Like last year, this year's Pro Qualification Tournament (PQT) will be part of the 2019 Chinese Weiqi Congress (CWC), so I decided to put them into the same thread.

This year's CWC will be held at Rizhao, Shandong Province (山东省日照市) from Aug 19th to 25th. Rizhao is a beautiful city on the coastline of the Yellow Sea with a population of about 3 million. Quoting from Wikipedia:It is really a nice place to relax and enjoy Go.

Since we are still a long way away from end of August I will start to do some introductory reports of the CWC and PQT. Last year the CWC was held in Nanning, Guangxi Province and one of our forum member (pnprog) happened to be in the city of Nanning and provided us with some on site reporting. Maybe this year we will have some other member in the vicinity and do the same for us?

Link to last year's thread: https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=15936

This year's PQT will be split into 4 groups.
1. U25 Male: participants must be born on Jan 1st 1994 or after.
2. U25 Female: same age limit as group 1.
3. Male adult: born on Dec 31 1993 or before.
4. Female adult: same age limit as group 3.
Group 1, 2, 3, 4 will issue 20, 10, 10, 4 pro certificates respectively for a total of 44 new pro certs.

Any plans for your summer vacation wolfking?

But seriously, thanks in advance for your great, in-depth reporting!

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

That makes me wish I were a uni professor.

Today I will start a series to introduce events that will be held at the CWC.

1. The CWC Grand Prix(中国围棋大会大奖赛)

Last year this was called the CWC Main Event (中国围棋大会正赛). It is open to all amateurs regardless of strength. The GP is an 11 round McMahon tournament. Players were divided into groups according to their strength prior to tournament start. The final champion will be rewarded with a prize money of 50k Chinese Yuan (a bit more than 7k USD). Other top 32 finishers also gets money from a prize pool of 150k CNY.

What might be more appealing to the participants, is that there will be 7D and 6D certificates issued for top finishers. 7D certs go to the champion and runner up, and can extend to top 6 (if higher finishers are already 7Ds). 6D certs are issued to 3rd place to 10th place, and can extend all the way to top 20.

Event schedule:

Aug 19: round 1 & 2
Aug 20: round 3
Aug 21: round 4 & 5
Aug 22: round 6 & 7
Aug 23: round 8
Aug 24: round 9 & 10
Aug 25: round 11

One of the amateur "Big Four" Ma Tianfang 7D went 11-0 to win last year's CWC Main EventMa Tianfang 7D's unique way of holding Go stoneTop 3 finisher of 2018 Main Event. From left to right: Wang Runan 8p, Tao Hanwen 7D (runner up), Ma Tianfang 7D(champion), Chen Junyu 7D(3rd place), Professor Liu Weimin (Deputy Mayor of Nanning City).
2. China King of 9x9 (中国九路棋王赛)
The 9x9 is also an 11 round McMahon event that is scheduled for afternoons. Time control is fixed 10 minutes for each side with no byoyomi so you have to play super fast. Komi is 3.5 zi or 7 points which means draw is possible. Last year's winner was Wang Yixin 7D. Ma 7D was the runner up. This event issues one 7D cert (if there are more than 20 6D participants) and three 6D certs (can be extended to top 16).

Event Schedule:
Aug 19: round 1,2,3
Aug 20: round 4,5,6

Aug 22: round 7,8,9
Aug 23: round 10,11

3. Mixed Pair Go Championship (混双锦标赛)

Participating pairs must be of opposite sex. The sum of the pair's ranks cannot exceed 13D. Pros can also participate in this tournament and will be counted as 9Ds. Playing order of the pair is always lady first. Out of order plays still count but will incur 1 zi (2 points) penalty each time, until the fourth time which will result in a loss.

