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The Power Report: Yo leads 77th Honinbo League; Shibano and Shida share lead in 47th Meijin League; 33rd Women’s Meijin League; Sumire’s progress

Monday February 28, 2022

By John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal

Yo leads 77th Honinbo League
Yo Seiki 8-dan of the Kansai Ki-in was the in-form player in the first month and a half of the new year. Besides becoming the Judan challenger, he also holds the sole lead in the Honinbo League on 5-0. His closest rival is Ichiriki Ryo on 4-1. 2022 results follow.
(Jan. 6) Shibano Toramaru 9-dan (B) beat Hane Naoki 9-dan by resig.
(Jan. 17) Kyo Kagen Judan (B) beat Tsuruyama Atsushi 8-dan by resig.
(Jan. 27) Ichiriki (W) beat Motoki Katsuya 8-dan by resig.
(Feb. 3) Kyo (W) beat Sada Atsushi 7-dan by resig.
(Feb. 10) Ichiriki (B) beat Shibano by resig.; Yo Seiki (B) beat Motoki by 1.5 points

Shibano and Shida share lead in 47th Meijin League
Only two and a half rounds have been completed in the Meijin, but already there are only two undefeated players: Shibano Toramaru and Shida Tatsuya, who are both on 2-0. Results this year follow.
(Jan. 6) Shida Tatsuya 8-dan (W) beat Motoki Katsuya 8-dan by resig.
(Jan. 10) Yamashita Keigo (B) beat Kyo Kagen Judan by resig.
(Jan. 17) Shibano (W) beat Ichiriki by resig.
(Jan. 20) Hane Naoki (W) beat Yo Seiki by 3.5 points.
(Feb. 3) Shibano (B) beat Yamashita by 4.5 points.
(Feb. 10) Kyo (B) beat Hane by resig.

33rd Women’s Meijin League
So far, only one round + two games have been played in this seven-player league. Four players—Ueno Asami, Xie Yimin, Mukai Chiaki, and Nakamura Sumire— are undefeated, but their score is just 1-0. Nyu Eiko is 1-1, and Suzuki Ayumi and Omori Ran are both on 0-2. Results to date follow.
(Jan. 27) Mukai Chiaki 6-dan (B) beat Nyu Eiko 4-dan by resig.
(Jan. 31) Ueno Asami, Women’s Kisei, (B) beat Omori Ran 1-dan by resig.; Xie Yimin 7-dan (B) beat Suzuki Ayumi 7-dan by 2.5 points.
(Feb. 10) Nyu Eiko 4-dan (W) beat Suzuki by 1.5 points; Nakamura Sumire (W) beat Omori by 3.5 points.

Sumire’s progress
The first game given below should have been included in my previous report. Sumire has made a reasonable start to the new year with five wins to three losses.
(Dec. 27) Sumire 2-dan (B) beat Jo Bun-en 1-dan by resig. (prelim., 41st Women’s Honinbo).
2022
(Jan. 6) Sumire (B) beat Nishioka Masao 2-dan by resig. (prelim., 47th King of the New Stars).
(Jan. 13) Sumire (W) beat Moro Arisa 2-dan by resig.; Sumire (W) beat Kato Chie 2-dan by resig. (both games in Prelim. A, 33rd Women’s Meijin). These wins secured for Sumire the final open seat in the seven-player league.
(Jan. 20) Sumire (W) lost to Nakazawa Ayako 5-dan by 2.5 points (Prelim., 9th Women’s Hollyhock).
(Jan. 24) Sumire (B) beat Aoki Kikuyo 8-dan by 3.5 points (Prelim. C, 79th Honinbo tournament). With this win, Sumire advanced to Prelim. B.)
(Jan. 31) Sumire (B) lost to Kobayashi Izumi 7-dan by 6.5 points (First Tournament, 47th Kisei tournament)
(Feb. 7) Sumire (W) lost to Imabun Taro 2-dan (B) by 1.5 points (47th King of the New Stars.
(Feb. 10) Sumire won her first game in the Women’s Meijin League—see article above.

Promotions
To 7-dan: Nobuta Shigehito (120 wins, as of Jan. 28)
To 2-dan: Nakano Shoya (30 wins, as of Jan. 21)

Retirement
Takagi Shoichi retired as of January 20. Born in Yokohama City on November 7, 1943, he became a disciple of the late Nakagawa Shinshi 7-dan in 1956. He made 1-dan in 1962 and reached 9-dan in 1981. He won three titles: the 13th Prime Minister’s Cup (1969), the 2nd New Stars (1970), and the 19th Prime Minister’s Cup (1975). He challenged unsuccessfully for the 11th Judan (1973). He played in the Meijin League three times and the Honinbo League four times. His lifetime record is 989 wins, 626 losses, 4 jigo. He has written four books about go.

