Following Nakamura Sumire

[botija]

In a battle of stars Nakamura Sumire played Yoshihara Yukari 6-dan (née Umezawa) in first round of Women's Honinbo. Yukari, three times former Women's Kisei is famous for her participation in Hikaru no Go.

The Nihon Kiin Channel streamed the game with live comments, and you can also see the media invasion at the end.

https://youtu.be/k3LvpxciK8I

Result

Sumire won by 7.5

[pajaro]

I watched the game, the same way I watch other games.

But that invasion at the end, is not usual at all. Usually, yes, there are some photographers, maybe some questions, etc. It depends on the importance of the event, ofcourse. It is not the same to decide the challenger for a title than a regular prelim game.

But in this case, it was too much, to my understanding. During the game, you had an experienced pro against a new star. But after the game, the room was filled with lots of people waiting for the words of a little girl. The loser had to make most of the speech. Surely, her smiling helped.

As some people have already said before, Sumire is surely more emotionally mature than the average girl her age, but still...

About the broadcasting: there were about 2200-2400 people watching. I wonder how many are the usual for a game like this. Or how many will be in round 2.

[silviu22]

Sumire also defeated Rafif Shidqi Fitrah (1p, 18 yrs) in Gosei 47. Big win, counts for promotion by wins and prize money.

This was her first win in the 3p promotion race.

2021 results: 14-2 (She's :w3:rd in overall 2021 Japanese ranking by wins on gotoeveryone web site).
Overall: 54-28
Promotion to 3p: 1 wins
Go rating: 2951, #690

[botija]

Sumire flipped a game with a tesuji after her opponent passed on a won game.

https://twitter.com/asahi_igo/status/13 ... 3854159872

If I understand autotranslate correctly, on 1st round preliminary C of Meijin League, Okada Yumiko 6-dan passed and should have won by 7.5 but failed to defend against a tesuji inside her territory by shortage of liberties after dame were filled.

Position after passing
https://twitter.com/asahi_igo/status/13 ... 3686024196
The tesuji
https://twitter.com/asahi_igo/status/13 ... 7321024515

[pajaro]

That's strange. Can anyone understand the Japanese story?

With autotranslation, it sounds like they were filling in the dame points, Okada passed and Sumire kept on playing, and getting a seki. But Okada saying "what are you doing?" can either mean that she was shocked or she thought the game was over. I don't really know the official rules regarding dame points at the end of the game.

The result is official, but it was a preliminary round, so no referee. And I think that no official record, either.

[Gaki]

That's strange. Can anyone understand the Japanese story?

With autotranslation, it sounds like they were filling in the dame points, Okada passed and Sumire kept on playing, and getting a seki. But Okada saying "what are you doing?" can either mean that she was shocked or she thought the game was over.

I speak a little bit Japanese, it this case the literal translation is "what are you doing" but it must be translated as something like "No, it can't be happening"

I share her feelings because I, like many others I guess, have experienced this kind of mistakes which cost the game (less important game than hers of course) but congratulations to Nakamura for finding this Tesuji

[John Fairbairn]

I've seen a few slightly different versions (Chinese whispers, no doubt) but the sponsor Asahi's report indicates that Okada passed, Sumire played on, Okada answered, Sumire played an atari, and the penny finally dropped with Okada and she exclaimed "What have I done?!" and resigned. She then counted up and confirmed she was actually 14 points ahead on the board if she had played a repair move.

All that would seem to suggest she was not absolutely sure she was comfortably ahead, even though this is not a quickplay tournament, but she may still have been in time trouble and/or tired. In any case, Japanese pros feel they would lose face by making an unnecessary fill-in move, otherwise the justification for their rules is diminished.

There was no dispute. No referee was needed. No game record has been proffered. Maybe just the final position was photographed.

[John Fairbairn]

Not about Sumire, but if we consider her the young bugler in the army of Amazons (or Androktones - 'slayers of men' - as Herodotus would have us say), we can pretend she's sounding the fanfare for an extra pip on the epaulette of Amazonian general Fujisawa Rina, who has just (April 2021) been promoted to 5-dan. This was based on achieving the requisite 70 wins at 4-dan. She turned pro in 2010 and is currently the Women's Honinbo and Women's Meijin, and holds the Young Carps title, Hakata-Kamachi Cup and the Aidu Chuo Tachiaoi Cup.

As for Sumire, her 15 wins this year have elevated her to 2nd place in the Nihon Ki-in's favoured ranking list - number of wins (15). Toot-toot!

