Life In 19x19

Great thread, wolfking!

I have been looking for information on the B,C leagues for quite a while, but couldn't find anything until I saw your posts.

There is very good information on the A league here: https://gotoeveryone.k2ss.info/cn/al/. This web site is very good, listing all the Pro tournaments (world, Japan, China and Taiwan). gotoeveryone is much better in my opinion than go4go.net because he lists results without a .sgf file (go4go only lists results with a game record).

It looks like in round 5 Team Europe got another tie vs Hangzhou City:
Ilya Shikshin - Gao Xing (高星) 4p 1-0
Pavol Lisy - Zeng Yuanhai 0-1
Artem Kachanovski - Zhang Junzhe 1-0
Matheusz Surms - Wu Yiming 0-1

After this win Artem Kachanovskyi is only a win away from 2p. See my unofficial promotional record for Artem and the other european pros here.

The google translation for round 5 link didn't give a name for Ilya's opponent. But wolfking gave me the name, so I edited the post. We need help from wolfking to get the exact names and rank. Europe's opponent in round 6 seems to be Shanghai Qingyi Sports.

[Edit - made some corrections using information from wolfking].

Looks like Japan won in round 5:

Japan vs Lhasa National Chess: 3-1
1. Shibano Toramaru 7p 1:0 Li Zhixian
2. Ida Atsushi 8p 1:0 Mao Ruilong
3. Yu Zhengqi 7p 1:0 Pan Fei
4. Hsu Chiayuan 7p 0:1 Zhang Qiang

The two Taiwanese teams played each other to a draw at the first station:

Haifeng Go - Taiwan Zhonghuan 2-2
1. Lin Junyan 7p 1:0 Chen Shiyuan 9p
2. Xu Haohong 5p 1:0 Xiao Zhenghao 9p
3. Jian Jingting 3p 1:0 Lin Shixun 6p
4. Lai Junfu 3p 0:1 Chen Qirui 5p

silviu22 wrote:Great thread, wolfking!

Thank you!

silviu22 wrote:The google translation for round 5 link doesn't give a name for Ilya's opponent. I would like to know the name and rank. Looks like we need help from wolfking to get the exact names and rank.

That would be Gao Xing(高星) 4p. Her family name Gao means high and given name Xing means star. She is one of nine female players in the CL and playing at board 1 for Team Hangzhou City (There are six Hangzhou teams in the CL alone!).

Edit: A smiling Gao Xing 4p in research room during 2018 Go Seigen Cup (Photo credit Sina Sports)

silviu22 already gave us the results for round 5 which was played on June 16th. I will just repost results for Team Europe and Team Japan with ranking info added.

Team Europe tied Team Hangzhou City 2:2

1. Ilya Shikshin 1:0 Gao Xing 4p
2. Pavol Lisy 0:1 Zeng Yuanhai 1p
3. Artem Kachanovskyi 1:0 Zhang Junzhe 1p
4. Mateusz Surma 0:1 Wu Yiming 6D

It is another nice win for Ilya! Gao Xing is ranked 170 in CWA ranking with Elo of 2273. Again it is small sample size but Ilya has beaten several players in that range. It makes me think he could be in the top half of active Chinese pros if he had an CWA Elo rating. Also Artem gets his first win! Mateusz lost to our 11 year old phenom Wu Yiming 6D. After last year's brilliant performance it may be a little disappointing to him so far. Wu missed pro qualification last year by a few opponent points so definitely close to new pro level. She just might make pro in next month's new pro qualification tournament.

Team Japan finally gets a win against Lhasa Go Institute and kept their promotion dream alive

1. Shibano Toramaru 1:0 Lee Jihyun 4p
2. Ida Atsushi 1:0 Mao Ruilong 5p
3. Yu Zhengqi 1:0 Pan Fei 5p
4. Hsu Chiayuan 0:1 Zhang Qiang 4p

Lee Jihyun is ranked 35 on GoRatings.org so a very good win for Shibano. With this win Team Japan is tied for third place with 6 points behind Team Shenzhen (8 points) and Team Wuhan Sanmin (7 points). Due to the expansion of A-League this year there will be 3 BL teams up for promotion so Team Japan has a very realistic change to get to the next level!

