The China Weiqi B-League, C-League and Women's B-League will soon start. The competition will take place in Kecheng District, Quzhou, Zhejiang Province (浙江省衢州市柯城区) from June 14th to June 23rd. The Europe team will play in the CL, Japanese Team and two Taiwan teams will play in the BL. I will try my best to report these events. For more info on formats and background please refer to my reporting threads in 2017 and 2018.

2017: https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=14297
2018: https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=15820

Here is the schedule

June 12/13th: Registration
June 14th - 16th: first 3 rounds
June 18th - 19th: round 4 & 5
June 21st - 23rd: round 6 - 8 ( round 6 & 7 for CL and WBL. Only BL plays the 8th round )

No games on June 17th and 20th.

I do not have the details of number of teams and team line ups yet. Will update when these info become available.

Thanks for this ! And go go euro pro !

The details of team lineups just came out on Sina Sports. This year there will be 16 teams in the BL (this is actually a fixed number), 32 teams in the CL, and 17 teams in the WBL. The European, Japanese and Taiwanese teams basically have the same roster as last year with only a few tweaks.

Team Europe (officially Team Tsinghua Zijing 清华紫荆队)

Board 1. Ilya Shikshin 3p (Russia)
Board 2. Pavol Lisy 2p (Slovakia)
Board 3. Mateusz Surma 2p (Poland)
Board 4. Artem Kachanovskyi 2p (Ukraine)

Only change is that Surma and Kachanovskyi switch board positions.

Team Japan (official name: Team China-Japan Friendship 中日友好队)

Board 1. Motoki Katsuya 8p
Board 2. Yu Zhengqi 8p
Board 3. Hsu Chiayuan 8p
Board 4. Shibano Toramaru 7p

So Motoki Katsuya 8p replaced Ida Atsushi 8p, and Shibano was moved to board 4.

Taiwan's Haifeng Go Institute seems to find new sponsors for their teams so the team names changed but the rosters stayed the same:

Team Huangxu Electronics 环旭电子宝岛队 (Haifeng men's team)

1. Lin Junyan 8p
2. Xu Haohong 6p
3. Jian Jingting 4p
4. Lai Junfu 4p

Team Youshi 友士女子宝岛队 (Haifeng women's team)

1. Yang Zixuan 3p
2. Yu Lijun 2p
3. Bai Xinhui 1p


Finally Team Taiwan Zhonghuan 台湾中环队 replaced Xiao Zhenghao 9p with Lin Lixiang 7p.

1. Chen Shiyuan 9p
2. Lin Lixiang 7p
3. Lin Shixun 6p
4. Chen Qirui 5p

Three Euro Pros played a warm up round against a Tsinghua University Team led by World Mind Game women's champion Song Ronghui 5p. The Euro pros lost 1:2.

1. Ilya Shikshin 3p lost to Song Ronghui 5p
2. Mateusz Surma 2p lost to Cai Yunrui 5D
3. Artem Kachanovskyi 2p beat Zhang Siyuan 5D

Ilya played well until the mid game when both sides got into byoyomi. Song 5p captured Ilya's two big groups and Ilya resigned.

Some photos from warm up round (photo credit Zhou You / Sina Sports)

Song Ronghui 5p vs Ilya Shikshin 3pCai Yunrui 5D vs Mateusz Surma 2pZhang Siyuan 5D vs Arem Kachanovskyi 2p

I notice there are also 3 Japanese players playing for other teams

Onishi Ryuhei 4P plays Board 1 for Team Hebei in B-League;
Sada Atsushi 3P plays Board 4 for Team Yunnan Go Association in C-League;
while Nishi Takenobu 3P plays Board 2 for Team Hangzhou in C-League.

Yes. And like last year Nyu Eiko 2p is playing for hometown team Harbin Six Harmony in the WBL. Her mom Niu Lili 5p is the team coach.

This year my home city Hangzhou sent 9 teams to play in the CL! Song Ronghui 5p will play at board 1 for team Hangzhou Tianyuan so there is a chance that she would play Ilya again.

Last year's youngest new pros Wu Yiming 1p and Hu Zihao 1p are both playing for Team Hangzhou Supor so that is one more team I will keep an eye on.

There are two all women teams in the CL. One is Shanghai Qingyi, the other is Dalian Yidao. It would be interesting to see where they finish. Here are the line ups for the two teams:

Team Shanghai Qingyi
1. Tang Yi 3p
2. Pan Yang 3p
3. Zhang Zihan 3p
4. Chen Si 6D

Team Dalian Yidao
1. Gu Wanshan 1p
2. Wang Zixin 1p
3. Wen Zhaoyi 1p
4. Pan Tianxing 5D

Half of Dalian's team came from new WAL team Shanxi. But the other half is not missing the action, it's just that they were borrowed by Team Shenzhen Xingrui. Chu Ke'er 2p is playing board 3, Huang Jiayi 1p is playing board 4 for Shenzhen.

