The final stage of the 5th Chunlan Cup is ongoing at Changsha, a beautiful city in southern China. In game 1, Zhou Heyang 9p luckily beat Lee Changho 9p by 1/4 stone. Zhou only needs one more win in the next two games to claim his first ever international title.

The game was actually to Lee Changho's advantage for most of times. Lee began to take the lead after successfully attacking Zhou Heyang's weak group and building great potential in the middle of the board. Then Lee discovered a nice combination after move 129, breaking into white's territory and made a huge ko. After the ko exchange, Lee was said to have a comfortable 10-points lead on the board.

It was reported that many pros actually sentenced Zhou to death by leaving the study room. The commentaries on Tom.com's live broadcast (by Liu Xing 7p) also suggested a 'confirmed victory' for Lee after his move 167. Nobody imagined that Lee, famous for his flawless yose, would lose the game in such a good situation.

However, Lee was clearly not in his best shape today. He made his first obvious mistake at move 185 and white immediately jumped into his territory, reducing quite a few points in sente. Lee's second mistake appeared to be move 193. After white 194, black had to fix his problem in the middle territory with 199 and ended up in gote! White 204 is so large: it not only gained 6 points locally, but also forced black to fill in the corner later to prevent a capturing race.

Zhou Heyang's endurance also had a role. He played quite a few smart yose moves, such as 212 and 228. Even so, Lee was still leading slightly, according to the pro observers. Lee's final mistake was clearly move 237 that removed the double-ko. This double-ko was suppose to be his endless ko threats until all other yoses are completed. Zhou immediately started a ko fight at 248, winning both this ko and the ko at 280! After all these efforts, Zhou still needs a little bit more luck -- the Chinese rule which gives his a large 7.5 komi to win this game.

Chunlan Cup final is to continue on March 16th.

Hane Naoki Kisei fought back in game 6 and won by 6.5 points. For two years in a row, Kisei, the most prestigious title in Japan, has to be decided in game 7, which is scheduled on March 16th and 17th.

The decisive moment of game 6 is at move 107, when Yuki Satoshi 9p lost his corner.

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According to Japanese Nikkei News, Cho U 9p, the current No. 1 Japanese player, has collected one more trophy by beating Ryu Shikun 9p in the final of 24th Japanese NEC Cup. As a result, Cho U is holding 4 titles -- Meijin, Honinbo, Oza and NEC Cup.

He can potentially win more titles as he also entered the final of 52nd Japanese NHK Cup. His semi-final victory against Awaji Shuzo 9p was just broadcasted on TV today. In the international battlefield, Cho U is waiting for his clash against Yu Bin 9p of China to fight for his first ever international title.

After a series of 6 unsuccessful attempts during the past few years, Chang Hao 9p finally took his first ever international title. In the 4th final game of the 5th Ing Cup, Chang Hao 9p beat Choi Cheolhan 9p by 3 points and thus won the best-of-5 final at 3:1.

Chang Hao's teacher Nie Weiping 9p regrettably lost to Cho Hunhyun 9p 16 years ago in the 1st Ing Cup final. Doing live commentary at the scene, Nie testified the moment his pupil accomplished what he could not accomplish. Mr. Ing Chang-Ki, the creator of Ing Cup who passed away in 1997, had always dreamed that Chinese players winning the champion one day. His son will help him handing $400,000 award to Chang Hao in the closing ceremony. For ordinary Chinese Go fans, they never saw a big victory like this for more than 5 years. Chang Hao not only fulfilled his own dream, but also dreams of many others.

The 3rd game of Ing Cup final started at 9:30 AM on March 3 at Kunlun Hotel in Beijing. This game attracted a lot of attentions of Go players, the news media and Go fans. Even 90-year old Go Seigen appeared at the scene!

The opening was relatively peaceful until move 51, when Choi Cheolhan chose to give up a fat corner and started attacking Chang's dragon in the middle. The fight intensified when Chang Hao bravely separated white stones with move 74 and 76. Chang then found a brilliant tesuji at 78 -- wedging into the surrounding wall. This not only saved his dragon, but also captured 4 stones eventually -- a huge success for white.

To recover from the loss, Choi Cheolhan decided not to defend his dragon but take big profit from the corner first (move 99). His stake was not successful as Chang Hao managed to capture everything after 120. Choi's final bet was to capture the group in the lower-left corner. But Chang once again showed great reading ability and saved the group in a narrow space.

The game was a marathon and lasted for more than 9 hours. This is because Ing rule allows players to 'buy' time -- trading 2 points with 35 minutes extra time. In the end Choi had to spend 4 points and Chang 2 points. They did not really care because the game was decided by the life and death of big dragons instead of territories.

With a 2:1 lead, Chang Hao 9p is one game away from fulfilling his dream for an international title.

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