) Lu Minquan 5P (China) (W) beat Oh by resig.
Game 13 (June 12) Choi Jeong 9P (Korea) (B) beat Lu by resig.
Game 14 (June 12) Choi (B) beat Yu Zhiying 6P (China) by 4.5 points.

Fujisawa defends Hollyhock: With three titles to her name (Women’s Honinbo, Women’s Hollyhock, and Women’s Meijin), Fujisawa Rina is Japan’s top woman player. This year the challenger for the 6th Aizu Central Hospital Women’s Hollyhock Cup was the number three player, Ueno Asami, holder of the Women’s Kisei title (Mannami Nao is number two by virtue of holding the Senko Cup), so this was a good pairing. However, the Hollyhock Cup is a best-of-three and the games are not spread out, so the match seemed to be over in a flash. In the first game, held at the Konjakutei inn in Aizu-Wakamatsu City in Fukushima Prefecture on June 14, Fujisawa (W) won by resignation after 174 moves. In the second game, played two days later at the same venue, Fujisawa (B) won by resignation after 211 moves. She has now held this title for three years in a row and it is her 11th title overall. This puts her in a tie for second place with Aoki Kikuyo (top is Xie Yimin with 27 titles). First prize is worth 7 million yen (about $64,000).

Ueno tops Most Wins list: For the fourth week in a row, Ueno Asami has topped the list of most wins. As of June 7, her record was 21-10. Ironically, she suffered four losses over the next two weeks, but no one caught up with her wins. This week she won two games and is still on top of the list with 23-14. I can’t confirm this, but it’s the first time I can recall a woman player topping this list.

Mixed success for Japanese team in Chinese B League: Tournaments for teams representing localities, as in soccer, have not caught on in Japan, but they seem to one of the most important activities in Chinese go. There are three levels and also a women’s team tournament, and they all attract a lot of an interest. In recent years, overseas teams from Japan and Chinese Taipei have also been invited to take part. A Japanese team, participating for the eighth year, has been playing in the B League and so far has been frustrated in its ambition to earn promotion to the A League, though it did ascend from its starting point in the C League. This year the B League tournament was held in Zhejiang Province from June 14 to 23. Over those ten days, the teams each played eight matches, making it a pretty heavy schedule, at least by Japanese standards. The Japanese team was made up Kyo Kagen, Shibano Toramaru, Motoki Katsuya, and Yo Seiki. It won three matches, drew one, and lost four, earning it 9th place out of 16 teams (only the top two get promoted to the A League). Each member of the team had four wins to four losses.
Players are also recruited individually by these teams. In one of their games, the team ran across Onishi Ryuhei, playing on board one for a Hebei team. He also scored 4-4, but his team came fourth.

Tomorrow: Shin Jinseo wins 31st TV Asia; Park Junghwan wins Chunlan Cup; Hane wins first Gosei game; Promotions; Obituaries