Chinese and Korean professional Go players have started the new year on a lighter note. From January 5 to 7, 2012, a group of Korean professionals took on Chinese professionals in nine rounds of friendly matches.
A chance to relax
Gu Li (9 dan, left) plays Park Junghwan (9 dan). Li Xuanhao ( 3 dan) watches in the background.
The aim of the three days was for players to exchange ideas and play each other without the added pressure of competition.
Chinese pros like Gu Li 9p, Piao Wenyao 9p and Kong Jie 9p welcomed Park Junghwan 9p, Cho Hanseung 9p, Na Hyun 1p and 26 other Korean pros. Some matches were played as lightning Go and others matches allowed players to have 45 minutes main time.
Yu Changhyeok (9 dan) overseas a new generation of Go players.
Loser pays
After the first round, spectators were surprised to see losers pull out 100 RMB (approx $16 USD) notes to offer to winners. It turns out that in Korea, when playing friendly teaching games, it is common for the loser to offer money to the winner.
While the stakes are not always this high, it seems that the pros were more than happy to lose some money for the rare opportunity to relax and not take the games too seriously.
It’s hard to get game records from this informal event, but there are some photos and two games below for you to enjoy.
About Jing
nice friendly games
What language is spoken here
Some Korean players can speak a bit of Chinese and vice versa. However, one thing I learned when I went to the World Amateurs was that you can really communicate a lot with other Go players even without a common language. Another name for Go in Chinese is ‘hand talk’.
Japanese pro not invited? They’ll be much more left behind =/
Wouldn’t surprise me if they were invited but declined…
I’m not sure if the Japanese were invited or not. The professionals all have very busy schedules and it may not have been possible to find time that suited everyone.
Great idea to relax this way together, exchange ideas and further friendship. It is not only fun, I guess everybody there becomes stronger too. I hope the Japanese didn’t deny an invitation, if extended, because they then would miss out on the fun and lose the opportunity to improve in a great way: isolation seldom is a good idea.
Kind regards,
Paul
Yes, this is a good way for everyone to learn and become stronger – there are probably not enough opportunities for players to do this with their busy schedules.
The Gu Li vs. Park vs. Park Junghwan game looked like a really good learning game for kyu players like me right up until the enormous battle errupted in the upper left corner at around move 71. What exactly these pro players are seeing when they read something like this baffles me. Certainly this game seems to put the incredibl fighting prowess of orean players in sharp relief. I felt exhausted just replaying this game!
PS: Is this Korean and Chinese players idea of a relaxing friendly game?
I suppose when only 100 RMB rather than 500 times that amount is on the line, yes, it is relaxing and friendly
Is 50,000 rmb the usual amount for a win in a pro game? That is about $8000 USD!
Not for every game, but for finals players can win a lot of money.
Top Go players can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars.