American Go E-Journal

By Daniela Trinks, Korea correspondent for the E-Journal. Trinks is an associate professor in the Department of Baduk (Go) Studies College of Arts & Physical Education at Myongji University in South Korea.

Upcoming LG Cup Title Match February 7-10
The highly anticipated title match of the 26^th LG Cup will take place online at 10 a.m. (KST) on February 7^th, 9^th and 10^th. Yang Dingxin 9p (23) from China will face Shin Jin-seo 9p (21) from Korea in the best-of-three matches. They have met ten times so far, with both winning five games each. Interestingly, both players’ first major international title was the LG Cup: Yang won the 23^rd, and Shin the 24^th LG Cup. Last year’s 25^th Cup was won by Shin Min-joon 9p who defeated Ke Jie 9p 2:1 in the final. Who will be the next title holder? Besides fame, a high prize money is at stake: the first prize is about $250,000 and the second is $84,000.

2021 Best-Paid Go Pros in Japan and Korea in Comparison

Every year, the official incomes of Go professionals who earned the most are published in Japan and Korea, while those in China are not. The table below gives the annual prize money of the top ten earners in Japan and South Korea. In both countries, the current #1 ranked players are also the top earners – Iyama Yuta 9p (from Japan) earned $1.16 million and Shin Jin-seo 9p (from Korea) earned $890,000. Iyama Yuta 9p has been at the top of the list for eleven years in a row, while Shin Jin-seo 9p only surpassed Park Jeong-hwan 9p as annual top earner in 2020. In both countries, only two female players (*) made it into the top 10, surprisingly, both are ranked #5: Fujisawa Rina 5p (from Japan) earned $278,000 and Choi Jeong 9p (from Korea) earned $202,000. Choi’s best results came in 2019 when she earned about $380,000 which put her in the #3 spot in Korea. The #2 ranked female player in Korea, Oh Yoo-jin 9p, earned about $115,000 in 2021, which put her in the top-ten list for the first time. In Japan, Ueno Asami 4p, earned $204,000, which put her on the 6^th spot. Remarkably, the youngest top earners were similar in age in both countries – Japan’s Ueno and Seki (21) and Korea’s Shin Jin-seo (22). Meanwhile, the oldest top earners in Japan are in their 40s – Kono Rin (41) and Hane Naoki (46), in contrast to Korea’s Kim Ji-seok and Kang Dong-yoon who are in their 30s.

Table: Top 10 Earners 2021 in Japan and South Korea. Female Players are marked with an asterix sign (*). Annual prize money converted at $1 = ¥115.1 and $1 = 1,189 KRW.

The table lists the official prize money, before tax and other deductions. Furthermore, game earnings from for example the LG Cup and Ing Cup (finals are yet to be played), and Iyama’s winning streak money from the Nongshim Cup are not included.

Nongshim Special Match: Korea vs. China

The Nongshim Korea-China Classic Super Match was held January 10^th-12^th as a side event of the on-going current 23^rd Nongshim Cup. It is a binational team competition, similar to the legendary NEC Japan-China Super Go matches in the 80s and 90s. Each team consisted of one player each in their 60s, 40s, and 20s, out of which two were male and one female. Team Korea was represented by the legendary Cho Hoon-hyun 9p (69) and Lee Changho 9p (47), supported by #1 female player Choi Jeong 9p (26), while team China was represented by Liu Xiaoguang 9p (62), Chang Hao 9p (46) and Yu Zhiying 7p (25). They played three rounds so that each player would meet the other team’s player once. The Chinese team started off well with a 2:1 lead, but team Korea came back strongly and won the subsequent rounds of games 4:2. For their prize, team Korean took home $50,000; additionally, Choi Jeong 9p received a bonus of $4,200 for winning all her games.

Meanwhile, the main 23^rd edition of the Nongshim Cup will resume this year. The highly anticipated 3^rd round will begin on February 21^st, with three Japanese players, two Chinese players, and one Korean player left to battle it out. Will Iyama Yuta 9p extend his four-game winning streak, and lead team Japan to their first victory in 16 years? We have to wait and see – and cheer for our favorite team.