Off the board, another female go player in the news is Okuda Aya 4-dan, who has just released the final volume 7 of a series of novels called 爛柯の宴 (the Go Banquet). Not my cup of tea, so I can't tell you anything about it, but they are available from (very appropriately!) Amazon.

[pajaro]

I don't see a Fujiwara thread, but would be interesting. At least an Amazon Army one, because sooner than later one of them is going to make some noise in the big leagues. The Female Meijin, btw, is now played with a league format, and this tells me that the sponsor, who pays for game played, is confident that the tournament will be followed.

Back to Sumire, she won today in the Kisei prelim. AFAIK, Hara Masazaku is her best rated opponent so far (in won games, I mean). The next one might be against a 9p, but league C is close. It would mean a lot of hard games. Another level.

[John Fairbairn]

I don't see a Fujiwara thread, but would be interesting

Fujisawa, not the foppish berk from Hikaru no Go. Here is slayer-of-men Fujisawa's reaction to your typo.

FujisawaRinaWatch.jpg (50.28 KiB) Viewed 20345 times

Actually, this was not a #YouToo moment directed at the men (though I'd like it to be). She is showing off a new ete wristwatch, which she got for her recent award of the 39th Journalists Club prize. She revealed that she is a bit of a scatterbrain and doesn't normally keep an eye on the time, but this is a watch she will wear. As an example of her alleged scatterbrain approach, she revealed that she was so engrossed in a post-game analysis she recently left the Nihon Ki-in while still wearing her slippers. I think we can sense in that one big reason for her success.

[pajaro]

Oooops! Sorry!

I could nearly feel my head away from my body!

[tapir]

The heroine of this thread winning against Umezawa / Yoshihara Yukari in Female Honinbo. In her first April win.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3LvpxciK8I

I am totally surprised to find Nihon Kiin livestreaming on youtube.

[silviu22]

Sumire had a big week, with 3 important wins. The 1st win on Apr 12 earned her the right to play in main Female Saikyo tournament, while her other two wins were in the major mixed tournament, so they count for promotion by wins and prize money. April updates are in blue.

April games:

• [1] Apr 1: Defeated Yoshihara Yukari(6p) in Female Honimbo 40
  [2] Apr 5: Defeated Okada Yumiko 6p in Meijin 47.
  [3] Apr 12: Defeated Hiromi Mizuno 5p in Female Saikyo 6
  [4] Apr 14: Defeated Hara Masakazu 3p in Kisei 46
  [5] Apr 15: Defeated SAKAGUCHI, Ryuzo, 9p in Judan 60

Here is a summary of all her tournaments (she is out of tournaments with black names). She is still active in tournaments with red names:

Major tournaments (eligible for prize money rule and promotion by wins):

• Kisei 46 - Defeated Ha Youngil (6p, 35 years old, rating 3040, #530) on Feb 4, Tajima Shingo (但馬　慎吾, 6p, 2879, #805) on March 11 and
  Hara Masakazu (原　正和 3p, 23 yrs, 3059, #495) on Apr 14. Will play TORII, Yuta (3p, 28yrs, 2964, #668) in last game of prelims. If she wins, she will make it to C league, which would be a huge achievement. See West block 3 in https://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/match/kisei/046.html.
• Meijin 47 - Defeated Okada Yumiko 6p on Apr 5. Will play NOBUTA, Shigehito (信田　成仁六段 6p, 60 yrs) next. See Tokyo 16 in https://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/match/meijin/047.html
• Honimbo 77 - eliminated on Dec 3, 2020. Honimbo 78 should start around Oct 2021?.
• Oza 69 - eliminated in Oct 2020. Oza 70 should start in March 2021
• Tengen 48 - Will play Atti Tormanen (1p) in 1st round. See Tokyo 23 https://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/match/tengen/048.html
• Gosei 47 - Defeated Rafif Shidqi Fitrah (1p, 18 yrs) in first round of qualifying on March 29. Will play Ryoya Takeshita (竹下　凌矢) 1p next. See Tokyo 4.
• Judan 60 - Defeated Minematsu Matsaki (6p, 2698, 57yr old) in first round of qualifying on Jan 21, 2021 and SAKAGUCHI, Ryuzo, 9p on Apr 15. Will play GOTO, Shungo (8p, 2979, #645) next. See Kansai/Chubu frame 8 https://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/match/jyudan/060.html

