Nongshim Cup
The Nongshim Cup is a team competition for the three major Go-playing countries - China, Japan and Korea. It is named after sponsor Nongshim, a Korean food company producing instant noodles. This tournament was first held in 1999, replacing the Jinro Cup.
The three countries each starts with 5 players. The selection is often based on a combination of preliminary tournaments and appointments. Two countries are randomly selected to start the first game. The winner continues playing a player from the third country. The winner of each subsequent game stays in to play the next opponent from a different country. In the end the team with players left standing is the winner of the tournament. These games are played over three stages in different cities (and online since the start of COVID-19 pandemic).
The full name of this tournament is 'Nongshim Spicy Noodle Cup'. Instant noodle (ramyun) is a popular fast food in oriental countries. Nowadays, the particular brand of noodle, as shown in the picture, is widely available even in western supermarkets.
- Korea dominated this tournament by winning most times and never finishing third. China really struggled in early years but its performance improved a lot in recent years.
- Korea's domination was mainly because of the stellar performance of Lee Changho, who single-handedly terminated the tournament 8 times, including a winning streak of 14 games over 6 years. In the 6th Nongshim Cup, he beat 5 opponents when his teammate failed to perform.
- In most years, the winner was decided by the 14th and final game. The winning team was always properly challenged. This is what makes the tournament exciting.
- The winning team is not necessarily winning the most number of games. Team with the strongest captain often benefits from the three-team arrangement.
- For all editions so far, at least one player won the special prize for winning 3+ games consecutively.
- Four members of the Korea team are selected from a qualifying tournament. The sponsor then determines a wild-card player. The decisions in the past were often controversial because the sponsor favoured famous players over other players in better forms.
- Up to 14 games are split over three stages. The split was 4/6/4 but quietly changed to 4/5/5 in term 17, apparently to avoid the awkward situation in which one poorly performing team gets knocked out in stage 2 (this is still possible).
- The longest winning streak was by Fan Tingyu winning seven consecutive games. Believe it or not, he did this twice! Yang Dingxin managed to do the same in 2019.
Term | Year | 1st place | 2nd place | 3rd place | Final game & terminator | Winning streak |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | Korea | China | Japan | Chang Hao: 3 | ||
2001 | Korea | Japan | China | Choi Cheolhan: 3 | ||
2002 | Korea | China | Japan | Luo Xihe: 3 | ||
2003 | Korea | China | Japan | Hu Yaoyu: 5; Park Yeonghun: 4 | ||
2004 | Korea | Japan | China | Kobayashi Koichi / Weon Seongjin: 3 | ||
2005 | Korea | China | Japan | Lee Changho: 5 | ||
2006 | Japan | Korea | China | Yoda Norimoto / Cho Hanseung: 3 | ||
2007 | Korea | China | Japan | Peng Quan: 5; Park Yeonghun: 4 | ||
2008 | China | Korea | Japan | Chang Hao: 4; Mok Jinseok / Wang Xi: 3 | ||
2009 | Korea | China | Japan | Kang Dongyun: 5; Tuo Jiaxi: 4 | ||
2010 | Korea | China | Japan | Xie He: 5; Kim Jiseok / Lee Changho: 3 | ||
2011 | Korea | China | Japan | Xie He / Choi Cheolhan: 4 | ||
2012 | China | Korea | Japan | Tan Xiao / Kim Jiseok: 4; Xie He: 3 | ||
2013 | Korea | China | Japan | Tan Xiao / Wang Xi / Choi Cheolhan: 3 | ||
2014 | China | Korea | Japan | Fan Tingyu / Chen Yaoye: 3 | ||
2015 | China | Korea | Japan | Wang Xi: 4 | ||
2016 | China | Korea | Japan | Ichiriki Ryo / Gu Li / Lee Sedol: 3 | ||
2017 | China | Korea | Japan | Fan Tingyu: 7 | ||
2018 | Korea | China | Japan | Shin Minjun: 6; Dang Yifei: 5 | ||
2019 | China | Korea | Japan | Fan Tingyu: 7 | ||
2020 | China | Korea | Japan | Yang Dingxin: 7 | ||
2021 | Korea | China | Japan | Shin Jinseo: 5; Gu Zihao: 3 | ||
2022 | Korea | Japan | China | Iyama Yuta / Shin Jinseo: 4 |
Comments
I believe it isn't only the
I believe it isn't only the Korean team that's chosen mostly by qualifier, since all teams have to use the same system with the sponsor selecting a wildcard from each.
Interestingly I remember a non-team tournament in which Lee Changho didn't qualify and there being a little controversy over there not being a wildcard option to select him, so I guess there's be dissatisfaction either way . . .
Fun Fact
Korea has played in the first round every year for the last 8 years, a very small disadvantage, but a disadvantage nonetheless.