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Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 12:54 pm
by quantumf
Any updates? No news is probably bad news...
Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 1:33 pm
by yoyoma
https://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/player/saiy ... onsen.html
After 6 games, Antti is now 4-2. Three players are 5-1 (#1, #8, #14). Antti played and lost to #14, he plays #8 next weekend (Oct 25), and #1 in the final round.
Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 1:50 pm
by Elom
quantumf wrote:Any updates? No news is probably bad news...
Tormanen, Wins against 豊田 裕仁 (#13, 13th Insei coincidentally who is 16yrs old), and loses against 栗田 佳樹 (#14, number one Insei at 16 years old).
edit: seems Yoyoma got there first

seems to be 上野 (#1) next weekend, she's the third ranked Insei, 13 years old, and 桒原 (#8 fifth ranked Insei, 16 years), last round. Some tough competition.
I just came to the realisation that the next year is the last #12 can remain as an insei. He's currently at 3 wins 3 losses. Must be a lot of pressure to peform.
Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 10:10 pm
by Jhyn
Antti keeps his possibilities open with a very nice weekend, 2 victories including one against #1, the 3rd-ranked insei. He is now 6/8.
One player is at 7/8 (#14, first-ranked insei) and 4 players are at 6/8 including Antti (#1, #2, #4). Seven games remain. The opponents of Antti will be numbers #2-#8 by increasing order.
Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 8:28 pm
by Jhyn
Sadly Antti went 0/2 this weekend, 6/10 in total. This is very bad news for his chances : with 3 players at 8/10 and 3 at 7/10, he would need a pretty unlikely turn of events as well as going 5/5 in the remaining games to come back from this. But who knows?
Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:35 am
by Jhyn
If anyone is still following this, Antti went 0/2 again last weekend and is definitely out of the race. He'll be fighting to get a better-than-average total score. That must have been a nice ride anyway.
Interestingly, no insei is particularly ahead of the field. One of them is 10/12 and three are 9/12, including an non-insei outsider.
Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2015 8:18 pm
by mhlepore
Jhyn wrote:If anyone is still following this...
I am - thanks for the updates.
It can be a fine line between success and failure, so major respect to Antti for his dedication.
Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 8:39 am
by Jhyn
Two victories this weekend with one last game left. No hope for Antti but he will have a very respectable result.
The situation at the top is pretty chaotic. Only three players have 3 defeats (#1, #2 and #16). #1 and #16 play together while #2 plays the relatively weaker #15, so we could expect our two new pros to be among them. Using my very limited Japanese, I believe #1 is Aisakimi Ueno (14-year-old female insei), #2 is Yuichi Hirose (14-year-old male insei), and #16 is Daihyo Takuto (19-year-old male outsider).
(Aisakimi looks like a strange surname - my dictionnary didn't mention it as a name, so it's probably wrong)
An interesting situation would arise if #2 loses with two 16-year-old insei having 4 defeats ready to jump to his throat.
Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 10:32 am
by oren
It's probably pronounced Ueno Asami.
She made some news beating a pro in a tournament open to young pros and insei.
http://www.asahi.com/articles/photo/AS2 ... 02767.html
Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2015 3:33 am
by Matti
Antti got 8 wins from 15 and took 9th place in the tournament.
Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2015 8:25 am
by Jhyn
Some more information (still from
https://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/player/saiy ... onsen.html)
Yuichi Hirose (14-year-old male insei) and Daihyo Takuto (19-year-old male outsider) make it to pro status with a 12/3 score.
Kurita Keiki (16-year-old male insei) and Asami Ueno (13-year-old female insei) come close with 4 defeats.
As mentioned before, Antti ends up with an 8/7 score after a defeat on the last day.
Side question: I believe the Nihon Ki'in have two open professional qualification tournament for three new pros per year (2 autumn + 1 summer) and a women's tournament for an additional pro per year. I am excluding the Nagoya and the Kansai branches here. I am wondering whether it is a common occurence for a woman to qualify through an open tournament, as Asami Ueno almost did this year, or if we have reasons to believe she is the future Rui Naiwei.
Sorry if I got my facts wrong - my info comes from Sensei's library and
http://gooften.net/2012/03/29/nihon-ki- ... s-present/.
Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 3:49 am
by Matti
Antti will start as 1 dan professional in next April.
Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 4:22 am
by Uberdude
How so? I thought he didn't qualify through the tournament. Did he get some special promotion?
Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 5:28 am
by calantir
It turns out his result was good enough to qualify him due to his status as a foreign national.
http://mainichi.jp/articles/20151208/k0 ... 40/037000c
From the article:
On December 7, the Japan Go Association announced the Finnish-born Antti Törmänen (26) as a professional go player. Törmänen will debut as a professional player on April 1 next year. He is the first western-born to become professional in Japan in 18 years, following the late Hans Pietsch. Törmänen became insei, a student aiming for professional, in fall 2011. He achieved a winning ratio exceeding 50% in the professional exam this year, earning employment as a professional. In the future he hopes to spread knowledge of go in foreign countries outside the “go belt” (Japan, Korea, China,Taiwan)
Re: Antti Makes it to A class
Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 9:05 am
by Javaness2
Really pleased that he got this certification, couldn't have happened to a nicer player.