Llya Shikshin vs Gao Xing Japan vs Lhasa Go Institute. Near side is Shibano Toramaru (Right) vs Lee Jihyun Clash of two Taiwan teams: Haifeng (Left) meets Zhonghuan in round 5

I think Ilya's performance this year (3-1) is closer to his real value than last year's. He seems to be about a stone stronger than the other Europeans. After my calculations he's got 41 LDPs out of the 50 needed for promotion to 3p.

It's good to see Artem Kachanovski (1-3) and Matheusz Surma (1-3) get a win. I hope Pavol Lisy (0-4) gets a win too, so he won't be demoralized.

But Team Europe seems to to be able to compete. They have 4 points and there are 5 teams with 3 points. (Although one of the 5 has a bye in round 6, so that team will have 4 points after round 6 as well).

After one day rest round 6 was played on June 18th. Ilya won his fourth game in a row! This time against Cui Chao 3p of Team Shanghai Qingyi Sports. There was an interview of Ilya on yikeweiqi.com after his three consecutive wins. I will translate some of the contents later. First the results:

1. Ilya Shikshin 1:0 Cui Chao 3p
2. Pavol Lisy 0:1 Tang Yi 3p
3. Artem Kachanovskyi 0:1 Cao Cong 1p
4. Mateusz Surma 0:1 Han Enyi 6D

Cui Chao is number 273 in CWA ranking with an Elo of 2212 so no surprise there . But unfortunately that was the only win Team Europe got in round 6. Pavol could not break through against Tang Yi 3p who is actually ranked higher at 181. Mateusz lost to Han Enyi 6D, an opponent he beat last year in round 5.

Their final round opponent will be Team Shenzhen Xingrui. This is probably the weakest opponent they have met so far, at least judging by CWA ranking. Shenzhen's highest ranked player is board 3 Wang Jiabao 1p at number 298. Their first two boards are ranked close to bottom of all active CWA pros. Their board 4 is Zhou Xiang amateur 6D. I am not saying it is easy but this might just be the best chance for Team Europe to squeeze out a win!

Ilya vs Cui ChaoPavol's round 6 opponent Tang Yi 3pSurma's round 5 opponent Wu Yiming 6D Edit: Tang Yi is actually 3p.

Wow, 4 wins in a row for Ilya! Good for him. Looks like he traded places with Matheusz Surma this year.
It looks like Ilya can hold his own against 3p players. I believe 3o is his actual strength right now.
They are lucky to have played team #30, otherwise they would not have 4 points right now...

The taiwanese teams have numbers #6 and #10, right? They seem to be head and shoulders above everyone else in League C.

Is the Japanese team #2? It took me a long time to understand what google translation says about the teams (and that you should learn the number and follow that rather than the name). And now that I finally understand how to read the score charts, the tournament is ending...

Shibano Toramaru (4-2) is doing relatively well. But I am not sure this team is ready for League A. Also, he has lost twice to players of lower rank, so I believe his promotion to 7p was premature. Frankly, I don't think these big rank jumps on winning a tournament are justified.

Thank you for helping us follow this. It is fascinating.

As a general comment, I believe the Chinese have the strongest team. The Koreans have the #1 player and a few others right at the top, but overall I think the Chinese are stronger. Japan seems to be a distant #3 I'm afraid.

I would hope the Chinese invite an american team. That might be the best chance for Europe for a win.

It was another tie for Team Japan. They are not out of it by any means but they need to win more rounds to advance to League A

Round 6: Team Japan tied Team Henan Yatai Go Club 2:2
1. Shibano Toramaru 1:0 Zhang Yingting 5p
2. Ida Atsushi 1:0 Zhang Ziliang 3p
3. Yu Zhengqi 1:0 Chen Hanqi 2p
4. Hsu Chiayuan 0:1 Li YuAng 1p

Team Henan was the surprise team for the first half and started the tournament by winning 3 rounds in a row. New pro from last year Li Yuang 1p has performed brilliantly and lost only one game to Wuhan's Hu Yuefeng 5p in six rounds. A tie with Henan is not a bad result.

