4th Bailing cup

[silviu22]

Pairing for Semi-Final(Possibly 1/19),

Shin Jinseo vs Gu Zihao
Chen Yaoye vs Ke Jie

Looks like the Chinese are dominant again, with Shin Jinseo the only Korean representative.

I thought Shibano Toramaru had a promising performance.

[Uberdude]

The semi-finals were today, Ke and Shin won.

[hyperpape]

In the Shin vs. Gu game, I found the upper right hand corner extremely interesting. None of the moves seem particularly mysterious, but it seems like there's a very subtle balance between corner and side territory.

I myself have no hope when I see the Chinese name of a player who I've known via reading the English transliteration of the Japanese version of their name (I hope that sentence makes sense, but I'm no linguist).

Off-topic, but I would like to apologize to everyone who had to read this sentence. It was truly awful, wasn't it?

[Uberdude]

Yes, fighting around that corner was the turning point of the game. Gu had been leading for a while but Shin took a decisive lead when he managed to keep the corner and wore was still weak on the outside. LZ says he needed to work harder to make a double threat out of the bad aji Shin left with not cleanly making the centre cut.

So Shin Jinseo gets into another international final and a chance to prove himself on the big stage. He lost to Chen Yaoye in the Tainfu, Ke Jie is a tougher test.

[Uberdude]

Final is live now. Same opening as Ke-Chen game but Shin started tough fighting already and Ke accepted.

Update: Ke Jie won by resign. Shin was leading for most of the game but made a slight inaccuracy in late middle-game and Ke Jie didn't miss his chance. I don't know if the final is still best of n>1 with the shrinking of this tournament.

[xiayun]

It’s the best of three, and Ke Jie will be holding white next.

[WindCaliber]

Ke Jie just won by resignation to win the 4th Bailing cup.
Shin Jinseo started with a diagonal fuseki surprisingly, but unfortunately made a mistake in the early fighting and Ke Jie kept the lead for the rest of the game. Shin's drought continues!

[Vio]

Finishing 2d is not THAT bad

[macelee]

Ke Jie 's 7th international title (21 years 168 days old), beating Lee Changho's record (22 years 288 days).

Yoda Norimoto beat Ma Xiaochun to win the veteran's group.

Wang Chen bean Bai Baoxiang to win the amateur's group.

[Elom]

Finishing 2d is not THAT bad

Read my mind .

Still hope he wins one day.

[Uberdude]

Ke Jie 's 7th international title (21 years 168 days old), beating Lee Changho's record (22 years 288 days).

Ke Jie's result is all the more impressive because he is playing in a much more competitive era in which there are a dozen or so very top players close to him in skill, whereas Lee Changho was head-and-shoulders above his contemporaries (though that's differently impressive). I thought he might have faded with the downturn in his results a year or so ago, but he's showing he can pull out the stops and win when it matters most. Let's see if he can approach Lee Changho's longevity...

Yoda Norimoto beat Ma Xiaochun to win the veteran's group.

Looks like all those games he played on Fox paid off!

[xiayun]

Yeah, 7 titles, 1 runner-up, and 3 semifinals out of the last 18 international tournaments he participated. That's some high performance.

[xiayun]

Good review by Yu Bin on the second game (in Chinese): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y84vCL3QcMs.