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Men’s & Women’s Finals Set for Sunday: The men’s final  in the 2012 SportsAccord World Mind Sports Games is an all-Korea final with Kang Dongyoon 9P against Choi Chulhan 9P, while the women’s is all-Chinese, as Li He faces Rui Naiwei in the final round, which will be played at 3p (local time) on Sunday, December 16. Watch for live broadcast on Cyberoro and Michael Redmond’s game commentary on the SAWMG Channel. 

Semi-Finals: Round 6 began after lunch on December 15, with the same eight players playing as in the fifth round that morning. This was the round that would decide third, fourth, and fifth places. On the top board China’s Lin Chi-han was playing Korea’s Kang Dongyoon, the winner to proceed into the men’s gold/silver medal final, the loser to take the third-place bronze medal. On the next board China’s Chen Yaoye was playing Korea’s Park Jeonghwan, the winner to finish fourth, the loser fifth. Beside them a similar fourth-fifth place playoff was set up in the women’s division, Chinese Taipei’s Joanne Missingham playing Russia’s Natalia Kovaleva. On the last board, China’s Rui Naiwei faced Korea’s Choi Jeong in the women’s medal battle. Michael Redmond gave the players their starting instructions before heading to the YouTube broadcast booth to comment on the Kang-Lin game. In other World Mind Games news, the day ended with medals for the Open and Women’s Bridge Team and Women and Men Chess Blitz competitions; details on the SAWMG site. Click here for Ranka’s full report, which includes Round 6 results. photo by Ivan Vigano

Game Commentary: Round 6: Lin-Kang

December 15, 2012

W: Chi-Han Lin 9P (Chinese Taipei)
B: Dongyoon Kang (Korea)
Commentary: Michael Redmond 9P
Edited by Chris Garlock

The winner of this game goes to the final, against Choi Chulhan 9P, with the 2012 SportAccord World Mind Games title and $100,000 on the line.

Round 4: Final Knockouts
After lunch on Friday, December 14, the players began to head for the playing room for the final games of the main men’s and women’s knockouts and six games in the repechage (loser’s) sections.The playing room was set up with the women’s games in the front row and the men’s games in back. The television cameras were trained on the game between Korea’s Park Jieun and Chinese Taipei’s Joanne Missingham in the women’s repechage. In the TV commentator’s booth just outside the playing room, Michael Redmond 9P (at left in photo) and American Go E-Journal Managing Editor — and IGS SAWMG Media Officer — Chris Garlock (right)  were giving a live commentary — available on the SAWMG Channel — on this game for a worldwide audience on 54 platforms in countries from Afghanistan on down. The two players obliged them by playing at a brisk pace in the opening.For the second straight day China’s unbeaten Chen Yaoye found himself facing a Korean opponent. Today it was Choi Chulhan, also unbeaten in the World Mind Games. Click here for Ranka’s full report, which includes Round 4 results. photo by Ivan Vigano

Interview with Bill Lin: Canada’s Bill (Tianyu) Lin was one of the first four players to be eliminated, losing to China’s Jiang Weijie in round 1 and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-yen in round 2. Lin was born in Ningbo, a city south of Shanghai and his family emigrated to Vancouver when he was ten. “My father had been crazy about go in his university days, and there was a go board in the house,” Lin says. “I became very interested in playing five-in-a-row, and then I started playing go. An amateur 5-dan named Fan Jiunling had a go school that I attended twice a week for four and a half years until we emigrated. By then I was an amateur 3 dan in China.” Click here to read James Davies’ complete interview on Ranka. photo: Bill Lin (right) playing against Jiang Weijie; photo by Ivan Vigano

Game Commentary: Round 4: Park-Missingham

December 14, 2012
W: Jieun PARK 9P (Korea)
B: Joanne MISSINGHAM 6P (Chinese Taipei)
Commentary by Michael Redmond 9P
Edited by Chris Garlock

This is a critical game because whoever loses will be knocked out; this is a double-elimination tournament and both players have one loss.

Joanne Missingham, born in Australia,lived in California for a few years and now represents Taipei; she’s also the official Go Ambassador at the SAWMG.

Park Jieun was one of the first Korean female players to really challenge Rui Naiwei when Rui was playing in Korea. So she’s been one of the top Korean players for quite a while now, and she’d be favored to win this match.

