LG Cup is going on...

Yesterday were played the quarterfinals of the 16th LG Cup in Beijing, China. In this stage the games were played by:

• Kim Jiseok vs Qui Jun
• Won Seongjin vs Jiang Weijie
• Chen Shiyuan vs Yi Changho
• Xie He vs Heo Yeongho

Game 1: Kim Jiseok vs Qui Jun




Game 2: Won Seongjin vs Jiang Weijie




Game 3: Chen Shiyuan vs Yi Changho




Game 4: Xie He vs Heo Yeongho

Kim Jiseok (l) vs Qui Jun (r) - Chen Shiyuan (l) vs Yi Changho (r)

Xie He, Kim Jiseok and Jiang Weijie - Yi Changho is missing

These three players plus Yi Changho are qualified for the semifinals on 23rd November 2011....tomorrow.


Games in the semifinals:

• Kim Jiseok vs Jiang Weijie
• Yi Changho vs Xie He

-a1r-

Yuki Satoshi lost his only title

Yuki Satoshi has lost his only title, the Tengen. He faced Iyama Yuta in the final games after Yuta bet O Meien in the challenger match. The 37th Tengen was decided after three games all won by Iyama Yuta.

Now he is the youngest title holder in history of the Tengen. Previously Ryo Shikun with 23 yrs was the youngest one.

Youngest title holder - Iyama Yuta

Players	1st round 10-24 Hamamatsu Shizuoka	2nd round 11-08 Sapporo Hokkaido	3rd round 11-17 Kitakyushu Fukuoka	4th round 12-12 Awaji Hyogo	5th round 12-18 Tokushima Tokushima
Yuki Satoshi (Tengen)
Iyama Yuta (Judan)	W+R	B+0.5	W+R

As you can see, Iyama didn't want a long series so he managed a short rallye.

After losing his Meijin title to Yamashita Keigo on 28th November 2011 he collected a new one.

Game 1:



Game 2:



Game 3:





-a1r-

Cho Hanseung (조한승) captured Kuksu (국수)

Cho Hanseung won the 55th Kuksu title. He challenged Choi Cheolhan for the title in a five game play-off.

Players	1st round 10-17	2nd round 10-25	3rd round 11-08	4th round 11-14	5th round 11-16
Choi Cheolhan (Kuksu)		B+R		B+R
Cho Hanseung (9 dan)	B+R		B+R		B+1.5

Here you can see the results of each played game with date.

The first match:
My first impression was that black played for territory - due to the opening but than turned into influence play. So he can varies his play individual....like every pro should do - I guess :P He gained more and more territory after more exchanges. In the end white resigned cause of less points.




The second match:

Choi Cheolhan had a better day. The opening was better and I felt like his is playing more aggressive this time. In an early stage of the game white lost a group by gaining a bit territory on the right side. But compared I think it was a lot less points worth. Black didn't stop to ut pressure on white and Cho Hanseung resigned after 177 moves.




The third game:

From the beginning the game was influenced by fighting. Black played the Chinese opening and white fighted back immediatly. After saving a white group by Choi Cheolhan, black could gain more and more points for a comfortable lead. Choi Cheolhan resigned 173 moves.



The forth game:

After this game the standing was 2-2. Choi Cheolhan killed few groups of Cho Hanseung and could win by resignation.




The diciding match:

Cho Hanseung (black) vs Choi Cheolhan (white). The last game in the 55th Kuksu tournament. A fearce battle has begun. Black killed some of white's groups but couldn't get the lead on the board. A pae fight was in the end of that game. That was a dicisive moment in the game. After almost 300 moves Cho Hanseung won the game by 1.5 points and captured the title!

This is the game:





Choi Cheolhan looks very diappointed after the result was offical.

Maybe he can recapture the title in the 56th edtion!

- a1r -

Gu Li and Won Seongjin advanced to the finals


  


Won Seongjin 9p

 


Gu Li 9p - current title holder



This guys above are the finalists of the16th Samseong Cup 2011. The final games will be held from 6th ~ 9th December 2011 in Shanghai, China.

