Lee Ishu Won the 34th Shinjin O Cup

Lee Ishu who early this year promoted to 7 dan as a result of entering the 34th Kisei League, won the 34th Shinjin O Cup.


Lee Ishu (7 dan)

The first game was played in September 16. Lee entered the final after beating Tamai Shin (2 dan) in the semi-final. The other finalist was Mitani Tetsuya (5 dan) who won his final seat from Seto Taiki (6 dan). Lee who played white won the first game by 1.5 points. The game was peaceful with no big fight involved.

The second game was played in September 25. This time the colors were reversed. Lee who played black won the game by resignation, after he killed Mitani's group in the right side.


The second game. Lee (far left) vs. Mitani (right)

Lee's career seems to be quite bright. He became shodan in the 2004 and only needs 5 years to achieve his 7 dan status. Of course this is not the fastest promotion record, but obviously he is the one to count in between the Japanese pros.

Interesting Third Game

The third game of the 34th Meijin title match has been played. Both Cho U, Meijin and Iyama Yuta the challenger share 1-1 point and whoever won the third game will lead the title match. The game was played at September 24-25 in Takarazuka, Hyogo.

Cho (who played as black) opened the game by building influence in the bottom board. A semeai started as black chased white's invading stone. Cho split white's groups and tried his best to attack it.

Day one ended by Iyama (for the third time in the series) did the sealing move for move 86.


Iyama handled his sealing move.

Day 2 started by Iyama playing K5, his sealing move. Cho played a ko fight in return, and the game became very difficult for both of them.


The start of day 2

At move 138, the game became more interesting, as Iyama started another ko fight, while the previous ko fight was not concluded yet. Twenty moves later, the third ko fight appeared.


Cho U vs. Iyama Yuta board position up to move 86

Iyama's decision to continue the ko fights was brave. He didn't want to share the ko with Cho. Cho cut Iyama's group at move 205 and the game would be decided by whether white's group can survive or not.

The battle went complicated, until Iyama tried the cut at move 244. Cho played G10, answering Iyama's cut, however it was a big mistake. Iyama played E13 which gave him miai between D13 and E12. Black should played F11 instead and won the game. Perhaps Cho was already exhausted from a long and difficult game.

Iyama lead the title matches by 2-1.

Aoki Kikuyo Concluded the First Stage

The last round of the first stage of the 8th Jeongganjang Cup has been played. This time, the match is between Wang Chenxin (2 dan) from China against Aoki Kikuyo (8 dan) from Japan.


Wang (left), Aoki (right)

The game is somewhat full of Chinese style. Aoki who played black opened the game with the low Chinese opening. Wang played the two spaces low approach to counter black's opening. The approach was invented by Yu Bin (9 dan) from China several years ago.


Aoki Kikuyo vs. Wang Chenxin board position up to move 89

Aoki Kikuyo played pincer in response of white's approach. Some say that the pincer is not good in this condition, since it gives white a big corner and suggest the hit shoulder at O4. However, the pincer seem to be Aoki's favorite move. She also played the same opening last year in her game against Song Ronghui (though she lost that game).

The first big trade was made early in the game. At move 68, Wang chose to capture black's stone in the center in return of her corner. However, white played a tesuji at L17 to capture black's group in the upper board, but it seems that black was ready to sacrifice the group.

Another big trade was made at move 123, where Aoki got the bottom left corner in exchange of her group in the left side. After the trade, black was ahead in territory.

The game looked close when the yose started, but later Wang made a blunder when she connected her stones with K12. It let Aoki played a tesuji at L14 and captured Wang's group. Wang should connect at K14 instead of K12 so the game would be very close.

Wang resigned at move 241. She was behind about 6 points including komi.


Wang Chenxing

With this victory, Aoki Kikuyo from Japan sealed the first stage and will open the second stage by playing one of South Korea's team member. Before that, Aoki will challenge Xie Yimin for her Female Honinbo title in the early October.


Aoki Kikuyo

Wang's Third Victory

Wang Chenxing (2 dan) really rocks the first stage of the 8th Jeongganjang Cup. After her two previous victories, today Wang won another game against Yun Jihee (2 dan) from South Korea.


Wang (left), Yun (right)

The game started with a strange sequence in the top right corner, starting with a rare three spaces high pincer by Yun who played as black. Instead of the normal move at R18, white played a tobi tsuke at P15. The sequence up to move 28 is a new sequence for me.


Wang Chenxing vs. Yun Jihee board position up to move 83


Another strange development in this game is black's nobi at move 89. Usually black will directly enter the corner.

Black 133 is the losing move. I don't see what black wanted to accomplish by playing yhis move. It's not sente and the worst is, black let her big group in the corner die!

Later Yun tried to kill white in the middle, but Wang was calm and played a ko fight which is impossible for black to win, because she was short of ko threats. White won by resignation.

Wang is one step closer of repeating Song's 6 concecutive victories in the previous Jeongganjang Cup.

Wang Chenxing's Second Victory

It seems that Wang Chenxing from China doesn't want to stop yet. After a victory from Kim Yunyoung in the first round, she marked another victory by beating Yoshida Mika from Japan.


I wonder who are the three kids in the picture. Future pros?

The game started by Yoshida Mika (who played as black) playing the famous Japanese joseki in the bottom right corner. The joseki is considered as bad for black, but Cho U who holds 5 from 7 big titles in Japan played the joseki a lot.


Yoshida Mika vs. Wang Chenxing board position up to move 73

I think black's opening was slow. Especially move 39. The move gave white chance to invade with P17. Would it be better for black to enclosure the corner?

In the end black lost the game by resignation because run out of ko threat.

China is surely has a good start. I wonder if Wang will repeat Song's success last year.

8th Jeongganjang Cup

The 8th Jeongganjang Cup has been started. The three teams from China, South Korea, and Japan will fight all the way for victory.

The first game has been played. It is between Wang Chenxing (2p from China) and Kim Yunyoung (1p from South Korea) in Canton, China.


Kim Yunyoung (who played black) started the game by occupying 3 corners. White played for influence by pressing black in the upper right corner. Black entered white's corner with sansan invasion at move 37. For some reasons, I think the timing is dubious, since it allows white to got a big moyo in the left. Black tried to reduce the moyo by playing F12, but later white successfully captured the group, by attacking black's weak group in the bottom.


Kim Yunyoung


Wang Chenxing

In the end, white won the game by a big margin. White won by 10.5 points. This is a good example of a winning game, even though one lost all 4 corners.

Though she won by a big margin, Wang doesn't seem to be pleased by her game. I wonder why.


Though she later cheered up when Song Ronghui came.


Wang will play Yoshida Mika from Japan in the next round.

Jeongganjang (some say that the correct spelling is Cheongkwanjang) Cup is a female team tournament, sponsored by a Korean ginseng company. I'm curious how ginseng tastes...

Tsumego (5)

Let's try another tsumego.



Black just played B3. White to play to show that black's last move was a big mistake