The waiting is over and 7th Ing Cup is about to start. Round 1 takes place on May 23, 2012.
Two Go geniuses together: Cho Chikun (left) and Lee Sedol.
Players arrived in Taiwan yesterday, with photographers tailgating them from the moment they touched down in Taipei.
The Ing Cup
The Ing Cup is the oldest continuous international go tournament for professionals.
It started in 1988, just after the inaugural (and now defunct) Fujitsu Cup, and is held every 4 years, coinciding with the Summer Olympics.
Won Seongjin (left) and Lee Changho.
The format is a 24 player knockout with 8 players being seeded into the second round. The semifinals are played as the best of 3 matches, and the final is best of 5.
The tournament uses the Ing Rules, which were designed by Ing Changki. Ing Rules have some unique aspects.
7th Ing Cup players
Interestingly, Cho U 9p will play for Taiwan, while Cho Chikun 9p plays for Japan.
Korean youngsters, Park Junghwan 9p and Kim Jiseok 8p are yet to be seen without a life and death problems book in hand! So that’s their secret?! 
Park Junghwan (left) and Kim Jiseok in the airport - reading a Go book.
Kim Jiseok and Park Junghwan at the baggage carousel - still reading the Go book.
Kim Jiseok and Park Junghwan on the bus - still reading Go books.
Full list of players
Below is the full list of players – those in bold are seeded into round 2:
- China: Kong Jie 9p, Gu Li 9p, Xie He 9p, Piao Wenyao 9p, Chen Yaoye 9p, Jiang Weijie 9p, Liu Xing 7p, Tan Xiao 7p, Fan Tingyu 3p, Qiu Jun 9p
- Korea: Choi Cheolhan 9p, Lee Changho 9p, Lee Sedol 9p, Won Seongjin 9p, Park Junghwan 9p, Kim Jiseok 8p
- Japan: Cho Chikun 9p, Yuki Satoshi 9p, Hane Naoki 9p, Takao Shinji 9p
- Taiwan: Cho U 9p, Wang Yuanjun 4p
- Europe: Catalin Taranu 5p
- North America: Yang Huiren 1p.
Team Japan (from left): Hane Naoki, Takao Shinji, Yuki Satoshi and Cho Chikun.
China's Gu Li (left) and Tan Xiao.
First round results
UPDATE: Here are the results from round 1:
- Xie He defeated Catalin Taranu
- Kong Jie defeated Hane Naoki
- Tan Xiao defeated Wang Yuanjun
- Park Junghwan defeated Yang Huiren
- Qiu Jun defeated Kim Jiseok
- Fan Tingyu defeated Takao Shinji
- Won Seongjin defeated Chen Yaoye
- Liu Xing defeated Yuki Satoshi.
Watch the Ing Cup live
You can watch the 7th Ing Cup at Go Game Guru on Baduk TV Live.
The official coverage for round 1 starts at:
- 1:00pm Korean Standard Time, Wednesday May 23
- 6:00am Central European Summer Time, Wednesday May 23
- 4:00am Greenwich Mean Time, Wednesday May 23 (adjust for European Summer Time)
- 12:00am US Eastern Daylight Saving Time, Wednesday May 23.
See the Baduk TV Guide for more details and future match times.
Who are you supporting?
Who are you supporting in this year’s Ing Cup? Who do you think will win? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think.
About Jing
Thanks, this is so great! I’ll be watching in 5 minutes. But I can’t seem to find any information in my languages (English and poor Japanese). Does the Nihon Kiin site have anything? I couldn’t seem to find an イング・カップ in its news or international tournament list.
Hi Dave, as far as I know there isn’t as much Japanese language news about Go as there is in Chinese and Korean. Then again, I don’t speak Japanese much at all, so I might not know where to look for that.
hmm, who’s playing now? a Korean 9 dan vs. a Chinese 9 dan, but there are 5 each of those. gotta learn hangul!
White Chen Yaoye vs Black Won Seongjin.
Why China has as many players?
That’s a good question. I’ll see if I can find out how the qualifying worked for you.
Just to point out, in the last picture, it’s Gu Li and Tan Xiao, not Fan Tingyu.
Oops, thanks Z. We were a bit pushed for time this week after getting the information so we made some mistakes.
So sad. Japan goes 0-3 in the first round. I hope Cho Chikun can win a game. It would be nice if there was legitimate competition the three countries.
Here are the next round pairings according to trout on 19×19:
Choi Chulhan vs Tam Xiao
Lee Sedol vs Fan Tingyu
Gu Li vs Won Seongjin
Jiang Weijie vs Xie He
Park Junghwan vs Piao Wenyao
Cho Chihoon vs Liu Xing
Cho U vs Qiu Jun
Lee Changho vs Kong Jie
Thanks so much! I’ve been looking for the pairings; I’ll keep an eye on lifein19x19.com from now on.
Heh, I was teased for asking about the players by another observer of Baduk TV last night, so I got down to it and looked up the Korean names of the Korean and Chinese players (by comparing gokifu.com in English and Korean, heh).
Why has Japan fallen so far? Anyone know? Or is it just that Korea and China have such an extremely competitive, lively environment? (Sometimes that just happens, like Korea in women’s golf or Spain in men’s tennis, right?)
New Rule: Who ever beats Cho Chikun has to copy his hairstyle. We need to keep it alive. The players today are too neatly groomed.
Also, Cho U, despite representing Taiwan, is essentially a Japanese player (raised/plays in Japan). If either Cho wins, then it really is a victory for Nihon Ki-in professionals.
Cho’s hairstyle is awesome. I don’t understand why other professionals haven’t followed his lead.
Thanks for the update Redstick!
There must be a typo somewher ein the article. If Jiang Wiejie was seeded, how can he be playing Tan Xiao in the first round?
I think Tan Xiao played Wang Yuanjun from Taiwan.
Yes, Tan Xiao played Wang Yuanjun and won.
When is the next round?
Tomorrow (May 25 in Asia) at the same time. You can have a look at a calendar here: http://gogameguru.com/baduk-tv-guide/
Games started.
Thanks for posting the results on lifein19x19, trout. Two Japanese are in the quarters, Cho Chikun and Cho U (tho Cho U is counted as Taiwanese under Ing rules)! I was sorry that Lee Sedol lost, but his 16-year-old opponent, Fan Tingyu, seems to be incredible, isn’t he?
Does anyone have any idea what book Park Junghwan and Kim Jiseok are reading? Is it a book of life and death problems?
Yes it is a life & death book.