The preliminary tournament of LG cup is ongoing. The following game from this event must be a candidate of the most interesting game of the year for a number of reasons:

- One player is the top female player. Her opponent has very close strength (they are separated by only 1 point in GoRatings).
- The game is quite long (357 moves).
- The game results in a 0.5 point win/loss.
- Whole board capturing race among many groups of stones.
- Four groups of stones ended up in two sekis (and these are very large groups, so imagine the effort needed from the players to read the liberties).



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I originally thought b9 was a misclick from the recording, but I think it's to make d11 gote (otherwise throw in and ko problems next) and white needs to fix the cut there (and trying to be more efficient e.g. f10 gives black a peep so can capture the 2 stones above).

I liked Shin Minjun's game too, lots of AlphaGo josekis.

28 from Korea, 32 from China, 3 from Japan and 1 from Taiwan advanced to 4th round.

The following players are seeded.

From the final;Xie Erhao, Iyama Yuuta
Korea; Park Junghwan, Shin Jinseo, Lee Sedol, Kim Jiseok, Won Seongjin and Kang Dongyoon
China; Ke Jie, Tan Xiao and Gu ZiHao
Japan; Ida Atzshi, Ichiriki Ryo and Shibano Doramaru
Taiwan; Chen Qirui
Wild card; Shin MinJoon

D12 seems kinda weird, no?

The following players won the finals of preliminary and will join seeded players in the main tournament.

Korea(4); Park Younghoon, Choi Cheolhan, Lee Wonyoung and Byun Sangil
China(12); Yu Bin, Meng Tailing, Zong Wenjing, Shi Yue, Jhang Weijie, Peng Liao,
Tang Weixing, Fang Tingyu, Fan Yunro, Fan Yin, Yang Dingxin and Zhao Chenyu

Pairing for round of 32(tonight);
Park Junghwan vs Gu ZiHao
Shin Jinseo vs Fan Yin
Kim Jiseok vs Fan Tingyu
Lee Sedol vs Jhang Weijie
Byun Sangil vs Peng Liao
Park Younghoon vs Xie Erhao
Choi Cheolhan vs Shi Yue
Shin Minjoon vs Tan Xiao
Kang Dongyoon vs Meng Tailing
Won Seongjin vs Ke Jie
Lee Wonyoung vs Yu Bin
Iyama Yuuta vs Zhao Chenyu
Ida Atzshi vs Yang Dingxin
Ichiriki Ryo vs Zong Wenjing
Shibano Doramaru vs Tang Weixing
Chen Qirui vs Fan Yunro

Results, in order from most to least surprising:

0.16 Chen Qirui defeated Fan Yunruo
0.24 Weon Seongjin defeated Ke Jie
0.31 Shibano Toramaru defeated Tang Weixing
0.32 Zhao Chenyu defeated Iyama Yuta
0.40 Jiang Weijie defeated Lee Sedol
0.41 Shin Minjun defeated Tan Xiao
0.44 Peng Liyao defeated Byun Sangil
0.45 Fan Tingyu defeated Kim Jiseok
0.53 Kang Dongyun defeated Meng Tailing
0.53 Park Yeonghun defeated Xie Erhao
0.59 Ichiriki Ryo defeated Zhong Wenjing
0.62 Shi Yue defeated Choi Cheolhan
0.66 Shin Jinseo defeated Fan Yin
0.68 Park Junghwan defeated Gu Zihao
0.68 Lee Wonyoung defeated Yu Bin
0.83 Yang Dingxin defeated Ida Atsushi

Result of round of 32;
Park Junghwan defeated Gu ZiHao by resign.
Shin Jinseo defeated Fan Yin by resign.
Fan Tingyu defeated Kim Jiseok by resign.
Jhang Weijie defeated Lee Sedol by resign.
Peng Liao defeated Byun Sangil by resign.
Park Younghoon defeated Xie Erhao by resign.
Shi Yue defeated Choi Cheolhan by resign.
Shin Minjoon defeated Tan Xiao by 4.5.
Kang Dongyoon defeated Meng Tailing by 1.5.
Won Seongjin defeated Ke Jie by resign.
Lee Wonyoung defeated Yu Bin by resign.
Zhao Chenyu defeated Iyama Yuuta by resign.
Yang Dingxin defeated Ida Atzshi by resign.
Ichiriki Ryo defeated Zong Wenjing by resign.
Shibano Doramaru defeated Tang Weixing by resign.
Chen Qirui defeated Fan Yunro by resign.

