Round of 32 starts.
3/16/12 - 3/20/12
Pairing;

Kim Jiseok vs Piao Wenyao
Na Hyun vs Jiang Weijie
Heo Youngho vs Chen Yaoe
Lee Wonyoung vs Meng Tailing
Lee Sedol vs Dang Yifei
Lee Wondo vs Tan Xiao
Lee Changho vs Mi Yuting
Kim Kiyong vs Hu Yaoyu
Kim Seungjun vs Xie He
Park Jinsol vs Zhou Ruiyang
On Sojin vs Niu Yutian
Park Younghun vs Hong Seongji
Won Seongjin vs Baek Hongseok
Gu Li vs Fan Tingyu
Liu Xing vs Murakawa Daisuke
Kong Jie vs Ida Atsushi

There will be few games played each day.

Park Younghun defeated Hong Seongji.
Baek Hongseok defeated Won Seongjin.

Lee Wonyoung defated Meng Tailing.
Mi Yuting defeated Lee Changho.
Zhou Ruiyang defeated Park Jinsol.

Dang Yifei defeated Lee Sedol.
Gu Li defeated Fan Tingyu.

Piao Wenyao defeated Kim Jiseok.
Liu Xing defeated Murakawa Daisuke.
Kong Jie defeated Ida Atsushi.

Chen Yaoe defeated Heo Youngho.
Niu Yutian defeated On Sojin.

Jiang Weijie defeated Na Hyun.
Tan Xiao defeated Lee Wondo.

Hey Trout. I just wanted to say thanks for keeping this up to date.

only survivor is Park Younghun who played another koreans..
that is not good...

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

It's amazing how well China is doing. So far 11 Chinese and 3 Koreans advanced to the round of 16. Two more games are yet to be played, Xie He vs. Kim Seongjun, Hu Yaoyu vs. Kim Kiyong. The nearly total collapse of the top Korean players is unprecedented. Among the Korean top 10, only Park Younghun will play into the next round:

1 Lee Sedol, lost in round of 32.
2 Park Junghwan, lost in round of 64.
3 Choi Cheolhan, lost in round of 64.
4 Kang Dongyun, lost in preliminary.
5 Wong Seongjin, lost in round of 32.
6 Kim Jiseok, lost in round of 32.
7 Cho Hanseung, lost in round of 64.
8 Park Younghun, won against Hong Seongji, advances to round of 16.
9 Lee Younggu, lost in preliminary.
10 Lee Changho, lost in round of 32.
10 Heo Youngho, lost in round of 32.

And for the game between the most promising future stars, Na Hyun lost a close game to Jiang Weijie. Definitely the worst weekend we have ever seen from the Korean players. Let's hope they will pick it up in the Bailing Cup.

Looks like http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.j.s ... Table.html will keep on getting redder.

I'm rooting for Xie He: I like his play and it's about time he got his first international title.

Xie He defeated Kim Seungjun.
Hu Yaoyu defeated Kim Kiyong.

I haven't heard of Dang Yifei, and the SL page is quite sparse. But he's only 18, and beat Lee Sedol, maybe we'll hear more from him in the future...

Personally, I think the most promising future star is Mi Yuting. 16 years old and defeated Lee Changho.

Sure, Mi won a big game; but I think it is hard to argue against Jiang Weijie being the top new star in China: He just won 2-0 against Lee Changho in LG Cup final a month ago, and defeated Kong Jie 3-2 in Chinese Mingren final three months ago.

Among the current Chinese top players, I am most fond of Jiang and Xie He. They have well balanced and steady games and both are modest and gentlemanly in their demeanor. A big credit to their sensei, Cao Dayuan.

As to who is the most promising young player:

I think that the situation is more complicated than a number of you believe. There are so many circumstances that come into play when trying to determine this question. It would be less annoying if people would stop trying to judge the strength of a player based solely on one game.

I have followed Pak Jeong-hwan fairly closely over the last year and a half. Despite his obvious strength (in terms of winning percentages), whenever he came across experienced players the result was less certain. Recently however, he has managed to overcome people like Choi Cheolhan and even Pak Jeong-hun, who seems to me the kind of player who rarely gives easy games to opponents. Despite this, the experienced players don't let him get anywhere near winning the longer time game Korean tournaments; such as the Myeongin. Maybe they - like Yi Se-tol - don't mind losing the blitz tournaments. Which Pak wins a lot of.

In his last 10-15 games Jeong-hwan has approached the game with the intention (as far as my weak eyes can tell) of killing dragons. Possibly because in his past games against Se-tol and Gu Li he's been absolutely battered.
Yes, yes, I know he beat Gu Li recently but that was during one of Gu's dry periods (5 losses in a row I think.)

As for Jiang Weijie I first noticed him when he beat Gu Li in the Mingren. I never really noticed his style back then but I recently looked at some of his games and he plays like me . He often makes a lot of influence, so I should be studying his games more closely.

Iyama Yuuta, Piao Wenyao, Chen Yaoye, Jiang Weijie, Pak Jeong-hwan, Kim Jisuk etc, are all very promising and I get really exciting when any of them play one another. But, they are children . I never cease to be amazed at the amount of experience required to gain a sufficient level of skill and stability necessary to maintain consistently high level performances at the highest levels. Just look at Yi Se-tol, it wasn’t until 2008, after 14 years as a professional before he was truly considered as the best in the world. It’s true that there was a lot of talk around 2000 (his breakout year) about how Yi Ch’ang-ho always seemed to lose his cool when playing him. True perhaps; but the winning percentages and the number of both international and domestic tournaments won from 2000-04 tell a far different story.

