Xie Yimin is now defending her title; she leads the match 2-1. If she wins again, it will be her third year.

http://igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/fhoninbo.html

She’s also the female Meijin:

http://igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/fmeijin.html

and holds the Daiwa Ladies Cup

http://igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/dlc.html

but Umezawa Yukari is the female Kisei.

http://igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/fkisei.html

Rui Naiwei successfully defended the Women’s Myeongin in Jan.

http://igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/fm.html

and recaptured the women’s Kuksu in February.

http://igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/fk.html

In China, Tang Yi is the Female Xinren Wang.

http://igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/fxr.html

In the top US tournaments the US Open and the Ing Masters, women compete on equal terms with the men. Feng Yun, for instance, does well, as has been reported in the AGA e-Journal.

Shen Guoson (7 dan) writes in his book, Beauty and The Beast,

The ancient Chinese masters historically stressed the opening. It’s a pity that in ancient go they did not abolish “placement;” that is, placing two stones of each color on the board [on diagonally opposite star points] prior to starting the game. This practice limited variations in the corner, which in turn limited variations in the opening.

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