The promotion picture is very muddy in the BL. Team Shenzhen and Team Wuhan Sanmin are tied at the top with 8 points. Japan tied with 5 other teams with 7 points. Nobody is guaranteed to be in or out of promotion yet. It will all depends on the last two round results.

Hsu Chiayuan(Left) vs Li Yu'ang

silviu22 wrote:Wow, 4 wins in a row for Ilya! Good for him. Looks like he traded places with Matheusz Surma this year.
It looks like Ilya can hold his own against 3p players. I believe 3o is his actual strength right now.
They are lucky to have played team #30, otherwise they would not have 4 points right now...

Yes Ilya is like last year's Mateusz but his results is even harder to achieve since he plays at board 1 and generally gets strongest opponents!

silviu22 wrote:The taiwanese teams have numbers #6 and #10, right? They seem to be head and shoulders above everyone else in League C.

Is the Japanese team #2? It took me a long time to understand what google translation says about the teams (and that you should learn the number and follow that rather than the name). And now that I finally understand how to read the score charts, the tournament is ending...

Yes the Taiwan teams are #6 and #10 on the CL score charts and Japan is #2 in BL. The sheets is not easy to read if you do not understand Chinese. I could post the score charts but figured people might not be interested in reading all the Chinese team names.

silviu22 wrote:Shibano Toramaru (4-2) is doing relatively well. But I am not sure this team is ready for League A.

I think if Team Japan can get into AL they might be able to get Ichiriki Ryo on the team(even getting Iyama is not out of the question). Yes I agree that there is a chance to get demoted but that is how you get stronger: by playing with stronger opponents. Also having a team playing in the AL might generate more interest in Japan and should be good for Go community in general.

Finally we get to the Taiwan teams. Like silviu22 said the two Taiwan CL teams seem to be head and shoulders above others. Both teams won 3:1 against their round 6 opponents.

Team Haifeng Go Institute 3:1 Team Shanghai Sports Club

1. Lin Junyan 1:0 Chen Dongru 3p
2. Xu Haohong 0:1 Wu Zhenyu 2p
3. Jian Jingting 1:0 Chen Yifu 1p
4. Lai Junfu 0:1 Gao Yidian 6D

Team Zhonghuan 3:1 Peking University + Beijing Go Institute

1. Chen Shiyuan 0:1 Cheng Honghao 3p
2. Xiao Zhenghao 1:0 Cao Youyin 3p
3. Lin Shixun 1:0 Tian Ruiqi 2p
4. Chen Qirui 1:0 Zhang Chenglong 5D

Unlike BL the CL promotion situation is much clearer. Team Haifeng has accumulated 11 points and has guaranteed a spot in next year's BL. Team Zhonghuan has 10 points at number 2 position and because of the two 4:0 sweeps they had is also very likely to be promoted. Hangzhou International, Yunnan Go Association, Shanghai Sports Club, Hangzhou Go School and New Tianyi Jiangsu Go Association are all tied with 8 points at third place. But Hangzhou International and Jiangsu Go Association gets the two Taiwan teams in the final round so they may just stay at 8 points. Yunnan and Hangzhou Go School are playing each other next so if one of them wins then all teams with 7 points (there are 5 of them) will be eliminated. Shanghai Sports Club plays Luoyang Software (with 7 points) in round 7. So the third promotion spot is still up for grabs.

Meanwhile Haifeng Women's Team did not fare well in round 6. They got swept by Dalian Yidao (Yidao means "The Way of Go").

1. Yu Lijun 0:1 Gu Wanshan 1p
2. Yang Zixuan 0:1 Chu KeEr 6D
3. Bai Xinhui 0:1 Huang Jiayi 5D

Gu Wanshan is a very strong new pro from last year and has so far only lost to Korean number 1 Choi Jeong 9p in this tournament. Choi Jeong's Team Shanxi Tianyuan Go Institute has won every round and will play in WAL next year. Hangzhou Go School, Shanghai Qingyi Minghe, Dalian Yidao and China Pingmei all tied at 8 points in second place. Since Hangzhou Go School will play China Pingmei next teams with 6 points (including Haifeng Women's Team and Nyu Eiko's Team Harbin) or less are eliminated. Which team will go to WAL together with Shanxi is still to be determined tomorrow in round 7.

