The 2019 (7th) Chinese WAL (第7届中信置业杯中国女子围棋甲级联赛) will start this week. This year I want to follow it more closely because several new pros from 2018 will be playing, including youngest ever Chinese female pro Wu Yiming 1p. I thought it might be a good idea to share the league progress on this forum as there are not much info in English on this.

This year the WAL will change its format from 2 to 3 players for each team per each round of competition. Each team is allowed one back up player, so you can register total 4 players at the beginning of the season. The roster cannot be changed after registration. Another change from previous years is that all players must be pros. There are total 10 teams in the league just like last year. Game time control is 2 hours for each player plus 5 1-minute byoyomi.

Round 1 will be played on April 10th in Pingxiang(萍乡), Jiangxi(江西) Province.

Round 1 opening ceremony

Here is the complete match up of round 1.

Team Shanxi aka The All Shodan Team (山西书海路鑫队) vs Team Hebei (河北体彩队)

Board 1: Huang Jiayi 1p (2018 new pro) vs Wang Shuang 4p (Runner up to Female Mingren)
Board 2: Gu Wanshan 1p vs Cao Youyin 3p
Board 3: Chu Ke'er 1p vs Ding Mingjun 2p (both 2018 new pros and yes, Ding Mingjun just earned her 2p last month)

Team Shanghai (上海中环集团队) vs Team Hangzhou (杭州云林决破队)

Board 1: Pan Yang 3p vs Wu Yiming 1p (now 12 years old but still youngest pro in China)
Board 2: Rui Naiwei 9p (55 years old and still fighting on the front line) vs Gao Xing 4p
Board 3: Tang Yi 3p vs Fang Ruoxi 2p

Team Guangdong (广东队) vs Team Jiangsu (江苏致远队) (Reigning Champion)

Board 1: Zhao Guanru 2p vs Yu Zhiying 5p (China's number one female player)
Board 2: Chen Yiming 3p (newly minted Female Mingren) vs Wang Xiangyun 3p
Board 3: Huang Ziping 1p vs Wang Chenxing 5p (arguably 2nd strongest player after Yu Zhiying)

Team Anhui (安徽马头墙酒队) VS Team Wuhan (武汉晴川学院队)

Board 1: Zhan Ying 1p vs Zhang Zihan 3p
Board 2: Zhou Hongyu 4p (16 years old strong young player) vs Kim Cheayoung 4p (Korean import)
Board 3: Li Xiaoxi 3p vs Tao Ran 2p

Team Xiamen (厦门观音山队) VS Team Shaanxi (陕西天元棋院队)

Board 1: Hei Jiajia (Joanne Missingham) 7p (one of the most recognized faces of Go) vs Li He 5p
Board 2: Lu Mingquan 5p vs Li Xinyi 2p
Board 3: Liu Huiling 1p vs Luo Chuyue 2p

Wolfking, could you list the backup player for each team? I am looking forward to your coverage of this extended event!

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

Unfortunately I do not have the full line ups of all teams. All I know is that Shanxi's backup is Wang Zixin 1p, Hangzhou's backup is Song Ronghui 5p.

Results of round 1. All 5 matches ended with a 2:1 score.

Team Shanxi beat Team Hebei 2:1

Board 1: Huang Jiayi 1p beat Wang Shuang 4p B+3.5
Board 2: Gu Wanshan 1p lost to Cao Youyin 3p B+R
Board 3: Chu Ke'er 1p beat Ding Mingjun 2p B+R

New promotion team Shanxi did well in round 1, getting strong performances from both new pros. Huang Jiayi beating Wang Shuang is especially impressive since Wang Shuang just won 2nd place in female Mingren, beating Yu Zhiying 5p along the way.

Team Shanghai beat Team Hangzhou 2:1

Board 1: Pan Yang 3p beat Wu Yiming 1p B+R
Board 2: Rui Naiwei 9p lost to Gao Xing 4p B+R
Board 3: Tang Yi 3p beat Fang Ruoxi 2p B+R

Wu Yiming lost her WAL debut. But Hangzhou coach Chen Xiaonan 4p already told media that the goal for team Hangzhou is to stay in the A-League and for the young players to gain more experience. They expect Wu Yiming to lose many games.

