Kong Jie (l) 7P will face titleholder Lee Sedol 9P in theSamsung Cup finals. The 
best-of-three-games semi-finals of the international Cup featured one Korean, Lee Sedol 9P, and three Chinese representatives, Huang Yizhong 7P, Kong Jie 7P, and Zhou Ruiyang 5P, the only teen in the group. Lee kept Korea’s hopes alive by defeating Huang 2-0 and Kong got the privilege of facing Lee in the finals by defeating Zhou 2-0. Both players won their first semi-final game by a mere half point, and Kong took the second by only 1.5 points. Lee won this event last year, as well as in 2004, and currently holds three international titles. Kong’s most notable achievement is winning the national Chang-ki Cup twice, in 2005 and 2007. Overall, the Japanese and Chinese have won the Samsung twice, and the Koreans the other eight times. The finals are set for mid-January.