Haifeng's Lin Junyan 7p (Right) vs Shanghai Sport Club Chen Dongru 3pZhonghuan's Chen Shiyuan 9p (Right) vs Peking University + Beijing Go Institute Cheng Honghao 3pYu Lijun 2p (Left) vs Dalian Yidao's Gu Wanshan 1p

Here is a translation of the YikeWeiqi.com interview with Ilya Shikshin 2p. You can follow this link: http://www.yikeweiqi.com/news/topline/46362/ if you want to read the original Chinese interview.

Q: Congratulations on the 3 consecutive wins! How do you feel at this moment?

A: Very happy! So far every opponent is very strong. Our strength are really close, I got the wins maybe because I tried harder.

Q: Did you set up any goals before the tournament? Have you expected to win 3 in a row?

A: Not really, I was just going to try my best to win games. Last year we had three ties, so before the tournament I was hoping that we could win some rounds.

Q: Which win is the most memorable?

A: The second one (against Cheng Honghao 3p). I was way behind after the opening. After the game we checked with Golaxy (星阵, a strong Chinese Go AI) and at one point my win rate was at 20%. But my opponent relaxed a little during the mid game and I got a big territory in the center and the game was closer. He made a few more mistakes in the end game and I was lucky to win by 1.5 points.

Q: Do you feel you got stronger than last year? How was your daily training?

A: Yes I am stronger. Daily training consists of playing online, replay top pro's games and review games using AI. Recently there were online opponents using AI to play against me, not sure if that is because I was playing using my pro account.

Q: This year there is Golaxy to help you revew the game. Do you perceive any difference between Golaxy and other AIs?

A: Yes Golaxy is very helpful. It makes the positional judgement much clearer. Different AIs might choose different openings and josekis, but their mid game and end game calculations and positional judgement are very similar. I think there are at least 3 stone difference between us and AIs.

Q: Is this the first time you have played a Chinese female pro? Gao Xing is a member of the Chinese Women's National Team and plays many international tournament, have you met her before? Can you tell us about today's game (vs Gao Xing)?

A: Yes. I have not met her before. Today her opening choice was not very good and I got quite an advantage. Afterward I just tried to keep that advantage. By end of the game I was about 5 points ahead and she resigned.

Q: What do you think your biggest goal and take away from these CL tournaments are?

A: To us these games are very good training and help us to gain valuable experiences. In Europe we all play with familiar opponents and it was hard to improve. Here we play with many Chinese players with very different playing styles. Last year I was not used to their styles and did not perform well. This year I have adapted much better.

Q: This year's World Cup is in Russia, will you be attending any live soccer matches? Which team do you think will win it all?

A: I am not a soccer fan so probably will not go to any live matches. But my wife is a fan so I will be watching at home. If I have to venture a guess it will probably be Brazil.

Round 3 Ilya vs Li Le 4pRound 4 Ilya vs Cheng Honghao 3pRound 5 Ilya vs Gao Xing 4p

I think Japan and Europe both lost (1-3) if I interpret those charts properly. Also, I think the top Taiwan men's team lost while the second drew? And it is very likely the 3rd qualifier from C is the team that beat Taiwan #1?

I am quite curious to see which european won in the last round. It would be nice if Matheusz got a consolation win.

These new 1p players seem to have a very misleading rank. If I read this correctly the only loss so far for Ilya was a new 1p? And from worlfking's posts, other new 1p defeated players of much higher rank. So the new 1ps and the ones who just missed last year's qualification might be stronger than some of the old 2/3p players in this league.

And yes, wolfking, Ilya's performance is so much more remarkable because he player on table 1. (Even though I think some weaker teams are strategically placing their strongest player on table #2 to increase the chance of winning a game). Come to think of it, it might be best for Europe to place their weakest player on table 1 to increase the chance of getting 2/3 wins in a match.

