User:CanbekEsen/ChoChikunNews

Japanese Scene
Judan
 * Cho won the first game of the 44th Judan against the strong, and then newly crowned Kisei Keigo Yamashita. The game was won by resignation, as Cho was unstoppable, breaking down Yamashita's territory. The second game went well for Cho, as he would apply his excellent shinogi skills into Yamashita's moyo. There was a large fight in the bottom left corner early in the game. Cho won the game by resign. In the third game, Yamashita started to fight back and knocked down Cho by 8 and a half points. Yamashita still faced kadoban (1 game from elimination). In the fourth game of the Judan, Cho kept control of Yamashita. He played very calm and won by 2 and a half points. This meant Cho defends his Judan title for another year. It became his 69th title.

Kisei


 * The 31st Kisei league started off on the wrong foot for Cho. His first game was against Satoshi Yuki, former challenger of the Kisei title. Cho lost the game by resignation. His next game was another loss by resignation, this time to Satoru Kobayashi. Cho won his first Kisei league game on August 3rd, edging out opponent Atsushi Kato by 8 and a half points.

Tengen
 * Cho started off the Tengen leagues by beating Shun Arakaki into resignation, but was stopped by Naoki Hane. Cho lost the game by 5.5 points.

Gosei
 * He was also in the Gosei league, beating Rin Kono, O Meien, and Tetsuya Kiyonari. Rin Kono was beaten by resignation, as was Tetsuya Kiyonari. O Meien lost his game against Cho by 7 and a hlaf points. Cho's next opponent in the Gosei league was his opponent for the Judan title, Keigo Yamashita. He couldn't beat Yamashita this time, and was knocked out of the Gosei league by resignation.

NEC Cup
 * Cho started his NEC Cup campaign on a good note, after a convincing win over Tomoyasu Mimura. His next opponent will be either So Yokoku or Shinji Takao. Cho has always been very good in hayago tournaments in the past, so it is not surprising to find him in another hayago competition this year.

Ryusei
 * In the Ryusei leagues, Cho was seeded as first in his group, meaning he needs to win one game in order to advance. His opponent will be Toshiya Imamura, who beat Keigo Yamashita for the challenger spot.

Preliminaries
 * Cho has currently earned a spot in the 31st Kisei leagues and is in the preliminaries for the Honinbo and NHK Cup titles. In the Kisei preliminaries, he battled his way past O Meien (Resign), Masaki Hoshino (Resign), and Michihiro Morita (Resign). He is seeded into Group B, along with Satoshi Yuki, Satoru Kobayashi, Atsushi Kato, O Rissei, and Toshiya Imamura. As for the Honinbo preliminaries, he beat his first two opponents, Kenichi Mochizuki by 3.5 points, and Han Zenki by resignation. His next opponent will be Shinya Nakamura. The NHK Cup preliminaries has Cho with an automatic berth past the 1st round. His first opponent will be Masayuki Kurahashi.

International Scene
World Oza
 * Cho started his campaign in the Japanese World Oza preliminaries good, with a 4 and a half point win over Koichi Oya. His second match opponent Satoshi Yuki played well and was able to beat Cho by 2 and a half points. This was the second time Cho lost to Yuki in a month, the first coming in the Kisei league in June.

LG Cup
 * Cho had won a place in the 11th LG Cup in 2006. His first round opponent was Cho Hanseung from South Korea. Cho, holding black, lost the match by 6 and a half points.

Fujitsu Cup
 * Cho won a spot in the 19th Fujitsu Cup after beating Norio Kudo, Norimoto Yoda and Satoshi Kataoka in the preliminary rounds. The other players to make it through qualifying were Keigo Yamashita and Hiroshi Yamashiro from the Nihon Ki-in and Satoshi Yuki from the Kansai Ki-in. The top three title holders were given automatic spots, who were Naoki Hane (Kisei), Cho U (Meijin) and Shinji Takao (Honinbo). Cho started off well, winning by a large 14 and a half points over Alexandre Dinerchtein. In his second match, he had to face the very tough Lee Sedol. Cho couldn't hang in there to win and ended up resigning.

Chunlan Cup
 * Cho started off well in the Chunlan Cup along with fellow Japanese representatives Rin Kono, Norimoto Yoda, Satoshi Yuki, and Naoki Hane. His first match was against Yu Bin from China. Cho played close, winning by 2 and a half points points. Cho's hot streak did not last as he was beaten by Zhou Heyang into resignation.