With Yuki Satoshi's surprising 3-0 win over Yamashita Keigo in the Tengen, and Sakai Hideyuki's 3-2 win over Cho U in the Gosei, Kansai Ki-in players simultaneously hold two of the seven Big Titles for the first time.

In the early years, players like Hashimoto Utaro, Hashimoto Shoji and Handas Dogen won several titles, but it has been quite a long time since those days.

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Occupy Babel!

Both Yuki Satoshi and Sakai Hideyuki are doing great at last Meijin league (3th and 4th place) Maybe this year one of them would be a challenger for Meijin

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http://akademiago.pl - Polish Go Website

It should be interesting. The current Meijin league is amazingly competitive.

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Occupy Babel!

what is the difference between Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in?

Is Nihon ki-in is government sponsored, and Kansai Ki-in is private or like that?

The Nihon Ki-in (http://senseis.xmp.net/?NihonKiIn) was founded in the 1920's to organize and support professional go players in Japan who had been struggling after the withdrawal of government support in the Meiji Restoration. During and after the second world war travel was very difficult in Japan and a branch of the Nihon Ki-in was established in Osaka. In 1950 a dispute arose over the Honinbo title, then held by Hashimoto Utaro (http://senseis.xmp.net/?HashimotoUtaro), who led a breakaway from the Nihon Ki-in to form the Kansai Ki-in. The Kansai Ki-in functions somewhat independently from the Nihon Ki-in with its own qualification for pros and some tournaments not open to Nihon Ki-in pros. In the past there was a somewhat bitter rivalry between the organizations but now there is mostly cooperation.

A nice summary. Given the title of the thread, it might also be pointed out (though best explained by someone else) that the Kansai Kiin seems to be on a better financial footing these days than their more prominent freindly rival.