Participants will be separated into groups of 4 pairs each. Each group will play 3 rounds of round robin to determine the top pair to go into the final 16 (if there are less than 16 groups, 2nd place pairs will be selected to fill the final 16. 2nd place tie breakers are lower total rank, older average age, less penalties incurred). The final 16 pairs will play 4 elimination rounds to determine the champion team. Top 8 finishers get prize money. Total prize pool is 20k CNY.

Time control before final four is 15 minutes main time for each pair plus three 20 seconds byoyomi. Semi final and final will be 20 minutes each pair with same byoyomi setting.

Schedule:

Aug 19: Group round robin from 6pm to 9pm
Aug 20: Four rounds of elimination from 5pm to 9pm

Last year's championship pair Bao Yun 6D (left) and Chang Lifei 6D. Bao 6D is famous for his blindfold Go and holds the Guinness record in most wins by winning all 5 simul blindfold games in 2015 (opponents including high dan amateurs like Timur Sankin 6D of Russia and Jonas Welticke 6D of Germany. It was also a 12 hour ordeal that ended near mid night). He also won the Masters US Open at the US Go Congress 2016 in Boston. You can find more info on Bao Yun 6D at Sensei's Library here.

Bao Yun 6D blindfolded calling out coordinates of his playsGuinness World Record site

Why is Bao Yun "only" 6D? Is he not so interested in ordinary tournaments?

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

In China I believe the only way to get 7d is to win a national tournament (such as CWC Grand Prix mentioned here) and there's probably not many such opportunities. 8d is for winning an international event such as WAGC, which is probably easier as it essentially means beating the Korean player (beating Japan expected now) so qualifying through the Chinese selection tournament may be the harder part.

What Uberdude said.

In China the local amateur promotion tournament can only issue certificates up to 5D. 6D has to be earned at provincial level or national level tournaments. 7D only issued at a few high level national tournaments to the champion, occasionally also the runner up. Usually the number of certs issued also depends on participants strength, and not all provincial level competition will issue 6D to the champion.

For example Yunnan Weiqi Association is organizing a national open amateur championship and a provincial level amateur championship at the same time. Both are called "Tengchong Cup" (they will be held at Tengchong, Yunnan Province this August). The national Tengchong Cup will only issue 6D to the champion and runner up (extends to top 16) if there are more than 100 5Ds in the field. If there are less than 100 5D in the field only the champion gets 6D (since there is a good chance the top finishers are already 6Ds, what really means is that 1 or 2 6D certs will be issued depending on field strength, and 0 6D cert if all 16 top finishers are 6D going into the tournament). The provincial Tengchong Cup will only issue 5Ds to the top 8 finishers.

In China a 5D's strength can vary greatly. If you earned it by winning tournaments like the provincial Tengchong Cup above you are likely at 6D level. If you got it through local promotion tournament you could be strong or weak. But the 6Ds are all very strong!

Continue with CWC events. BTW what I have introduced so far are CWC Gala events. Most of these Gala events are open to all amateurs (some are open to pros) as long as you are willing to participate. They are more for fun than for serious competition. There are other type of events e.g. Chinese A-League and Women's AL games. I will list those events later.

4. Parent-Child Rengo

This is a family oriented event. Participating teams must consist of a parent(or grandparent) and a child. There is no other requirement. Games are played with handicaps determined by the average rank of the pairs. Playing order is child first. Time control is 20 min main time plus 3 x 20 sec byoyomi.

5 preliminary rounds will be played to determine the top 8 pairs. The final 8 will play 3 elimination rounds to determine the champion. Top 8 teams get prize money from a pool of 10k CNY.

Schedule:

Aug 20: Round 1,2,3 from 6-9pm
Aug 21: Round 4,5 from 3:30 - 4:30 pm. Elimination Rounds 6-9pm


5. Three player Rengo

Well I guess triple the players triple the fun. Pros are allowed but each team can have at most one pro (counted as 9D). Also only one amateur above 6D level is allowed. Games are handicapped according to difference in average strength. Playing order is from high dan to low dan.

