Life In 19x19

I don't know whether there is any formal arrangement between Ichiriki and Kyo, but in the earlier stage of the Ing Cup, in August, Ichiriki said he had a very hectic schedule when he had to launch the new Ichiriki Cup in his home base of Sendai then fly straight to Chongqing. To make sure he stayed in good condition, he stayed in his hotel room between Games 1 and 2 and invited Kyo up to study fusekis for the the following day's game.

I would expect the primary reason Kyo was there was to act as Ichiriki's interpreter, but the Nihon Ki-in would have to be blind not to notice how much back-up other countries, China especially, give their stars in international competitions. The fact that they are giving a huge and free public airing of the upcoming Game 3 in Tokyo (reminiscent of the great Yomiuri games of the 1930s) suggests to me they've got their eyes wide open.

Ichiriki won the third game. While he was at it he demonstrated how this game is never about computer percentages. He may have collected his fourth time penalty for the match while he was at it.

I imagine that there is a sizable entourage traveling with Ichiriki. There would be officials from Nihon Kiin, both as observers and to represent the player if, if needed, and also as guests. The press and the online servers would want to send someone on site. For a match like this it is probably a large delegation than it would be for some other events.

This entourage would be the players assistants by default. However it would make sense if the people the player was already working with were traveling with them.

I have no idea who the commentator on Yike is. It looks like Chirping Birb and Mushroom are the same person. A she, according to Weibo, that comments Go on Yike and plays Dota2 on Steam. I guess if she was a pro then Yike would introduce that fact, not only some usernames, but then I could be the only one that doesn't know

Ichiriki won by resignation on move 237 with 55 minutes left on his clock, so I don't think he needed a time penalty

It was 2 penalties in the third game. 5 penalties or ten points in three games. I was confused somehow, thinking it was only a single penalty. The Nihon kiin stream of the third games shows clocks that had the extra time already added. 3 hours and 30 minutes plus three times 35 minutes is 5 hours and 15 minutes. When the game ends he had 54 minutes left on his clock, which is well past the 3.5 hour of penalty free time.

I finally caught up to the ING cup games, watching Michael Redmond's commentary. What an exciting thing even when the news is late for me.
I haven't been following too much lately but I did pick up the nihon kiin year book and went through some games between Iyama and Ichiriki.
It's amazing how much Ichiriki has done in just a few years.

Ichiriki won the Meijin. 4-2 against Shibano.

He is now Kisei Meijin Honinbo Tengen.

Staring next January, he is going to defend the Kisei against Iyama again. More Ichiyama, will this be their last? Who knows.

I also wonder, can Ichiriki make the grand slam, like Iyama did? I don't think it is good news that a single player holds all titles, it doesn't speak very well about the level of the Japanese scene.

Ichiriki is doing well in international tournament again: in 1st Beihai Xinyi Cup he defeated Lian Xiao, Xie Erhao and Mi Yuting to reach the quarterfinals. The Chinese juggernaut has 5 players left, Japan two (Hsu Chiayuan/Kyo Kagen is also still in it) and Korea only one (Shin Jinseo).

It is very surprising to see two Japanese players in the last 8 of a major tournament. And this is a big tournament, with 64 players.

Here is a page in Chinese about the games in 3rd round: http://www.eweiqi.com/index.php?m=conte ... 8&id=35881. The page also lists the quarterfinal matchups.

Kyo Kagen has a hard game in quarterfinal against the #1 Chinese player at the moment: Wang Xinghao. Wang Xinghao is also world #2 by the rating from goratings.org.
Ichiriki plays Li Weiqing in quarterfinal, which seems in very good form: he seems to have lost only once (to Wang Xinghao) in the last 10 games recorded in go4go.