28-year-old Luo Xihe 9-dan for the first time reached the final round of a major international tournament after winning a dramatic game against Choi Cheolhan 9-dan in the 10th Samsung Cup.

Luo Xihe 9-dan is famous for his fast-playing style. After reducing the playing time to two hours for each player, Samsung Cup appears to be taylored to Luo. Indeed, he played really fast during all three of his semi-final games against Choi Cheolhan 9-dan: In game 2, he had to resign before lunch-time; In game 3, they played 174 moves in the morning session.

What makes game 3 very entertaining was the capturing race during the second half which resulted in a triple-ko fight after move 245. This is something extremely rare in professional games, not to mention in a major international event. Even more amazing was Luo Xihe's decision to give up completely his big group involving the triple-ko and played elsewhere for compensation. It turned out to be a brilliant decision -- after losing 23 white stones and letting go 26 black stones, Luo still managed to win the game by a big 7.5-point margin. It was reported that the Korean and Chinese officials were already talking about arranging an extra lightning game in case of a draw and none of the observing professionals considered the possibility to give up the ko.

In the other semifinal, Lee Changho beat Hu Yaoyu 2-1 to grab the other final seat. Luo Xihe will face Lee Changho in a best-of-3 final round next January.