Pairing for round of 16(5/30/18(Korean time);

Park Junghwan vs Shibano Doramaru
Shin Jinseo vs Peng Liao
Jhang Weijie vs Chen Qirui
Park Younghoon vs Fan Tingyu
Shin Minjoon vs Zhao Chenyu
Kang Dongyoon vs Ichiriki Ryo[
Won Seongjin vs Yang Dingxin
Lee Wonyoung vs Shi Yue

Round of 16;

Park Junghwan defeated Shibano Doramaru by resign.
Peng Liao defeated Shin Jinseo by resign.
Jhang Weijie defeated Chen Qirui by resign.
Fan Tingyu defeated Park Younghoon by resign.
Shin Minjoon defeated Zhao Chenyu by resign.
Kang Dongyoon defeated Ichiriki Ryo[ by resign.
Yang Dingxin defeated Won Seongjin by resign.
Shi Yue defeated Lee Wonyoung by resign.

3 from Korea and 5 from China advanced to round of 8.

Pairing for round of 8;

Park Junghwan vs Fan Tingyu
Peng Liao vs Shin Minjoon
Jhang Weijie vs Shi Yue
Kang Dongyoon vs Yang Dingxin

11/12/18 - round of 8
11/14/18 - semi final
2/11/19, 2/13 and 2/14 - final

Round of 8 coming,

Pairing for round of 8;

Park Junghwan vs Fan Tingyu
Peng Liao vs Shin Minjoon
Jhang Weijie vs Shi Yue
Kang Dongyoon vs Yang Dingxin

11/12/18 - round of 8
11/14/18 - semi final

Round of 8;
Fan Tingyu defeated Park Junghwan by resign.
Shin Minjoon defeated Peng Liao by resign.
Shi Yue defeated Jhang Weijie by resign.
Yang Dingxin defeated Kang Dongyoon by resign.

11/14/18 - semi final

Semi Final;

Shi Yue defeated Fan Tingyu by resign.
Yang Dingxin defeated Shin Minjoon by resign.


Final;
Shi Yue vs Yang Dingxin

Date: ??????

Black (Shin Minjoon) played from a strong group to enclose the right on move 31, but white invaded anyway using the aji of his captured stone...

_________________
On Go proverbs:
"A fine Gotation is a diamond in the hand of a dan of wit and a pebble in the hand of a kyu" —Joseph Raux misquoted.

Best-of-3 finals will be on 2019-02-11,13,14

Final;
1st game,
Shi Yue defeated Yang Dingxin by resign.

I still hope Yang Dingxin can get his first international title!

_________________
On Go proverbs:
"A fine Gotation is a diamond in the hand of a dan of wit and a pebble in the hand of a kyu" —Joseph Raux misquoted.

I'm rooting for Shi Yue
I don't understand his style, but I find it really interesting to watch. Maybe the veteran can finally win his second international title against the young up-and-comer!

Final;
2nd game,
Yang Dingxin defeated Yang Shi Yue by resign.

Yang Dingxin vs Shi Yue - 1:1

So we get a decider! The 2nd game featured a popular modern joseki at top left (and I played in my last tournament game) which ends with white getting a big corner and black a wall plus ponnuki. I was somewhat surprised Shi then 3-3 invaded at the top right as the resulting top side seemed pretty large and efficient. Is this a case of a bad 3-3 invasion? it's all the rage these days but usually that's because the resulting wall is either inefficient or attackable (or teasable with p14 peep) later but that didn't happen this time and it just made a huge territory. Or was 3-3 ok but subsequent reduction or lack thereof the issue?



For comparison here's a game I played as LZ recently on Fox where it killed the ponnuki group later (of course it could have lived in gote but that was painful so the human decided to tenuki to kill another group so LZ duly kill it):

So LZ201 (with low playouts) thinks the 3-3 was fine (-<1%, q14 high approach another interesting idea, don't often see those, f12, r3 other choices), but that o3 approach was -5% and it was urgent to reduce: