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By Daniela Trinks, Korea correspondent for the E-Journal

15-year-old Wins First Title 9 Months after Becoming Pro
The 1st Mediheal Millenium Women’s Go Championship was won by 15-year-old Kim Hyoyoung 1p who became pro just nine months prior on April 29th, 2021. The sponsor Mediheal is a Korean-based international cosmetic company. The championship was open to female players born in 2000 or later. 15 pros and one amateur competed in the double-elimination round of 16. Amateur Ko Misoo (20) defied all expectations by defeating three pros before she was toppled by Kim Hyoyoung 1p in the semi-finals. It was a 135-minute battle of 264 moves which the teen pro barely won by half a point.

In the final, which took place on February 4th, Kim Hyoyoung 1p encountered another newcomer: 14-year-old Kim Minseo 1p, who became pro seven months prior and is currently the youngest among the 393 pros affiliated with the Korean Baduk Association. Each player had a thinking time of 30 minutes plus byoyomi of 40 seconds 3 times. Kim Hyoyoung took home 5 million KRW ($4,200) and Kim Minseo 3 million KRW ($2,500).

Team China wins 1st Uijeongbu International Rookie Team Championship
The Ujieongbu Cup is a new tournament sponsored by Uijeongbu city (Korea) where a Go stadium is being built. A team each from China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, and South Korea competed. Each team consisted of two male and one female player born in 2002 or later as shown in the table below. From March 3rd to 5th three rounds of round-robin were played online with a thinking time of 1 hour and a byoyomi of 40 seconds three times. The second table shows the final standings. Check out the game records to get a peek into the ability of new rising Go stars. The prize money was 40 Million KRW ($32,000) for the victorious team China, 15 Million KRW ($12,000) for team Korea which placed second, and 10 Million KRW ($8,000) each for teams Chinese Taipei and Japan who came in third and fourth, respectively.

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).

By Daniela Trinks, Korea correspondent for the E-Journal

The Saudi Arabian government’s Vision 2030 strives to reduce its dependency on oil. One of the vision’s components, the “Quality of Life Program” (QLP), was launched in 2020 with a huge budget of 35 billion USD and aims to enrich the standard of living of Saudi citizens by creating new opportunities for cultural, arts, and sports activities. In this regard, the government has selected the mind sports Go, chess, and bridge to be part of the QLP.
The leader of the Go project, Dr. Majed Alharthi from King Abdulaziz University, explained that they had conducted some research on which mind sports to include in the program. At the end of 2019, after coming across some studies on the positive educational effects of Go, he visited the Secretary-General of the International Mind Sports Association, Thomas Hsiang (who is also VP of AGA and IGF), to discuss the idea of selecting Go. Naturally, Hsiang strongly affirmed that idea and recommended contacting Kim Myungwan 9p as he had plenty of experience teaching Go abroad during his ten-year stay in the USA until 2018.
Plans were delayed due to the pandemic but recently, Alharthi invited Kim Myungwan 9p to Saudi Arabia to offer a 9-day workshop from January 15th to 23rd to 12 Saudis from various professions: teachers, chess players, and government officers in their 20s to 50s. Kim’s mission was to provide a beginner’s course to train future Go teachers. As part of the daily six-hour training, he taught the participants basic Go techniques, concepts and had them play practice games. It is hoped that each participant would teach twenty new Go players and grow the game steadily in their local communities.
“Saudi Arabia’s enthusiasm for Go is amazing. Before I arrived, they even had made their own Go textbooks, despite being beginners themselves”, recalls Kim after his visit. For now, they aim to target university students and increase awareness of Go in students’ mind sports clubs. However, in the future, they intend to expand the program to elementary school students. Alharthi, who participated daily in the workshop commented, “Let’s find a way to continuously and efficiently promote Go in Saudi Arabia.” The enthusiastic project leader hopes to soon sign an MOU with the Korean Baduk Association to grow the seed planted.