Fujitsu Cup Third Round

The third round of 22nd Fujitsu Cup had been played in June 6. Eight players, consist of Park Yeonghun, Kang Dongyun, Lee Chango, and Lee Sedol from Korea, Chang Hao and Piao Wenyao from China and also Kono Rin and Yamashita Keigo from Japan competed each other to gained 4 seats in the semifinals.

The first to gain one from those seats were Chang Hao from China who beat Lee Sedol of Korea.

A fight started in the early game when Chang Hao invaded Lee Sedol's moyo with attahment at move 26. The fight became complicated. At move 80, Chang Hao successfully saved the group by capturing two stones. However, when Chang Hao cut at move 78, I wonder why black didn't capture the stone and instead, playing at the bottom group, which I think can be saved by killing white's big group. Lee Sedol resigned at move 162 when white managed to kill black's group in the upper board.
Recently there are lot things happened to Lee Sedol. Perhaps that why he chose to retir for 1.5 years and it seems to affect his performance in this game.

The second semifinalist was Park Yeonghun from Korea who beat Kono Rin from Japan.
Kono Rin made big surprise in the first two rounds of this Cup. He beat Kong Jie (7 dan) and Gu Li (9 dan) both from China. It was a big upset when Gu lost to Kono. Unfortunately, he lost in this round by 4.5 points margin.
Kono's first move at sansan was rather rare nowadays. Since modern go base on speed and influence. Another interesting point of this game is the combination of move 10-15. It's rare since usually people choose D8 instead of D6. I wonder if it's better for Kono Rin to defend at sansan rather than playing niken biraki in the left side at move 14. After 272 moves, Park Yeonghun won.

The third to gained a seat was Kang Dongyun of Korea.

Kang who beat Iyama Yuta, Japanese raising teenager, beat another rising teenager, Piao Wenyao from China. The game started peacefully with both player took big points. A semeai started at move 77 where black (Piao Wenyao) chased white's group, but white managed to save it at move 106. Piao resigned at move 174.

The last person to gained seat was Lee Changho from Korea by beating Yamashita Keigo from Japan.

I think Lee Changho won the fuseki. A semeai started at move 71, but both made alive to their groups. Up to move 170, I think Lee Changho had won the game, since there were a big hole at Yamashita's position at F2 and K5.
Lee Changho (white) won by 4.5 points.

Busy Weeks

Recently it has been busy weeks for me @_@

I'm very close to my final exam (I'll face it next week >x<)

And also I've 3 final projects!!! (one has down. Two to go!!) d(>o<)p

So perhaps I can't update this blog for awhile m(v_v)m

Though I'll still cover the third round of Fujitsu cup (tomorrow)


I want to drink tea ^o^

Takao Shinji Even Himself at Honinbo Title Match

Takao Shinji, the challenger for the 64th Honinbo, won the second title match.

The game was played at May 27-28. Takao Shinji played as white, while Hane Naoki, Honibo played as black. Black played a thick game. He created a big moyo in the right side. Black tried an invasion, started at move 32. The first day ended at move 50, with Hane Naoki did the fujite. I personally think that black has the advantage at the end of day 1.


In his blog, Takao Shinji stated that instead of blocking, he might tried iken tobi at A. He thinks that A is a little more interesting go rather than the real game.


The day 2 started with Hane Honinbo played his fujite move. He chose to play hane, attacking white's group. However, white successfully alive, after he threatened black's group and took the chance to made a living shape.

Hane Naoki resigned at move 212. I think he resigned because he was running out of ko threat which mean white can killed black's invading group. That made white clearly on the lead.

Lee Sedol's Temporary Retirement.

A big news came from Korea. Lee Sedol, the current Korean number one player will retire for 1 and a half year.



For now, he will only participate in the upcoming 2009 Fuijtsu Cup (best of 8), CCTV fast game and China League 2009. He will not participate in the rest of the international or domestic games (those that haven't start yet from 2009). It is expected that he will make a comeback in early 2011.

The problems came from May, when 6 of Korean pro competitions are delayed. They are Gisung, Myeongin, Electron-Land Cup, BC Card Cup, Osram Cup, and SK Gas cup. Because of the global economic problem, some sponsor that sponsored the Korean Baduk League (KB League) decided not to sponsor this year. Hankuk Kiwon asked for 7 new sponsors, which is one number less than the last year's number. One of the sponsors was the Government of Lee Sedol's home county, which expected to recruit Lee as the captain of the team. However, Lee declined to participate in this year's KB League at the last moment. This made uncertain whether the County Government of Lee's home town would agree to be one of the sponsors, making uncertain the viability of the Korean Baduk League. It was expected that Lee will get some punishments.

Lee Sedol was accused to the following:

a. Not taking part in the Korea League tournament this year as well as the awarding ceremony of last year's tournament. The absence of top players will affect the willingness of businesses to sponsor Go tournaments. This will in turn affect the well-being of less successful Go players. This might be the reason that so many players voted against him. I can understand about this one.

b. not handing in 5% of his income from participating Chinese City League to the players association. I'm not sure about this. Perhaps Lee Sedol has a contract with Hankuk Kiwon about his participation in Chinese City League (though this is just my opinion). After all he is still a pro under Hankuk Kiwon.

c. not signing a contract to allow the Baduk Association to handle the intellectual property of players' game records. I am not sure what this mean.

I can understand why Lee chose to participate in China's tournament. First, it's almost guarantee that he will play with Chinese top players (Gu Li, Chang Hao, Luo Xihe, etc) which will be a good practice for him (so far he has won against Zhou Ruiyang, China's promising young player)

Second, he is paid 10 times bigger in Chinese City League, compared to Korean tournament.