On May 20th, the first round of the 29th “LG Cup World Go Championship” kicked off at the Kun Chi Wan Resort in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province. Two Taiwanese Go players celebrated victories, advancing hand in hand to the round of sixteen, while all three Chinese mainland world champions faced elimination. Korean players continued to dominate in the round of sixteen.
In this tournament, Asia-Pacific Go individual event gold medalist Hsu Hao-Hung, a nine-dan player, received a lucky wild card from the Korea Go Association, allowing Taiwan to have two players competing in the LG Cup. May 20th was a joyous day for Taiwanese players as both made it to the round of sixteen together after an 18-year gap.
In the first round, top Taiwanese Go player Hsu Hao-Hung faced the relatively unknown Korean player Choi Hyun-Jae, a five-dan player. Prior to the match, it was widely believed that Hsu Hao-Hung would easily win, but he secured a victory in an exceptionally tense manner.
During the match, Hsu Hao-Hung played as black, and after white 38, he suffered a critical blow with black 39, losing eye space and being forced to make an inconvenient move in the upper left corner to secure his position, allowing black to take the initiative on the board.
In the middle game, Hsu Hao-Hung had an opportunity to give his opponent’s central dragon a way out, surrounding the upper right area for a simple win. However, his move at black 93 aimed to attack and kill the opponent, disregarding white’s possible counterattack. By move 111, artificial intelligence (AI) indicated that Choi Hyun-Jae had turned the tide of the game.
However, both players made errors in their judgment during the central clash, leading to mistakes and counter-mistakes. Black’s move at 117, cutting and capturing six white stones in the middle, was like throwing away a watermelon to pick sesame seeds. After this move, AI gave black’s winning chances a sudden drop to single digits. If white had chosen to cut and capture two black stones on the right side at move 120, it would have consolidated a winning position. However, Choi Hyun-Jae stubbornly chose to save six white stones at move 120, falling into a trap set by black.
In the end, a ko fight ensued between the two players, and white’s dragon died due to a lack of ko threats. Hsu Hao-Hung emerged victorious through luck and advanced to the round of sixteen.
Another Taiwanese Go player, Lai Chun-Fu, an eight-dan player, faced Korean world champion Kang Dong-Woon, a nine-dan player. Despite being considered the underdog in terms of strength, Lai Chun-Fu fought with determination, adopting a strategy of “fighting to the death, no matter how abnormal the conclusion may be.” In the latter part of the game, he fully displayed his outstanding combat capabilities, leading the situation into a complex state and capitalizing on Kang Dong-Woon’s miscalculations by efficiently killing his opponent’s dragon, thus making it to the round of sixteen.
Chen Wei-Ting, a four-dan player from the Haifeng Go Academy, provided insightful commentary on these two intense matches.
While the two Taiwanese Go players celebrated their victories, the fate of the Chinese mainland players across the strait was quite different. The three Chinese world champions who competed in the first round struggled to secure wins; Gu Zihao, Xie Er-Hao, and Fan Tingyu, all nine-dan players, were defeated by Korean players and were eliminated in the first round.
After a day of intense competition, the top sixteen players have been determined. Korea has nine players in the lineup, still dominating the field, while China has only three seeded players remaining, and Taiwan and Japan each have two players. Following the draw, the matchups for the round of sixteen are as follows:
Shin Min-Chul (KOR) vs. Lai Chun-Fu (TWN)
Lee Ji-Hyun (KOR) vs. Hsu Hao-Hung (TWN)
Shin Jin-Hye (KOR) vs. Han Sang-Jo (KOR)
Won Seung-Jun (KOR) vs. Hsu Chia-Yuan (JPN)
Park Young-Hwan (KOR) vs. Shiyeno Kurowan (JPN)
Byun Sang-Il (KOR) vs. Yi Yuting (CHN)
Lee Chang-Sik (KOR) vs. Ke Jie (CHN)
Kim Jin-Hui (KOR) vs. Ding Hao (CHN)
There will be a break on May 21st, and the round of sixteen matches will take place on May 22nd. The top Go players from Taiwan, Korea, and China, Hsu Hao-Hung, Shin Jin-Hye, and Ke Jie, respectively, will face Lee Ji-Hyun, Han Sang-Jo, and Lee Chang-Sik.
The “LG Cup World Go Championship” is organized by the “Chosun Ilbo” and the Korea Go Association, sponsored by the LG Group. The competition follows the rules of the Korea Go Association, with black giving a 6.5-point komi, each player having a basic time of 3 hours, and 40 seconds of byo-yomi five times. The champion of this event will receive a prize of 300 million Korean won (approximately $222,000 USD), while the runner-up will receive 100 million Korean won (approximately $74,000 USD).