18th Nongshim cup

Korea: Park Junghwan, Kim Jiseok, Lee Donghoon(through selection tournament), Lee Sedol(wild card), Kang Dongyoon(seeded)
China: Ke Jie, Tuo Jiaxi, Lian Xiao, Fan Tingyu, Fan Yunrou
Japan: Iyama Yuuta, Cho U, Kono Rin, Murakawa Daisuke, Ichiriki Ryo

1st round; 9/27/16-9/30/16

Thanks for the heads up! This may be my favorite tournament to follow each year. It looks like a strong field once again!

It is good to see Iyama Yuta listed!

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- Brady
Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders

I think he's been in the nongshim cup for a while now.

Yeah, he played in the 11th, 12th, 16th and 17th, but had a three year gap for the 13th, 14th and 15th.

This year, Japan is bringing the same team as last year, but with Cho U instead of Ida Atsushi.

The Korean and Chinese teams are both stronger than last year, however.

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Occupy Babel!

The Korean team is certainly stronger than last year, but I am not this sure about the Chinese. They always have many world-class players to choose. I would prefer to see Shi Yue and Tang Weixing, and perhaps Gu Zhihao, but well, can't say this lineup is bad either.

I'm a bit surprise that Kang Dongyun got seed from Korea. He's probably a top-5, but why him but not Park Junghwan or Lee Sedol?

This seems to be the only world tournament that Japan really sends their best players to the field.

Kang Dongyoon won LG cup for Korea last year.

Japan is sending out their strongest possible team.

Would have liked to see Shin Jinseo over Lee Donghoon as the representation of Korea's next superstar, but he unfortunately ran into Park Junghwan for the final game.

The Chinese team could have been better, but nice to see some different faces each time and have both Fans getting their chances. Tingyu hasn't done much at the big stages since winning Ing Cup 4 years ago.

Ok, I couldn't resist. All ratings are from goratings.org.

As of today the strongest possible teams each country could send are:

China:
Ke Jie (3612)
Mi Yuting (3529)
Shi Yue (3509)
Lian Xiao (3504)
Chen Yaoye (3502)

Korea:
Park Junghwan (3599)
Lee Sedol (3550)
Kim Jiseok (3502)
Park Yeonghun (3483)
Shin Jinseo (3470)

Japan:
Iyama Yuta (3539)
Kono Rin (3359)
Takao Shinji (3334)
Yamashita Keigo (3332)
Hsu Chiayuan (3332)

I have never heard of Hsu Hiayuan 3p (Kyo Kagen in Japanese according to SL), but maybe goratings found a young star on the rise

So in theory China could swap out Tuo Jiaxi (3501), Fan Yunrou (3436), and Fan Tingyu (3420) to gain a net 158 elo.
Similarly Korea could swap out Lee Donghoon (3469) and Kang Dongyoon (3459) to gain 25 elo.
And Japan could swap Cho U (3295), Murakawa Daisuke (3265), and Ichiriki Ryo (3308) to gain 130 elo.

So compared to their theoretical best team, China is actually sending the weakest, and Korea sending closest to its best.

Interestingly Shin Jinseo was knocked out of the team selection tournament by Park Junghwan, and Park Yeonghun was knocked about by Cho Hanseung, who then lost to Kim Jiseok.
So our #4 and #5 picks lost seats in the selection tournament to our #1 and #3 picks.

In this post ez4u pointed out that Kyo Kagen had the highest first year rating of a Japanese pro and mamumamu's rating model said he had a 83% win chance against the average Japanese 9 dan.

And I even liked that post! My memory failed me.

Fan Ruoxuan and Ichiriki Ryo should start for China and Japan respectively, but it'll be interesting to see who gets the start for Korea. Given the domestic schedule and league commitment, they may be sending Lee Sedol out first, like in 2010.

1st game;
Lee Sedol vs Ichiriki Ryo

oo tough game for Ichiriki Ryo right off the bat. He's probably my favorite player in the whole nongshim cup (after Ke Jie), so I'm hoping he pulls an upset.

And it turns out China will go with Fan Tingyu first.

The first game is live now on wbaduk. In a rather amusing psychological ploy Ichiriki played AlphaGo game 5 opening and Lee happily went along with it, so he must disagree with Nie Weiping's tewari argument and think the big corner is not bad for him.

this game is cool . Lee sedol seems to like the opening . I think both of them studied hard the 5th game of LEE-AlphaGO .

1st game;
Ichiriki Ryo defeated Lee Sedol by 0.5.

Korea: Park Junghwan, Kim Jiseok, Lee Donghoon(through selection tournament), Kang Dongyoon(seeded), Lee Sedol(wild card)
China: Ke Jie, Tuo Jiaxi, Lian Xiao, Fan Tingyu, Fan Yunrou
Japan: Iyama Yuuta, Cho U, Kono Rin, Murakawa Daisuke, Ichiriki Ryo

Bold case - alive

Seems like the psycho ploy worked, or just that opening is not good for black?

Also, I think Ichikiri didn't plan all of this from the beginning, as he played a 3-4 instead of the Alpha Go star point on the upper left, then it was Lee Sedol who insisted in using his favorite shimari fuseki, and then decide to go with the invasion.