First of all, thank you for this update, wolfking. I have been looking forward to this competition for a couple of months now.



Are Cai Yunrui 5D and Zhang Siyuan 5D teenage amateur players? They look very young.

That is quite possible. I know Cai Yunrui 5D is a freshman at Tsinghua Uni so probably 18, 19 years old. Not sure about Zhang Siyuan but could be of similar age.

CL results:

The Euro pros lost 1st round 0:4 to Hangzhou Black White Go Institute.

1. Ilya Shikshin 3p vs Sun Li 5p
2. Pavol Lisy 2p vs Nishi Takenobu 3P
3. Mateusz Surma 2p vs Wang Jianan 4p
4. Artem Kachanovskyi 2p vs Zhou Zhenyu 7D

BL results:

Team Japan beat Team Hebei Sports Lotto 3:1
1. Hsu Chiayuan 8p vs Onishi Ryuhei 4P
2. Shibano Toramaru 7p vs Wang Lei 6p
3. Motoki Katsuya 8p vs Yang Yi 4p
4. Yu Zhengqi 8p vs Xue Guanhua 4p

Team Huanxu Electronics tied Team Henan Yuzidao 2:2
1. Lin Junyan 8p vs Liu Zhaozhe 5p
2. Xu Haohong 6p vs Chen Yunong 4p
3. Jian Jingting 4p vs Ying Yitao 4p
4. Lai Junfu 4p vs Huang Chunqi 2p

Edit: Team Taiwan Zhonghuan beat Team Guangdong East Lake 3:1 (originally I had Zhonghuan beaten by Guangdong)
1. Chen Shiyuan 9p vs An Dongxu 6p
2. Lin Lixiang 7p vs Wang Haoyang 6p
3. Lin Shixun 6p vs Han Han 5p
4. Chen Qirui 5p vs Xu Hanwen 4p


WBL results:

Team Youshi lost to Hangzhou International 1:2
1. Yang Zixuan 3p vs Dong Tianyi 1p
2. Yu Lijun 2p vs Zhou Yushan 1p
3. Bai Xinhui 1p vs Yan Ximo 5D

Also in the CL, both women's team got swept.

Dalian Yidao lost 0:4 to Beijing Yiben Qingyuan:
1. Gu Wanshan 1p vs Gao Yu 3p
2. Wang Zixin 1p vs Wang Yinlingshui 2p
3. Wen Zhaoyi 1p vs Yang Wenkai 1p
4. Pan Tianxing 5D vs Xiao Qi 1p

Shanghai Qingyi lost 0:4 to Hangzhou Yizhan Digital.

1. Tang Yi 3p vs Gu Ruize 2p
2. Pan Yang 3p vs Fang Ruoxi 2p
3. Zhang Zihan 3p vs Wang Haotian 1p
4. Chen Si 6D vs Zhang Mingkang 1p

Team Hangzhou Supor beat Shenzhen Xingrui 3:1 so at least one of the two youngsters won. I will update individual results once they are available.
Update:
1. Yu Fulin 2p vs Jiang Jidou 2p
2. Li Zerui 1p vs Chen Yafeng 2p
3. Hu Zihao 1p vs Chu Ke'er 2p
4. Wu Yiming 1p vs Huang Jiayi 1p
So Wu Yiming lost but Hu Zihao won.

Nyu Eiko's Team Harbin got a bye in the 1st round.

Edit:
1. I have updated detailed match ups for each team. Note Taiwan Zhong actually beat Team Guangdong 3:1 not the other way around. Team Japan's board positions were incorrect in my original post and I have corrected that too.
2. The color code works like this (except when it is clear from context, for example Team Japan or Teams from Taiwan): Female player Pink, Japan Red, Korea Blue, Taiwan Azure

I finally figured out how to recognize the European team from the this results link: http://www.eweiqi.com/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=show&catid=133&id=31068

It is the team whose player names are long and have dots in the middle:


As you can can see here, they played team 18 in round 1 and lost all tables. Next round they play team 24, who lost all matches as well

Europeans draw in second round (Ilya and Artem won).

This would tie their best ever result: last year they drew twice in rounds 3 (Ilya + Mateusz) and 5 (Ilya + Artem).

CL 2nd round results:

Euro pros tied Hebei Sports Lotto 2:2
1. Ilya Shikshin 3p vs Ding Mingjun 2p
2. Pavol Lisy 2p vs Jia Ganglu 2P
3. Mateusz Surma 2p vs Qian Liuru 4p
4. Artem Kachanovskyi 2p vs Wan Enze 5D

Hebei's Ding Mingjun 2p is a new pro from last year. Wan Enze 5D is a very young but promising amateur.

