Visiting Kansai-Kiin

Most professionals have to do official games on Wednesday and Thursday. Therefore we do not have lectures on that days (but on the weekend). Today we took the chance to visit the Kansai Kiin instead. As you may know it is a Go organization like the Nihon Kiin but it is just located in Kansai (the region Osaka is in) and a bit smaller.

Kansai Kiin is located in the City centre. In the ground floor of the building there is a public Go salon. There is even a daily tsumego (on the left side) in front of it. I think the sentence on the door is a congratulation to Yuki Satoshi for winning the Judan title but I'm not completely sure.

We have been the first customers. I'm not sure when it opens. However you can go there every day expect of Sundays. The playing material is very decent. I would guess that I have never been in a room with so many slate and shell stones, so far. Most of the places can be used for normal matches. Some tables are prepared for simultaneous game (like the one in the front right).

There is even an extra place for following professional games. Later there were some people sitting there and watching games played upstairs. The games were broadcast live by a camera hanging over the board.

There is a small shop in the salon where you can buy playing material and funny merchandise article. I like this fan with pro cartoons a lot. Unfortunately I was just able to recognize Cho Chikun and Takemiya Masaka at first glance.

In the 7th floor the really cool things are happening. It is the playing site for professional games. This room is like the regular room for "normal" Dan players. Two of the players looked very old but were still playing official games. I was wondering if they are still active or if you somehow have to play official games for the rest of your life as a professional. I will try to find out how retirement works in the Kansai Kiin.

This is the more luxurious room for high Dan players. I guess for Japanese it is an upgrade to sit like this :-)

The main room is a bit hidden in the back. We should not disturb them to much but I was allowed to take some photos. You first have to go through this beautiful tatami corridor.

There you find Yuki Satoshi, Judan playing against a 3 Dan which name I do not know. Yuki-sensei is kind of the pop star of Kansai Kiin. He is the most successful player at the moment and won the Judan title against Iyama Juta this year. He is told to be very good in rapid games. In the NHK Cup a rapid all-star tournament he managed to be victorious four times in the last five years. He is still in competition for being the next challenger of the Tengen and the Oza title. The people at Kansai Kiin hope for him to get a second title since this would probably lead to a lot of donations by Kansai Go fans.
Unfortunately for us Yuki-sensei is very busy because of him winning so much. Therefore he will not have much time to visit the Go camp. However it was quite impressive to see so many professionals playing serious games and even visit a title holder "in action".
Tomorrow a lot of people will go to a trip to Kyoto. The remaining people, like myself, are planning to visit the Kansai Kiin again to play and watch a game.

PS: Maybe you already noticed that I like PS's. It's just a fitting place to point out that even the single-use drinking cups at the Kansai Kiin are very beautiful.

Two days of teaching

Monday started with an introcution by Maeda-sensei. He explained the details of the camp league and especially pointed out how we could order lunch in the student canteen of the Osaka University of Commerce. After the introduction we made a short trip to the canteen so he could show us everything on site. There are actually different lanes (noodles, lunch set, rice bowl) depending on what you would like to eat. We got a nice menu with pictures of every meal.

Unfortunately my games took to long so I could not test the canteen, so far.

Opening words by Maeda-sensei.

After the introduction we played our first league game (see my post about it). The afternoon schedule was also very tight. First was a lecture by Sonoda Yuuichi, 9p about "Diagonally vs. vertically". The essence was: If you have more stones in a region than your opponent (you are stronger) play vertically otherwise play diagonally. It's because playing vertically, which often involves attaching to stones, strengthens all stones but the weaker one profits more from it. In the picture he explains a nice example where black should first extend his moyo and weaken his single stone at the right side. After the black stone got weaker attaching to the white stones and playing diagonally is quite profitable for black. The other guy is John Richardson who was our translator on the first day.

Sonoda-sensei explains how to effectively use an invasion.

Following the lecture Yasuhiro Nakano, 9p and Li Ting, 1p did simultaneous teaching games. Every participant is supposed to get at least two of such games during the camp. Maeda-sensei offered to review league games for everybody not playing that day.

Nakano-sensei playing simultaneous games.

The topic for the end of the day was properly chosen. It was about endgame. Maeda-sensei gave a short overview about endgame calculation. Along the way he stated that the middle game is most important in a game of go followed by the end game. The least important is the opening which a lot of people study  the most. Additionally since nobody on earth likes to study endgame you can very easily get an edge there. The question in the picture is, if it is better for black to play in the top right corner or to capture six stones in gote.

Maeda-sensei introducing endgame calculation.

Actually he is quite serious about studying endgame. Therefore we get everyday an endgame homework to solve. Three people selected in a drawing among everybody with the correct answer got little rewards. Here you can see the "hard" version of Mondays endgame exercise. Feel free to solve it! :-)

The difficult endgame homework. 

On Tuesday there were a lecture by Yasuhiro Nakano, 9p. He showed some examples where one should not just look for good shape but consider the actual situation. At the end he took a loot at the decisive game of the 25th Asian TV Cup. It was a victory for Iyama Juta, winning the first international title for Japan since eight years. In the afternoon there were simultaneous games  and game reviews again.

Nakano-sensei reviewing Iyama Juta's Asian TV Cup game.

Tomorrow is our "free" day which we will use to visit the Kansai-Kiin and watch some professionals playing their own league games.

51st Judan - Deciding game

Since there will not be to much posts this week here is a small amusement for everybody dropping by. It is the final game of the 51st Judan tournament, held in Osaka. Yuki Satoshi, one of the Go camp lecturers, manged to defeat Iyama Yuta with 1.5 points. I'm sure he will be surprised if everybody knows the decisive game by heart.
Enjoy the game!

PS: By the way, I managed to include a game viewer in the blog!