4th World Go Oza – Japan
Japan team didn’t show good performance, because all strongest baduk master from Japan play in 1 round against weaker opponents (Takao Shinji 9p beat Yang Shihai 8p from Shanghai by 1,5 point; Cho U 9p beat Jiang Mingjiu 7p by 6,5 points). Thanks to lucky pairing to 2nd round enter also Imamura Toshiya 9p, who beat Christian Gabriel Pop 7d from Europe.
In 2nd Round pairing was also very good for Japan team. The weaker player from Japan Imamura Toshiya play against strongest player from Korea – Lee Sedol 9p, so match between Cho U and Lee Sedol must to wait. From other side Cho U was also very lucky in pairing of 2nd round and play against Alexander Dinerstein 3p from Europe. Cho U won by 23,5 points. In the end of the 2nd round only Cho u manage to enter 3rd round as member of Japanese team.
IMHO if Japan want to won something on international tournaments, it need to change pro system. Japan had only one great young talent Iyama Yuta, who is play better and better in national tournaments and had some experience on international scene. Of Course one player isn’t enough.
Fiest change sure be in award for Japan tournaments. Kisei, Meijin, Honninbo have biggest prize for titlle holder and runner-up. I understand that old people don’t want to give up easily their chicken which made gold eggs, but in long time is better to transfer some money to promote baduk in public and train more young talents. I don’t get why in country where many company very easily sponsors baduk tournaments, there aren’t young talents? Are Japanese people more stupid than Korean or Chinese?
In Korea in every year you can heard about new talents like: Yun Junsang, Han Sanghoon, Hong Sungji etc. The same in China: Gu Li, Chen Yaoye, Xie He, Liu Xing, Piao Wenyao. In Japan I only heard about great comeback of Cho Chikun and of course Iyama Yuta. If the biggest event is comeback from veteran, which in my opinion in near future will be retired, that Japan future is under question mark
Related posts:
I agree with most of your suggestions. A good example is the average of age between professional players in Japan is much older than counterparts in Korean and China. However, I think there is also a problem with Korean and Chinese system is that it is extremely cruel and heartless although I believe that’s normal nature of any kinds of professional world.
For example, I was a big fan of Choi, Chul Han but, I think, for some reason, he fell into a slump and is showing not that great result these years compare to the peak time when he was being called as “CHANG (Lee, Chang Ho 9 dan)-SE (Lee, Se Dol 9 dan)-CHUL (Choi, Chul Han 9dan) trio”.
I mean, while the main advantage of Korean and perhaps Chinese (I don’t much about Chinese system) systems is that it gives many great opportunities to new young talent players, in the meantime, the legend players like Yoo, Chang Hyuk keep loosing their honor of their baduk life.
There has been a big issue in Korea about this. Some suggest that all the final stage should be “Do Jeon Ki” which previous title holder doesn’t need to play until the runner-up is decided. Most of titles in Korea is not “Do Jeon Ki” so previous title holder needs to start from the almost the beginning of the tournament again and again. One good example is Lee, Se Dol 9 dan in 2008. As a result of the system, as Lee 9 dan wins more game he has to play even more games. I remember, sometimes, I could see 3 or even 4 matches of him in a week like Chunwon, Sipdan and Myung In. Moreover, none of the matches is easy one. Most of them are the final stage ones.
To sum up, it is such a great thing to encourage young players but it is required to protect No.1 player. We need many players but we also need big name too like “Cho, Hun Hyun, the baduk emperor” or “Lee, Chang Ho, the stone Buddha”. It is bit sad that some young talent players don’t become big stars like them but shooting stars.
thx for valuable informations