Obituary
Tsujii Ryotaro 8-dan died of a myocardial infarction on January 31, aged 91. He was born on March 16, 1930 in Kyoto. He was a disciple of Fujita Goro 8-dan (1902-94). He became 1-dan in 1949 and was promoted to 8-dan when he retired in 2011. He was a member of the Kansai branch of the Nihon Ki-in.

Correction
In the item about best winning percentage in my previous report (published Feb. 2), the first line should have read: “Restricted to players who have played 24+ games” (not “wins”). Thanks to Howard Warshaw for catching this.

Categories: Japan,John Power Report,Main Page

The Power Report: Yo to challenge for Judan; Ueno defends Women’s Kisei; Sumire no longer youngest professional

Sunday February 27, 2022

By John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal

Yo to challenge for Judan

The play-off to decide the challenger to Kyo Kagen for the 60th Judan title was held at the Kansai Ki-in on January 27. It featured two Kansai Ki-in members. Yo Seiki 8-dan (B) beat Sada Atsushi 7-dan by 3.5 points. This will be Yo’s third challenge for a top-seven title; in the 64th Oza title match in 2016, he lost 0-3 to Iyama Yuta and in the 55th Judan title match (2017) he lost 1-3 to Iyama. He will doubtless be glad the titleholder this time is someone different. The title match will start on March 1.

Ueno defends Women’s Kisei

The Women’s Kisei has featured the same pairing for three years in a row. In the 23rd title match, Suzuki Ayumi 7-dan challenged Ueno Asami (left), who had held the title for two years; Suzuki won the match 2-1 and made her debut as Women’s Kisei. In 2021, Ueno became the challenger and regained her title by winning the match 2-1. This year Suzuki was back as challenger again. The first game was held at the Hotel Sunlife Garden in Hiratsuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, on January 20. Ueno Asami drew black in the nigiri. Unusually for her, she did not play very aggressively, so the challenger, Suzuki Ayumi 7-dan, led the game into an endgame contest, which is her forte. However, Ueno managed to eke out a win by 1.5 points.

The second game was played in the Ryusei Studio in the basement of the Nihon Ki-in headquarters in Ichigaya, Tokyo, on January 27. There was more fighting than in the first game, but this game also became an endgame contest. Ueno played with precision and won the game by 5.5 points.

Cho Koharu makes 1-dan; Sumire no longer youngest professional

For the first time ever, two elementary-school pupils met in the deciding game in the 2022 Women’s Special Professional Qualification League. The two were Yanagihara Saki (aged 11) and Cho Koharu (aged 12). After six rounds of the league, both were on 5-1, so the winner of their final-round game would win the league and qualify as professional shodan as of April 1. Taking black, Koharu won by 6.5 points. I have no information about Saki, but she still has a chance of making pro while in elementary school. There’s lots of information about Koharu. She is the daughter of Cho U 9-dan and Kobayashi Izumi 7-fan. Her grandmother is Kobayashi Reiko, daughter of Kitani Minoru, and her grandfather is Kobayashi Koichi. Her older sister, Kosumi, who is now 15 (born on March 24, 2006), became a professional in April 2020. Koharu is eight months younger than Nakamura Sumire, so she will be the youngest active player at the Nihon Ki-in (she will be 12 years four months; Sumire turns 13 on March 2). Sumire’s record of debuting at ten years of age no months is still safe.

The January 30 Yomiuri Newspaper published an interview with Koharu and her parents. Her father offered some interesting background information about her given name. “Koharu” sounds like a typical girl’s name, but usually it would be written “small spring”小春 . In Cho’s case, her name is written心治. The first character is “kokoro,” which means “heart,” though only the first syllable is used. Go players who know kanji will immediately recognize the second character as the “chi” in Cho Chikun’s name. Cho U greatly respects Cho Chikun and actually asked him for permission to use the character from his name. The core meaning of this character is something like “cure” or “make better” or “regulate.”

Nakamura Sumire: “Congratulations on making 1-dan. Last year I studied together with Koharu. I hope that we can both do our best to get stronger.”

