The 12th Ricoh Cup ended on April 7th, 2012 with teenager Yang Dingxin 3p defeating Piao Wenyao 9p to take the title.
Piao Wenyao (9 dan, left) plays Yang Dingxin (3 dan) in the 12th Ricoh Cup final.
En route to the final, Yang also defeated fellow youngster, Mi Yuting 3p, as well as Wang Lei (jr) 6p, Fan Tingyu 3p, Kang Kaiwen 1p and Li He 3p.
13 years old
Yang, who is only 13 years old, has caused quite a stir by becoming the youngest domestic title holder in China.
Yang Dingxin in good company
This puts Yang in the league of other famous young title holders like Lee Changho (9p – who won his first KBS title around the same age). Any record buffs out there, please go ahead and let me know the exact details 
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Yang Dingxin.
After turning pro at the age of 10 in 2008, Yang the reached the semi finals of the Lanke Cup in 2010 and won New Talent division of the Ricoh Cup in 2011.
Due to his rank, he also qualified for the New Talent division of this year’s tournament, of which he was ironically only the runner up!
That title went to another talented Chinese teenager, Li Xuanhao 3p.
The Ricoh Cup
The Ricoh Cup is a domestic Go tournament in China, sponsored by Ricoh Hong Kong. It’s also known as the Liguang Cup, to differentiate it from the (now defunct) Japanese Ricoh Pair Go Cup.
The draw is mainly invitational and the format is a straight knockout – even the final is just one game.
The players are allotted 60 minutes main time per game and some form of over time (byo yomi), which seems to get revised every year. In 2012 the prize for first place was 250,000 RMB (approximately $40,000 USD).
Winners are grinners! Ge You hands out another Ricoh Cup lucky door prize.
Apart from a generous winner’s prize, Ricoh also hands out a range of lucky door/fighting spirit prizes to other players and audience members. This year, Ge You, a popular Chinese actor, handed out various Ricoh products to the lucky winners.
Ricoh is an international electronics company, which has its headquarters in Japan. It produces printers, photocopiers and other office equipment, as well as cameras.
About Jing
Fantastic games! What a future go has, with youngsters putting their heart and soul, and mind in the game. By the way, you don’t see such a large scale seki in the middle of the board too often. And the possibility of such a seki at the top left in the same game. What stands out is the fighting, I wonder if fantastic reading ability in the end beats subtle strategy. It seems like go books are not meant for these kind of players.
Kind regards,
Paul
I don’t think the upper left is seki. White can capture at B13. So it’s sort of a ko. However, I think it’s counted as if blacks dead there.
Yes, looks like a simple eye vs no eye, so black is just dead.
Sure black is dead at the end, but if black would have won the ko there it would have been a seki to: I wrote “the possibility of (such) a seki”. I guess two seki possibilies in one game, where one materialised, is quite seldom.
Paul is right. Earlier in the game black could have chosen seki instead of a ko fight.
One thing about Go that fascinates me is how ko and seki so often Go hand in hand. There seems to be a strange ‘phase’ where groups are neither completely alive, nor completely dead. It reminds me of the triple point in thermodynamics.
He doesn’t look 13 to me though. haha
That’s what Jing and I thought. A jacket and shirt can do that I guess
. In the photo where he receives the prize he looks a bit younger though.
@Paul: in the second game the ko on the left: I think that if black had won that he would not have made seki, he would have captured white ^^