I am looking forward to seeing Ilya again. I hope they send him to the next Samsung cup. I believe he has adapted to the Asian playing style enough to get to the main rounds.

silviu22 wrote:Shibano Toramaru (4-2) is doing relatively well. But I am not sure this team is ready for League A.

I think if Team Japan can get into AL they might be able to get Ichiriki Ryo on the team(even getting Iyama is not out of the question). Yes I agree that there is a chance to get demoted but that is how you get stronger: by playing with stronger opponents. Also having a team playing in the AL might generate more interest in Japan and should be good for Go community in general.[/quote]

I agree that Japanese player need to play more often against the Chinese/Korean players. And playing in these Chinese/Korean leagues might be the best way to do that. Even Iyama Yuta seems to do quite poorly against the top foreign players even though he dominates the Japanese tournaments. Shibano might end up getting much stronger than his Japanese peers after playing in the B League. And if I read his record properly (seems to be 4-3 now?) the top table in the B League seems to be very challenging for him. It will be interesting to watch how he performs in the future. I hope he improves to challenge Iyama, the Chinese and Koreans in the future.

It would definitely good for Japanese Go to get Ichiriki and Shibano on the same team.

Round 7 was played on June 19th. This was the final round for the CL, WBL and the penultimate round for the BL.

Team Europe could not break through for their first win and lost to Team Shenzhen Xingrui 1:3 in the final round. Mateusz did get his second win of the tournament.

1. Ilya Shikshin 0:1 Jiang Jidou 1p
2. Pavol Lisy 0:1 Chen Yafeng 1p
3. Artem Kachanovskyi 0:1 Wang Jiabao 1p
4. Mateusz Surma 1:0 Zhou Xiang 6D

It must be disappointing for Pavol to not get a win this year. But I think it might be more disappointing for Team Europe to get only two ties no wins. At least this year they did not finish at last place. They were ahead of Team Jilin due to two more won games.

Team Japan also lost 1:3 to a strong Tibet Zhongchi team led by Ahn Kukhyun 8p of Korea.
1. Shibano Toramaru 0:1 Ahn Kukhyun 8p
2. Ida Atsushi 0:1 Liu Xing 7p
3. Yu Zhengqi 0:1 Chen Xian 6p
4. Hsu Chiayuan 1:0 Zhang Yabo 4p

Unfortunately this means Team Japan is eliminated from promotion with only 7 points. Shenzhen, Tibet and Wuhan are tied at the top with 9 points and there are 5 more teams with 8 points. Because all three 9 point teams will be playing 8 point teams in the final round, there will be at least three teams with 10 points or more so Team Japan is out.

Ilya vs Jiang Jidou 1pShibano Toramaru (Right) vs Ahn Kukhyun 8p

Now it is quite a different story for the two Taiwan CL teams. Team Haifeng Go Institute already collected enough points to go to the BL even before round 7 was played. Haifeng lost in round 7 but it did not matter for them. Team Zhonghuan tied with Team Hangzhou International to get to 11 points and also advanced to BL.

Team Haifeng Go Institute 1:3 Team New Tianyi Jiangsu Go Association (Japanese player marked red):
1. Lin Junyan 1:0 Liu Zhaozhe 4p
2. Xu Haohong 0:1 Sada Atsushi 3p
3. Jian Jingting 0:1 Qiu Jinbo 3p
4. Lai Junfu 0:1 Liu Yuncheng 1p

Team Zhonghuan 2:2 Team Hangzhou International
1. Chen Shiyuan 1:0 Yan Huan 6p
2. Xiao Zhenghao 0:1 Luo Yan 3p
3. Lin Shixun 1:0 Li Biqi 3p
4. Chen Qirui 0:1 Yang Rundong 3p

All the other teams that were in contention for the third promotion position tied with their opponents. Team Jiangsu got a valuable win from Sada Atsushi 3p of Japan and was able to beat Team Haifeng to advance to BL.

Haifeng's Lin Junyan 7p (Right) vs Liu Zhaozhe 4pChen Shiyuan 9p (Left) vs Yan Huan 6pTeam Jiangsu's Sada Atsushi 3p