American Go E-Journal

Challenger Mok Jinseok (right) 9P stayed alive in his bid for the Kuksu, winning Round 3 on December 10. It looked like Lee Sedol 9P was going to sail to another title when he took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five-game finals against Mok in the 52nd Kuksu; although Lee only has two national titles at the moment, he still holds four current international titles, and is definitely the favorite in this match against a player with only a few minor titles and the most recent of those in 2004. Lee won this oldest and prestigious Korean title for the first time last year. The title was swapped back and forth between Lee Changho 9P and his teacher Cho Hunhyun 9P for a number of years until Rui Naiwei 9P made history by being the first woman to win an open title by defeating Cho in 1999. Since then no one has dominated this event the way Lee and Cho did in the past. Cho took it back from Rui in 2000 and Lee has held it three times since then, most recently in 2005. The next game in the title match is scheduled for January 5th.