Life In 19x19

On July 18th Yuki Satoshi beat Mizokami Tomochika by half a point in the 38th Meijin Sen. That ended six straight losses in the current league, which had followed an 0-8 blanking in the 37th term league and losses in the last two games of the 36th term league. Yuki last won a game in the Meijin league on June 2, 2011. His opponent on that occasion? Mizokami Tomochika!

It is a bit odd of a stat.

During the Honinbo commentary there was a discussion about how he seems to be doing very well, winning NHK and then taking the judan... but he seemed unhappy and mentioned how he can't seem to get a win in the leagues.

Do you there there is some strategic losing going on? If, for example, he has a chance to make the final in other leagues and he's already 0-5 in the Meijin league, why not totally phone in the remaining Meijin games and focus your energy on where you have a chance to win?

If I recall correctly, in the book Freakonomics there is evidence that Japanese Sumo wrestlers throw matches from time to time for strategic reasons.

mhlepore wrote:Do you there there is some strategic losing going on? If, for example, he has a chance to make the final in other leagues and he's already 0-5 in the Meijin league, why not totally phone in the remaining Meijin games and focus your energy on where you have a chance to win?

The reason not to do that is even until the last couple rounds he has a chance to pull himself out of the demotion area. Once demoted, you have to fight to get back into the league later which is not easy. Tiebreakers from position can also be important the following year, so I doubt there is any throwing of matches here.

Certainly throwing matches would be a big issue and not one I'd make allegations about, but it would be less surprising if a 4-2 or 5-1 player put a lot more effort into preparing for their upcoming matches than one who was 0-4 and had other title matches coming up. Pre-prepared moves and studying the opponents games are important in professional go, even if it's not nearly at the same level as chess.

Yuki Satoshi followed it up with a win over Takao Shinji before being demoted at 2-6. Sakai Hideyuki and Mizokami Tomochika also get demoted at 1-7.

Kono Rin and Iyama Yuta will playoff to become Meijin challenger.

Now that Yuki has snapped back into shape, who is the 9 dan with the longest ongoing losing streak?