The previous one just ended a month ago, but here we go again:

Players
China: Ke Jie, Gu Zihao, Yang Dingxin, Tang Weixing, Fan Tingyu
Korea: Shin Jinseo, Park Junghwan, Shin Minjun, Kang Dongyun, Hong Kipyo
Japan: Iyama Yuuta, Ichiriki Ryo, Shibano Toramaru, Murakawa Daisuke, Hsu Chiayuan

Game 1 (10/13):
Fan Tingyu vs. Hong Kipyo

Nice win for Hong Kipyo down at goratings #100 beating Nongshim cup expert and #5 Fan Tingyu!

Video by Baduk doctor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP8q6vLlwNs

The game:

Game 2:
Hsu Chiayuan beat Hong Kipyo

Game 3:
Gu Zihao beat Hsu Chiayuan

For the last game, look like Hsu misjudged the situation and resigned prematurely while he was still slightly ahead. He was way ahead earlier in the game and made a couple of mistakes that could have affected his judgement of the board, but the game was certainly by no means over, especially with komi being 6.5.

Game 4:
Gu Zihao beat Kang Dongyun

The first leg of the tournament is completed.

Game 5:
Gu Zihao beat Murakawa Daisuke

Shin Minjun is next for Korea.

Game 6:
Shin Minjun beat Gu Zihao

Nice to see this is shaping up to be a more balanced tournament, with 3 players left on each team. Shibano Toramaru is up next for Japan.

The Shibano-Shin game turned into a Kageyama nightmare. A lot of pushing-from-behind and empty triangles

Shin really wanted to tenuki in that game

Game 7:
Shibano Toramaru beat Shin Minjun

Back and forth we go. Tang Weixing is next for China.

Game 8:
Tang Weixing beat Shibano Toramaru

Shin Jinseo is next to complete this portion of the tournament. We could end up with 2 players left for each country, something that hasn't happened since 2010.

Game 9:
Shin Jinseo beat Tang Weixing

We indeed have 2 players left for each team.

I think we should add an European team into the mix from next year!

A taiwanese team seems a better idea.
Unfortunately the european team will not win a single game. Look the japanese team,they don't win that much....

Except the politics might look odd. Taiwan would be a natural market for Nongshim. I want to see a non Asian top pro before I die.

Making people play against top pros won't turn them into top pros.

European pros need more games against asians, but maybe not against the strongest players.

First of all the european team needs to perform well in the chinese C league
They lose agaisnt strong amateur in china include my teacher Dai junfu ( a chinese 6 dan ama living in France)so no way they win top pros. But I agree they should play more against strong players. Going in the B league is already a good goal I think and not an easy one.

You say it in a way, that sounds like EGF pros regularly lose against Dai Junfu, and does not win any game at all.

What is truth? According to EGD database, truth is as follow:

Dai Junfu, EGF rating 2764 has record:
0-2 against Ilya Shikishi (2809)
2-0 against Artem Kachanovskyi (2750)
0-1 against Mateusz Surma (2742)
1-0 against Pavol Lisy (2731)
11-0 against Tanguy Le Calve (2664)

Didnt play any game with Andri Kravets and Ali Jabarin.

Additional games are played on Pandanet. For instance, Ali Jabarin won against Dai Junfu here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/eu ... unds/666#1