Professional Go News - April 2013 Archive

Professional Go News Compiled by Go4Go

2013-04-30

• In the best-of-5 final of the first Chinese Qisheng tournament, Zhou Ruiyang 9-dan managed to hold on, winning game 3 and 4 after losing game 1 and 2 to Tuo Jiaxi 3-dan. This is a brand new tournament, not to be confused with the old Chinese Qisheng tournament held around year 2000. More information is at http://www.go4go.net/go/node/26

2013-04-28

• The 2nd Huading Cup ended in a dramatic fashion. Team Japan surprisingly beat Team China 2-1 in the final round, effectively handed Team Korea the victory. Korea and China all won two rounds and six games out of nine. Their captains both won two games. So what breaks the tie was the performance of their table 2 players - Korea's Kim Miri won all three of her games which gave Team Korea an edge according to the rule.

2013-04-27

• In the second round of the 2nd Huading Cup, Team China beat Team Chinese Taipei 3-0; Team Korea beat Team Japan 2-1.

2013-04-26

• In the fifth and final game of the 51st Japanese Judan tournament, challenger Yuki Satoshi 9-dan beat Iyama Yuuta 9-dan to win the Judan title for the first time. 41-year-old Yuki has been in a great form recently.
• In the first round of the 2nd Huading Cup (female team tournament), Team China beat Team Korea 2-1 to become the favourite to win this tournament. Team Japan won the other competition 2-1 against Team Chinese Taipei (captained by the popular Joanne Missingham 6-dan). The tournament will continue tomorrow.

2013-04-23

• In the preliminary tournament of the 18th LG Cup, the Chinese and the Korean equally shared the 16 seats for the main tournament. The group winners are: Choi Cheolhan, Guo Yuzheng, Lee Changhao, Kim Sonjin, Li Zhe, Han Yizhou, Zhang Tao, Xia Chenkun, Tuo Jiaxi, An Hyungjoon, Hong Seongji, An Joyeong, Mok Jinseok, Xie Erhao, Li Qincheng and Kang Dongyun. It is interesting to see that the Korean qualifiers are mostly established players while the Chinese are mostly less well-known young players. There are also 16 players entering the main tournament automatically. They are: Shi Yue, Gu Li, Chen Yaoye, Zhou Ruiyang, Fan Tingyu (representing China); Weon Seongjin, Lee Sedol, Park Jungwhan, Kim Jiseok, Park Yeonghun, Cho Hanseung (representing Korea); Iyama Yuuta, Takao Shinji, Hane Naoki, Kono Rin (representing Japan); Xiao Zhenghao (winning Taiwan's preliminary tournament).

2013-04-22

• In a result that probably surprises most Go fans, Kim Jiseok 8-dan scored three straight wins against Lee Sedol 9-dan to win the 18th Korean GS Caltex Cup. Game 2 had an interesting capturing race resulting in a big ko fight and exchange. Game 3 was even more interesting with a large-scale life-and-death problem very early into the game and again interesting ko fights. Kim Jiseok is a 9-dan now because of this victory.

2013-04-20

• Interesting Game: Choi Cheolhan 9-dan vs. Yan Huan 5-dan in 18th LG Cup, preliminary. This game contains a number of deep invasions and moyo reductions (W28 B47 B89 W110), some big ko fights and exchanges, and even an under-the-stones tesuji (B153).

2013-04-17

• It's the first day of the preliminary tournament of 18th LG Cup. 365 players (230 from Korea including 8 amateurs, 81 from China, 36 from Japanese and 18 from Chinese Taipei are to compete for 16 positions in the main tournaments. Interestingly most Taiwanese players and several Japanese dropped out the tournament, because of the unstable situation on the Korean peninsula. This year, the LG cup has improved prize money with the winner prize 300,000,000 KRW.

2013-04-16

• Shi Yue 9-dan of China has secured his victory in the go9dan league tournament. He beat Park Yeonghun 9-dan and captured the title with a total score of 7-1 and one game remaining. Lee Changhao 9-dan is doing well too with a total score of 5-2 so far.
• Kim Jiseok 8-dan beat Lee Sedol 9-dan in the first final game of the 18th Korean GS Caltex Cup.

