In the semi-final, Kong Jie 9p defeated Gu Li 9p with a 2-0 score, and Qiu Jun 8p defeated Lee ChangHo 9p with a 2-1. Kong and Qiu will be competing in the Final match, and whoever wins will become a new world Champion.
This is the first game of the semi-final between Gu Li 9p and Kong Jie 9p. Very complicated attack and defense game with lots of tesujis.
Next update will be around mid-Nov.
Continue reading ‘14th SamSung Semi-Final, Gu Li vs Kong Jie’ »
On 11/2, the first round of the 14th SamSung Cup International semi-final was played in Shanghai. The two best-of-three matches are QiuJun 8p vs Lee Changho 9p, KongJie 9p vs Gu Li 9p.
In a very slow and close yose style game, QiuJun 8p managed to pull ahead and forced Lee Changho 9p to resign at move 207. On the other side, GuLi 9p and KongJie 9p played a very difficult fighting game. There were 3 separate ko fights and lots of dead stones. Eventually GuLi 9p had more dead stones on board and had to resign with 222 moves.
The first Kong-Gu game will be posted shortly after. I will wait on the result of the semi-finals and determine which game to comment. The next update should occur on Sunday.
This game is the first round of the 57th Japanese OZA title. Cho U 9p, who just lost his Meijin and Agon titles, successfully defeated Yamada Kimio 9p with only 106 moves. The game started slow but Yamada 9p’s misreading led to black’s sudden collapse.
Next game comment will be at the end of this month.
Continue reading ‘57th OZA Round 1, Cho U vs. Yamada Kimio’ »
This week’s go scene is not as exciting. There was no international tournaments, as Samsung cup’s semi-final won’t resume till early Nov.
One worth noting game is the first match of the Japanese OZA. The title holder Cho U 9p defeated Yamada Kimio 9p with only 106 moves. The interesting thing is that the game ended up with 3 ladders…
Game record and comments will be provided later today or tomorrow.
This is the final match of the 34th Japanese Meijin title tournament. White player is Iyama Yuta 8p, one of the young Japanese pros. Black player is Cho U 9p, who currently holds 4 of the titles in Japan (after losing Meijin).
In this Meijin tournament, Yuta lost the first match by 0.5 point. However, he picked up pace and won the next 4 games straight. Meijin is the second biggest Go tournament in Japan, and this achievement certainly placed Yuta as one of the top pros in Japan.
Enjoy the game and comments.
This week's Go scenes was rather exciting. On Oct 13-14, the Samsung Cup held the quarter-finals. Three Chinese players (Gu Li, Qiu Jun, Kong Jie) and one Korean player (Lee ChangHo) advanced to the semi-final. There were some very interesting games between top pros that I will examine later this week.
In Japan, Yuta 7P successfully challenged Cho U 9P in the Meijin tournament with a 4-1 score, setting a new record as the youngest Meijin title holder at the age of 20. Yuta is also promoted to 9P by winning one of the "Big 3" title tournaments in Japan.
I will provide the Meijin final game with some comments tomorrow.
First update for October. The next update will be around mid Oct or earlier if possible.
This game is between two young Chinese pros for the Chinese Agon Cup. I think it is a very interesting game. There was a very short opening then both players proceeded to the fighting without hesitation. This style is vastly different from the games in the 1995-2005 decade, showing how much Go has evolved.
Continue reading ‘Piao vs. Sun 2009 Chinese Agon Cup Final’ »
Here is a LA public radio station's news coverage about the 2009 Go Congress in DC. Nice exposure of Go to the public. Cheers to the Southern California Go clubs for the good work.
As we know, Lee Sedol 9p of Korea is currently taking a 1.5 year leave from professional Go tournaments. During his hiatus, he will play very few games. It is surely a loss for the Go world since Lee 9p is one of the strongest pros out there.
This is the game he played in a special match against Chinese top player Gu Li 9p. Both players are famous for their relentless fighting styles. It is always enjoyable to watch their match. Of course, the game usually turns to be very complicated and reading intensive whenever they play.
14th LG semi final, Lee Changho vs Park Wenyao
Happy Thanksgiving.
This is one of the semi-final matches of the 14th LG cup in Korea. Lee Changho 9p(Kr) defeated Park Wenyao 5p(CN) to advance into the final. In the other semi-final match, Kong Jie 9p(CN) defeated Park Yong Hun 9p(Kr). The final will be hosted in January 2010.
Next update will be in early December. I will try to cover the NongShim Cup (3 Country team tournament) in the interim.
This is a slow game. Both players played solidly and focused on yose.
Continue reading ‘14th LG semi final, Lee Changho vs Park Wenyao’ »