Life In 19x19

Nakamure Sumire v Kim Eunji New Years Exhibition Match!

Sumire lost the first game.

She was playing her usual attacking game, and she was ahead most of the game. But she made a mistake in the middlegame, and it was game over.

To win, you have to win when the game finishes, not before, so kudos to Kim. But Sumire showed how she can fight.

Good luck for games 2 and 3.

Elom0 wrote:Nakamura Sumire v Kim Eunji New Years Exhibition Match!

New Year's Eve I sorted some games and a moment ago I added a Sumire entry near the bottom of https://homepages.cwi.nl/~aeb/go/games/index.html. The last SGF there is for the first game of this match.

pajaro wrote: To win, you have to win when the game finishes, not before, so kudos to Kim. But Sumire showed how she can fight.

If only she had used an AI to cheat. Oh wait, wrong player...

I read/see here

https://twitter.com/dadachannnnn/status ... 4787181568

that Sumire played in the New Ryuusei against Ichiriki. She lost. In the image, there is a white group, dead, in the center.

I don't know much about this tournament. It doesn't seem to be official. The reason must be its Mickey Mouse time conditions (1 min main time, +2 sec/move, or something like that). Good for the public to watch, if you want some blood, unexpected mistakes, unexpected winners (from time to time...). Also, pro and amateur comments. It's so unofficial that it isn't regularly updated in the NK website.

Interesting fact: Sumire played Ichiriki in the first round, but last year, she played Iyama in the first round too. Both loses, but such a coincidence... was it set up?

If only she had used an AI to cheat. Oh wait, wrong player...

I likewise have a sour taste about past behaviour, but we can't ignore Kim's recent form. In 2022, she equalled Mok Chin-seok's record of 93 wins in a year and had two games left. I haven't checked but I'd be surprised if she hasn't now broken the record.

She also featured in a final (in the Women's Kiseong) and got close in the Women's Strongest League. She also has a remarkable promotion record. She has reached 5-dan in under three years, despite being out for one year on the naughty step.

She will be 16 in May, which age seems to be Zimmer-frame time for pros nowadays.

She will always be someone who cheated in my eyes. I suspect that high hopes for her potential were related to the lax punishment she received.

To me, the definition of pro should be partially about skill, but also about honor. She doesn't meet the latter definition of pro.

Unfortunately, Korean pros, apparently, don't need to have honor to keep their job. I don't want to say it that way, but that's the decision that was made in allowing her to continue being pro.

Sumire did it.

In the 3rd game of the female Kisei match, she won Ueno Asami to become Nakamura Sumire female Kisei.

It was, as expected, a fought game. After a good begginning for Sumire, Asami came from behind, and I thought her experience would prevail. But Sumire fought back again and after a few big exchanges (that I still don't understand) and an important ko fight (which was probably the compensation), the game was settled. There was no mistake in the final moves, and Ueno resigned.

This is, as everybody knows, a new record. Sumire is not 14 yet, and this is the first of, quite likely, many titles.

Omedetou gozaimasu!

(also, I think this means she will play in the NHK tournament)

An article in the English-language version of the Asahi Shinbun.
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14833884 [edited link]

And the Mainichi version.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20 ... na/025000c

The first link takes me to a "page not found" message. But https://www.asahi.com/ajw/search/result ... rds=sumire suggests that you mean https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14833884 ?

xela wrote:The first link takes me to a "page not found" message. But https://www.asahi.com/ajw/search/result ... rds=sumire suggests that you mean https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14833884 ?

Yes, typo edited in original.

pajaro wrote:Sumire did it.

In the 3rd game of the female Kisei match, she won Ueno Asami to become Nakamura Sumire female Kisei.

It was, as expected, a fought game. After a good begginning for Sumire, Asami came from behind, and I thought her experience would prevail. But Sumire fought back again and after a few big exchanges (that I still don't understand) and an important ko fight (which was probably the compensation), the game was settled. There was no mistake in the final moves, and Ueno resigned.

This is, as everybody knows, a new record. Sumire is not 14 yet, and this is the first of, quite likely, many titles.

Omedetou gozaimasu!

(also, I think this means she will play in the NHK tournament)

Congratulations to everyones favourite child geniuos! I am totally amazed that she beat Ueno Asami in a best-of-three speed match! おとめでて! Wow, she's improving faster than I expected or realise. She may be the real deal.

I saw the news around the Internet when it happened but I have not had a chance to review the games, only just now reading the news. What an exciting time, huh? It was only a matter of time. Though I'm still happy about Nyu Eiko getting her win and magazine cover those months ago as I'm sure Nakamura Sumire will have her face everywhere for quite a while. Well deserved and very impressive. And hopefully her fame continues to bring in waves of new players.

I just noticed that Ueno Asami has been winning a lot lately. Her rating is now higher than Rina Fujisawa's. And if you look at Ueno's games since Dec 1st 2022, Ueno has played 10 games and is 8-2. Her only losses were to Sumire.

Sumire turned 14 3 days ago.

As a birthday present, she played in the World Senko Cup. After a first round with an amateur 6dan (no disrespect here, but easy win), Sumire play Choi Jeon 9-dan. As expected too, Sumire lost.

Choi won the tournament, and what I find interesting, is that the game she found more remarkable was the one with Sumire. Choi said that Sumire is stronger than herself at 14 years old. I'd like to know, who can claim to be stronger at 14 than Sumire? Not many people could.