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On September 20, 2011, Piao Wenyao (9p) won the 13th Ahan Tongshan Cup, defeating Chen Yaoye (9p) in the final. The Ahan Tongshan Cup is a lightning tournament in China and is sometimes known as the Agon Cup, because it shares a sponsor with the Agon-Kiriyama Cup in Japan. Earlier this year Piao won the 15th LG Cup and earned himself a promotion to 9 dan.
The quarter finals of the 2nd Olleh KT Cup are nearly upon us and soon the top professional players in Korea will be pitted against one another. Park Junghwan (9p), Lee Sedol (9p), Kim Jiseok (7p), Kang Dongyun (9p) and Heo Youngho (9p) have already qualified. The final two places will be decided between Cho Hanseung (9p) and Lee Younggu (8p) on September 23, 2011. And Lee Changho (9p) and Kang Yootaek (4p) on September 25.
Each of the three Meijin tournaments have started in China, Korea and Japan. Let’s see how things stand as of September 14, 2011. In Japan, Yamashita Keigo (9p), current Honinbo title holder, is challenging Iyama Yuta (9p) for the Meijin title in a best of 7 games match. In China, the challenger match for the Mingren title is being played between Kong Jie (9p) and Li Zhe (6p). In Korea, the Myeongin is being played as a knock out tournament between 16 players for the first time.
Joanne Missingham (5p), who plays professionally under her Chinese name, Hei Jiajia, was recently spotted carrying an unusual paper fan at her games. Upon closer inspection, the fan is inscribed with ‘protest against gender discrimination’ in Chinese calligraphy. The incident that sparked this protest was the recent 2nd Qiandeng Cup, a friendly tournament between Chinese and Taiwanese professionals…
On August 31, 2011, Chen Yaoye (9p) claimed his second China Korea Tengen title. The China Korea Tengen, also known as the Dongli Cup, pits the Chinese Tianyuan title holder against the current Korean Chunwon. Chen defeated Korea’s Choi Cheolhan (9p), 2 games to 0. This victory is extra sweet for Chen, who first won the title in 2009 by defeating Kang Dongyun (9p) and then lost it last year to Park Junghwan.
On August 26 2011, the group stage of the 16th Samsung Cup concluded in Beijing and the draw for the round of 16 was announced. Fans of the Stone Buddha will be relieved to know that Lee Changho (9p), who only joined the main draw through receiving a wildcard, made it to the round of 16. Unfortunately, Park Junghwan (9p), the recent winner of the 24th Fujitsu Cup, did not progress through the ‘Group of Death’.
On August 24 2011, Go professionals from China, Japan and Korea gathered in Beijing for the main tournament of the 16th Samsung Cup. Some had won a spot in the main draw by playing through preliminaries, others were seeded based on last year’s performance. Lee Changho (9p) of Korea received this year’s wildcard. The Samsung Cup draw is convoluted, though arguably fairer than a straight knockout format…
The 2nd China Japan Korea Meijin kicked off in Changde, China on August 16, 2011. Title holders of Mingren from China, Myeongin from Korea and Meijin from Japan went head to head to decide who would be the World Meijin. This year, Korea’s Park Younghun (9p), Japan’s Iyama Yuta (9p) and China’s Jiang Weijie (5p) battled each other for the title.
On August 14, 2011, the 24th Fujitsu Cup came to an exciting finish as Park Junghwan (9p) of Korea took the title, defeating China’s Qiu Jun (8p). This is Park’s first major international title, but at only 18 years of age, it will most certainly be followed by many more. With this win, Park sets a new record as the youngest player ever to win the presitigious Fujitsu Cup.
We’re getting to the business end of the 24th Fujitsu Cup and places in the semi final were decided today (August 12, 2011). The last 4 players left standing are Korean youngster, Park Junghwan (9p), Japan’s Iyama Yuta (9p) and China’s Qiu Jun (8p) and Jiang Weijie (5p). Tomorrow, Park will take on Iyama and the two remaining Chinese players will play one another.
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