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Round 3 of Ing Cup 2008 was played on May 4th.

After defeating Chang Hao in the previous round, Cho Chikun lost to Lee Changho by 3 points.

Lee Sedol of Korea defeated Kong Jie of China by 11 points.

Choi Cheolhan of Korea defeated Piao Wenyao of China by resignation.

And Liu Xing of China, who seems to be the surprise of the tournament so far, defeated Park Yeonghun by resignation thus becoming the only Chinese player to play in the semifinals.

The semifinals will take place sometime in September and will consist of best-of-three matches. Lee Changho will play against Lee Sedol, and Choi Cheolhan will play against Liu Xing.

Cho Chikun eliminated Chang Hao of China (previous Ing Cup winner) in round 2.

Looks like Cho Sensei is back in shape after his loses in Kisei and Judan earlier this year. He will play against Lee Changho in round 3.

The only other Japanese player, O Meien, was eliminated by Liu Xing of China.

Next round will be played in 2 days. There are 4 players from Korea, 3 from China, and 1 from Japan.

First round of the Ing 2008 international tournament was played yesterday in Shanghai, China.

Only Cho Chikun survived from the Japanese team: he defeated Cho U who played for Taiwan in this tournament.

Takao Shinji Honinbo lost to Wang Lei of China, Yamashita Keigo Kisei lost to Gu Li of China.

The only other Japanese player to play in round 2 is O Meien, who is seeded into the second round. You can see O Meien in the following photo, analyzing games from the first round (together with Otake Hideo of Japan and Cho Hunhyun of Korea, both standing).

Lee Sedol of Korea won against Hu Yaoyu of China by 5 points, but only after winning 6 points through the special Ing rule (one loses points by using extra time in the Ing Cup).

Chang Hao of China and Lee Changho of Korea will be also seeded into the second round (to be played tomorrow).

The most interesting game for me though was the one played by Catalin Taranu 5p of Romania (the European representative at this Ing Cup) against Piao Wenyao 5p of China. After the dust settled from a violent fight in the center of the board, Catalin (Black) ended up capturing a group of Piao’s and I thought he is ahead, but lost a large area himself in the upper left (Black 39 in the diagram eliminates the possibility of White starting a ko fight for his dead stones on the lower side, while White 40 makes sure Black cannot live in the upper left).

Catalin lost in the end, unfortunately (by 11 points). You can replay the game below.

The American representative, Jiang Mingjiu 7p, lost as well (against Liu Xing 7p of China).

Can you recognize the 9p photographer from the following tournament photo?

Tournament schedule and results at Go Topics.

Takao Shinji won the Judan title match 3-0 against veteran Cho Chikun. Takao is also holding the Honinbo title.

Cho must have been exhausted after his attempt to capture the Kisei title from Yamashita Keigo (where he was barely defeated with a 4-3 score) - which ended on March 20th. With this defeat Cho lost his last major title this year.

(Link to the game record)

Takao Shinji is one win away from capturing the Judan title from Cho Chikun after winning the second game as well, since Judan follows a “best-of-five” system.

After his unsuccessful attempt to capture the Kisei title from Yamashita, Cho’s last chance to hold a major title during 2008 is to defend his Judan title. (Cho defended the Judan title against Yamashita in 2007 - you can read last year’s title report on 361points.com).

Next game will be played on April 3rd.

(Links to the games: game 1 game 2)

Game 7 was played on March 19 and 20, 2008. This was the last game of the series: the Kisei title is a “best of seven” match, and the score before this was 3-3.

Yamashita won by resignation and kept the Kisei title.

The game became most violent in the second half, when Cho tried (unsuccessfully) to turn the tables after Yamashita took territorial advantage around move 136.

(Link to the tournament page)

The first day of game 7 of the Kisei title has ended. This is the last game of the series because the Kisei title follows a “best of seven” system, and the score so far is 3-3.

The following diagram shows the position at the end of day 1. The last move was Yamashita’s (White) 44. Cho will likely play the sealed move as a jump to the left of his stones in the center, putting pressure on the White group in the center-left.

The rest of the game tomorrow will decide who will hold the top Japanese Go title this year.

(Link to the game record)

Cho Chikun won game 6 of Kisei by 4.5 points and evened the score to 3-3 (after being led 3-1 earlier).

Yamashita’s early attack in the upper right during day 1 and the resulted thickness in the center didn’t pay off in the end, though: Cho’s territory prevailed so the Kisei title is going all the way to the 7th game!

The following diagram shows what happened after Yamashita’s attack in the upper-right ended: Black took profit on the left side (although the captured White stones still have aji), but White also became very strong in the lower-left. Also, White’s kikashi with 72 is put to good use later, when White cuts with 94.

(Link to the title page)

Yamashita leads 3 to 2 after the first 5 games: one more win and he can keep the Kisei title one more year, while Cho needs 2 consecutive wins to capture the title.

After day 1 in game 6 I like Yamashita’s (Black) position more: after the first 47 moves or so White had to invade Black’s deep moyo and felt under attack, so Black built a lot of thickness in the center. And the attack is not over yet.

(Link to the Kisei Title page, including game records)

The challenger in the Judan Title, Takao Shinji (who is also the Honinbo Title holder) won the first game against Cho Chikun (who is also playing the Kisei Title match) by resignation.

Here is the beginning of the game (Takao played Black):

It is interesting to notice the exchange of 24 for 25: White peeps at a point where he could cut later. I have seen this move in several games lately.

Also, after Black’s invasion in san-san with 31 it’s a touch decision for White to pick the side to block on: in this case the decision has nothing to do with the potential White would develop on the outside (because that potential is too small to be interesting anyways, given that White has low extensions on both sides), but with the fight that starts once Black is forced to capture one stone.

Here’s a nice photo montage from the Nihon Ki-in site: