The semi-final round saw several world champions gone for both China and Korea. In the key match ups Lian Xiao beat 2 time world champion Kang Dongyun while the reigning LG cup champion Dang Yifei lost to Weon Seongjin. Zhao Chenyu 5p continued his run to the main tournament by beating yet another world champion Paek Hongseok. Next up for Zhao 5p is aforementioned Weon Seongjin, 2011 Samsung Cup champion. Other world champions out of the tournament include Kim Jiseok and Gu Li.

In the world group Victor Chow beat another pro Eric Lui. He will play Mateusz Surma in the group final, who himself is also in good form after winning 4 in a row in last month's China C-League.

After 4 rounds, the count for the big 4 Go Associations is as follows: China 14, Korea 20, Japan 1, Chinese Taipei 1. 3 group finals are all Chinese affair, 6 group finals are between Koreans.

Final round will be played on July 3rd. Interesting match ups include Zhou Ruiyang vs Lee Donghoon and Gu Zihao vs Choi Cheolhan.

Komatsu Hideki beat Choi Kihun to keep Japan's hope alive. He will play Choi Kyubyeong, dad of the Choi family. In the Kim family, dad Kim Seongrae lost to Seo Bongsoo, but daughter Kim Cheayoung scored the biggest upset so far in the women's group by beating China's number one Yu Zhiying.

Edit: I am also keeping a close eye on Meng Tailing 6p, my favorite (and many other Chinese Go fan's favorite) Go commentator. He beat Lee Yeongkyu 9p in the semi-final in a thrilling fighting game in 114 moves. He will play Chen Zijian 4p in the group final. I have attached the game file below:

It seems Gorating isn't including the games from preliminary rounds because go4go database doesn't have them; somewhat unfortunate because these are real official games with matches against top level pros.

Some of them are included but some of them are not. Maybe they include only games between professionals

They only include games with a kifu, and not all games from the preliminary have a game recorder.

Mateusz beat Victor to win the world group and progress to the main tournament. Well done him, great results recently!

Final round is finished. In couple of key match ups, Zhou Ruiyang lost to Lee Donghoon, Choi Cheolhan lost to Gu Zihao. And Zhao Chenyu 5p beat Weon Seongjin, the third world champion he faced, to reach the main tournmanet. Fan Tingyu and Shi Yue also lost, which means no world champion qualified in the open groups.

In the world group Victor Chow could not beat the last pro he faced, losing to Mateusz Surma. Surma will play in the main tournament in September.

Komatsu Hideki indeed beat Choi Kyubyeong to be the lone Japanese Player to qualify through prelims. Kim Cheayoung also qualified by beating Kim Soojin 4p. Korean female number one player Choi Jeong lost to Li He 5p.

Meng Tailing 6p lost to Chen Zijian 4p.

The following players will join the seeded players in the main tournament.

China: Tong Mengcheng, Gu Zihao, Zhao Chenyu, Xue Guanhua, Li Weiqing, Yang Dingxin, Chen Zijian, Li He
Korea: Song Taekon, Park Jinsol, An Sungjoon, Han Taehee, Byun Sangil, Lee Donghoon, Shin Minjun, Seo Bongsoo, Kim Cheayoung
Japan: Komatsu Hideki
Poland: Mateusz Surma

■ Seeded players(Main tournament)
ㆍFinal 4 of last year: Ke Jie, Tuo Jiaxi, Fan Yunruo, Lee Sedol
ㆍKorea : Park Yeonghun, Park Junghwan, Ahn Kukhyun, Shin Jinseo
ㆍChina : Tang Weixing, Chen Yaoye
ㆍJapan : Iyama Yuta, Yamashita Keigo
ㆍ1 wild card (TBD)

■ Main Tournament;
. Round of 32: 9/5 - 9/7/17
ㆍRound of 16: 9/25/17
ㆍRound of 8: 9/27/17
ㆍSemi Final(3 games): 11/6 - 11/8/17
ㆍFinal(3 games): 12/5 - 12/7/17

None of the world champions participated in the prelims passed. 2 top female players also eliminated (from their female groups). What a hard tournament!

None of gorating's top twenty who took part of the prelim made it through. And there were eleven of them.
Mi, Choi, Tan, Shi, Lian, Zhou, Fan (Tingyu), Kim, Jiang, Xie and Huang...

That's a big surprise.

I hope the wild card goes to DeepZen or FineArt.

Can anyone here tell us more about Zhao Chenyu 5p? Seems like a great performance. Any background on him?

Zhao Chenyu (赵晨宇) was born in June 1999 in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. Started to study go at 6, won national children's tournament in 2011 and was promoted to amateur 6d. Made pro same year at age 12(he was youngest pro in China at the time). Participated in C-League in 2012 and won 7 in a row (C-League only has 7 rounds so he was undefeated at second board), including beating world champion Zhou Junxuan. In 2014 he joined A-League team Daliang Shangfang as a back up. His team mates included Ke Jie, Park Jungwhan, Mi Yuting and Tang Weixing (as you would probably expect team Daliang won the championship that year). In 2015 Daliang team moved to Jiangsu and he has been a member of Team Jiangsu since then.

