Kobayashi Izumi - Team Wakagoi

The final member of Team Wakagoi is new
to the league and is 7 Dan Kobayashi Izumi (小林 泉美), born 20th June 1977 so is 48 and is the daughter of Professional players and the parent of Professional players as well.. At her current playing peak between 97 and 98 she was the top female player in Japan and also the world #10. She would also have gained Professional status in 1995 through the harder full league exam.

Her play style is gutsy. She tends to favour early territory building then invading opponents over extended positions in her words,

letting them surround comfortably before enduring and counterattacking

So could be described as a indomitable counter puncher. ELO wise she currently stands at  2924 making her the 600th best player in the world and her chart

Shows the heights she can get to. Her marriage in 2004 followed by children in 2006 and 2009 when she essentially retired to look after the children whilst her 9Dan Professional husband concentrated on his career explains the long dip. She re-started playing in the last few years so it will be interesting to see if she can re-gain previous heights. She has been one of the most successful Japanese female players so has a lot of finals exposure Saikyo 7th beat Konishi Kazuko

Meijin

 12th lost to Aoki Kikuyo 0-2
13th beat Aoki Kikuyo 2-0
14th lost to Aoki Kikuyo 0-2
15th beat Aoki Kikuyo 2-0
16th beat Inori Yoko 2-0
17th lost to Koyama Terumi 1-2

 Honinbo

 
 18th lost to Chinen Kaori 0-3
20th beat Kuwabara Yoko 3-1
21st beat Chinen Kaori 3-2
22nd beat Yashiro Kumiko 3-1
 23rd lost to Chinen Kaori 1-3

Kisei (Blitz)

 1st beat Kobaysahi Chizu 2-0
2nd beat Sugiuchi Kazuko 2-1
3rd lost to Chinen Kaori 0-2

 What is especially interesting about Izumi is that she was the queen bee prior to Xie Yimin's dominance which occurred after she essentially retired for parenting. Her re-arrival means some interesting comparisons could be made allowing that the talent is still there. It also makes this a fascinating team choice for Wakagoi.

As ever we have a fluff piece on X here , her match day ritual includes making hot compresses for match day warmth (looks like in a material containery thing). One thing did surprise me, and I may well have misunderstood, but it seems as though Fischer random GO rules might be in play for some of the matches. To which I think...erm..... I had a quick look and these rules involve 3 'ranomly' placed (how?) stones for each player prior to the game start thus upsetting traditional opening theory.

If so I am likely to care far less about such games (personally) your mileage may differ..