Teams will play 6 preliminary rounds to determine top 8, followed by 3 elimination rounds. Time control is 20 min plus 3 x 10 sec byoyomi before final, and 30 min plus 3 x 30 sec byoyomi for the final. Top 4 teams get prize money from a 10k CNY pool.

Schedule:
Aug 22: Round 1,2,3 from 6 to 9pm
Aug 23: Round 4,5,6 from 6 to 9pm
Aug 24: Elimination rounds from 3:30 pm to 7:50pm

6. Lady's Championship

This is an amateur only event. There will be 5 preliminary rounds (20 min no byoyomi) to determine top 8, followed by 3 elimination rounds (20 min with 3 x 20 sec byoyomi) to determine the final champion. Top 8 gets prize money from a pool of 10k CNY.

The first edition champion was Yike Weiqi's reporter Chang Lifei 6d (she was working for China Mind Sports Net at the time and yes she was Baoyun 6D's pair go partner last year). Last year 12 year old Qin Siyue 5D (秦思玥) won the championship by beating Deng Xinyi. Deng Xinyi was later promoted to 1p for finishing in top 4 of the HTT tournament. Qin Siyue was promoted to 6D for finishing 5th.

Schedule:

August 23rd: round 1-5 from 3:30 to 8 pm
August 24th: elimination rounds from 3:30 to 7:50 pm

2018 Champion Qin Siyue 6D2018 Runner up Deng Xinyi 1pQin Siyue playing Deng Xinyi in the final

7. Reef Go

This is a quite unique and entertaining format. The game is played on a 9x9 board. Before start of the game each side records a hidden "reef" move on a card. During the game when your opponent plays a move on your "reef", you can show your card and place a stone at that position. Your opponent's move will be deemed as a pass, and you still have the next move! However if both of you choose the same position as the reef then they simply cancel out. Also even before the "reef" is revealed they are considered stones already placed on the board. So when your "reef" has zero liberty or is the last liberty of an opponent's group it must be revealed.

Time control is 5 min each side with no byoyomi. Top 8 gets prize money from 10k pool. Expected to play 7 rounds but is subject to change depending on enrollment.

Schedule

August 22nd: start from 7 pm

Last year this event was played on 13 x 13 board and each side was allowed 3 reef stones. Last year's winner was 15 year old Sun Xingke. Ma Tianfang 7D was the runner up.

2018 Award Ceremony (From left to right, Hua Xueming 7p, Ma Tianfang 7D, Sun Xingke, Qi Zenan)

The preliminary rounds of the PQT were played from August 11th to 15th. 347 participants were separated into A, B two groups and played total 8 rounds. Top 50 of each group join 23 returning top 50 plays (so total 123 players) from last year to play 13 more rounds in the main tournament. After 13 rounds 20 players with the best score will be awarded pro certificates.

This year there are significantly less people in the adult groups. From what I have heard there will be only 6 certs issued in the male adult group and 2 certs in the female adult group. Adding the U-25 groups certs there will be total 38 pro certificates issued this year.

The PQT main tournament has been underway for several days. The female adult group has played all 7 rounds and we have first two new pros of 2019. They are Gao Yongmei(高咏梅) 1p and Yao Jiahui(姚佳慧) 1p. They both have 6 wins and 1 loss. Taiwan's Lin Hongbing 7D had tried PQT several years before in U25 group and participated in this year's adult group. She finished with 3 wins at 7th place. Because there were only 16 participants this year, just two certs were issued for the group.

Gao Yongmei 1pYao Jiahui 1p
The 3 other groups have played 8 rounds so far. Only player still undefeated is Zhang Mengyao 6D. I think she has a good chance for early qualification.

Zhang Mengyao 6D
Some of the familiar names from C-League like Yu Jiabu 5D, Duan Boyao 5D are out already (rule says that you stop playing after 6 losses in first 10 rounds). Realistically they probably need to get their 6D before being competitive in the PQT.

