Ma Xiaochun 9-dan bounced back from his disappointment in the LG Cup in Paris to record a 12th successive title victory in the 13th Mingren. He must regret the one that got away, the first, more each year.
It was a close-run thing and pupil Shao Weigang 9-dan took him to the full five games having won Game 4 on 20 November 2000 in Beijing. Ma also had the disadvantage of drawing White for the decisive game the day after, but he managed to hold Shao at bay by a mere quarter of a point.
We can now add to our earlier report that Game 3 of the 13th Mingren was at the Zhongguo Qiyuan (Chinese Go Association headquarters) in Beijing, and that the final two games are scheduled for 20 and 22 November, also in Beijing.
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Older News From 7 November 2000: MA BACK IN FRONT BUT WHERE?
The Mingren has resumed in a new location - we have not yet seen where - and Ma Xiaochun 9-dan has resumed his lead in this best-of-five. He defeated Shao Weigang 9-dan on 7 November 2000 in Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead.
Older News From 29 October 2000: SHAO GETS EVEN WITH MA
Shao Weigang 9-dan has made sure of a trip somewhere else to play the deciding Game 3 of the 13th Mingren title match. He won Game 2 against Ma Xiaochun 9-dan on 29 October in Shenyang to make the score 1-1.
Here is Game 2, which has a very unusual feel to it - as if all four corners are being played separately.
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Older News From 28 October 2000: MA BACK IN THE GROOVE
After a long lay-off to combat go fatigue Ma Xiaochun 9-dan, settled straight back into the groove by winning the opening game of the 13th Mingren on 27 October 2000. It is a long groove: Ma has won the title for the last 11 terms.
His opponent in Shenyang was Shao Weigang 9-dan, appearing in his first Mingren title match. Rather like the almost parallel Myeongin match between Cho Hun-hyeon and Yi Ch'ang-ho, it is a teacher-pupil affair, although in Shao's case he did not sign up with Ma until 1993 when he was already 20.
Ma clearly decided another lesson was called for but won by just 0.75 point. Game 2 will also be in Shenyang on 29 October, and Game 3 - if needed - will be some time in November.
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Older News From 11 August 2000: SHAO THROUGH TO THE FINAL
Shao Weigang has won the right to challenge for the 13th Mingren title, winning the Challengers' Final match 2-0 against Liu Jing 8-dan. Both players are members of a select band known to the Chinese go press as the Seven Little Dragons, but Shao is the "big brother" among them, and asserted himself when it mattered.
Both games were played at the Chinese Go Association in Beijing on 7 and 9 August 2000. Because of the central location there was a high turnout of top pros in the press room, and they saw Liu suffer a painful loss in Game 1 when he had opportunities to win. Game 2 saw him struggling unsuccessfully to catch up in the endgame. He finally lost by 1.75 points (Chinese rules).
Older News From 20 March 2000: MINGREN CHALLENGERS DOWN TO TWO
After the four rounds of the main challengers' knockout in the 13th Mingren, the 32 players have been whittled down to two. Shao Weigang 9-dan will now play Liu Jing 8-dan for the right to challenge Ma Xiaochun 9-dan in the best-of-five title match.
Shao beat Luo Xihe 8-dan in the semi-finals, while Liu overcame Chang Hao 9-dan.
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Older News From 10 March 2000: VETERAN NIE QUALIFIES AGAIN
After qualifying for the Tianyuan Challengers knockout, veteran Nie Weiping 9-dan has
repeated the feat in the 13th Mingren. Fellow vet Liao Guiyong 9-dan from Guangdong joins
him, but the other 14 qualifiers, who join 16 seeds in the main knockout, are all new
blood: Kong Jie (who made it to the last eight of the Chunlan), Peng Quan, Liu Jing, Liu
Shizhen (the new Xinren Wang holder), Yang Shihai, Duan Rong, Yang Yi, Wang Guanjun, Li Jie,
Niu Yutian, Zhu Yanming, Zhang Dongyue. Six 9-dans failed to make it past the preliminary
stage.
Round 1 of the main knockout is on 17 March 2000.
This term sees some new sponsorship and they will be playing for a Cup put up by the Huanqiu
Sibao (Worldwide Times).
The Mingren tournament is sponsored by Renmin Ribao-she (People's Daily), Zhongguo Weiqi Xiehui (Chinese Go Association) and Guangdong Jinman Jituan (Canton Jinman Group). The winner takes the Jinman Cup and 25,000 yuan.
Except in the first term where there was a straight tournament, a league (numbers have varied currently six players - four change each year) is used to find a challenger to the holder. Komi is 2.75.
Entry to the bottom rungs of the league is from a series of knockout tournaments involving 48 high-dan and selected young players.
The final, a best-of-five, now takes place in the autumn. Games may be played in different cities, but are completed in one day.
Mingren, although originally a Chinese word denoting a Master of some esoteric science such as medicine, in its go context was, like the Korean Myeongin, copied from the Japanese Meijin. The event is sometimes called the Chinese Meijin.
