Game of Go / Baduk / Weiqi

Honinbo - 2007

Takao Shinji defended the Honinbo title against Yoda Norimoto with a 4-1 score

Quick links to the games: Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Game 4 Game 5

Honinbo is one of the top three professional titles in Japan, together with Kisei and Meijin.

Honinbo is an annual event, the previous year's title holder is playing a best-of-seven match with the winner of a qualification tournament.

Historically, Honinbo was the name of the one of the four Go houses, and was passed as an honorific title from the master to his best student. It became an annual professional title starting in 1941, marking the modernization of Go in Japan.

Takao Shinji

The current Honinbo title holder is Takao Shinji, who is also the current Meijin title holder. He is 30 years old, and he was a student of the famous Fujisawa Shuko. Takao Sensei captured the Honinbo title in 2005, from Cho U, and successfully defended it against Yamada Kimio in 2006.

He is the author of "Pure and Simple: Takao's Astute Use of Brute Force" book, translated into English.

Yoda Norimoto

The challenger for this year's Honinbo title is Yoda Norimoto: 41 years old, he did hold several titles in Japan in the past: Gosei, Judan and Meijin - but lost his last title - Gosei - in 2006 against Cho U.

Yoda Sensei is the author of "Vital Points and Skillful Finesse for Sabaki" book, translated into English.

Game 1

Game 1 was played on May 10th and 11th 2007. Takao Shinji, playing Black, won by 0.5 points.

This first game was a spectacular start for this year's Honinbo Title - Takao Honinbo played 2 rare contact plays in the first 20 moves in day 1 of the first game. See the following 2 diagrams for Black's moves 9 and 17.

Here is the game record - plus variations found on the Cyberoro Go server, without any comments.

Game 2

Game 2 was played on May 22nd and May 23rd 2007. Yoda Norimoto, playing Black, won by 1.5 points.

The second game started with a very unusual looking variation in the upper-left corner played by Yoda Sensei: Black extended modestly with 19 in Dia. 3, instead of extending from kosumi-tsuke with A, forcing White to connect against the cut, then extend on a larger scale - maybe one space below 19. Especially after the triangle marked stone exchange, Black 19 feels like a very narrow extension.

But I am sure Yoda Sensei had thorouly thought about all aspects of this postion.

Another move that showed very much attenttion to detail was Black 67 - see Dia. 4. One would normally force with A, etc, to make sure White doesn't make an eye, put I presume Yoda Sensei disliked the prospect of White playing hane at B freely, so with 67 Black is keeping the options open, to make difficult for White to hane at B.

Ultimately, I would like to notice Black 89 - see Dia. 5, which is a great example of splitting-attack (also an example of leaning attack, depending how one looks at it) - against the White group in the center and the 2 White stones on the right side - just like the ones from "Attack and Defense" or "Kato's Attack and Kill" books.

Game record here.

Game 3

Game 3 was played on June 6th and 7th 2007. Takao Honinbo, playing Black, won by resignation.

Here is the game record.

Game 4

Game 4 was played on June 18th and 19th. Takao Honinbo, playing White, won by 5.5 points.

Here is Yoda Sensei playing the first move.

The game record has a lot of variations from the Cyberoro Go server (no comments though).

I wrote a lesson based on variations on move 33: "Fighting techniques - kikashi"

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Game 5

Game 5 was played on June 25th and 26th. Takao, playing Black, won by 2.5 points and defended the Honinbo title with a 4-1 score.