In 2004, Masao Kato became the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Japan Chess Academy, and carried out drastic reforms, which were unanimously supported. At the same time, he still fights in the front line of chess as an iron-blooded chess player.
This year, Mr. Kato defeated Guli in the 5th Nongshim Cup, lost to Lee Chang-ho, and lost to Guli in the Sino-Japanese Ahan Tongshan Cup Championship Match. He defeated koichi Kobayashi, Hayashi Haifeng, Satoshi Kataoka and other fierce opponents in the Japanese domestic chess battle, and his competitiveness was undiminished. In September, Mr. Kato represented Japan in the first Central Cup World Go Tournament hosted by Taiwan (this tournament has not been participated Chinese mainland players, and domestic statistics generally do not include it in the scope of the World Series), defeating Taiwan's Zhou Keping in the first round and losing Wang Licheng in the second round.
Towards the end of the year, Mr. Kato continued to exert his strength, beating Shigeaki Yokota in the second round of the NHK Cup on November 28, and the next opponent will be Zhang Xu. On December 2, Kato appeared in the 31st Tengen Tournament, the first round of the tournament against the powerful Satoshi Yuki.
At that time, no one would have thought that this game of chess would be the last game of Mr. Kato's life.
Japan's 31st Tengen Battle Round 1
黑: Masao Kato Kyudan
White: Satoshi Yuki 9 dan
A total of 107 lots
Black wins in the middle of the game
Date of the match: 2 December 2004
Location: Japan
Satoshi Yuki, a major player in the Kansai Chess Academy, was in the limelight at the time, having just defeated Keigo Yamashita on November 8 to take the right to challenge the chess saint, and will challenge the incumbent chess shogun Naoki in January of the following year (ultimately 3-4 defeat). He later won the titles of Tianyuan and Ten Duan, and was a powerful faction that could compete with the Four Heavenly Kings of Heisei.
First spectrum 1-50
In this bureau, Mr. Kato took the lead in black.
The beginning of the Chinese stream was once Mr. Kato's favorite, and it really means a lot in hindsight to come out of this game of chess.
White 6 outer hanging angle, black 7, 9 positive.
Black 17 tough, white 18 cut off the battle, the chess game became fierce early.
Black 21 and White 22 complement each other, and Black 23 jumps to attack the two sons of white chess.
When the white 24 jumps, the black 25 is necessary to make up for it.
Bai 28 fought back from the bottom, and Mr. Kato cut off Bai 26 first.
Black 35 thick, white 36 counterattack black chess bottom right corner.
When the white 40 is pulled, the black 41 climbs hard, also to make up for the taste on the right.
White 42 defensive good hand.
White 44 tops, black chess three children do not dare to ask for it.
Black 45 to do work, white 48 to eat through the three sons, the two sides ended peacefully, the right side of the black chess is very large, can be satisfied.
Black 49 hangs below, white 50 tough to guard the corner, scrambling the field.
Second Spectrum 1-57 (i.e. 51-107)
Black 1, 3 concise and stable.
White 4 grabbed the big field above, black 5 hung first, and then black 7 forced to stop, Mr. Kato was still fierce.
The white 8 shoulder punch is also a strong hand.
The black 9 below is handled very clearly, and by the time the black 17 is charged, the white chess attack fails.
At 18 o'clock in the white, Satoshi Yuki intends to maintain the balance on the ground first.
Black 21, 23 two-pointed, Mr. Kato moved the killing machine!
The black chess pieces are thick around, and the white chess pieces cannot be worked, and Satoshi Yuki can only struggle to break through.
Black 29 climbs, a hand that must be killed.
Black 33, 35, and 37 show the true colors of the "executioner".
When the white 46 tip and the black 47 stick, Mr. Kato has figured out the change on the right.
White 48 thorns, it looks like black chess is also dangerous, but black 49 relies on good hands.
White 54 finally struggled, Mr. Kato looked at the fire, and Black 55 survived to calm down.
After the black 57 sticky, the white chess piece has two breakpoints, and the gas is not enough, and Yucheng Satoshi helplessly pushes the orange.
Mr. Kato performed amazingly in this game, slaughtering dragons with only 107 hands to defeat strong enemies and regain his peak style. At that time, everyone thought that such a powerful Mr. Kato would definitely create more legends...
A few days after the end of the bureau, on December 7, Mr. Kato was admitted to the hospital for cerebral infarction, after treatment, he thought that the problem was not big, but unexpectedly more than 20 days later things took a sharp turn for the worse, and on December 30, the bad news came out, and Mr. Kato passed away at the age of 57.
In 2002, when Mr. Kato regained Honinbo, Lao Xiao wrote "All Dreams Are Still Unharmed" for him, expecting him to continue to pursue his dreams and realize his dreams. However, after more than two years, the gentleman suddenly drove away, and the hero left a grudge! His sword, which was as cold as ice, was sealed, and there was no one to continue his pride.
I always remember the sadness of that moment, my friend advised that "Kato is not the whole world", yes, without Kato we still have Takemiya Masaki, and Cho Ji-hoon, and Cao Xuanxuan, and many legendary chess players, but how can we always have an unquenchable pain in our hearts? Maybe it's not just the pain of Kato's departure, our youth, our former pride, all drifting away in that cold wind...
Time always passes by, and Masao Kato's name will eventually be unfamiliar to later chess learners. Perhaps only those of us who have personally experienced his bloody legends will occasionally turn over a few traces of trepidation and pain in our memories.
Go birds and don't return! The heavens made a sword sound, and the sword was two words reminiscent of Haoxiong. Mr. Kato's famous game series has come to an end, let us reminisce about the legends of the past in these wonderful chess games of Mr. Kato, pay tribute to the cold sword blade, the hot-blooded elder, and the youth that we will never return to...
Masao Kato won the 107 hand of Satoshi Yuki
Nine-year-old Masao Kato plays the game under his father's watch
Mr. Kato defeats Kobayashi Koichi in the highlight of his ascension to the throne of fame
In 2003, Mr. Kato led a Japanese delegation to the Samsung Cup
Mr. Kato's memorial service was remembered by all the superb chess players