Here’s game 1 of the 57th Oza Title match between Cho U (Oza) and Yamada Kimio (9 dan). Cho U is white and Yamada Kimio is black (W+R).
Source: http://igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/oza.html
There’s a puzzling little feature of the World Students Go Oza Championship. All of the participants will be under the age of 30. The players for the Championship have yet to be determined, so how could I know this?
Well, one of the qualifications for participating in the Championship is that participants must be under the age of 30. Now that seems a little odd. What exactly does age have to do with being a student or, for that matter, playing Go? There are university students and Go players over the age of 29 - in fact, quite a few.
So why did the organizers of this event decide to make this particular restriction? It’s baffling to say the least. Why not have the cutoff age at 32 or 47 or 23 or 68, or perhaps restrict participants to only those with blue eyes and blond hair? The latter makes about as much sense and the former.
I would welcome an explanation from a representative of this organization for what appears to be a completely arbitrary and nonsensical restriction.
Another puzzling qualification is that participants must “[be] able to communicate in English by E-mail.” For a game that is international in scope and for whom English is not the primary language of the vast majority of Go players around the world, it really is off-putting to see these kinds of restrictions.
Who knows, maybe there are good reasons? Again, if someone from this organization has an explanation, I would welcome a response.
In the meantime, perhaps they should change the name of their event to something like:
The 8th English Speaking World Twenty Something Go Championship
Ah yes, but then that would discriminate against university students under the age of 20…
Xie Yimin won the fourth game by resignation in the 28th Female Honinbo title match, thus retaining her title as Female Honinbo. Here’s the final game:
Game 4 (W+R)
Source: http://igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/fhoninbo.html