Team Guangdong lost to Team Jiangsu 1:2

Board 1: Zhao Guanru 2p lost to Yu Zhiying 5p W+R
Board 2: Chen Yiming 3p beat Wang Xiangyun 3p W+2.5
Board 3: Huang Ziping 1p lost to Wang Chenxing 5p W+R

Team Anhui beat Team Wuhan 2:1

Board 1: Zhan Ying 1p lost to Zhang Zihan 3p W+R
Board 2: Zhou Hongyu 4p beat Kim Cheayoung 4p W+3.5
Board 3: Li Xiaoxi 3p beat Tao Ran 2p B+R


Team Xiamen lost to Team Shaanxi 1:2

Board 1: Hei Jiajia 7p lost to Li He 5p W+R
Board 2: Lu Mingquan 5p beat Li Xinyi 2p W+R
Board 3: Liu Huiling 1p lost to Luo Chuyue 2p W+R

Noticed that the new 1p Wu Yiming is also in the Female's A-League. She is one year older than Sumire, although she does not have a larger media coverage as Sumire (maybe that's better for young players), she already took 2 wins (3rd round) in the LG Cup prelims last weak and can practice a lot in Female's A-League during the year. Still looking forward to Sumire's first official game and I think these two young girls will meet a lot in international stage in the future..

I am surprised Ding Mingjun was promoted to 2p, since goratings.org shows her with a lower rating than Chu Ke'er. Chu Ke'er seems to be on a roll (5 wins 3 losses since Aug 2018). Ding Mingjun has 2 sins 5 losses there. Do you know how Ding Mingjun got promoted to 2p?

By comparison, Wu Yimming is 1 win 8 losses on that site (see https://www.goratings.org/en/players/2027.html). Is this loss to Huang Ziping in round 2 of this Chinese A league?

Yeah it was the second round in the A League so Wu Yiming lost two in the first 2 rounds. It was unfortunate that some data were missing from goratings as some kifus were not available online, and there's no official international Go organization to manage those datas. The Association would probably ask the winner/players to record the game/verify the game records after the match so they can count it in ratings. Especially in some preliminaries games we are not able to find the kifus but only knowing the results.

It's a bit late but here are the results of the 2nd Round (played on April 11th, 2019 in Pingxiang, Jiangxi Province)

Team Hebei 1:2 Team Shaanxi
B1：Ding Mingjun 2p vs Li He 5p (W+R)
B2：Cao Youyin 3p vs Luo Chuyue 3p (B+1.5)
B3：Wang Shuang 4p vs Li Xinyi 2p (B+3.5)

Team Wuhan 1:2 Team Xiamen
B1：Kim Cheayoung 5p vs Lu Minquan 5p (W+R)
B2：Lu Jia 2p vs Zhao Yifei 3p (W+0.5)
B3：Zhang Zihan 3p vs Hei Jiajia 7p (W+R)

Team Jiangsu (Reigning Champion) 2:1 Team Anhui
B1：Yu Zhiying 6p vs Zhan Ying 1p (B+R)
B2：Wang Chenxing 5p vs Li Xiaoxi 3p (W+R)
B3：Wang Xiangyun 3p vs Zhou Hongyu 4p (W+R)

Team Hangzhou 1:2 Team Guangdong
B1：Gao Xing 4p vs Chen Yiming 3p (W+R)
B2：Fang Ruoxi 2p vs Zhao Guanru 2p (W+R)
B3：Wu Yiming 1p vs Huang Ziping 1p (W+R)

Team Shanxi 1:2 Team Shanghai
B1：Chu Ke'er 1p vs Tang Yi 3p (B+R)
B2：Wang Zixin 1p vs Rui Naiwei 9p (B+R)
B3：Huang Jiayi 1p vs Pan Yang 3p (W+R)

Jiangsu, Shaanxi and Shanghai are leading with 4 points. Shanxi, Xiamen, Guangdong, Anhui are trailing the front runners by 2 points. Wuhan, Hangzhou and Hebei are at the bottom with consecutive losses.

Source: https://home.yikeweiqi.com/#/gonews/detail/24350?type=1

goratings.org only count games with records in Go4Go.net. There are quite a few games Ding Mingjun had played that was not counted. For example in August 2018 she beat Zhou Yushan and Fang Ruoxi in Jianqiao Cup (only Zhou game was in goratings). The loss to eventual runner up Cai Bihan 4p was not counted towards promotion since only games within 2 ranks (so a game against a 3p would count but not one against 4p or above) qualify for promotion calculation.