Shanghai Qingyi lost to Shanghai Tongya Sports 1:3
1. Tang Yi 3p vs Cao Cong 1p
2. Pan Yang 3p vs Wan Leqi 2p
3. Zhang Zihan 3p vs Cui Chao 3p
4. Chen Si 6D vs Wang Chuxuan 6D

Dalian Yidao lost to Shanghai Lanxiang Sports Club 1:3
1. Gu Wanshan 1p vs Tang Jingxuan 3p
2. Wang Zixin 1p vs Chen Yifu 3p
3. Wen Zhaoyi 1p vs Chen Dongru 3p
4. Pan Tianxing 5D vs Gao Yidian 6D
Gao Yidian 6D is well known in the Chinese go circle because he is near blind and have to hunch over the board to play.

Hangzhou Supor lost to Guangdong Tianjixing Culture
1. Yu Fulin 2p vs Zheng Miaoxin 5p
2. Li Zerui 1p vs Zheng Yuhang 3p
3. Hu Zihao 1p vs Xu Jiawei 1p
4. Wu Yiming 1p vs Yang Zhiwen 6D
Wu Yiming lost two in a row while Hu Zihao won two in a row. Wu's opponent Yang Zhiwen is another promising young amateur. I think he has a good chance to make pro this year.

Edit: I forgot to clear Yang Zhiwen's color code.

BL 2nd round result:

Team Japan tied Taiwan Zhonghuan 2:2
1. Hsu Chiayuan 8p vs Chen Shiyuan 9p
2. Shibano Toramaru 7p vs Lin Lixiang 7p
3. Motoki Katsuya 8p vs Lin Shixun 6p
4. Yu Zhengqi 8p vs Chen Qirui 5p

Taiwan Huanxu Electronics tied Xiamen Xiandao 2:2
1. Lin Junyan 8p vs Hu Yuefeng 5p
2. Xu Haohong 6p vs Niu Yutian 7p
3. Jian Jingting 4p vs Wei Yibo 5p
4. Lai Junfu 4p vs Han Zhuoran 1p

WAL 2nd round result:

Taiwan Youshi got swept by a strong Zhejiang Sports Lotto team led by number one female player in the world Choi Jeong 9p
1. Yang Zixuan 3p vs Choi Jeong 9p
2. Yu Lijun 2p vs Fan Weijing 3p
3. Bai Xinhui 1p vs Wang Yubo 3p

Harbin Six Harmony lost to provincial rival Team Heilongjiang 1:2
1. Nyu Eiko 2p vs Wang Siyin 1p
2. Ye Gui 5p vs Sun Guanqun 1p
3. Chen Manqi 5D vs Wang Meicheng 6D

CL 3rd round results:

Euro pros lost to Jiangxi Go Association 0:4
1. Ilya Shikshin 3p vs Chen Xudong 3p
2. Pavol Lisy 2p vs Zhang Junzhe 3P
3. Mateusz Surma 2p vs Xu Jing'en 1p
4. Artem Kachanovskyi 2p vs Zhong Haolin 5D

12 year old Xu Jing'en(徐靖恩) 1p is a new pro of Taiwan and a rising star. He surprised everybody by beating Korea's world champion Weon Seongjin 9p in the LG cup earlier this year. So far he is undefeated in this competition.

Shanghai Qingyi met our other team of interest Dalian Yidao and swept Dalian 4:0
1. Tang Yi 3p vs Gu Wanshan 1p
2. Pan Yang 3p vs Wang Zixin 1p
3. Zhang Zihan 3p vs Wen Zhaoyi 1p
4. Chen Si 6D vs Pan Tianxing 5D

Hangzhou Supor were also swept by Hangzhou International 0:4
1. Yu Fulin 2p vs Pan Tingyu 3p
2. Li Zerui 1p vs Yang Rundong 3p
3. Hu Zihao 1p vs Li Biqi 3p
4. Wu Yiming 1p vs Zeng Yuanhai 2p

18 year old Pan Tingyu 3p was born in Taiwan, but unlike Xu Jing'en he is actually a CWA pro. He was the champion of 2015 new pro qualification tournament and was promoted to 3p in 2017.

I wonder, is this the person who played the first game against Magister/Master nickname of AlphaGo in the online series? https://www.alphago-games.com/view/even ... /0/move/50 Some people assumed that was a typo for Fan Tingyu, but although AlphaGo beat all humans I did think Fan Tingyu as one of the top humans would have put up a tougher fight (and also the first few games it was unknown it was AlphaGo so playing lesser known pros makes sense).

Yes that is correct. Pan Tingyu was the first player against Master.