Just 8 players left in the 9th Chunlan Cup

On March 30, 2012, the quarter finalists for the 9th Chunlan Cup were decided.

Lee Sedol (9 dan), defending champion in the Chunlan Cup.

Play started on March 28 in Taizhou, Jiangsu province, China.

After two days of play, 16 of the 24 contenders had been eliminated.

Chunlan Cup

The Chunlan Cup is an invitational Go tournament for 24 top players from around the world. In addition to players from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, a European and a North American representative are also invited.

In 2012, Russia’s Alexandre Dinerchtein 3p represents Europe and Canada’s Yang Jing (8d – aka Jing Yang) represents North America.

The top eight seeded players proceed directly to round two, while the remaining 16 play a single elimination round, knocking out 8 players. After the first round, the remaining 16 players compete in a knockout tournament, culminating in a best of three final.

Alexandre Dinerchtein (3 dan) represents Europe.

Eight seeded players

This year, Lee Sedol (9p – last year’s winner), Xie He (9p – last year’s runner up), Gu Lingyi 5p, Cho Chikun 9p, Gu Li 9p, Piao Wenyao 9p, Park Junghwan 9p and Jiang Weijie 9p were seeded into round two.

Round one results

The other 16 players battled it out in round one, with the following results:

• China’s Mi Yuting 3p defeated Japan’s Yoda Norimoto 9p
• China’s Chen Yaoye 9p defeated Korea’s Kang Dongyun 9p
• China’s Kong Jie 9p defeated Japan’s Mizokami Tomochika 8p
• Korea’s Kim Jiseok 8p defeated Japan’s Sakai Hideyuki 8p
• China’s Qiu Jun 9p defeated Japan’s Yamashita Keigo 9p
• Korea’s Choi Cheolhan 9p defeated North America’s Yang Jing (8d)
• Taiwan’s Chen Shiyuan 9p defeated Europe’s Alexandre Dinerchtein 3p
• and Korea’s Won Seongjin 9p defeated China’s Tan Xiao 5p.

North American representative, Yang Jing (8 dan amateur, left), plays Choi Cheolhan (9 dan).

Round two results

As usual in the Chunlan Cup, round two featured some fantastic games, including; an interesting meeting between two young stars, Park Junghwan and Mi Yuting, the ever explosive combination of Gu Li and Kim Jiseok, and Lee Sedol in good form, capturing a ’100 point dragon’ in a hard fought game with Qiu Jun. (See these games below).

Update: Younggil has commented Lee Sedol and Qiu Jun’s game.

Gu Li (9 dan, facing away) and Kim Jiseok (8 dan) review their game together.

Here are the full results for round two:

• Korea’s Park Junghwan defeated China’s Mi Yuting
• China’s Chen Yaoye defeated Japan’s Cho Chikun
• China’s Kong Jie defeated China’s Xie He
• Korea’s Kim Jiseok defeated China’s Gu Li
• Korea’s Lee Sedol defeated China’s Qiu Jun
• China’s Piao Wenyao defeated Korea’s Choi Cheolhan
• China’s Jiang Weijie defeated Taiwan’s Chen Shiyuan
• and Korea’s Won Seongjin defeated China’s Gu Lingyi.

The final eight

Last eight players (from left): Chen Yaoye and Park Junghwan, Kong Jie and Kim Jiseok, Jiang Weijie and Won Seongjin and Piao Wenyao and Lee Sedol.

The quarter finalists (pictured above) are a formidable lineup, including; Chen Yaoye and Park Junghwan, Kong Jie and Kim Jiseok, Jiang Weijie and Won Seongjin and Piao Wenyao and Lee Sedol.

The quarter finals and semi finals of the Chunlan Cup are planned for late 2012, with no specific date scheduled yet.

The finals will take place in early 2013.

Photos from the 9th Chunlan Cup

More about the Chunlan Cup

The Chunlan Cup is sponsored by Chunlan Group, a Chinese conglomerate with interests in the air conditioning, domestic appliance, automotive, finance and alternative energy industries.

The tournament uses Chinese rules, with a komi of 7.5 points, and offers a prize of $150,000 USD to the winner.

Game records

Lee Sedol vs Qiu Jun

Gu Li vs Kim Jiseok

Park Junghwan vs Mi Yuting