As of August 21st, the PQT has played 10 rounds. Even though I do not have results of the 10th round, I do know that Zhang Mengyao 6D did win her 10th game in a row and became 3rd shodan of class 2019!

Zhang Mengyao 1p (photo from 2018 PQT)
In the U25 Male group, Xie Xuebin 6D, Wang Chunhui 6D and Yang Tingxuan 6D all had 7 wins. 9 other players tied with 6 wins. 11 year old Zhang Xinyu 5D was eliminated with 6 losses.

13 year old Wang Chunhui 6D
In the U25 Female group, Zhang Mengyao 6D led with 9 wins (and won the next round too), Li Xuemeng 6D, Li Sixuan 5D had 8 wins. 7 other players followed with 7 wins.

In the male adult group, China's first amateur 8D, 49 year old Sun Yiguo tied with Yu Qingquan 7D at the top with 8 wins. (the CWA does not issue official 8D certificates. The "8D" is really an honorary title after winning the WAGC. Sun won it in 1993. Sun was not the first Chinese to win the WAGC but before 1993 the Chinese participants were de facto professional players. Sun was the first true amateur to win it for China.)

Sun Yiguo 8D (Left) vs Ma Tianfang 7D in 2019 Evening Post Cup

Yikeweiqi reporter Qiudaoyu did an Q&A session with new pro Yao Jiahui 1p. I translated part of the content here:

Q: Congratulations! Do you know how many times you have participated in the PQT?
A: I truly have no idea.

Q: Can you tell us how you started to learn go?
A: I started at 8. 2001-2005 I was in the Henan provincial team. 06-09 I went on to study in Nie Weiping Dojo. 2011 I started college life in Wuhan Sports University. Last year I pick up Go again in Shanghai Sports Club.

Q: Did you expect to win pro cert before the tournament?
A: Of course I had expectations, but I was not confident. I registered for the Grand Prix too.

Q: Aren't there schedule conflicts?
A: Grand Prix is more flexible for the first few rounds.

Q: Of the 7 games played, which one was the most memorable?
A: Fifth round against Gao Yongmei.

Q: That's the one that broke her winning streak. But both of you earned shodan. You lost the first game against a weaker opponent (Added by me: her first round opponent was Xiang Yun who finished with 3 wins). Was it because you were not in peak form yet?
A: I was too nervous in the first round. When byoyomi started my hands started shaking.

Q: What is your assessment of your opponents strength?
A: They are all very strong.

Q: I know your husband loves playing Go and is playing in the Marathon tournament. What handicap do you usually give him?
A: Yes I am on my way over to the CWC to bring him some food. He will play until it closes. Yesterday he played two games in the Grand Prix and 6 games in the Marathon. He only played 6 because he was too hungry to continue. He usually wants me to give him two to three stones which is too much. Very tiring game for me so we do not play that often. He is about 8D online.

Yao Jiahui (Left) vs Ai Xinnan in round 7

That's a good one. Take care.

_________________
玄 之 玄

On August 22nd, PQT played round 11 and 12. Two players from U-25 Male group earned pro status through Early Qualification(EQ) by winning 9 games in the first 10 rounds. They are 13 year old Wang Chunhui 1p and 15 year old Yang Tingxuan 1p. Together with Zhang Mengyao, all three EQ new pros are from Hangzhou Go School, continuing recent trend in PQT.

For Male Adult group round 11 was the final round so all 5 new pros from that group were determined. They are Li Yuanqi, Yu Qingquan, Su Guangyue, Kang Rui and Yuan Sitong. Unfortunately Sun Yiguo 8D lost last two rounds and finished 6th due to less total opponent scoring.

Final round will be played on the 23rd. In U25 Male group Li Xinchen and Lu Xunfeng led with 9 wins, 12 other players had 8 wins. In U25 Female group Wei Xintong and Li Xuemeng led with 9 wins, 9 other players trailed with 8 wins.

