Yamashita Keigo 9p and Chang Hsu 9p met in the best-of-7 series for the first time. The game 1 of the 34^th Kisei (JPN) title best-of-7 final was held in the Hotel Royal in Taipei between Jan. 14^th and 15^th. In the game, the challenger Chang Hsu 9p (W) (born in 1980) who is holding Judan, Oza and Gosei Titles defeated the title holder Yamashita Keigo 9p (born in 1978) by resignation after 234 moves and successfully got ahead in the series.

This title match is expected to be a very meaningful match for both of them. If Yamashita Keigo 9p who is holding his 4^th consecutive Kisei Title (5 times in total) successfully defends the title one more time, he will be given the ¡®Honorary Kesei' Title after he becomes 60 years old. If Chang Hsu 9p gains the title, he will become the second player after Cho Chihun to complete a ¡®grand slam' of the current top seven titles.

As Chang Hsu 9p became the challenger for the first time in the Kisei Title best-of-7 final match, the game 1 took place in Taipei, his hometown.

With this match ahead, Chang Hsu has done quite well against Yamashita leading their career records against each other by 30 wins and 21 loses, but, in the Tengen (JPN) Title Best-of-5 final, Yamashita Keigo 9p defeated Chang Hsu 9p by 3:2 and took the title from him. In this Kisei Title best-of-7 final, the challenger and the title-holder of the Tengen Title have met each other changing their positions.

In terms of the number of total titles, Chang Hsu 9p's total title tally of 30 titles is almost twice more than Yamashita Keigo 9p's total title tally of 16 titles.

The Kisei Title is the title for which Chang Hsu has longed for a long time. In his inauguration, he made it public that the Kisei Title was what he wanted to get the most and that it was his biggest goal to get it. The champion prize of the Kisei Title is 45 million Yen the amount of which is bigger than that of most international baduk championships. Traditionally, the Kisei Title holder is considered as the real number one player. Chang Hsu 9p won 5 titles of the top 7 titles at the same time once in the last year but he ranked after Yamashita Keigo 9p all the time.

The Kisei Title holders are only 7 players in the 33 years ever since the Kisei Title was established in 1976, which is the smallest number of title-holders among the top 7 titles. Cho Chihun 9p also won the Kisei Title for 8 times as well as Kobayashi Koichi 9p. However, the ¡®Honorary Kisei' title did not seem to be meant for Cho Chihun 9p because Cho Chihun 9p has not won the title for longer than 5 consecutive years whereas Kobayashi Koichi 9p has won his 8^th consecutive Kisei title.

Being sponsored by the Yomiuri Newpaper, as the Kisei Title Tournament has increased 3 million Yen for the champion prize starting from the tournament in this year, the champion prize became 45 million Yen. In the Kisei Leagues, each player is given 5 hours and 5 times of 60 seconds' overtime counting. The game 2 of the Kisei title best-of-7 final will take place in Nagoya between Jan. 27^th and 28^th, 2008. (Picture provided by Japanese Go Association)

 - Kyungdong Kim, Cyberoro.com