2017 22nd Samsung Cup

[wolfking]

Combined preliminary starts on June 28th

There are total 19 groups, 378 players in the prelims. Out of 19 there are 2 senior groups, 2 women's groups, and 1 world group. Out of 378 players, 14 are Korean amateurs, 217 are Korea pros, 88 from China, 27 from Japan, 20 from Chinese Taipei, 12 from rest of world.

Group A-N (Open Groups)
1st round 6/28/17
2nd round 6/30/17
3rd round 7/1/17
4th round 7/2/17
final round 7/3/17

Group O-P (age >= 45)
1st round 6/28/17
2nd round 6/29/17
3rd round 7/1/17
4th round 7/2/17
final round 7/3/17

Group Q (World)
1st round 6/30/17
2nd round 7/1/17
3rd round 7/2/17
final round 7/3/17
Group Q match up:

Group R-S (Women)
1st round 6/28/17
2nd round 6/29/17
3rd round 7/1/17
4th round 7/2/17
final round 7/3/17

■ 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

■ 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

I stole trout's format from last year Thank you trout!

[wolfking]

The detailed draw of each group is in this slide show at Sina.com (in Chinese):
http://slide.sports.sina.com.cn/go/slid ... 6.html#p=1

[xiayun]

There should also be one wildcard for the seeded player（it was Gu Li last year), but not sure who the person is since I'm finding all the top remaining players in the preliminary brackets.

Ke Jie is the two-time defending champion here. Lee Chang-ho was the only one to manage three-repeat, while Lee Sedol holds the most titles with 4.

[wolfking]

There should also be one wildcard for the seeded player （it was Gu Li last year), but not sure who the person is since I'm finding all the top remaining players in the preliminary brackets.

I have no idea. The wild card may not be selected yet. Sometimes the sponsors announce it after the prelims.

Edit: cyberoro.com says the wild card this year will be determined after the prelims.

[yoyoma]

Thanks wolfking for keeping us updated on these tournaments!

And thanks again to trout for doing a lot of this work in the past!

[trout]

There should also be one wildcard for the seeded player（it was Gu Li last year), but not sure who the person is since I'm finding all the top remaining players in the preliminary brackets.

Wild card will be given after the completion of Combined preliminary.

[Uberdude]

The prelims draw in English is now up on Mr Kin's site: https://k2ss.info/igo/wr/sc/. I noticed Mariya Zakharchenko the not-so-well-known Ukrainian girl who turned pro won her first game, and that Kim Seungjun, my teacher from BIBA, is playing Wang Haoyang 6d, the Zen Killer from MLily cup.

[wolfking]

Sina.com keeps stats of Chinese players. Out of 32 Chinese players, 2 forfeited, 3 lost to other Chinese players, 1 lost to Japanese player (Ma Yichao lost to Mutsuura Yuta), 2 lost to Korean players (both in female groups), 24 advanced.

[dsatkas]

Iyama is playing!

[wolfking]

Iyama is playing!

Yes! But he is seeded in the main tournament so we will not see him playing until September.

[kimidori]

Glad to see Iyama on the list. However, I can't see other promising Japanese names in the prelim (e.g Ichikiri, Kyo Kagen, or even Kono Rin).

[wolfking]

The second round is finished for Group A-G, Senior Groups and Women's Groups. There are no major upsets. Kim Jiseok, Kang Dongyun, Lian Xiao, Gu Li, Fan Tingyu, Choi Cheolhan, Jiang Weijie, Yu Zhiying, Choi Jeong all through to the final 8 of their group. Group H-N will play second round today. Group Q (World group) will also play first round today and we will see Ryan Li, Artem Kachanovskyi in action.

Unfortunately so far no Japanese players has passed second round except for two players in the senior groups. Ida Atsushi 8p might be the best bet today against Korean 1p Kim Namhoon. Ukraine's Mariya Zakharchenko lost to Pan Yang 2p, who plays for Team Zhejiang in Women's A-League. Mutsuura Yuta, yesterday's winner over Ma Yichao, ran into world champion Fan Tingyu and could not continue the winning trend.

[Uberdude]

Glad to see Iyama on the list. However, I can't see other promising Japanese names in the prelim (e.g Ichikiri, Kyo Kagen, or even Kono Rin).

Yeah, I'm surprised to see no Shibano Toramaru, as he seems to be venturing abroad (e.g. Chinese B league) and is a promising young player. Young female title-holder Fujisawa Rina is out already against some non-famous Korean 1d. Takemiya Yoko (famous for being Takemiya Masaki's son and the first pro to lose to a publicly available program (Zen) on 2 stones) is out too: he made a big wall like his Dad but his Korean opponent easily reduced it. Komatsu Hideki 9d won his 1st game in the senior group. Ida Atsushi 8d is there but his rising star has waned recently, as is So Yokoku 9d (famous for centre openings recently) who won his first game.

[wolfking]

Glad to see Iyama on the list. However, I can't see other promising Japanese names in the prelim (e.g Ichikiri, Kyo Kagen, or even Kono Rin).

Part of the reason might be the lack of participating fees in the prelims of Korean open tournaments. Every year there are quite a few players (mostly Korean players) forfeit in the prelims too (7 in the first round this year).

[xiayun]

Would love to see Yu Bin and Seo Bongsoo get to play each other in Group O.

The world group starts today.