Here is a listing of Ding's games leading up to her promotion to 2p. I have color coded games that do not count towards promotion red and added opponents rank in the last column. There were total 15 qualified games. She scored average >=70 points according to certain formula and was promoted after beating Yin Qu 2p.

Thank you, wolfking. I have been trying to find information about the these young players but it is hard if you don't know Chinese. It does look like Ding Mingjun is holding her own against these more experienced players. Wu Yimming seems to struggle more, unfortunately.

The 3rd Round were played on May 26th, 2019 in home teams' chosen locations. Home teams won all the games! Another interesting observation is that Black won all games except two, which happened in the two home team sweeps. Here are the results:

Team Guangdong 2:1 Team Shanxi
B1：Chen Yiming 4p vs Huang Jiayi 1p (B+R)
B2：Huang Ziping 1p vs Chu Ke'er 2p (B+R)
B3：Cai Bihan 4p vs Gu Wanshan 1p (B+R)

Team Shanghai 3:0 Team Hebei
B1：Rui Naiwei 9p vs Wang Shuang 4p (B+R)
B2：Pan Yang 3p vs Ding Mingjun 2p (W+R)
B3：Tang Yi 3p vs Jia Ganglu 2p (B+R)

Team Anhui 2:1 Team Hangzhou
B1：Zhou Hongyu 5p vs Gao Xing 4p (B+R)
B2：Zhan Ying 1p vs Song Ronghui 5p (B+R)
B3：Li Xiaoxi 3p vs Fang Ruoxi 2p (B+R)

Team Shaanxi 3:0 Team Wuhan
B1：Li Xinyi 2p vs Tao Ran 2p (B+1.5)
B2：Li He 5p vs Lu Jia 2p (W+R)
B3：Luo Chuyue 3p vs Zhang Zihan 3p (B+3.5)

Team Xiamen 2:1 Team Jiangsu
B1：Lu Minquan 5p vs Yu Zhiying 6p (B+R)
B2：Liu Huiling 2p vs Wang Chenxing 5p (B+R)
B3：Zhao Yifei 3p vs Yin Qu 2p (B+R)

Lu Minquan 5p contributed a crucial win over Yu Zhiying 6p to help Xiamen beat the 6 time champion (in fact the only championship team of WAL) Jiangsu. Jiangsu slipped to 3rd place in standing with 4 points. Shaanxi and Shanghai are leading with 6 points. Xiamen, Guangdong and Anhui also have 4 points. Wuhan, Hangzhou and Hebei are still winless.

Source: http://sports.sina.com.cn/chess/weiqi/2 ... 4284.shtml

The 4th Round were played on May 31st, 2019 in Jinzhong, Shanxi Province. The 5th round will also be played in Jinzhong in a couple of days. Here are the results:

Team Jiangsu 3:0 Team Shaanxi
B1：Yu Zhiying 6p vs Li Xinyi 2p (B+R)
B2：Wang Chenxing 5p vs Li He 5p (W+2.5)
B3：Yin Qu 2p vs Luo Chuyue 3p (B+R)

This is a clash between the defending champion Jiangsu and the league leader Shaanxi. Yu Zhiying 6p and Yin Qu 2p forced their opponent to resign relatively quickly, while Wang Chenxing 5p used 332 moves to edge out Li He 5p.

Team Shanghai 2:1 Team Guangdong
B1：Rui Naiwei 9p vs Chen Yiming 4p (B+R)
B2：Pan Yang 3p vs Huang Ziping 1p (W+R)
B3：Tang Yi 3p vs Zhao Guanru 2p (W+R)

The loss by team Shaanxi gave Shanghai a chance to take the lead and they did not disappoint. Rui Naiwei 9p is still one of the strongest female players in the world and beat reigning Mingren Chen Yiming 3p at board 1. Pan Yang 3p secured the win for Shanghai by beating Huang Ziping 1p. Shanghai became the new leader with 4 wins in 4 rounds.