But now I will show you the games they both played in the semifinals. The semifinals are best-of-three play-offs.




Gu Li had to face Na Hyeon 1p from Korea. In the first game Gu Li w/black played a hoshi - shimari opening against white's chinese opening. First impression - territory and fighting!




In the second game, Na Hyeon played better than in the first game. Unfortunately Na Hyeon couldn't beat Gu Li in this match again and had to resign after just 130 moves. Gu Li advanced to the final with a 2-0 score over Na Hyeon.






The second semifinal was between Won Seongjin and Chen Yaoye 9p from China. Both players are well known in the Baduk community and they showed interesting games.

A short introduction of the first game: White, Chen Yaoye resigned after 203 moves, due to less points :)





The second game was better for the Chinese representive. Chen could fast biuld up a huge territory on the left side. But this didn't last long, as Won invaded it successfully and reduced the points down. In the end the game was won by Chen with a margin by 2.5 points.







The standings are even now. The last game dicided the semifinal #2 between Won Seongjin and Chen Yaoye.

This time Won Seongjin was white again and fought well until the end. The last result in this years semifinals was a victory for the Korean. He won the game by 7.5 points - kinda huge in pro world.




I hope that Won Seongjin will win the title, due to the fact, that Gu Li is the current title holder :P

- a1r -

6th Korean Prime Minister's Cup - 2011

Hey guys
long time no see. I am back with an international amateur tournament from Korea - the Korean Prime Minister's Cup. This time the championship was held in Pohang.

This time over 60 countries participated. Overall just three Europeans came into the top10...kinda sad.

And the winner is.......China! Zijian CHEN 6dan, born in 2000, became the champion after beating some strong guys ;)

I guess that he will be professional in china in some years or maybe even closer.

Second place went to the Korean 유병용 - Yu Byeongyong and the third place to Japan in person of hiraoka Satoshi, two-times worldchampion.








Here are th top10:

1위 - 천즈지엔(중국) - Zijian CHEN 6dan - China
2위 - 유병용(한국) - Byeongyong YU 6dan - South Korea
3위 - 히라오카 사토시(일본) - Satoshi HIRAOKA 8dan - Japan
4위 - 양징(캐나다) - Jing YANG 6dan - Canada
5위 - 대만(린스쉰) -  Sry
6위 - 분핑텅(말레이지아) - Boon Ping TENG 5dan - Malaysia
7위 - 온드레이 실트(체코) - Ondrei SILT 6dan - Czech
8위 - 프레드릭 블롬백(스웨덴) - Frederik BLOMBACK 6dan - Sweden
9위 - 벤자민 토이버(독일) - Benjamin TEUBER 6dan - Germany
10위 - 파볼 리지(슬로바키아) - Pavol LISY 5dan - Slovakia
And here are some pictures again :)










Hope you liked it :)

See you next time...

- a1r -

Nekomado: An English Shogi Vendor

Madoka Kitao 1dan lady professional of the Japanese Shogi association opened a English shogi shop for promoting Shogi and selling equipment in all price ranges in full English support. She wrote on 81squares:

Hello shogi fans. Thank you very much for loving shogi every day!

I am happy to announce that we start a new international online shop.

Here is the copy of our release note.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nekomado opens a new international online shogi shop

In the aim of solving the current issue that many shogi fans all over the world are having difficulties in buying shogi books and equipment, Nekomado - the Japanese shogi popularazation company owned by Ladies Professional 1-Dan Madoka Kitao - opens a new online shogi shop on 1st October to sells shogi goods and equipment overseas.
It will sell many kinds of shogi equipment ranging from very cheap shogi sets to the most valuable boards and pieces that cost over 1 million yen.
In the product list are also shogi books and shogi variants like Dobutsu shogi. It is planned that more new products will be added in time.