In 2014 he was involved in the famous 'illegal ko capture' incident in the 4th round of the 19th LG Cup prelims. Zhao complained to referee that his opponent Hong Kipyo captured a ko without making a ko threat move. Hong insisted that he did make ko threat move and refused to go over the game, claiming that review of game would unduly delay the ending time of the game. Zhao eventually agreed to continue the game as was and won the game by 1.5 points.

In 2017 Zhao beat Shi Yue in the first round of A-League at board 4 and was moved to captain's board in the next two rounds. He beat Ke Jie in the 2nd round and Zhou Ruiyang in the 3rd round. In round 4 he was moved back to board 4 and lost to Liu Xing 7p ( If stayed at captain's board he would have played Lee Sedol 9p.).

Zhao's teachers think he has very solid fundamentals and favors thick moves.

Zhao Chenyu 5p

THANK YOU!

Seems like it might be worth having a closer look at his games, even if they are way above my level.

Zhou Ruiyang got his revenge: he just beat Zhao Chenyu in the first round of the 19th Agon Cup.

It was indeed a big surprise that so many big names / world champions / gotatings top 20 didn't make it thorough the prelims. One name I am noticing rather more recently is qualifier Park Jinsol 7p. I first came across him at the World Mind Sports Games 2012 in Lille (as guest pro not player, that edition was amateur only). Back then he was maybe 5p and not well known or near top pro strength and already past the age most pros peak these days (I thought he was older than me but actually he was born 1986). But now in his 30s when many are declining he is getting good results and his rank/rating is going up. I wonder how he has managed that, a new study pattern, learning from bots, changing personal situation? Anyway, well done him, it's nice to see some late bloomers in this Yasuck (Yet another strong unknown Chinese kid) world!

Victor Chow shared his game records from the Samsung cup, along with some commentary http://www.sagoclubs.co.za/2017/07/07/v ... msung-cup/

Awesome! Thank you for the link!

Thanks for those game records and detailed personal commentaries from Victor. Please pass on my thanks and congratulations for his great performance: his determination to keep on fighting looking for that chance to win really comes through.

Group breakdown for the Round of 32 (double elimination, top 2 advance):

Group A:
Fan Yunruo vs. Iyama Yuta
Song Taekon vs. Mateusz Surma

Group B:
Ke Jie vs. Han Taehee
Tuo Jiaxi vs. Shin Minjun

Group C:
Tong Mengcheng vs. Park Jinsol
Tang Weixing vs. Seo Bongsoo

Group D:
Shin Jinseo vs. An Sungjoon
Xue Guanhua vs. Hei Jiajia (wildcard)

Group E:
Chen Zijian vs. Lee Sedol
Li He vs. Yamashita Keigo

Group F:
Chen Yaoye vs. Ahn Kukhyun
Kim Cheayoung vs. Komatsu Hideki

Group G:
Yang Dingxin vs. Park Yeonghun
Zhao Chenyu vs. Byun Sangil

Group H:
Li Weiqing vs. Lee Donghoon
Gu Zihao vs. Park Junghwan

Results of first round, winner in bold:

Group A:
Fan Yunruo vs. Iyama Yuta ------------ Iyama plays a new sequence from attaching to 4-4, dies but gets some outside, later tries to kill a wall and dies himself. Seems like he can get away with such things in Japan but not against stronger opposition.
Song Taekon vs. Mateusz Surma --------------- Mateusz fought valiantly but Mr BadukTV commentator too strong

Group B:
Ke Jie vs. Han Taehee --------------- interesting game, Han AlphaGo 3-3s against Ke and peeps the wall, lots of sabaki/fighting
Tuo Jiaxi vs. Shin Minjun ------------- good win for "other Shin" Korean youngster against top Chinese Tuo

Group C:
Tong Mengcheng vs. Park Jinsol
Tang Weixing vs. Seo Bongsoo

Group D (note different pairings):
Shin Jinseo vs. Xue Guanhua --------------- just half a point for Korean superstar Shin
An Sungjoon vs. Hei Jiajia (wildcard) --------------- no surprise, Hei's pretty but not as strong as top pros

Group E:
Chen Zijian vs. Lee Sedol
Li He vs. Yamashita Keigo ----------- rare win for Japan, but his opponent was weaker women

Group F:
Chen Yaoye vs. Ahn Kukhyun
Kim Cheayoung vs. Komatsu Hideki ----------- old man beats young women

Group G:
Yang Dingxin vs. Park Yeonghun ----------- win in 120 moves with nice tesuji sequence from Park
Zhao Chenyu vs. Byun Sangil --------------- Zhao's good form continues

Group H:
Li Weiqing vs. Lee Donghoon ---------- fighty
Gu Zihao vs. Park Junghwan

He's 50 - and when did you last beat your wife?