Tomorrow: Yo leads 77th Honinbo League; Shibano and Shida share lead in 47th Meijin League; 33rd Women’s Meijin League; Sumire’s progress

Categories: Japan,John Power Report,Main Page

Registration Open for the 2022 Redmond Cup and AGA Girls Cup

Thursday February 24, 2022

Redmond Cup and AGA Girls Cup finalists compete at the 2019 US Go Congress in Madison, Wisconsin

Registration is now open for the 29th Redmond Cup and 5th AGA Girls Cup, the AGA’s annual premier youth tournaments for North American youth under 18 and females under 16 respectively. Players must have an accredited rank of 1-dan or higher to participate in the Redmond Cup, and an accredited rank of 10-kyu or higher to participate in the AGA Girls Cup. The Redmond Cup features both a Junior (under 13) and a Senior (13-17) division, while the AGA Girls Cup will feature one division (under 16). Both tournaments are online preliminaries to determine two finalists in each division who will be invited to play in a best-of-three match at the 2022 US Go Congress. The American Go Foundation will cover all reasonable expenses for the finalists of both tournaments to travel to and compete at the 2022 USGC. If there is no in-person 2022 USGC, the Finals will be played at the following in-person USGC. Players who complete all rounds of either tournament will also be eligible for a $200 scholarship to the next in-person USGC.

This year’s tournaments have undergone several major changes, including a format overhaul and mandatory video calls with strict camera setup guidelines during games. In light of issues regarding prohibited use of AI assistance during tournament games, these changes were made to maintain a high standard of tournament integrity in a practical manner.

Registration for the Redmond Cup will close on March 16th, with competition starting on March 21st. Registration for the AGA Girls Cup will close on March 23rd, with competition starting on March 28th. Interested competitors can read about the rules for the Redmond Cup and rules for the AGA Girls Cup for more information, and email youth@usgo.org with any inquiries.

– Story and photo by Justin Teng, AGA Youth Coordinator

Categories: Events/Tournaments,Main Page,U.S./North America,Youth

50 years aGO – February 1972

Sunday February 20, 2022

by Keith L. Arnold, hka, with Patrick Bannister

We start with another quick tidbit about inflation. The Nihon Ki’in released the prize leaders for 1971. Rin Kaihō led the pros with a princely income of $25,000.

On February 11, the Nihon Ki’in Team Tournament began. At the urging of Fujisawa Hōsai 9d, a “gaijin” team entered the event for 15 player teams. 11 Americans, 2 Austrians and 2 British made up the “Ishi Press Team.” Their first three boards were Manfred Wimmer, Richard Bozulich and James Davies – you can make them out in the attached picture from the event. Other notables were one time AGA President Robert McCallister and Congress Director Stuart Horowitz. Unfortunately full names are not given and we are left to speculate whether “Hall” was T. Mark Hall, co-creator of GoGOD. The top boards had a solid 70% win rate, but the tail end of the team was not as successful, and they were eliminated in the initial stage.

The Jūdan title match went the full 5 game distance. Beginning the month knotted at one game apiece, Sakata Eio took the lead in the third game played on February 9 and 10. Hashimoto Utarō managed to even the score by half a point on February 16 and 17. However, Sakata returned from the wilderness, taking the title on February 23-24. (Game records: Game 3, Game 4, Game 5.)

Photos from Go Review, game records from SmartGo

Categories: 50 years aGO,Go Photos,Japan,Main Page,World

Transatlantic Online Pro League Qualifier set for this weekend

Friday February 18, 2022

This weekend, two seats in the new season of the Transatlantic Online Pro League (https://eurogofed.org/pros/league.html), which begins on Feb 26, are up for grabs in an amateur qualification tournament.

Four North American players are invited: Aaron Ye, Brady Zhang, Kevin Yang, and Alexander Qi. The tournament format is a double elimination.

All games will be played online on OGS with a time setting of 30 minutes main time and 3×30 byo-yomi. To ensure fair play, all competitors are required to record a video during their games and submit the video afterwards.

The match start times are as follows:

Round 1

Feb 19 (Saturday): 10 AM Pacific Time / 1 PM Eastern Time

Aaron vs. Alexander

Brady vs. Kevin

Round 2

Feb 19 (Saturday): 1:30 PM Pacific Time / 4:30 PM Eastern Time

Winners bracket

Losers bracket

Round 3

Feb 20 (Sunday): 10 AM Pacific Time / 1 PM Eastern Time

Loser from winners bracket vs. Winner from losers bracket

Categories: Main Page,Other,U.S./North America

NYIG Online Winter Camp Registration Closing Soon

Wednesday February 16, 2022

The New York Institute of Go is hosting a beginner-friendly 5-day Winter Camp between Feb 21-25 both online on the KGS Go Server and on-site in New York. Students will experience fun Go activities in a setting outside of the classroom and learn from hands-on practicing. Activities will include tournament preparation, practice games, teaching games, reviews, and team Go. The schedule and registration form are available here; registration closes on February 20th. Interested participants with any questions can contact NYIG through the NYIG website or by sending an email to info@ny-go.org.