The new online shop offers more reliable international shopping environment than any other shogi related online shops do, where you can feel more comfortable and confident in purchasing.
Not to mention that the shop is supervised by a professional player, it is run by the pure Japanese company and staff that specialize in shogi, with deep knowledge on shogi equipment and strong connections in the shogi world.
You can have the support in English all through the process including an inquiry before the order, payment after the order, and the shipping.

The shipping of the products for delivery is basically done all together on the planned Shipping Days. The first Shipping Day is 1st November.
On the other hand, your order will already be accepted from 1st October. As for orders in which the payment is confirmed by 30th October, the shipping will be done on 1st November.

Shop URL: http://shop.nekomado.com
Shop E-mail: info_en@nekomado.com

Interview with Yun Yeongseon 8p

I gladly arranged an interview with Yun Yeongseon 8p for our anniversary of 25,000 views! We met last weekend this is it!

1.    How were you introduced to Baduk?

My father taught me Baduk. He was 2 Kyu. I learnt Baduk for better concentration.

2.   How was your time as a yeonggusaeng? It was a hard time to keep up, wasn’t it?

I was yeonggusaeng for just six month. When I was 11 or 12 years old. The Hanguk Kiwon was far away for me and my brother back then. When I began my strength was 13. Kyu (side note: there was a ranking for yeongguaeng, 2-3 Kyu were pro-level – you got pro). Everyone who got promotion to pro in the time isn’t top anymore today.

3.   The handicap stone difference was higher than today. Today the new professionals can play even games with 9 dan pro. Where is the different between today and back then? 

      The yeonggusaeng played with just 0.5 handicap stones and not everyone was promoted to pro. The classes of the yeonggusaeng were smaller and there were less schools than today are.

 

4.   In the last few weeks the ama-players were strong and successful in national and international tournaments. Are you surprised to see amateurs in the mainround of the Myeongin (Korean title)? At the moment one of them got pro promontion.

Cho Inseon ist pro now too. In the new system amateurs can get pro with a certain amount of points. You need at least 100 pts. ( explanation for the new system )

They train for more than 10 hours a day for becoming pro. 

5.   How was the old and how is the new rating-system?

The old rating-system was like the Japanese one (ooteai). In the new one you need a lot wins in the first rounds of all tournaments. For a win you get 90 pts for a loss 30 pts. Every point will be add and at a certain amount of points your rank will rise.

6.   You are quite famous in Korea. Does this mean something to you?

First of all I am not famous. I was top female player back then but not famous. When I was pro there were maybe seven other players. Today there are more than 40 players. I won lot of titles and therefore I got some fame maybe. Just older people know me^^.

7.   You won a lot titles in your active carreer. Which of them is the important for you?

The Kuksu title. I won it few times and this title and the IBS Cup were the only ones at that time. The IBS Cup was a lightning tournament and there was just one edition of it. I won it J. Some international titles were there too.

8.   You studied at Myeongji University. Why did you decide you study there?

I wanted to get to know the university life and to get know other things beside Baduk. After the study I was world champion. The study helped me and I got more used to it in the practice. My overview of the board were a lot better. The study fee was free for professionals back then. But today it isn’t due to them you didn’t continue the study to the end. Just three or four pros pass the study. Besides the university I played some tournaments not all.

9.   What do you recommend your readers to do for Baduk?

I think it is important to play as much as you can and to have a rival. That worked pretty well for me too. The rival motivates you to get stronger and that let you improve faster.

      What ist he best Baduk school in Korea?

My old school of course :). But today it isn’t so popular like in my time. There are a lot new schools in Korea now. Like Yang Jaeho 9p, Yu Changhyeok 9p and other players connected there school, because they know each other quite well.  

11  What do the European players miss compared with Asian players?

Well, in Asia are lot of strong players in the same city and region. It’s lot easier for them to play each other. Another reason is that they have more experience in games especially ion fighting. And they play a lot lighting games like 10sec.  In Europe the top players are widespread in various cities. 

12  What’s the biggest mistake to do in Baduk?

My pupils doing easy mistakes in the end due to missing concentration. They played well but lost by some mistakes. 

Thanks for the interview :)

-a1r-