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In a repeat of her last year’s performance, Lee Minjin 5p of Korea eliminated the last players of Japan (Kato Keiko) and China (Rui Naiwei) and won Jeongganjang Cup for her country.

Here is the final game, against Rui Naiwei (link to game record).

The match generated a lot of excitement also among other professional players following the game:

Lee Minjin of Korea (right in the photo below) eliminated Tang Yi of China from the 6th Jeongganjang Cup on April 1st. (Link to the game)

Here is the after game discussion with Rui Naiwei.

Then she eliminated Kato Keiko of Japan as well on April 2nd. (Link to the game)

Japan is eliminated from the competition.
China is down to the last player, Rui Naiwei. Korea has, besides Lee Minjin, Park Jieun as well.

Rui Naiwei is in an interesting position because during the past many years she has been playing in Korea. In particular, Lee Minjin eliminated Rui Naiwei from the Women Kuksu (but lost the final to Park Jieun 1-2) less than 2 weeks ago, so in today’s game Rui must be particularly motivated against Lee.

Yashiro Kumiko of Japan (left in the photo) against Tang Yi of China.

Tang won by resignation after a surprise killing of a group of Yashiro’s.

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Here is the beginning of the game (Tang plays Black):

It’s interesting to notice the same joseki (and similar follow-up strategy) in the lower-left as the one played between Japan and China earlier in this tournament (the Aoki vs. Fan game).

Also, compare the upper-right joseki with the one played in the previous game in the same tournament.

(Link to game record)

Tang Yi (left) was paired next against Lee Hanjin from Korea in Jeongganjang Cup.

Tang won by 7.5 points. Here is the beginning of the game:

It’s interesting to see:

• the variation in the lower left: White prefers to build a thick position in gote with 14 and 16 nowadays instead of taking sente with 14 to the left of 9 and leaving bad aji behind.
• how patient Black is with 33 (in most pro games I’ve seen Black attacks at 34 instead)
• how Black plays 43 to “threaten to build a big go threat”: it’s not in itself a ko threat since the ko on the lower side hasn’t started yet, but if White responds to 43 in the upper left corner, Black can start the ko next and then she’ll have a clear ko-threat in the upper left.

(Link to the game record)

Tang Yi is playing Yashiro Kumiko of Japan next.

Lee Hajin of Korea (left photo) vs. Manami Kana of Japan (right photo) in 2008 Jeongganjang Cup.

Answer: Lee Hajin won by resignation. Here is the beginning of the game: after move 55 Black has more territory but has one unsettled group in the center.

Interestingly, the game record (from Cyberoro) shows the last move as White’s - did Manami resign on her own move?

(Link to game here).

Lee Hajin of Korea (left photo) vs. Fan Yujing of China (right photo) in 2008 Jeongganjang Cup.

Answer: Lee Hajin won by resignation.

There a are a lot of interesting moves even if we only look at the beginning of the game:

• Black 15 which is a new(ish) reply to White’s invasion at 12 (well, it stopped being new several years ago, but it’s “new” with respect to the English Go books)
• The technique of playing kosumi-tsuke with 25, then directly attacking with 27 instead of defending on the right side - which of course makes a lot of sense in this case since Black is already very strong on the right side
• The order in which 13 and 15 are played is puzzling to me: not sure what other choice does White have for 14 (maybe playing at 20? or jumping to the left of 17?), and how would that affect Black’s choice of 15.

(Link to game here).

Aoki Kikuyo of Japan (left in the photo) vs. Fan Yujing of China (right) in 2008 Jeongganjang Cup.

Answer: Fan Yujing won by 6.5 points.

Here is the beginning of the game (Fan plays Black):

And here is an interesting exchange that took place at move 78: White (Aoki) decided to sacrifice the stones on the middle of the right hand side, but they retain potential (and came back to life later in the game).

(Link to game here).

It’s time again for the “Guess Who Won” series. Today’s photo quiz is about the 6th Jeongganjang Cup game between Aoki Kikuyo 8p (Japan) and Kim Sesil 2p (Korea):

Answer: Aoki won by 2.5p.

Aoki (Black) used o-moyo (big moyo) strategy - see the diagram below for the first 49 moves (complete game record here).

Aoki’s next opponent will be Fan Yujing 2p of China (they will play later today).

In the Jan, 11th round of the 6th Jeongganjang Cup, Aoki Kikuyo 8-dan of Japan met Song Ronghui 1-dan of China.

Again, guess who won?

Game record here.

In the 3rd game of 6th Jeongganjang Cup, Lee Sula 1-dan of Korea played against Aoki Kikuyo 8-dan of Japan.

I don’t know for sure who won since Go Topics hasn’t published the game record yet and I cannot read Korean… but I have my own theory about the result, given the following photos:

(By the way, behind Aoki Kikuyo one can see Jujo).