This is a new Korean tournament.

Yongseong (KR) == Ryusei (JP) == Longxing (CN)

According to a Chinese news release, a small international tournament among the winners of the above domestic tournaments will be held later this year.

Tournament format:

The easiest way to describe Korean Yongseong tournament: consider it a mini Samsung Cup. It looks that every feature in Samsung Cup is copied:

- preliminary tournaments for all Korean players (with special groups for senior players, and female players)
- top players directly get into the main tournament
- the main tournament has a group stage in which each group of 4 players play a small double-elimination tournament so that the surviving two enter the final stage.
- I've not seen report on the final stage, but I suppose the remaining 16 players will play 4 more rounds to decide to title winner.

It's the Yongseong Tournament (용성전).

Here are the details from the Dragon's mouth:

제1기 용성(龍星)전이 6일 한국기원 2층 대회장에서 예선 1회전을 시작으로 막이 올랐다.

예선에는 일반조 148명, 시니어조 24명, 여자조 32명 등 총 204명이 출사표를 올렸다.

본선 티켓은 일반조 23장을 비롯해 시니어조(만 50세 이상)와 여자조 각 2장 등 모두 27장이 걸려있다.

본선 32강은 예선 통과자 27명과 본선에 진출해 시드를 받은 5명(박정환ㆍ신진서-이상 랭킹 시드, 김지석ㆍ강동윤-이상 국가대표 시드, 이세돌-후원사 시드)이 합류해 14일부터 16일까지 더블 일리미네이션으로 펼쳐진다.

본선 16강 토너먼트는 4월 8일부터 바둑TV 스튜디오에서 녹화 대국으로 열리며, 결승 진출자 2명은 11월 결승 3번기를 통해 초대 챔피언을 가릴 예정이다.

용성전의 모든 경기는 시간누적방식(피셔방식)으로 개최되며 제한시간은 각자 20분에 추가시간 20초가 주어진다.

일본 바둑장기채널[대표ㆍ오카모토 고세이(岡本光正)]이 후원하고 한국기원이 주최하며 바둑TV가 주관방송하는 제1기 용성전의 총규모는 2000만엔(円)이며 우승상금은 3000만원, 준우승상금은 1200만원이다.

현재 용성전은 일본(27기)과 중국(9기)에서도 열리고 있다. 국내 용성전 챔피언이 탄생하면 일본ㆍ중국 용성전 우승자와 한ㆍ중ㆍ일 통합 챔피언전 개최도 추진되고 있다.

Yes that appears to be a better translation.

The 3rd Yongseong Tournament prelims started on January 2nd @ 2:00 on the second floor of the Hankuk Kiwon (http://cyberoro.com/news/news_view.oro? ... num=526284).

Kim Jiseok won the first year, and Park Junghwan won last year - will be interesting to see who wins this year's tournament. Prelims will be held for 4 days between Jan 2~7. There are different groups of contestants: regular group (164 participating), senior group (28 participating), and women's group (27 participating), from which 23 from the regular group will be selected, 2 from the senior group, and 2 from the women's group. There are also five seeds for the main tournament, for a total of 32 folks who will be in the main tournament, which will be held from January 15th~17th. Winner gets 30 million won (around 25,000 USD) and runner up gets 12 million (around 10,000 USD). Tournament time limits use fisher time; 20 minutes per player, with 20 seconds given per move.

_________________
be immersed

Just catching up on news, and I guess that the finals for the 2nd tournament weren't held that long ago. Park Junghwan went up against Shin Jinseo in the finals in October, and they had the awards ceremony on November 28th (http://cyberoro.com/news/news_view.oro? ... num=526152). Park Junghwan noted that, in the tournament, he had a lot of good luck and a lot of games were comebacks from behind - and that he'll have to try harder going forward.

Here's the first match of the finals from last year:


Here's the second:

_________________
be immersed

The finals were shown on Japanese TV. The commentary said that Shin is better at fast Go than Park. It was considered that the change to Fischer timing favored Park as it reduced the relentless time pressure.

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

Could be. I guess they’d have to play under those time settings to know for sure. Well, you wouldn’t know for sure then, either. Maybe one of the players plays better near the beginning of the week. Or maybe it depends on prize money. There isn’t much of a controlled experiment here.

Whatever the case, as a pro in a tournament, you deal with whatever conditions you need to, and try to win. In this case, Park came out ahead.

_________________
be immersed

Those familiar with BIBA may be interested to hear that Blackie (Kim Seung Jun) qualified for the top 32 in this year’s tournament. Notably, he beat Kang Dongyun 9p, who has had a pretty good go career (ranked 8th in a Korean rating list) - very impressive result. I didn’t read this in the news - I found out from a Facebook post by Diana Koszegi.

_________________
be immersed

More news on this tournament (http://cyberoro.com/news/news_view.oro? ... num=526306)

Park Younghoon 9d got his 1000th win. He became pro around 20 years ago.

Some other Korean pros having achieved 1000 wins:
Cho Hunhyun (1949 wins)
Lee Changho (1775 wins)
Seo Bongsu (1697 wins)
Lee Sedol (1324 wins)
Choi Cheolhan (1174 wins)
Seo Neongok (1108 wins)
Mok Jinseok (1073 wins)
Cho Hanseung (1042 wins)

Back on Park Yonghoon 9d, his record is 1000 wins with the win from this tournament, and 480 losses in his career, giving him a win rate of around 67.56%.

_________________
be immersed

Blackie and Dia video review of his game Vs Kang Dongyun and Choi Byeongwhan. They also talked about the cheating in pro qualifier around 36 mins.

https://m.twitch.tv/videos/541033367

The link seems not to work anymore