In the 15th LG Cup preliminaries, 343 players participated, dominated by 224 Korean players (8 amateurs). 24 emerged to play with the 8 seeded players in the first round. Half the field was Chinese, with 16 players; but Korea remains a contending force with the two Lee's.

The first round just concluded a couple of hours ago. The most interesting games pitted Lee Sedol vs. Gu Li, Lee Changho vs. Want Xi, and Kong Jie vs. Yoda. At the conclusion, China scored a big victory, winning 11 of the 16 matches. Gu Li defeated Lee Sedol in an exciting match, see <http://weiqi.sports.tom.com/2010-06-07/003V/64482692.html>; Lee Changho won, and Kong Jie squeaked out a 0.5-point win against Yoda.

The next round will be in two days.

I just replayed the Yoda - Kong Jie game, it was pure awesome!
While concentrating on the late middle game a move occured which I'm not able to understand, maybe some of you can enlight me
I really admire Yodas reduction of Kongs lower right corner beginning with move 112. But why didnt Black cut White with move 127 at o3, is this really smaller then the way the game was played?

Btw: Move 119 involves a nice ladder problem, if you'd like you can read out why black is not able to cut white at O5.

Here is the game:

To me it looks like Lee Sedol misread the left side.

What do you guys think about White 10? I've never seen it before.

I've seen White 10 often in the latest progames, most of the time chinese players playing it, maybe they have done some studying about this move?

Well the Gu Li vs Lee Sedol Game is really close in the end (B+2,5 ?) so I suppose Sedol didnt messed up the game completely.
Is there already an english review available?

It was a recent innovation. It was seen in the game Lee vs. Kong in BC Cup, too.

I don't think Lee misread the left side. According to one-line comments by pros, it is easy for white to live inside, but Lee was probably unhappy with the result (of being sealed in), so he chose to trade that group for thickness on the left side and some of the right side. His first mistake, according to Nie Weiping 9p, is allowing his group on the right side to get sealed in (just barely alive with two eyes). His last mistake was failing to exploit the aji in black's center under time pressure.

By the way, according to some reports, Lee was seen with teary eyes during and after the game, fanning the speculation that he might have been suffering from some eye disease.

I've been trying to keep up with the two-space low pincer variations, but I haven't seen white 10 yet. Does anyone know of anywhere where recent commentary on the two-space low pincer can be read in English?

_________________
We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are.
Each of us woke up one moment and here we were in the darkness.
We're nameless things with no memory; no knowledge of what went before,
No understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.

Can't offer any sources in English but the GoGoD database has 23 examples from 2008 onwards - there are four possible replies for Black 11 but the kosumitsuke is by far the commonest. Actually, our earliest example is 1912.

yes. o3 is gote and you have to spend 3 more move to capture 3 stone.
but 127 is sente and also has nice reward on right side that is big as 3 stone capture.
i think if he played o3 then he would lose the game since it was only .5 point win.

_________________
"The more we think we know about
The greater the unknown"
Words by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

Wow, Gu Li took B and lost to An Joyoung by 0.5 point...deja vu much? He took B and lost to An Joyoung by 0.5 point in the BC Card Cup just 4 months ago. Also in both games Gu Li played the mini-Chinese (although in the second game it's the "micro-Chinese").

Isn't that a Mini-mini-chinese?

http://senseis.xmp.net/?MicroChinese

Very confusing.

I stand corrected, but what a terrible choice of formation name...

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c The mini-mini-mini-mini Chinese!
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 4 . . . . . , . . . . . 1 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 2 . . . . . , . . . . . , 3 . . |
$$ | . . . . . 5 . . . . . . . 7 . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

I just read the latest game review from GGW, on Kong Jie's game.

Man, Kong Jie was pretty fierce in that game. Even the commentator noted that his counterattacking ability was really high.

I'm definitely rooting for him in this tournament.

It'd be cool to see a Piao Wenyao vs Kong Jie final showdown.

Get hyped.

Also, this is really odd, but it's entirely possible for Lee Sedol to lose to someone who loses to someone in the next round, who loses to someone in the next round, who loses to someone in the next round, who loses to someone in the next round. That'd also be interesting if it happened, though it would contradict me predicting Kong Jie as the winner.

Looks like you got your wish!