BLACK SATURDAY SEES 9-DAN STOCKS NOSEDIVE
It was a black day in more than one way in the quarter-finals of the 14th Mingren tournament for the Nantai Cup on 24 March 2001. All four matches were won by the player holding Black, but just as significant was the continuing eclipse of the 9-dans. Last year's runner-up Shao Weigang crashed out to Gu Li 5-dan, and now only Chang Hao remains of the top ranked players.
The 9-dans were mostly booted out at the preliminary stage. Only Wu Zhaoyi was able to win through to the main event, the 16-player challengers' knockout, which is taking place at the Chinese Weiqi Association headquarters in Beijing.
Holder Ma Xiaochun 9-dan, having won this event for a record 12th time last year, will probably not care too much who he meets, but the clutch of middle-ranked players - checked briefly in some recent events - have resumed their relentless ant-like march towards the top. Gu Li, 18, seems to be the one to watch in this event, but 15-year-old Peng Quan might be a better each-way bet for the future. He disposed of Zhou Heyang 8-dan in Round 2 (with Black, of course!). Click here for that game - featuring a taisha joseki.
Results:
Round 1 (21 March 2001)
Chang Hao 1-0 Huang Yizhong
Liu Jing 1-0 Wang Xi
Luo Xihe 1-0 Wu Zhaoyi
Ding Wei 1-0 Zhang Xuebin
Gu Li 1-0 Yang Hui
Hu Yaoyu 1-0 Yu Ping
Liu Xiaoguang 1-0 Han Feng
Shao Weigang 1-0 Zhang Xuan
Wang Yang 1-0 Yu Bin
Round 2 (22 March 2001 - seeds join)
Shao Weigang 1-0 Liu Xiaoguang
Peng Quan 1-0 Zhou Heyang
Gu Li 1-0 Luo Xihe
Zhu Songli 1-0 Wang Yao
Chang Hao 1-0 Xie He
Qiu Jun 1-0 Ding Wei
Liu Jing 1-0 Yang Yi
Wang Yang 1-0 Hu Yaoyu
Quarter Finals (24 March 2001)
Chang Hao 9d 1-0 Peng Quan 4d
Liu Jing 8d 1-0 Wang Yang 4d
Qiu Jun 6d 1-0 Zhu Songli 5d
Gu Li 5d 1-0 Shao Weigang 9d
MINGREN ARCHIVES
HOW DOES THE MINGREN TOURNAMENT WORK?
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.
Click here for a list of MINGREN WINNERS AND CHALLENGERS.
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