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In 3rd game Gu Li 9p beat Zhou Heyang 9p and defend Tianyuan title for six time in a row! Zhou Heyang - chalenger - take black stones and chose mini-chinese opening. Gu Li very quickly start first fight in bottom right corner.

Fig.1 show what happen in the game. Of course Dia.1 is normal response to black 1. Latter black can play A-C for secure some territory or play at B for influence, the 3rd option is to play kakari in upper left corner. In all variation black play very fast, so maybe Gu Li don’t like it, because black shimari in upper right corner is narrow and white strong group would have limited influence on it.

In game white capture corner but black gets strong influence. Gu Li. There were some small fights but up to 77 you can call them peaceful. With 78 Gu Li show that this time he will show his full power and game will be very hard. Some move latter fight goes to center where Gu Li start to make some sabaki. White 108 and 110 were typical way to handle hard situation, but white 120 was so great! This kind of moves is very easy to overlook.

From this point players enters endgame and Gu Li take solid lead. After 236 moves Zhou Heyang resign. Again Gu Li defend his title and slowly his record can be compared to Lee Changho domination in XX century. Maybe in Mingren (Meijin) someone will take title form Gu Li, maybe next year?

1 Game: Gu Li 9p vs Zhou Heyang 9p W+R
2 Game: Zhou Heyang 9p vs Gu Li 9p W+R
3 Game: Gu Li 9p vs Zhou Heyang 9p W+R

7 April, second game of title match between Gu Li 9p and Zhou Heyang 9p. Gu Li won first game and only need one more win to defend Tianyuan title, so he play today more relaxed. He took Black stones and choose very complicated joseki in upper left corner building strong walls. White situation start to be complicated but Zhou Heyang play nice sabaki with white 70.

Some move later Zhou Heyang play very interesting combination. First he sacrifice one more stone with 1 on Dia.1 and then he kill black group with 5. Thanks to exchange of 1-4, aji of A is no longer a issue. After this players enters endgame stage where Zhou found interesting reduction(Dia.2)

After white 3 on Dia.2 white get small lead but it’s hard to change outcome and after 298 moves Gu Li resign. This win give Zhou Heyang hope that he can win Tianyuan title. 3rd and last game will be played tomorrow.

1 Game: Gu Li 9p vs Zhou Heyang 9p W+R
2 Game: Zhou Heyang 9p vs Gu Li 9p W+R