Mixed tournaments counting towards promotion by wins:

• Kiryama (aka Agon) 28 - defeated Yasufumi Tahara (7p, 46yrs, 2714, #1000) on Mar 1st and MATSUBARA Taisei (6p, 49yrs, 2772, #948) on Mar 15 but lost to Koyama Kuya (4p, 24 yrs, 3171, #332) that same day. So she is out of Kiryama 28. Kiryama 29 should start Feb 2022.
• Ryusei 30 - Defeated Araki Issei 4P on June 29, 2020 in final of prelim B. Lost to Nakano Shoya 1p in Prelim A. Ryusei 31 should start in April-Jun 2021?
• Hiroshima 15 (Young Carp). Eliminated in Nov 2020. Hiroshima 16 should start Sept 2021.
• Okage (Thanks Cup) 11 - eliminated on Apr 6, 2020 by Xie Yimmin. Okage 12 should start in March 2021
• SGW Nakajima 3 - did not participate? SGW 4 should start in Aug 2021
• Globis Cup 8 should have started Jan 2021

Women-only or other tournaments not counting for promotion:

• Shinjin (King of New Stars) 46 - eliminated in Nov 16, 2020. Shinjin 47 should start in Nov 2021.
• Okan (Crown) Cup - Not eligible (seems to be for Nagoya branch only).
• Kansai Go open 1: eliminated in Nov 2020 in the semifinal of class C (this was in main tournament). Kansai Open 2 might start Sept 2021 (but she might not be eligible to play anymore).
• Wakatake 5: Lost to Hiroki Muramatsu 6p in first round on Nov 29, 2020. Her opponent eventually ended up in 3rd place. It seems to be Kansai only, so she will probably not play in it next year.
• Female Honimbo 40: Defeated Saeka Iwata 1p on Jan 25, 2021, Takao Mari (髙雄　茉莉, 1p, 19 yrs) on Feb 18 in prelims. Defeated Yukari Yoshihara (吉原由香里 6p 48 yrs) on April 1st in first round. Will play Nyu Eiko (3p) next. See https://gotoeveryone.k2ss.info/news/jp/fhoninbo/40.
• Female Meijin 32: Defeated Akiko Tsukuda 5p (2741) on Jan 7, 2021 but lost to Ueno Asami in last qualifying game on the same day. Female Meijin 33 should start in Nov 2021?
• Female Aizu (aka Tachiaoi) 8: Defeated Chiharu Miyamoto 1p on Dec 17, Fumiko Sakakibara 6p on Jan 18, 2021, Akane Tatsuni (辰己　茜, 3p, 38yrs) on Feb 11 and Wang Jing Yi (王　景怡, 3p, 35yrs, 2769, #934) on March 18 in last qualifying game, so she has made it to the main
  tournament. Will play Konishi Kazuko (8p, 49yrs) in 1st round. See https://gotoeveryone.k2ss.info/news/jp/tachiaoi/8
• Female Kisei 24 - Lost in 2nd round of main tournament to Aoki Kikuyo 8p on Oct 26. Kisei 25 should start July 2021.
• Female Senko/Saikyo 6: Defeated Tamura Chiaki (3p, 42yrs, 2648, #1029) in 2nd round of qualifying on Mar 10th and Hiromi Mizuno 5p (水野　弘美, 53yrs) in last qualifying game on Apr 12, so she made it to the main tournament. See West 4 of https://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/match/senko/006.html

My calculations show her results to be as follows:
In 2021: 18-2 (#2 in overall 2021 Japanese ranking by wins on gotoeveryone web site).
In 2020: 21-17
Overall: 58-28
Go rating: 2952, #692

Promotion to 3p: 4 wins (40 required):

• Gosei 47: 1 win (ongoing)
• Meijin 47: 1 win (ongoing)
• Kisei 46: 1 win (ongoing)
• Judan 60: 1 win (ongoing)

[John Fairbairn]

Sumire has been playing with the Japanese national squad in an internet match against Taiwan. In two rounds played so far, both Sumire and Ichiriki Ryo scored 2-0. Overall the match score was 3-3 in both rounds. Sumire beat Yang Zixuan 4-dan (female, 18) and Yu Lijun 3-dan (female, 21). Further rounds will be played at 2-monthly intervals, but maybe with different players.

[pajaro]

Sumire defeated Nobuta Shigehito in the #47 Meijin prelims.

Next is Cho Sonjin. I wish it was another Cho