I was able, through the kindness of Jan van der Steen and his wife Kishiko, to go behind the scenes of Game 1 of the 25th Meijin title match at the Hotel Okura, in Amsterdam in September 2000. Kishiko was involved in the arrangements for bringing the Japanese party over.
Here is a pot pourri of snapshots from the event, including the opening ceremony. The focus was, of course, on Cho Chikun Meijin and challenger Yoda Norimoto 9-dan. But other top pros were also in attendance. Ishida Yoshio 9-dan was the referee. Takemiya Masaki 9-dan was the official commentator for the sponsoring newspaper, Asahi Shinbun, and was working with the distingiuished go reporter Akiyama Kenji.
NHK television had, as their team, Kato Masao 9-dan and Shirae Haruhiko 7-dan. The game recorders were Mizuma Toshifumi 6-dan and new 1-dan Shibusawa Machiko.
THE COMFORT ZONE
When asked by Dutch television why he liked go so much, Cho Chikun replied: "I hate go". The reason was that he has such an intense desire to win that it becomes debilitating, especially during a two-day match. He spends much of the time during each game riffling his hands back through his hair or holding a wrist while he rotates the free hand. But he also resorts to mechanical means to ease tension.
He has two hand presses (one shown here) and he is notorious for the pile of broken matchsticks he creates (see other photo). The face towel is also well used, and he enjoys sucking on Halls mints. The artfully designed plate of fruit was untouched - in Yoda's case, too. The bare feet were perhaps a little incongruous given the suit and tie, but comfort is a priority and Cho is also very fond of draping a rug over his knees.
Both Ishida and Takemiya gave several commentaries to the Dutch public (plus visitors from Britain, Germany and Czech Republic). Audiences of around 80 attended each session in the luxury of the hotel lobby. Kishiko van der Steen (left) provided an English version.
THE LEGAL MIND AT WORK(below left)
Akiyama Kenji, famous also under his pen-name of Shunjushi, took pride of place at the post-mortem. He rarely asked questions but let the players talk out their relief and disappointment. Keeping up with them clearly was a special skill. Ishida (top) was there as referee. Akiyama, 54, is a law graduate of Waseda University where he was active in go administration. On graduate he became a freelance go writer.
Akiyama Kenji
Cho analyses
PRESSING FOR AN ANSWER(above right)
Loser Cho Chikun sounded relaxed as he pondered where he had gone wrong, but he was energetically working his hand press as he did so.
COSMIC THEORY PROVED
Four of the non-playing pros - Takemiya, Ishida, Mizuma and Shibusawa - gave simultaneous displays for the western visitors. Takemiya, here, encouraged Frank Janssen 6-dan (left) and myself (moving) to play even games with komi from White - 40 points in my case. This allowed us to see cosmic moyos created at first hand. I never realised moyos could be so big and impenetrable - it was like the Big Bang evolution of the cosmos.
Simultaneous displays
To my left is Jan van Rongen, President of the Dutch Go Association, which excelled itself in organising the side events.
Takemiya is quite different from other players off the board too - trainers and casual clothes instead of suit, always ready to chat or to say good morning as you pass in the corridor, ruffling the hair of little children as he passes and happy to grin and pose for photos with them... In short, he seeks no deference - except on the go board!
FAN'S SUPPORT
Yoda Norimoto looks huge in a suit on Japanese television. In Japanese dress, which he favours for title games, he looks even bigger - although he is only about 5 foot 10, about four inches taller than Cho. During play he diverts himself only with a fan - he is especially fond of leaning on it, as here. But he also left the room quite often, unlike Cho, always politely walking round behind Cho to avoid turning his back on him. Think of that as you watch the latest chess world championship.
Yoda at the board
Nevertheless, Yoda does have a rebellious streak. He recently shocked the go world by not starting a game with a move in the top right corner. In this game he provided another shock (at least to referee Ishida Yoshio) by not kneeling as he played his first move, but sitting tailor fashion. The effect, with Cho kneeling and enhanced by Yoda's bulk and traditional dress, was as if the Meijin was a supplicant before a statue of Buddha. This is "very, very rare" said Ishida, and no doubt will form part of his official report!
Another little habit of Yoda's which would horrify chess players, though it is typical of the relative informality of professional go, is that while Cho was thinking Yoda would occasionally straighten the stones on his side of the board. But this is mild. Rin Kaiho is famous for the din he makes with his fan, Sakata was reputed to do crude things to his toenails and Cho Hun-hyeon is said to hum Japanese folks songs as he waits for his opponent to move.
THE THIRD PLAYER - LADY LUCK
Yoda at the mike
The sideways glance from Yoda was directed at Cho. Yoda, hoping maybe to sow a seed of doubt in his opponent's mind, pointed out that he'd been lucky to come through and challenge after a play-off, but since the luck was with him he could probably win. Cho did not take the bait but deflected this lightly by simply asking for fans' support so that he could win this first game. Despite the subtle word-play, it should be noted that, at the reception, Yoda deliberately stayed subdued so that none of the limelight would be taken from titleholder Cho.
MARATHON MAN
Shirae Haruhiko, who will be best known in Europe for the 103-board simultaneous display he gave in Paris in 1991, gave another marathon display to NHK viewers in a claustrophobic makeshift studio under red-hot arc lights. Occasionally he was joined by Kato Masao for the deeper discussions.