– Story and photo by Ryan Li, NYIG Vice President

Categories: Main Page,U.S./North America

Third Time’s a Charm: Jeff Zhang Crowned 2021 Virginia Champion After Consecutive Runner-ups

Monday February 14, 2022

*Qingbo Zhang 5d (left) plays Yaming Wang 5d (right)*

The 3rd Virginia State Go Championship final featured a best-of-three series, with Game 1 at the National Go Center in Washington, DC, and Games 2 and 3 in Vienna, VA.

Qingbo ‘Jeff’ Zhang 5d took comeback wins in games 1 and 3 vs Yaming Wang 5d, who used to be a key go organizer in Richmond, VA. Both good at fighting, Zhang and Wang had plenty of ko fights and exchanges, but Zhang was sharp to seize opportunities in the endgame.

Growing up in Luoyang, China, Zhang was a classmate of Shi Yue 9P. He loves reading books of a variety of subjects, including over 100 WeiQi TianDi magazines. He graduated from George Washington University with a Master’s degree. Prior to the pandemic, Zhang was on the top of AGA’s list for both tournaments played and rated games played. Zhang is a passionate go lover who has even taken multiple trips by bus and train to west coast and midwest tournaments.

Despite having lost, Wang always remained calm and reviewed every move after each match, demonstrating sportsmanship: friendship trumps competition.

The VA State Championship utilizes 5 periods of 1 minute byo-yomi to provide ample thinking time to the players, and the three games totaled over 10 hours of deliberation.

CAFA-DC, a financial safety and technology company, sponsored the past three Virginia Open and VA State Championship tournaments. Both prizes are $200 / $70 for the champion/runner-up.

The semifinal was held at Korean American Baduk Association in Annandale, VA on Nov. 6, 2021. Yaming Wang 5d defeated Edward Zhang 5d, and Qingbo Zhang 5d defeated Ruoshi Sun 4d (who defeated Irvin Pajarillo previously to earn the spot). James Lee was the director.

Previous VA State Championship winners:
1st (2019): Joshua Lee, Qingbo Zhang (runner-up),
2nd (2020): Edward Zhang, Qingbo Zhang (runner-up).

– Story and photo by Edward Zhang

Categories: Main Page,U.S./North America

San Diego Go Club celebrates Setsubun

Thursday February 10, 2022

Setsubun is the day before spring in the old Japanese calendar. On February 2, the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park celebrated Setsubun, with hundreds of adults and children gathered outdoors in masks as evil was banished and spring welcomed with good fortune. The San Diego Go Club was invited to staff a booth at the event to teach Go to passersby. “Many were interested in learning Go,” reports Ted Terpstra, who says copies of “The Way to Go,” supplied by the American Go Foundation were given out to those interested.

Roasted soybeans were thrown by children at players wearing demon masks and bearing frightening clubs and hammers as drums beat in the background. Children shouted “”Devils out! Fortune in.” This symbolically purified the place by driving away evil spirits that bring misfortune.

“Over the years, the Japanese Friendship Garden has proven to be a fertile place to find new players and sometimes a 6-dan for the SDGC, which now has over 80 AGA members,” says Terpstra. The club is once again meeting in person with over 25-players (25-kyus to four 6-dans) attending last Thursday.

Categories: Main Page,U.S./North America

Korea Go Report: Wild Card Wins Crown Haitai Cup; 1st Hoban Title Winner

Monday February 7, 2022

By Daniela Trinks, Korea correspondent for the E-Journal.