Team Hangzhou 2:1 Team Xiamen
B1：Song Ronghui 5p vs Lu Minquan 5p (B+R)
B2：Gao Xing 4p vs Liu Huiling 2p (W+R)
B3：Fang Ruoxi 2p vs Zhao Yifei 3p (W+R)

Xiamen upset a powerful Jiangsu team in last round and faced the winless Team Hangzhou in round 4. But they could not continue the good run this time. Hangzhou's Song Ronghui 5p beat Lu Minquan 5p at board 1, Gao Xing 4p beat Liu Huiling 2p at board 2, and Hangzhou got the first win of the 2019 season.

Team Hebei 1:2 Team Wuhan
B1：Ding Mingjun 2p vs Lu Jia 2p (W+R)
B2：Wang Shuang 4p vs Tao Ran 2p (W+R)
B3：Cao Youyin 3p vs Zhang Zihan 3p (W+R)

Both Hebei and Wuhan were winless after 3 rounds. The first two boeards played to a 1:1 draw, but Zhang Zihan 3p contributed a crucial win at board 3 to secure 2 points for Wuhan.

Team Shanxi 1:2 Team Anhui
B1：Wang Zixin 1p vs Li Xiaoxi 3p (B+8.5)
B2：Gu Wanshan 1p vs Zhou Hongyu 4p (B+R)
B3：Chu Ke'er 2p vs Zhan Ying 1p (W+3.5)

Wang Zixin 1p beat Li Xiaoxi 3p at board 1, but her teammates could not deliver another win and Anhui came from behind to beat Shanxi 2:1.

Standing after 4 rounds:



Source: https://home.yikeweiqi.com/#/gonews/detail/25353?type=1

The 5th Round were played on June 2nd, 2019 in Jinzhong, Shanxi Province. Here are the results:

Team Anhui 1:2 Team Shanghai
B1：Zhou Hongyu 5p vs Pan Yang 3p (B+R)
B2：Li Xiaoxi 3p vs Rui Naiwei 9p (B+R)
B3：Zhan Ying 1p vs Tang Yi 3p (W+R)

Shanghai placed Pan Yang 3p at board 1 but she could not stop a red hot Zhou Hongyu 5p. However Rui Naiwei 9p and Tang Yi 3p both won, and Shanghai kept their league leading position.

Team Wuhan 1:2 Team Jiangsu
B1：Lu Jia 2p vs Yu Zhiying 6p (B+2.5)
B2：Tao Ran 2p vs Wang Chenxing 5p (B+0.5)
B3：Zhang Zihan 3p vs Yin Qu 2p (W+0.5)

China's number 1 Yu Zhiying 6p has not been in good form lately. After beating Choi Jeong 9p and won the Senco Cup this February, she has lost to Choi Jeong twice (both international team competitions), Oh Yujin once (Wu Qingyuan Cup), and Lu Minquan in the 3rd round of WAL. In round 5 she lost to Lu Jia 2p. Fortunately for Team Jiangsu Yin Qu 2p beat Zhang Zihan 3p by 0.5 point, and Wang Chenxing 5p defeated Tao Ran 2p by the same score in the last game. Jiangsu remained at 2nd place.

Team Guangdong 2:1 Team Hebei
B1：Chen Yiming 4p vs Wang Shuang 4p (B+R)
B2：Zhao Guanru 2p vs Cao Youyin 3p (W+5.5)
B3：Huang Ziping 1p vs Jia Ganglu 2p (W+R)

Board 1 is basically a rematch between the two finalists of last year's Mingren tournament. Wang Shuang 4p could not revenge the loss and Hebei stayed winless after 5 rounds.

Team Shaanxi 2:1 Team Hangzhou
B1：Li He 5p vs Gao Xing 4p (B+R)
B2：Luo Chuyue 3p vs Song Ronghui 5p (W+R)
B3：Li Xinyi 2p vs Wu Yiming 1p (W+3.5)

New promotion team Shaanxi is the surprise of the year so far. They were leading the league before losing to Jiangsu in the last round. Li He 5p beat Gao Xing 4p in round 5 to bring Shaanxi another win. Although my hometown team Hangzhou lost, I am really excited to see the young Wu Yiming 1p got her first WAL win by beating Li Xinyi 2p! Li Xinyi was a 2017 new pro but a very strong one. She was the runner up of 2017 women's national individual competition. I will post the game when I get a chance.