My point is that we can only wait and see, instead of jumping to conclusions.

…

Anyway, my money’s on Jeong-hwan. He will definitely be the world’s best. Definitely!!!!!!!!

I don't know whether to agree or disagree. But taking Lee Sedol's case, he was 25, with 14 years of professional experience when he reached the very top.

Then we have (years's experience may be low by one for some players because I don't neccessarily have promotion dates):

• Iyama Yuta: 22, 10 years,
• Chen Yaoye: 22, 11 years,
• Jiang Weijie: 20, 6 years,
• Kim Jiseok: 22, 7 years,
• Park Jung-hwan: 18/19, 5 years,
• Piao Wenyao: 23, 13 years,

Obviously, there is a big range. But for the older and more experienced players, they are at a point in their career when you could have a meaningful opinion about who will be the best.

Then again, even at a late age, there's huge uncertainty. Will Lee Sedol's career continue as long as Lee Changho's did? Is Lee Changho's window to win international titles over or will he be a contender for the next decade? In general, which of the players at the top will stay there, and which will have just a few years is so hard to judge.

_________________
When you think your opponent has made a mistake, that's when you should be the most cautious.

Hyperpape wrote



I think Changho’s window is not necessarily closed. But, my view is that he shouldn’t care. I would like to see him experiment with new styles. Completely different ways of playing. Why not? Given the success of his past he has nothing to prove to anyone. And if he relinquishes some of that competitiveness and relaxes a bit more … I have found that playing without fear can lead to better judgement as long as one maintains sufficient concentration. But you’re right such things are hard to judge.

Hence:

What is it? What is strength? Is it just judgement? Why does Gu Li have a little hiccup(s) every year? Why after being almost utterly anonymous, internationally, for his entire career did Kong Jie flower in 2009? And why has he done almost nothing since? How is it that he could achieve such dominance during this flowering that Chen Yoaye claimed, that(for him) only Kong was to be feared out of the big three? Only for this dominance to be snuffed out. Stopped. Almost without trace. Even domestically. And I’m not just talking about results, I ‘m talking about performances.

What is consistency anyway? Why is it so difficult to maintain? So much so, that even a 2p can beat a top player if that player has just had a run of 5 wins in a row. Why should this matter? Is it just that the player feels nervous, and the young or not so young 2p feels he has nothing to lose?

Why does a player with such power as Choi Cheol-han not seem capable of fixing his endgame? Why has he not adapted his powerful style – so successful against Ch’ang-ho in 2004 and 05 for that matter - so as to be just as effective against anyone? Is he just lazy? He’s clearly top notch (whatever that means), so what the hell’s going on?

And Xie He? Anyone seen the interview in which Yi Se-tol claimed that he was the strongest Chinese player because he had won his first five games against the Korean big three at the time(I don’t recall when, 2006)? According to An Younggil, the feeling in Korea after the Chunlan Cup Final is that the difference between Xie He and Yi Se-tol isn’t one of strength. Really!? Then clearly he’s grown, but … why so long?

It is almost impossible for me to imagine Pak Cheong-hwan becoming so diminished. Right now he shows more consistency (I think) that Choi Cheol-han ever has. But what does that mean? How does that relate to his future form/success? Right now I feel a little sad for the futures of some these youngsters. Kim Jisuk for example seems to play Seo Bongsoo to Pak’s Cho Hun-hyeon.

What’s up with Gu Lingyi(still so young). Chen Yaoye as far as I’m aware is not in the midst of changing his style, so why are we not seeing better performances. That is to say, more semi-final and final appearances even domestically.

All right, rant over. It’s just all very perplexing.

Many people would agree with you. He is well known for being a rising star. He is one of the top players on tygem named Strive and has a very good record against top pros. Another player to look out for is Fan Tingyu, ddcg on tygem. He is the same age as Mi Yuting but actually has a better record. He is also well known on tygem for beating top pros and has even win/loss vs many top 9ps.

Right, I've also heard some rumors from Korean side that Fan Tingyu is one of the strongest among the new generation Chinese players and they call him "the scary boy". He, as "ddcg", is the only player on "tygem" who has an even record against the well known top player "idontca1" who is thought to be no other than "genius" Park Junghwan. Looking at the near future, China seems to have more young talents than others do. To give some examples: Yang Dingxing, Mi Yuting, Fan Tingyu, Peng Liyao, and of course, Tan Xiao are among the "tiger cubs" who will probably have a very bright future in the intrenational area. On the other side, Korea will have a hard time against these Chinese guns as they have few young talents at this level, e.g. Park Junghwan and Na Hyun(maybe?) (Just to count teenagers). IMHO, those youngsters will begin to dominate international tournements sooner than expected, maybe within 2 years from now.

Round of 16 starts 4/12/12.

4/12/12, Jiang Weijie vs Chen Yaoe, Gu Li vs Piao Wenyaoe
4/13/12, Liu Xing vs Xie He, Baek Hongseok vs Niu Yutian
4/14/12, Dang Yfei vs Tan Xiao, Lee Wonyoung vs Park Younghoon
4/15/12, Mi Yuting vs Hu Yaoyu, King Jie vs Zhou Ruiyang

4/16/12-4/17/12 round of 8

Chen Yaoe defeated Jiang Weijie by resign.
Piao Wenyao defeated Gu Li by 0.5.