ＲＩＣＯＨＣＵＰ2001Ricoh Cup Quarterfinals and Semifinals

■Ricoh Cup Quarterfinals and Semifinals

Promising Pairs Lost One After Another

When the first and second rounds were over, which pair will win the championship became the topic of conversation at the Nihon Ki-in. I hear that the pair of Ms. Kaori Chinen and Mr. Masaki Takemiya was considered as the top favorite and the pair of Ms. Izumi Kobayashi and the 25th Honinbou Chikun as the second favorite. These two pairs really pleased the fans watching their games.

In the first and second rounds, the pair of Izumi and Chikun showed aggressive play. In the quarterfinals, they played against the pair of Ms. Kusunoki and Mr. Yoda.

The game proceeded smoothly through the early phase but suddenly it was thrust into a hard battle in the middle phase.

The battle began with the black 39th move that was katatsuki on the upper part, which was countered by the white 40th move that was hazama. These two moves were made by Meijin Mr. Yoda and the 25th Honinbou Chikun. The two players looked very eager to win. So far, the pair of Izumi and Chikun had always showed their full potential in closely contested games. Black and white stones concentrated on the upper part and both teams' dame were occupied.

As the monitor displayed the situation, spectators thronged the game section.

"It's dead. To be exact, this pattern shows that either stone group is going to die," explained 9-dan Mr. Kudo in the next room. The mutual attack became unexpectedly complicated. After a little while, the pair of Izumi and Chikun seemed to have grasped a chance for winning. It appeared that the battle would result in ko, which was considered to be in favor of the white pair. However,……

The 25th Honinbou Chikun suddenly gave up the game and declared defeat. The white 94th move made by Izumi was wrong. She probably made a mistake. It seems that she should have made atari from the opposite direction against the black 93rd move.

"If you had gone from here, we could have won. Didn't you notice it?"

The 25th Honinbou Chikun talked to Izumi in a soft voice with a soft smile, while 4-dan Izumi kept silent and listened to him with her head lowered. Both players looked so depressed that I felt sorry for them.

On the other hand, the pair of Ms. Chinen and Mr. Takemiya played against the pair of Ms. Tomoko Ogawa and Mr. Yoshio Ishida. The white team or the pair of Ms. Ogawa and Mr. Ishida took a lead in jiai in the middle phase. Around the time the 100th move was made, the game reached a critical moment. A group of white stones was stretching from the lower part toward the center. The shape of me (eyes) was not yet clearly made. In order to win, the black pair had no choice but to attack the group of white stones. The two teams engaged in severe offense and defense, in which the pair of Ms. Chinen and Mr. Takemiya revealed stronger spirit and captured about half of the white stones. After all, however, they lost the game by a slight difference.