The 8th Qiwang began on 26 March 2001, and immediately the pattern of recent tournaments in China reasserted itself: 9-dans dropping like nine-pins.
The event has yet another new cup, the Shengzhou-Babei Fushi Cup sponsored by guess who. But the early rounds are actually taking place in Beijing, many, many miles from Shengzhou - famous for Ma Xiaochun, who inconsiderately lost the title last year to Yu Bin.
Among the veteran 9-dans to bow out in Round 1 were Zheng Hong and Chen Linxin, but the biggest surprise was the loss by Shao Weigang to Li Jie 3-dan. 48 players appeared in Round 1. Less surprising, given that he has recently become more like his Japanese mentor Fujisawa Hideyuki, was the loss of Nie Weiping to Zhang Xuan 8-dan. Cao Dayuan was another 9-dan casualty. The 24 winners were joined by 8 seeds, including Ma Xiaochun and Zhou Heyang, in Round 2.
Not for long in Ma's case. He crashed straight out on 27 March to his team partner, 23-year-old Zhu Songli 5-dan, who also showed up well in the recent Mingren. Click here for that game.
It did not all go the way of the youngsters or against the 9-dans in Round 2. Seed Wang Yao 4-dan was dumped out by Hang Tianpeng 4-dan, and Luo Xihe 8-dan found veteran 9-dan Wang Jianhong too strong.
Apart from Hang, it has been a good tournament so far for the women. Zhang Xuan 8-dan beat Fang Jie 7-dan, and Yang Hui 8-dan beat Hu Yaoyu 6-dan, while Xu Ying 3-dan lost by a mere 0.25 point to Kong Jie 5-dan.
Other winners in Round 2 were: Liu Jing, Wang Lei, Qiu Jun, Gu Li, Zhou Heyang, Wang Yehui, Chang Hao, Ding Wei and Peng Quan.
This stage of the event lasts till 31 March, Stage 2, for the last four, takes place in Shengzhou City, Zhejiang Province, in July. The final will be in December at the same venue. Shengzhou has turned the event into a locally owned festival because the main sponsors, Babei Clothing Company, have now been joined by the Shengzhou Municipal Government, hence the long-winded name of the cup.
The Qiwang tournament was sponsored up to term 4 by the Zhongguo Weiqi Xiehui (Chinese Go Association), the Changshu Qianjinding-chang (Changshu Hoisting Jack Factory) and the Zhongguo Tiyubao-she (China Sports Paper). From term 5 the Changshu Factory was replaced by the Chongqing Huida Co. Ltd. (Chongqing is in Sichuan). Term 1 was for the Taihui Cup. Then they played to term 4 for the Tongrun Cup - Tongrun was the name of a famous Ming dynasty priest in Suzhou - then the Huida Cup. It was also supported latterly by Ing Foundation and winning gave the right to appear in the Ing Cup. As of 1995, first prize was 5000 yuan, with game fees 1000 yuan.
In its new incarnation from 2000 it is sponsored by the Babei Fushi (Babei clothing) company of Sheng County. We have no details yet of prize funds.
Latterly, and in its new form, the Qiwang is a knockout with a best-of-three final to find a challenger to the holder. In the 2000 event, the knockout began with 56 players (some seeded). Komi is 2.75.
Qiwang means King of Go. There was a tournament of the same name (in characters) in Korea, the Kiwang, but this has become the LG Cup.
QIWANG FINALISTS
The final used to start in December but finished in the following year, which is the one given below.