Wild Card Wins 5^th Crown Haitai Cup

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Description automatically generated — *Byun Sang-il (left) and Han Seung-joon fought for the Crown Haitai title.* *Photo courtesy of KBA.*

The Crown Haitai Cup is a Korean U25 tournament which has been held since 2017. Previous winners include Park Jeong-hwan 9p, Park Ha-min 9p, Song Ji-hoon 7p, and Lee Chang-seok 8p. In November 2021, 97 players participated in the preliminaries, and 28 made it to the main event of the 5^th Crown Haitai Cup. The previous year’s winner Lee Chang-seok 8p and runner-up Seol Hyun-joon 7p were seeded, while the sponsor gave two wild cards to Byun Sang-il 9p and Cho Seung-ah 5p. The tournament employed a knock-out format and had a relatively short thinking time limit of 20 minutes plus 20 seconds per move (Fisher time). The final was held from January 24^th to 27^th between Han Seung-joon 9p (Korean rank #9) and Byun Sang-il 9p (rank #3). Han (26) had won the Korean President’s Cup in 2021, and he demonstrated his strength by winning the first game. However, the younger Byun (25) has more experience when it comes to title games, having already won four titles including the recent international 2021 Kuksu Mountain title. He relied on this experience to edge out a 2:1 victory and take home the title. Interestingly, Byun Sang-il has played in this tournament since its inception in 2017 without any success; he eventually prevailed on this his fifth attempt and walked away with $25,000. Runner-up Han Seung-joon received $10,000.

1^st Hoban Title Winner

The Hoban Strongest Female Player’s Cup is a new tournament which began in August 2021. The sponsor is the Korean conglomerate Hoban Construction whose CEO Kang Sang-yeol has shown his interest in Go by supporting a female Go league team since 2016. In the qualifiers of this new competition 41 players competed out of which four qualified to join the three top ranked players (Choi Jeong 9p, Oh Yoo-jin 9p and Kim Chae-young 7p) and Cho Hye-yoon 9p who received the sponsor’s wild card. The main event, a round robin tournament, had a thinking time of 2 hours and a byoyomi of 1 minute three times. Choi Jeong and Oh Yoo-jin recorded the most wins, 6:1 and 5:2, respectively, and met in the finals from January 17^th to 28^th. In an interview before the best-of-five title match, both players were confident of winning 3:0 whereas Go experts anticipated a 3:2 result. The two rivals’ overall head-to-head score was 29:7 in favor of Choi. Last year, however, Oh Yoo-jin defeated Choi Jeong to win two major titles. As expected, the clash was very exciting and unpredictable, for instance the 3^rd and 4^th games took more than 5 hours to complete. In the end, Choi Jeong prevailed 3:1 to win the 1^st Hoban title and her 22^nd career title. She took home 30 million KRW ($25,000), while Oh Yoo-jin received 10 million KRW ($8,000).

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Choi Jeong (left) and Oh Yoo-jin competed in the Hoban title match. Photo courtesy of KBaduk.

Choi Jeong had probably one of the busiest schedules amongst the pros; besides the Hoban Cup, she also competed in the Nongshim Classic Super Match, the Korean League, the Wooseul-Bongjo Cup, and the Maxim Cup. In total, she played 15 games in January 2021 alone. Impressively, she had a winning rate of 66.7%.

Obituary: KBF President Lee Jae-yoon

The president of the Korean Baduk Federation, Lee Jae-yoon passed away at the age of 73 on 21st January 2022. The Korean Baduk community mourned his sudden demise profoundly. He made great contributions to the development of amateur Go throughout his life. Just over a year ago, he was elected the 7th president of the Korean amateur Go association (KBF), and dedicated his time, energy, and financial resources to revitalize the organization which had faced many difficulties over the years. He also took leadership of the Korean Society for Baduk Studies (2008-2010) and the Daegu City Baduk Association (2020). He had a great passion for Go and sponsored the Amateur Deokyoung Cup for 39 years, as well as Daegu’s team in the Korean Amateur National Go League.

Korean Go Professional Association Elects 35^th President

The Korean Go Professional Association elected Han Jong-jin 9p (43) as their new president. Han Jong-jin 9p received 168 votes (57%), 44 more votes than the current president Cha Min-soo 6p (a.k.a. Jimmy Cha). The presidency term runs for two years. Han Jong-jin will represent 392 Korean professionals, and promised to “expand the size of professional competitions, attract sponsors to launch new competitions, actively support Go promotion projects, introduce a professional referee system, and solve the problem of pro’s retirement compensation.”

Trinks is an associate professor in the Department of Baduk (Go) Studies College of Arts & Physical Education at Myongji University in South Korea.

Categories: Korea,Main Page

Korea Go Report: LG Cup set for Feb 7-10; Best-Paid Go Pros; Nongshim Korea-China Classic Super Match

Sunday February 6, 2022

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

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

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

*Nongshim Korea-China Supermatch. Team Korea (left) won against Team China 5:4. Photo courtesy of KBA.*

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.

Categories: Korea,Main Page

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