YI WINS YET ANOTHER WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan of Korea crushed Cho Sonjin 9-dan, Japan's new Honinbo, in the final Games 2 and 3 of the 4th Samsung Cup final on 6 and 7 December.
This gave him an unbeatable 3-0 lead as well as 200 million won for first prize. Cho won 50 million won as runner-up.
Games
Here are games in sgf format from the final. Yi has been experimenting with lots of new moves lately. He did this in Game 2, and there is another example in Game 3 - move 20 is the new one.
Click on a game to download it.
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Older News From 6 December 1999:
MOVING AHEAD
Korea has aptly been called the New Move Factory, and Yi Ch'ang-ho has been at the forefront of the workforce. In Game 2 of the final, his new move was Black 17 - new in the sense of being played in tournaments, though it has been studied in Japan, too. Indeed, the line that resulted up to White 28 is the line settled on in Japan.
It looks overwhelmingly good for White. Eight of the 14 stones played by Black (Yi) end up more or less captured. But Yi has spotted compensation for Black in addition to the flimsy looking outside group. First, it is not flimsy because the obvious looking forcing moves for White cannot be played without affecting the corner. Second, he has sente. Third, he has potential (aji) against the corner, in the form both of a possible ko and semedori. Fourth, he has a big endgame move on the outside.
Semedori means (I) attack (you) capture, and refers to a sacrifice technique where I attack on the outside to force you to remove my stones on the inside. I end up with a wall and you end up with a much smaller territory than you hoped for because of the moves you had to make to remove my stones.
Yi won on move 161 without having killed anything (and without making direct use of the ko aji), because he was 20 (yes, 20) points ahead on the board. Ironically, the winning move 161 was the endgame move mentioned above; it was big in its own right but threatened another couple of points gain by semedori.
Cho Sonjin did not help his cause by ignoring the proverb that says "don't approach thickness" on move 36. Apparently at this stage he should play 37.
The first English go book by Yi Ch'ang-ho (Lee Changho), "Novel Plays and Shapes" has just appeared. A best seller in Korea and Japan, it deals with new moves of the type above (not all Yi's inventions, it should be added, but it gives a unique insight into the cutting edge of modern pro go). Details of the English book can be found on http://www.yutopian.com/go.
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Older News From November 3 1999:
HONINBO MEETS YI IN SAMSUNG CUP FINAL
The new Honinbo was the lone Japanese representative to emerge from the three that contested the semi-finals of the 4th Samsung Cup on 28 October in Seoul. Cho Sonjin will now meet world number one Yi Ch'ang-ho in the decider starting on 23 November.
It is really an all-Korean final because Cho was born in Kwangu, Korea, and did not move to Japan until he was 12. This was to become a pupil of Ando Takeo 6-dan.
Ando is the one of the quiet and largely unsung go players, but he has now produced two champions: Cho and Yoda Norimoto 9-dan. He has just been feted at a delayed 61st birthday party - 61 is one of the special ages celebrated in Japan - which was delayed so that it could be combined with celebration of Cho and Yoda's recent achievements. How about that for confidence in your pupils?
But now he is going back to the quiet life. His pupils bought him a fishing outfit.
It has to be said, though, if Cho beats Yi it might start a tradition of making 62 a special birthday.
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SEMI-FINALS OF SAMSUNG CUP GIVE JAPAN HOPE
Japanese go fans dared hardly breathe as they watched the last stages of the 4th Samsung Cup unfold in Korea.
After a spectacular wipeout of the Chinese contingent in the last eight, Japan has three players in the semi-finals: Cho Sonjin 9-dan, Hikosaka Naoto 9-dan and Yamada Kimio 7-dan.
The only problem is: the last spot is filled by world number one, Yi Ch'ang-ho.
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SAMSUNG CUP DOWN TO LAST EIGHT
Despite anxieties that it is losing ground to its go-playing neighbours, Japan has three players through to the last eight of the 4th Samsung Cup, one of the major international events.
