The 1st 3 rounds of the 15th Chinese (incl. Taiwan) Changqi Cup are underway over the next few days. This is of particularly interest to me (and presumably attendees) as the semi-finals will be played in Cambridge (England) this summer as part of the 5th Annual World Collegiate Championships. Current champion Tan Xiao 9d lost to Tuo Jiaxi 9d in the 2nd round. Other big name Chinese pros like Ke Jie, Chen Yaoye, Zhou Ruiyang, Shi Yue, Lian Xiao, Fan Tingyu, Mi Yuting, Jiang Weijie, new 9p youngsters Gu Zihao and Xie Erhao, popular commentator Meng Tailing are still in. Bracket at https://gotoeveryone.k2ss.info/cn/cc/.

Here's Ke Jie's game, with the same "joseki" as he played against AlphaGo at top right (and of course a early 3-3 invasion new joseki as so many games do these days).

Lian Xiao beat Fan Tingyu by resign
Mi Yuting beat Xie Erhao by resign
Fan Yin beat Ke Jie by resign . Ke invaded deeply but wasn't as good at living as AlphaGo Zero: he got one eye and tried to use aji to get a sente cut to survive but failed.
Shi Yue beat Zhou Ruiyang, by half says wbaduk but probably 1 in Ing rules unless the were asymmetric time penalties. They fought a 2 move approach ko for 100 moves.

Quarter finals:
Mi Yuting beat Gu Zihao
Shi Yue beat Xia Chenkun (played mirror go)
Tuo Jiaxi beat Fan Yin by resign
Lian Xiao beat Chen Yaoye by half / 1

I hope it's not off topic to ask - does anyone know what this event is going to offer for (non Chinese speaking if that matters) amateur enthusiasts? Is there any sort of a timetable planned out?

Here's a timetable:
http://www.ycqweiqi.com/Content.aspx?Type=1&CId=609

As a local Go player but not a student participating in the tournament I presume I will be able to wander around and look at the students playing their games, maybe the pros (in the DoubleTree Hilton (ex Garden House) hotel next to Uni centre), and watch some lectures and join in a simul if there are places available after the students.

So, with the notable exception of Ke Jie, that's pretty much the crème-de-la-crème of Chinese pros.

Chinese pro ratings at end of March 2018:
1. Ke Jie
2. Mi Yuting
3. Lian Xiao
4. Chen Yaoye
5. Gu Zihao
6. Shi Yue
7. Tuo Jiaxi

Wonderful. I think I need to plan a visit to Cambridge.

Thanks - sounds good.
Do you know if there will be formal commentaries for the pro games? Or a space for observers to study the games?

The first game of the best-of-three semi-finals were played on 8th June. Mi Yuting beat Shi Yue and Tuo Jiaxi beat Lia Xiao. Games 2 and 3 are scheduled to take place in Cambridge in July, https://gotoeveryone.k2ss.info/cn/cc/

Uberdude, can you please provide some local information? How best to get to Robinson College? I will drive and I used the Madingley Road Park and Ride a lot in the past. Any faster way to get to the site?

Robinson college is where the student participants are sleeping (and eating breakfast/dinner), but the games are played in the University Centre (https://goo.gl/maps/aycf5KWhgoH2) and the pro games in the adjacent Double Tree Hilton hotel (I don't know in which the pro commentaries, simuls etc will be). So you probably don't want to go to Robinson (if you do then there is usually some on street parking on Adams road), but get the e.g. Madingley park and ride into the centre and then the short walk to the Uni centre / hotel.

Thanks. Almost got the location wrong. I really should have read more carefully.

The pros are now here in Cambridge: I saw Shi Yue getting off the coach at the hotel yesterday.

Mi Yuting beat Shi Yue by resignation in a game featuring the AlphaGo joseki from Ke Jie game 2 and the ugly bumping head into double hane to get peep AlphaGoTeach joseki. So he is straight through to the final. Lian Xiao beat Tuo Jiaxi so they play a deciding 3rd game.

Here's a photo of Chang Hao 9p and Yu Bin 9p using Lizzie to analyse the game next door.

Tuo Jiaxi won the deciding 3rd game against Lian Xiao, perhaps a bit of a surprise given Lian's recent excellent form, but also Lian had black twice. Watching the game I thought Lian gave up rather a lot for a ladder and LZ agreed when I reviewed afterwards, though given the sharpness in the heat of a long ladder breaker/maker fight I'm not sure how much to trust it, but once the position settles I value its judgement more (though the remaining life and death with a ko or some weird aji does complicate things).



Here's the winrate graph from LZ:



Also, in playing around with a variation I was interested to find a position in which LZ had a clear preference for a high over low approach to a 4-4, a move which I have thought these days to be even more special purpose and rarely good than Japanese books from last century suggest. Low is punished by attach on top.

Oh, wow... Thanks for the photo, I expected that LeelaZero is becoming popular among pros as a study tool, but this is the first time I see that directly.

Also, I think I recognize Laurent Heiser in the photo too.

_________________
Sorin - 361points.com

Well spotted: he and his wife came to visit (she is good friends with the Chinese organisers from Shanghai, maybe went to the same go school as Chang Hao?). He's also been using LeelaZero and bought himself a 1080 Ti GPU for it. In the suit is Wang Yi, Chinese Go bigwig and current/former(?) IGF secretary general. In the light blue shirt is Wang Lei 8p, and out of the picture the laptop belongs to Ko Reibun 7p (pro in Japan, but son of Chinese pros Nei Weiping and Kong Xiangming).