5th Meijin title

Newcomers

The lowest three players from the previous year are demoted, and entrance matches determine which three new players enter the League.

game	date	black	white	result	sgf
Qualification final	1979-11-15	Hane Yasumasa	Hisai Keishi	B+R	sgf
Qualification final	1979-11-22	Yamashiro Hiroshi	Takagi Shoichi	B+5.5	sgf
Qualification final	1979-11-29	Ishii Kunio	Kobayashi Koichi	W+1.5	sgf

League

Results (in the first column the white player, on the top row the black player). The ordering of the first six players is according to their results in the previous year. The last three are the winners of the entrance matches.

#	player	result	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1.	Sakata Eio	3-5		B+1.5		B+5.5		W+R		B+2.5
2.	Kato Masao	6-2			B+0.5		B+3.5		W+6.5		W+R
3.	Takemiya Masaki	5-3	B+7.5			B+R		W+7.5		W+R
4.	Rin Kaiho	5-3		B+R			W+R		B+R		W+R
5.	Cho Chikun	6-2	W+R		W+R			W+R		W+R
6.	Hashimoto Utaro	2-6		B+3.5		B+R			W+2.5		B+R
7.	Kobayashi Koichi	5-3	W+R		B+0.5		W+R			W+R
8.	Hane Yasumasa	2-6		B+2.5		W+2.5		B+1.5			B+5.5
9.	Yamashiro Hiroshi	2-6	B+5.5		B+10.5		B+1.5		B+R

Yamashiro Hiroshi, Hane Yasumasa, and Hashimoto Utaro are demoted.

Playoff

Kato Masao and Cho Chikun both had 6 wins, and played a challenger playoff that was won by Cho Chikun.

game	date	black	white	result	sgf
Challenger playoff	1980-08-21	Cho Chikun	Kato Masao	B+4.5	sgf

5th Meijin Title

game	date	black	white	result	sgf
1	1980-09-10,11	Otake Hideo	Cho Chikun	W+R	sgf
2	1980-09-17,18	Cho Chikun	Otake Hideo	B+R	sgf
3	1980-10-01,02	Otake Hideo	Cho Chikun	B+R	sgf
4	1980-10-08,09	Cho Chikun	Otake Hideo	Void	sgf
5	1980-10-22,23	Otake Hideo	Cho Chikun	W+R	sgf
6	1980-11-05,06	Cho Chikun	Otake Hideo	B+1.5	sgf

Cho Chikun won 4-1. The fourth game was declared void: Cho asked whether he could retake the ko, and the referee answered affirmatively, and Cho illegally retook the ko.