Su Guangyue 7D filling out CWA shodan registration form

Yikeweiqi reporter Xiao Yuan interviewed both Wang Chunhui and Yang Tingxuan. Here is the translation:

Interview with Wang Chunhui 1p:

Q: Congratulations on turning pro. Any thoughts?
A: Very happy of course!

Q: Were you confident before the tournament that this would be the year?
A: I had confidence but was not 100% that it would be this year.

Q: Which game was the most impressive in your mind?
A: Actually there were two. The last one and the round 8 game (my edit: round 8 was against Lu Xunfeng 6D. Round 10 was against Xie Xuebin 6D). In round 8 it was almost a sure loss. My opponent got too aggressive and made several mistakes and I was able to reverse the game. Last game I think I was ahead but have not checked with AI (so not sure). My opponent kept it close and I made a mistake. After a trade I thought I was going to lose. I was lucky to get a 1.5 point win.

Q: What about the lost game?
A: That one was fighting all along. I made a bad mistake and was too far behind to catch up.

Q: Have you thought about long term goal now that you are a pro? Like winning world championship?
A: Of course I have thought about that. But it was too far in the future. For now I just want take one step at a time, just play good games.

Q: Were your parents here with you?
A: Yes. Usually my mom is on the road with me for tournaments. But since it is close to home my dad came too this time. (my edit: Wang Chunhui lives in Qingdao, Shandong Province which is about 2 hour drive to Rizhao.)

Wang Chunhui (Left) vs Xie Xuebin in round 10
Interview with Yang Tingxuan 1p

Q: Congratulations on earning pro status. How do you feel?
A: Very excited! I did not have high hopes coming in, but performed surprisingly well.

Q: Which game was the most memorable?
A: Against Liu Ruizhi (edit: round 3). It was a losing game but I got lucky and won on his blunder.

Q: Can you tell us how your started learning go?
A: I started at four and half. Studied in Tianjin and Beijing dojos. My parents have always been with me. It was not easy for them.

Yang Tingxuan 1p

Final round was played on August 23rd. Here is final standing of all groups.

U-25 Male

Numbers after name are Round Score (number of games won x 2), Opponent Score, Overall Score

1. Wang Chunhui (王春晖) 18 150 20 (EQ 9 wins in first 10 rounds)
2. Yang Tingxuan (杨霆轩) 18 144 19.4 (EQ 9 wins in first 10 rounds)
3. Li Xinchen (李欣宸) 20 160 23 (EQ 10 wins in first 12 rounds)

The 3 players above earned pro status through Early Qualification (EQ)

4. Xie Xuebin (解学斌) 20 222 29.2
5. Chen Tuli (陈土力) 18 214 26.4
6. Cheng Xiaoqing (成晓青) 20 184 25.4
7. Qu Ming (瞿鸣) 18 204 25.4
8. Hu Zhenbeng (胡振鹏) 20 182 25.2
9. Zhao Fei (赵斐)   18 200 25
10. Wang Yucheng (王禹程) 18 196 24.6
11. Hua Chang (花畅)   18 194 24.4
12. Lu Xunfeng (吕洵锋) 18 192 24.2
13. Wang Wenqi (汪文琪) 18 190 24  highest score of defeated opponents
14. Wang Pengfei (汪鹏飞) 18 190 24  highest score of defeated opponents
15. Deng Wei (邓威)   16 210 24
16. Liu Ruizhi (刘睿智) 16 208 23.8
17. Yang Ge (杨戈)   18 184 23.4 highest score of defeated opponents
18. Cai Lichen (蔡李宸) 18 184 23.4 highest score of defeated opponents
19. Wang Mian (王冕)  16 204 23.4
20. Zhou Runmin (周润民) 18 182 23.2

The players above earned pro status

Players 21-25 get 6D status but I think they are all 6Ds coming in so no new 6D certs were issued.