Nexik’s Baduk

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Today 17 March,China Beijin held 2 round of Chunlan Cup. Chinese team show great form by eliminating almost all opponents. The biggest surprise was result of game between Lee Sedol 9p form Korea and Ding Wei 9p. Ding Wei won this game by resignation. In the game Ding Wei play very thick and aggressive style of Lee Sedol baduk isn’t successful against this kind of players. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch all games live, but when I go out situation wasn’t good for Korea team - Lee Sedol 9p lost to Ding Wei 9p, Won Sungjin 9p lost to Gu Li 9p and in game Lee ChangHo 9p vs Chen Yaoye 9p , position looks good for white(Chen Yaoye).

When I back home I noticed Lee’s miracle. He won by 3,5 point which in so huge komi (7,5 points) isn’t easy. Lee Changho 9p play very interesting yose which I will study in next few days. Lee Changho not only play great yose but also interesting fuseki.
In past I saw few time black 13 but with follow up of black 15 it is first time for me. The idea looks very interesting comparing to normal move at A in this variation black formation in the game is much stronger and there is no more bad aji in B. If one want to play another two space jump on the side after joseki in upper left black 13 seems to be better than A.

Lee Changho 9p won his game but Mok Jinseok 9p lost to Zhou Heyang 9p after complicated fight in centre. In the end China won 7 games and Korea only 1. Japan team represented by Takao Shinji was eliminated.

• Won Sungjin 9p vs Gu Li 9p B+R
• Chen Yaoye 9p vs Lee Changho 9p B+3,5
• Ding Wei 9p vs Lee Sedol W+R
• Kong Jie 7p vs Takao Shinji 9p W+5,5
• Wang Yao 6p vs Chang Hao 9p B+R
• Huang Yizhong 6p vs Cha Minsoo 4p W+5,5
• Wang Xi 9p vs Xie He 7p B+R
• Zhou Heyang 9p vs Mok Jinseok 9p W+R

Last year situation was also bad but Korea had in 3rd round Lee Changho 9p and Lee Sedol 9p. This year Lee Changho 9p is Korea only hope. The apring for 3rd round of Chunlan Cup:

• Lee Changho 9p vs Gu Li 9p
• Ding Wei 9p vs Kong Jie 7p
• Chang Hao 9p vs Huang Yizhong 6p
• Xie He 7p vs Zhou Heyang 9p

Date of next round is unknown, but i think it will around September.

First round of 7th Chunlan cup ended. Second round will be played after two days. Again we will see another 8 interesting games but before i will write the paring I want to write something about 1 round. What we saw today? Constantly weak form of Japan team. Only Takao Shinji won today game. The rest of the team lost they games.

If we talk about China team we see very strong player with deep reading ability. Unfortunately Korea team is very small this year (only 4 player comparing to ‘weak’ Japan 5 player), so for today I can’t said if they will be capable to win title this year.

Paring for 2 round:

• Lee Sedol 9p vs Ding Wei 9p
• Lee Changho 9p vs Chen Yaoye 9p
• Mok Jinseok 9p vs Zhou Heyang 9p
• Won Sungjin 9p vs Gu Li 9p
• Cha Minsoo 4p vs Peng Quan 7p
• Kong Jie 7p vs Takao Shinji 9p
• Chang Hao 9p vs Wang Yao 6p
• Wang Xi 9p vs Xie He 7p

Of course I waiting the most for Lee-Chen and Won-Gu games.

New edition of Chunlan Cup started today. In first round we could see 8 interesting games between player from whole world with following paring:

• Cristian Pop 7D vs Won Sungjin 9p B+R
• Mok Jinseok 9p vs Zhou Junxun 9p W+5,5
• Yoda Norimoto 9p vs Ding Wei 9p B+R
• Takao Shinji 9p vs Zhang Li 4p W+R
  
• Kono Rin 9p vs Wang Yao 6p B+R
• Wang Xi 9p vs Chen Shiyuan 7p W+R
• Chen Yaoye 9p vs Kobayashi Satoru 9p W+R
• Imamura Toshiya 9p vs Cha Minsoo 4p B+R

In third game between Yoda Norimoto 9p(W) from Japan and Ding Wei 9p from China we could see new approach to old joseki. In past white 12 was consider to bad instead of this normally white play one line lower. After black 13 white can play at 22 because of double hane, but white 14 is interesting approach.

In the game Ding Wei build big moyo and Yoda Norimoto invade in it using weakness around black 13 but Ding Wei attack Yoda invader very skillful building another big moyo in upper side and easily won the game. Yoda Norimoto resign after 191 moves.

In fourth game Takao Shinji 9p from Japan play very even game against Zhang Li 4p, and thanks to big komi (7,5 points) he forced Zhang Li to resign after 180 moves. Takao Shinji was only player from Japan who advance to second round. Now we can said that after some big successful matchs in national scene started finding his place on international scene.

In 5th game Japan Tengen Kono Rin 9p met Wang Yao 6p. In this game Wang Yao find great tesuji(black 185) in early yose and unexpectedly kill big white dragon. After 203 moves Kono Rin resign.

In game between Chen Yaoye 9p from China and Kobayashi Satoru 9p from Japan we could see another big kill. Again Japanese veteran overlook great tesuji and loss big group. It was very pity because even if player like Kobayashi Satoru win preliminary stages they lost in 1 or 2 round. It will be more interesting to see one more time some veterans like Cho Hunhyun, Cho Chikun or Seo Bongsoo in final of international tournament.

Last Japanese player Imamura Toshiya 9p lost to Cha Minsoo 4p. Cha Minsoo origin is Korea and in past he was consider to be one of the strongest Korean amateur player. Now he live and America and time to time he represents America in international tournaments. In today game he play very solid and after very risky invasion of Imamura Toshiya he very skillful kill proponents group. Cha

In Last game we could see Wang Xi 9p from China and Chen Shiyuan 7p from Taiwan. This is game was typical for this day. Wang Xi kill big dragon and won the game by resignation.