Even so, the attrition has been great. Japan started with 16 players, including six seeds, and the big names Cho Chikun and Ryu Shikun fell in their first games in Round 1 of the final knockout.
After Rounds 1 and 2 of the final knockout played at Samsung's research headquarters in Taejon City, Korea, on 7 and 9 September, the new Honinbo Cho Sonjin, Hikosaka Naoto 9-dan and Yamada Kimio 7-dan joined three Koreans (holder Yi Ch'ang-ho, Yu Ch'ang-hyeok and Kang Chi-seong) and two Chinese (Chang hao and Wang Lei).
FINAL KNOCKOUT RESULTS 1999
The results of the final knockout so far are:
(Countries of professional affiliation: C = China, J = Japan, K = Korea)
Round 1: Yi Ch'ang-ho (K) 1-0 Yu Bin (C); O Rissei (J) 1-0 Yi Seong-chae (K); Cho Hun-hyeon (K) 1-0 Nakano Hironari (J); Chang Hao (C) 1-0 Kim Tong-yeop; An Cho-yeong (K) 1-0 Yoda Norimoto (J); Hikosaka Naoto (J) 1-0 Cheong Tae-sang (K); Kang Chi-seong (K) 1-0 Yokota Shigeaki (J); Yamashiro Hiroshi (J) 1-0 Yang Chae-ho (K); Kim Man-su (K) 1-0 Kiyonari Tetsuya (J); Cho Sonjin (K) 1-0 Cao Dayuan (C); Kataoka Satoshi (J) 1-0 Ch'oe Myeong-hun (K); Wang Lei (C) 1-0 Jiang Zhujiu (K); Yu Ch'ang-hyeok (K) 1-0 Zhou Heyang (C); Yamada Kimio (J) 1-0 Mok Chin-seok (K); Kim Seung-chun (K) 1-0 Ryu Shikun (J); Liu Xiaoguang (C) 1-0 Cho Chikun (J).
Round 2: Yi 1-0 O; Chang 1-0 Cho H.; Hikosaka 1-0 An; Kang 1-0 Yamashiro; Cho S. 1-0 Kim M.; Wang 1-0 Kataoka; Yamada 1-0 Yu; Kim S. 1-0 Liu.
Quarter-finals: Hikosaka 1-0 Kang; Cho 1-0 Wang; Yi 1-0 Chang; Yamada 1-0 Kim.
Semi-finals: Yi 1-0 Yamada; Cho 1-0 Hikosaka.
HOW DOES THE SAMSUNG TOURNAMENT WORK?
The Samsung Cup, more precisely the Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Cup World Open, is co-sponsored with MBC, Ch'ong-ang Il-po Newspaper and Unitel in Korea.
Seeded players (each country's titleholders or prizewinners) are joined by winners of an international preliminary. This preliminary knockout is two rounds for some players, three for others.
The final knockout starts with 32 players. Top prize is 200 million won.
In the preliminary players have to pay their own expenses but prize money for each game is 700,000 won. The final, now a best-of-five, is held in Samsung's offices in Seoul over the winter months.
Thinking time is 3 hours each. Komi was 5.5 points in Terms 1 to 3 but was increased in 1999 to 6.5 points in line with the LG Cup.
SAMSUNG CUP FINALISTS (From Term 2 the final became a best-of-five)
|
Year
|
Term
|
Winner
|
Score
|
Loser
|
|
1996
|
1
|
Yoda Norimoto 9d
|
2-1
|
Yu Ch'ang-hyeok 9d
|
|
1997
|
2
|
Yi Ch'ang-ho 9d
|
3-0
|
Kobayashi Satoru 9d
|
|
1998
|
3
|
Yi Ch'ang-ho 9d
|
3-2
|
Ma Xiaochun 9d
|
|
1999
|
4
|
Yi Ch'ang-ho 9d
|
3-0
|
Cho Sonjin 9-dan
|
Note: Korean names are in McCune-Reischauer transcription.