Round 2: The Elimination Round
Round 2 of the SportAccord World Mind Games began at 9:30 a.m. on December 12. Outside, the ground was still covered with snow, but the temperature was pleasantly warm within the playing venue at the Beijing International Convention Center. All 16 men were competing, eight in the main section, eight in the repechage, or loser’s bracket; as this is a double-elimination tournament, four of these players would be out after this round. Eight of the 12 women were competing, including the four seeded players who had byes in the first round and the four who had won their first-round games. In the men’s division, two games promised to be particularly noteworthy. One was the match between China’s Jiang Weijie (left, in photo at right) and Korea’s Kang Dongyoon (right); click here to download the game record, which includes detailed commentary by Michael Redmond 9P. Jiang’s triumphs so far this year have included the LG Cup, the Dachongjiu Cup, and the China-Japan-Korea Mingren-Meijin-Myung-in playoff. Kang won the men’s individual event at the 2008 World Mind Sports Games in Beijing, the 2009 Fujitsu Cup, and the 2009 Korean Chunwon title. The other particularly noteworthy game was the match between Czechia’s Jan Hora (left, in photo at left) and Hungary’s Csaba Mero (right) in the repechage section. The winner of that game would advance to the third round and at least double his monetary prize. In the women’s division, the two Chinese players were playing the two Japanese, and the two Koreans were playing the two from Chinese Taipei. In the men’s repechage section, Russia’s Ilya Shikshin, Argentina’s Fernando Aguilar, and Canada’s Tianyu (Bill) Lin faced tough matches against China’s Tuo Jiaxi and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chi-han and Lin Chun-yen; for the losers of these games, the tournament would be over. Click here for Ranka’s full report.

Round 3: Then There Were 24
Round 3 started at 3:00 p.m. on December 12th, with twelve men and all twelve women competing. In the undefeated men’s section, China’s Chen Yaoye was matched against Korea’s Park Jeonghwan, and Koreans Choi Chulhan and Kang Dongyoon were matched against each other. In the undefeated women’s section, China’s Rui Naiwei was matched against Korea’s Park Jieun, a player who had occasionally managed to defeat her in title matches when Rui was playing professionally in Korea, and China’s Li He was matched against Korea’s teenaged Myung-in Choi Jeong. Most players took their seats early. Rui Naiwei and Choi Jeong spent the pre-game minutes meditating with closed eyes.In the repechage sections, the eight players who survived to advance into the fourth round were: Lin Chi-han of Chinese Taipei, who eliminated Csaba Mero of Hungary (‘His reading was too fast for me to keep up with,’ commented Mero); Lin Chun-yen (above at left) of Chinese Taipei, who surprisingly eliminated Tuo Jiaxi of China, setting up a match between the two remaining Lin’s in the fourth round, ensuring that at least one player from Chinese Taipei will reach the fifth round; Jiang Weijie of China, who eliminated Murakawa Daisuke of Japan by winning a fight in the middle of the board; Fujita Akihiko of Japan, who eliminated countrymate Uchida Shuhei; Mukai Chiaki of Japan, who eliminated Su Sheng-fang of Chinese Taipei; Joanne Missingham of Chinese Taipei, who stormed back from her morning loss to eliminate Okuda Aya of Japan; Natalia Kovaleva of Russia, who eliminated Irene Sha of Canada in a long fighting game that ended with no groups dead but many groups reduced to just two eyes and Kovaleva slightly ahead; and Vanessa Wong of Great Britain, who eliminated Rita Pocsai of Hungary, whom she had also beaten in the European Women’s Championship this year. Click here for Ranka’s full report.

Game Commentary: Round 3: Chen-Park
December 13, 2012
W: CHEN Yaoye 9P (China)
B: PARK Jeonghwan 9P (Korea)
Commentary: Michael Redmond 9P
Edited by Chris Garlock

Park is one of the top Korean players; he’s been on the international scene for several years. He’s a steady player with no obvious weak points. Chen’s also a top player from China; he’s very knowledgeable about some of the more complicated josekis so his opening can sometimes be quite interesting. On the whole, I think he’s a strong fighting player, and we certainly will see that in this game.