Forum for Big Titles
Winners table [#2555]
The winners table is a great addition; well done!
Apparently it is rare that one player wins more than 2 of the titles. I am pretty ignorant of the Big Titles, so I'm wondering if that is because players don't usually play in more titles, or is there a reason inherent in the game?
Uberdude I think certain pros are more attached to certain titles. For example Fujisawa Shuko won the first 6 Kisei titles and not much else because that's where he focused his effort (which included sobering up!). Go world 24 in the commentary on the 5th Kisei (1981) says "... Shuko is a completely different proposition in the Kisei tournament. It has become a cliche that he stakes his survival as a professional player upon this one tournament and with reason, for his results in the other tournaments are abysmal".
Also I noticed that in the Tournament Go 1992 book in which Kobayashi Koichi played in 6 of the big 7 titles, he defended the 3 titles he already held (Kisei, Meijin, and Gosei) and failed to take the 3 he was the challenger (Judan, Honinbo, Oza) so there may be an element of putting extra effort in to defend your titles. Also different time limits, match setup etc. may simply make some pros prefer certain tournaments and do better in them.
Nice question.
I'm not sure that there's any story here beyond probability. Each player has some chance of winning each title, but the odds of winning two at once are less, and the odds of winning three at once are somewhat less. Then four is extremely rare, and five has only happened once. So I think that's my guess (I've never heard this topic discussed before).
But there are some other possibilities. Title matches are grueling, especially for the three two day tournaments. I think there's a common belief that a player who competes in many tournaments and leagues, or plays several title matches may become exhausted by the number of very long games. Also, professionals do try and come up with novel moves--joseki innovations or new lines in a popular opening. Since they can only invent so much and study so much, they may put all their eggs in one basket and use their innovations in pursuit of a single title.
Lastly, at the moment, it appears that most of the serious contenders for the Big Japanese titles compete in all or almost all seven events. You can look at the tables for the leagues, tournaments and final preliminaries at Mr. Kin's site (![[ext]](images/extlink.gif)
http://igokisen.web.fc2.com/news.html), and you'll see the same names over and over again. Perhaps some older players limit the number of tournaments they compete in, but not so players like Iyama Yuta, Cho U, Yamashita Keigo, etc. --Hyperpapeterie
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