KOREAN TEEN PARK JUNGHWAN WINS THIRD TITLE MATCH: Park Junghwan 5P (l) won’t be twenty until 2013, but he is already becoming a major player. Last year he won two Korean titles, the Siptan (Judan) Cup and the Chunwon (Tengen), and he has just successfully defended the Sibdang against challenger Lee Changho 9P with a score of 2-1. Lee won the first game of the match, but Park took the other two on January 9th and 10th. In the unusual structure of the Siptan, as last year’s winner, Park was seeded into the third round, so he had to win two games just to get into the title match.
IYAMA YUTA TAKES CLEAR LEAD IN HONINBO LEAGUE: In the eight-player round robin league to decide the next challenger for the Honinbo title in Japan, Meijin Iyama Yuta 9P has a 4-0 record with three games to go. Everyone else has at least one defeat. The closest competitor at this point is Yamashita Keigo 9P with a 3-1 record. He and Iyama have not yet met in the league. Yamashita currently holds both the Kisei and the Tengen titles. Iyama is Meijin and also won the Ryusei last year.
– Bill Cobb, from Go News, GoGameWorld, Sensei’s Library
