By Daniela Trinks, Korea correspondent for the E-Journal
Team Korea wins Nongshim Cup
The third and final stage of the 23rd Nongshim Cup began in February. The thinking time of 1 hour and one minute overtime is relatively short for an international tournament; this perhaps contributes vastly to its popularity among Go fans because a lot of upsets happen in the heat of the byoyomi battle.
The situation didn’t look promising for Korea at all with only one player remaining in the tournament, while Japan had three and China two. Unlike previous editions, the first stage of the competition was very balanced because no player managed to win more than one game before being eliminated (see table below). The real hero emerged in stage 2 where Iyama Yuta won four games in a row, a first-time record for a Japanese player in the history of the Nongshim Cup. Unfortunately, the three-month break before the third stage didn’t do him any favors – he lost momentum and was defeated by Mi Yuting 9p from China.
Now the last Korean player, Shin Jinseo 9p, entered the fray and sparked a series of events that could only be described as a “miracle”. After a controversial ending to a game against Mi Yuting 9p, which Shin won on time, there was an appeal by the Chinese team about a technical glitch by the server. A rematch was organized after lengthy consultations amongst referees in Korea, China, and Japan. Shin wasn’t thrown off by the incident and in fact, won the rematch comfortably the next day.
Out of the three remaining games, the clash between the current world-top Go players, Ke Jie and Shin Jinseo was the most highly anticipated. Ke Jie fell behind after making two mistakes in the opening (moves 39 and 43), and never really recovered. Untypical of him, he didn’t show his special ability to complicate and reverse the game.
Shin Jinseo seems to be invincible in international matches these days – since June 8 last year, he has not lost to any non-Korean player. He won 28 times in total, including 23 against Chinese players.
The Nongshim Cup prize money has increased from 200 million to 500 million KRW ($160,000 to $410,000) since the 17th edition, making it one of the most lucrative international Go competitions. Different from other team competitions, there is no prize money for the second and third-placed teams. In the Korean team, the prize money split was calculated based on each player’s contribution to the victory. Shin Jinseo, who recorded a four-win streak and won the deciding match, received 195 million KRW ($158,000). Next, Park Jeonghwan and Won Seongjin each received 96 million KRW ($78,000) for winning a single game; lastly, Byun Sangil and Shin Minjoon each received 83 million KRW ($67,000) for participating but not winning a single game.
Shin Jinseo sweeps LG Cup
On February 8th and 9th, Shin Jinseo 9p, from Korea, defeated Yang Dingxin 9p, from China, 2:0 to win the LG Cup trophy for the second time in his career. Yang had a strong start in the first game, his winning rate had climbed to 95% after 184 moves. However, Shin managed to turn the table by playing complicated moves which confused his opponent. Most notably the double peep 186. This induced Yang’s three decisive mistakes in byoyomi which allowed Shin to reverse the course of the game and snatch a dramatic last-minute victory. In the second game, Shin led till the middle game until an overplay turned the game into another nail-biter. After 6.5 hours and 247 moves, Shin finally won by resignation. The winner’s trophy came along with a cash prize of 300 Million KRW ($250,000), while the runner-up received 100 Million KRW ($83,000).