2013-04-13

• Zhou Ruiyang 9-dan beat Tang Weixing 3-dan in the final game of the 13th Chinese Ricoh Cup, winning the prize money of 250,000 CNY.
• The 26th Chinese Mingren tournament is ongoing. Please pay attention to a dark horse 13-year-old Zhao Chenyu 2-dan, who managed to win several games against more established opponents, entering the last 16.

2013-04-11

• Choi Jeong 2-dan beat Wang Chenxing 5-dan in the 3rd Huang Longshi Cup, securing a victory for Team Korea. The winning prize is 450,000 CNY (approximately 72000 USD).
• The new season of the Korea Leagues has also started just a few days after the Chinese City League. Expect some exciting games.

2013-04-10

• Lee Sedol 9-dan beat Park Yeonghun 9-dan to set up a best-of-5 match against Kim Jiseok 8-dan in the 18th Korean GS Caltex Cup. According to statistics from Korea, Lee has won 41 titles in his career while Kim only 1.
• Choi Jeong 2-dan continued her good form and beat Li He 5-dan in the 3rd Huang Longshi Cup. The Chinese captain Wang Chenxing 5-dan (who won eight games in this tournament last year) will challenge Choi tomorrow.

2013-04-09

• Choi Jeong 2-dan of Korea finally stopped the winning streak of Yu Zhiying 2-dan in the 3rd Huang Longshi Cup, winning the game by time. Now both China and Korea have two players left. It's reported that Yu Zhiying will be promoted to 4-dan because of her outstanding performance in this tournament.

2013-04-08

• Yu Zhiying 2-dan beat Xie Yimin 6-dan in the 3rd Huang Longshi Cup, eliminating Team Japan from the tournament. This his her 6th consecutive win in this tournament.

2013-04-07

• Yu Zhiying 2-dan beat Moon Dowon 2-dan in the 3rd Huang Longshi Cup, winning 5 games in a row. Moon was considered a major threat to the Chinese as she managed to win 7 games in a row in the 9th Jeongganjang Cup back in 2011.
• The 2nd round of the 2013 Chinese City League A was played in the city of Hangzhou. Score of the 'international' matches: Korea 4 - China 4.

2013-04-06

• The second stage of the 3rd Huang Longshi Cup started in Jiangyan (a small city in Jiangsu province in eastern China). Yu Zhiying 2-dan of China captured a dragon of Mukai Chiaki 5-dan of Japan to secure her 4th consecutive win.

2013-04-05

• The major league games are finally back! The Chinese City League A, in its 15th edition, is now firmly established as the best professional league tournament. This year, most top-ranked Korea players, including Lee Sedol, Park Jungwhan, Choi Cheolhan, Park Yeonghun, Kim Jiseok, Cho Hanseung, Na Hyun, Byun Sangil, participate as guest players.
• Interesting Game: Zhou Hexi 4-dan vs. Tong Yulin 4-dan. This game has 377 moves (or 394 moves if counting dame moves). This is among the longest professional games.

2013-04-04

• Yuki Satoshi 9-dan beat Iyama Yuuta 9-dan in the 3rd title match of the 51st Japanese Judan tournament, leading 2-1 in the best-of-5 match. Yuki appears to be in a great form recently, beating the Japanese No. 1 Iyama three times lately.
• Interesting Game: 39th Japanese Gosei, preliminary, Ohashi Hirofumi 6-dan vs. Obuchi Kotaro 2-dan. Ohashi continues his fuseki experiment with a 6-6 opening move.

2013-04-03

• Wang Xi 9-dan beat Jiang Weijie 9-dan to win the 2nd Chinese CITIC Cup (Go4Go will continue to refer this event and its predecessors as CCTV Cup to make record-keeping easier). Both players have qualified to play this year's Asian TV Cup. Wang was the runner-up of the CCTV Cup in 2006.

2013-04-02

• Kang Dongyun 9-dan beat Park Yeonghun 9-dan 2-0 in the final of the 8th Korean Siptan tournament. This is Kang's 7th professional title. Kang was the winner-up of this tournament last year.

2013-04-01

• Kang Dongyun 9-dan beat Park Yeonghun 9-dan in the first final game of the 8th Korean Siptan tournament. Before this game, Park was in a great form and had won 14 professional games in a row since early January.