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The Power Report (2 of 2): Murakawa wins second Judan game; Kono leads Meijin League; Change at top

by John Power, Japan Correspondent of the E-Journal

Murakawa wins second Judan game: Game Two of the 57th Judan title match was held in the special playing room, Yugen, at the Tokyo headquarters of the Nihon Ki-in on March 29. The time allowance for this tournament is relatively short, being just three hours per player, so the game was over by 5:23 p.m. (it started at 10 a.m.). Taking white, the challenger Murakawa Daisuke 8P won by resignation after 154 moves, so he evened the score at 1-1. 

Iyama was a little dissatisfied with his opening, so he tried to make the fighting as complicated as possible, with an ambiguous sacrifice of a group that he later was able to save. However, Murakawa found the right timing to simplify a large-scale fight, and this made the difference. The win is quite significant for Murakawa: it put an end to a losing streak to Iyama of 13 games, which was part of a career record of three wins to 18 losses. Those three wins came in the 62nd Oza title match in 2014 when he beat Iyama 3-2. He lost the three other title challenges he made to Iyama. The third game will be played on April 11. 

Kono leads Meijin League: There has not been much action in the 44th Meijin League in recent weeks. After the March round, Kono Rin, on 4-0, had the sole lead. So far, only one game in the April round has been played. Iyama Yuta recovered to even his score after his bad start, so he is still in the running to win the league, though he will need help from someone else to drag Kono down (he himself plays Kono in the July round). Recent games: (March 21) Hane Naoki (W) beat Mutsuura Yuta 7P by resig. (March 28) Yamashita Keigo (W) beat Suzuki Shinji 7P by 3.5 points. (April 4) Iyama Yuta (B) beat Murakawa Daisuke 8P by resig.

Change at top of Nihon Ki-in board: Dan Hiroaki, chairman of the board of directors of the Nihon Ki-in, announced that he would resign his post as of March 31 to take responsibility for a deterioration in the finances of the Nihon Ki-in, though he planned to serve as a director until the end of his term in June 2020. At a special meeting of the board on April 2, Kobayashi Satoru 9P, the vice chairman of the board, was chosen to replace him. He will serve out the remainder of Dan’s term. He has not (yet) been replaced as vice chairman. In its 2018 budget, the Ki-in anticipated a loss of 30,000,000 yen but the actual deficit turned out to be 70,000,000 (around $600,000). I’m afraid I have no information about how serious the Nihon Ki-in’s financial troubles are. Incidentally, one of Kobayashi’s first tasks in his new post was the pleasant one of welcoming a delegation of Chinese monks on a courtesy call to the Nihon Ki-in. There were four monks from the Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou and one monk from the Shaolin Temple and they were accompanied by Wang Runan 9P of the Chinese Weiqi Association and two woman professionals. The Lingyin temple was founded during the Sung dynasty (960~1279) by the monk Ji Gong, who was a go player and has maintained a go connection. In 2009, it founded a Buddhism and Weiqi Cultural Exchange Center. It holds tournaments and is active in spreading go. (There’s lots of information about this temple on the Net, but a quick search didn’t find any mention of its go connections.)