The TV Room
Just as at major press events, the TV crew took not the slightest interest in what they filming, and seemed to spend all their off-duty time sitting in the corridor playing computer games. But there was one unexpected bonus for the Dutch in having the full-time crew there. Although eight TV companies turned up for the start of the game, one was late and missed it. The result was that eight cameramen got film of a very formal, posed scene in which just one move was played. The latecomer had to turn to NHK, but got from them film that showed much more interesting scenes, such as Cho, jacket off, ruffling his air with an agonised expression, Yoda waving his fan, and a dense-looking position - it reportedly made a much better impression on Dutch television.
Press coverage in Amsterdam was exceptional. The major papers het Parool, De Telegraaf and Metro carried reports, including a large front page photo in het Parool that dwarfed the main story (retirement of Amsterdam's mayor). TV bulletins at 6 pm and 8pm showed the opening. But perhaps the most significant coverage was the tiniest. The bare result was posted in Friday's paper along with the results of all other events on the sports pages, as if no further explanation was needed.
FRIENDS FOR 400 YEARS
Cho and the Mayor
One reason that Amsterdam was chosen for this match was to help celebrate 400 years of friendship between the Netherlands and Japan. Amsterdam's dignitaries were therefore out in force, including deputy mayoress Krikke. An odd thought that struck me is that when the Dutch were first allowed into Japan, they had to live on the tiny artificial island of Deshima, off Nagasaki. The floor area of the Deshima settlement, as I recall it, is less than the floor space of the Hotel Okura ballroom where this reception was held.
THE ANALYSIS ROOM
The press room proper was a private room for Asahi Shinbun reporters, who were out in force, being drafted in from London and other European capitals. But there was a separate analysis room, where Takemiya (here), Ishida and Kato held court. They rarely discussed moves with each other, but would occasionally demonstrate lines to the newspaper staff. Kato only seemed to put the moves on the board as a way of memorising them for his commentary - he was more interested in reading about the baseball in the newspaper. I am not from a baseball culture but the point of interest appeared to be that some guy Komada had just made 2000 hits (?).
Takemiya analyses
Takemiya spent little time on the game, seeming to find it an unnatural and uninspiring game. Ishida spent a lot of time examining variations by playing them out at length. It was incredible how many variations he could excavate from a seemingly simple position. Any doubts that he only saw these variations by playing them out were regularly quashed, because he would leave the board and let others take over, but if, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a duff move, he would silently (but rather quickly, as if it pained him) lean over and correct it.
In the background is Asahi Shinbun's Corporate Events Director, Tsuchiya Akira. When I asked whether newspaper coverage was assured in spite of declining interest in go among young people in Japan (and also less interest because of community go), he said 5 per cent of his newspaper's 8 million readers played go (and a similar proportion for shogi), and that was sufficient justification at present. But even if the decline continues, the Asahi would have to consider the need to uphold Japan's traditions, said Mr Tsuchiya.
VIRTUAL REALITY
To outsiders viewing the game in the analysis room on the monitors, the room looks like one in a traditional Japanese inn. It's a con. The game took place inside the Presidential suite.
In one corner, beside the windows, eight tatami mats had been spread on the carpet inside a wooden frame. The rest of the huge room remained a typical western hotel scene. There was one camera fixed on the ceiling above the board and another (fixed angle, though it would zoom in about once an hour) that looked across the board, side on to the players, facing the long table where the referee and game recorders sat. Behind this table was a Japanese screen had been erected to block off the western bedroom scene.
MIZUMA
Mizuma Toshifumi 6-dan was the main game recorder. It would astound most chess players to imagine, say, an international master taking down the moves of a pair of grandmasters. In fact, there were two game recorders - Shibusawa Machiko 1-dan was the other - and they took alternate stints of about two hours. There was a little touch of Japaneseness here, illustrating that, despite the encroachments of the west, the traditional elements of courtesy can prevail. Normally, once the game starts for real and the dignitaries disappear, the game recorder sits in the centre of the table.
Shibusawa, however, as a newcomer, at first deferentially sat to one side, even when she was the only person there. She had to be asked by the senior Asahi Shinbun man to move to the centre.
The game recorders are also responsible for recording the times of each move (to the nearest minute) and calculating how much time is left. Mizuma sensei kindly provided MSO with a copy of the timing record for Game 1 which we will present with a detailed commentary on the game.
PROBLEM
First thing on Day 2 in the analysis room, before the Japanese newspapers arrived, Ishida put a problem he had composed on one of the boards and invited the Asahi director Tsuchiya Akira to solve it. It was a 7-dan problem, and Tsuchiya and others agonised over it. Meanwhile, the papers arrived and Kato drifted in. He made a beeline for the baseball section and took no interest in the press around the board.
After a while, the solvers melted away as they found their attempts unsuccessful. But Tsuchiya returned to worry away at it, and eventually thought he had the solution. At this, he turned and asked Kato for confirmation. Kato leant over and looked. I was sitting beside him and instinctively started to count how long it would take him to solve it. I got as far as one second before Kato leant over, demonstrated a defence for White and then went straight back to his paper. Tsuchiya grimaced, but - as often happens in these cases - suddenly saw the point of the problem and played another sequence, called to Kato, who looked up briefly and grunted assent, and went back to first base.
Here is the problem if you would like to try to match Kato's time. Black to play. It was stated as amateur 7-dan, but Mr Tsuchiya did stress later that meant Japanese 7-dan (take that as you will). Kato took about 1 second - Thomas Wolf's Go Tools program took 7.4 seconds on my machine.