Team Xiamen 3:0 Team Shanxi
B1：Lu Minquan 5p vs Chu Ke'er 2p (B+R)
B2：Liu Huiling 2p vs Huang Jiayi 2p (W+R)
B3：Zhao Yifei 3p vs Wang Zixin 1p (B+R)

Xiamen is clearly the better team and the results reflected that. But Team Shanxi was the "all shodan" team! Now after promotion of Huang Jiayi we have two 2p's. They are growing qulickly.

Standing after 5 rounds:



Source: https://home.yikeweiqi.com/#/gonews/detail/25392?type=1

Here is the game between Wu Yiming and Li Xinyi. Variation and win rate was provided by FineArt (Jueyi).

After the old joseki in the upper right corner, FA already gave white a 77% win rate! However white 64 was considered a little slow by FA (13% drop) and after move 66 white win rate dropped to 59%. Black 83 was a 19% drop, FA would like to extend in the lower right corner instead of giving up that black stone. Next Black mistake is black 87 (22% drop), FA would like to settle the two black stones at the top by playing D18 and later F16. Likewise after Black 87 FA would like to attack the top black group. Eventually white was able to take sente and play in the top half of the board and move 92 was in fact FA's top choice. After that move white win rate hit 89.6%.

But black was able to settle the top group with a bit of territory on the left and the game was getting close when white played the jump at move 140 (white win rate 50.4% according to FA). But the pro comments I read liked white's chance because white has no weak group and a lot of territory, and basically black needs to play near perfect moves to realize the potential on the right. In fact black's next move 141 was a 20% drop! FA would like to play the knight's move at M8 ( I think its purpose was to keep the pressure on white by threatening to cut at H10 thus seal off the right side more efficiently).

Black 151 was a sharp move (FA's top pick) and FA considered the game reversed (black win rate 58%). White 156 dropped win rate to lowest point at 24%, But black 157 was another 20% drop. FA would like to secure lower part by play E2 in sente then cut at H10 to put pressure on the white group. H10 was FA's obsession in the next 15 moves until white fixed it at move 172. At that point white win rate hit 88% and never looked back.

All in all it was a pretty convincing win by Wu Yiming. She was leading most of the time and played a patient game, and made right choices at crucial moments.

Some photos of Wu Yiming (and Sumire!):

Wu Yiming 1p vs Li Xinyi 2p in WAL round 5Wu Yiming 1p vs Zhan Ying 1p in the 4th M'Lily Cup Prelims. Wu Yiming beat Zhan Ying in this game and went on to beat Korea's Kim Miri 4p (who was sitting next to Zhan Ying in this photo) in the next round Nakamura Sumire watching Wu Yiming play during M'Lily Cup

Hmm. Zhan Ying and Kim Miri have high ratings on goratings.org. Neither of these games are listed for Wu Yimming... I see in https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=16624 that preliminaries were 20-25 May, 2019. And the players who won in the last round are among the top 50 players in the world. So it is not a big shame for Wu Yimming to not have made it through. Did she lose in the 3rd round?

3 of the 4 women who made it through these M'Lily preliminaries seem very strong (Yu Zhiying 6p, Oh Yunjin 6p and especially Zhou Hongyu 4p who seems to never lose). So the competition for those 4 spots was fierce.

Sumire is so small! No wonder people like her so much.

I was very happy to hear Wu Yimming ended her drought in in Women's A league. Is she still going to be able to play in the C league? Or are women's A league and the C league happening at the same time?

Also, why are there two teams with virtually the same name (Shaanxi and Shanxi)?

Shanxi and Shaanxi are two different provinces.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaanxi

Heh, look at the first line in this wikipedia page: "Not to be confused with the neighboring province of Shanxi (Shānxī Shěng, 山西省) whose capital is Taiyuan.". So I guess I'm not the only one who would confuse them

There were no records for most of the prelim games so they would not show up in GoRatings' calculation. Yes she lost to Nyu Eiko 2p in the 3rd round. WAL will play the 6th round one day (June 25th) after the CL finish so it is possible for Wu Yiming to play in the CL. Not sure if she is actually on Team Hangzhou's roster though.Well "Xi" means West in Chinese so it is actually the same character. The Pinyin (Romanization of Chinese characters) for 陕 and 山 are actually the same (their pronunciations only differ in their tones). That extra 'a' in Shaan was only inserted to distinguish it from Shan so we do not confuse the two provinces when translated to English.