YI SWEEPS BC CARD CHALLENGE FINAL
Yi Sang-hun 3-dan swept to his first title by winning the 10th BC Card Cup on 15 May. Having defeated Han Chong-chin 3-dan in Game 1 on 9 May, he needed just one more win to take the best-of-three.
In the previous report we mentioned that Yi's kid brother Se-tol had posted a 23-game winning streak. It is now up to 31, with victory in the preliminaries of the 11th BC Card Cup on the same day as his brother won the 10th BC Card Cup.
Here are the two games of the final in downloadable sgf format.
- Game 1 (The Sideways Chinese opening here is especially interesting)
- Game 2
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Older News From 1 May 2000:
BC CARD CHALLENGE DOWN TO FINAL
The final of the 10th BC Card Cup is to be between 20-year-old Han Chong-chin 3-dan and Yi Sang-hun, the younger. There are two players of the same name. This one is 3-dan (the other is 4-dan). This duplication of names is not unique in Korean go.
The first game of the final will be on 9th May, with Game 2 on the 15th and Game 3 on 25th.
Despite the glory that will come with winning this event, at the time of writing the real king of the new faces has to be Yi Se-tol 3-dan. Although he was knocked out in Round 1 of this event, since then he has posted 23-game winning streak (still unbroken). And, as it happens, he is the kid brother of Yi Sang-hun!
RESULTS
Winners' Section
Round 1:
Paek Tae-hyeon 4d 1-0 Kim Myeong-wan 4d
Yi Sang-hun 3d 1-0 Cho Han-seung 3d
Han Chong-chin 3d 1-0 Kim Kwang-sik 3d
Ch'oe Myeong-hun 7d 1-0 Yang Keun 5d
Yi Yong-su 1-0 Mok Chin-seok 5d
Yun Hyeon-seok 5d 1-0 Yi Se-tol 3d
An Yeong-kil 3d 1-0 Hong Chang-sik 2d
Yun Hyeok 2d 1-0 Kim Man-su
Round 2:
Yi Sang-hun 1-0 Paek Tae-hyeon
Ch'oe Myeong-hun 1-0 Han Chong-chin
Yi Yong-su 1-0 Yun Hyeon-seok
Yun Hyeok 1-0 An Yeong-kil
Round 3:
Yi Sang-hun 1-0 Ch'oe Myeong-hun
Yun Hyeon-seok 1-0 Yun Hyeok
Final of Winners' Section:
Yi Sang-hun 1-0 Yun Hyeon-seok
Losers' Section
Round 1:
Paek Tae-hyeon 1-0 Yi Yong-su
Han Chong-chin 1-0 An Yeong-kil
Round 2:
Paek Tae-hyeon 1-0 Ch'oe Myeong-hun
Han Chong-chin 1-0 Yun Hyeok
Round 3:
Han Chong-chin 1-0 Paek Tae-hyeon
Final of Losers' Section:
Han Chong-chin 1-0 Yun Hyeon-seok
HOW DOES THE BC CARD CUP WORK?
The current BC Card Cup tournament is more fully known as the BC Card Cup: King of the New Stars and is restricted to Korean players between 1d and 5d inclusive. But it is a continuation of a tournament (simply called the BC Card Cup) that was originally open to all players, and the numbering of the terms is continuous. The change was made because the chairman of the sponsors wanted a distinctive tournament. Apart from the support of the eponymous credit card company, main sponsorship is due to the newspaper Sports Seoul.
The main tournament in terms 1 to 7 was a 16-man knockout culminating in a three-game final in term 1 - thereafter the final was a 5-game match against the holder. From 1997 the format was changed to restrict it to players between 1d and 5d inclusive at the time of entry or seeding. Komi was 5.5 points. Time limits were 5 hours each in the title final, 4 hours in the main knockout and 3 hours elsewhere. The final took place May-June. The total prize fund in the last term in 1996 was 130 million won (the winner took 11 million won).
In term 8 the prize fund remained at 130 million won, but the winner's prize was reduced to 8 million won. As of 2000 the same levels apply. The main event is a knockout of 16 players (Winners' Section), but with a repechage system (like the Japanese Judan) where Round 2 losers join in a parallel Losers' Section knockout, entering according to the level at which they were knocked out of the Winners' Section. The final, between the winners of the two sections, is a best-of-three.
Komi remained 5.5 points at the changeover, but time limits are now 3 hours each.
The new event is also sometimes simply called the Sin-in Wang (New Stars) which is the direct equivalent of the Japanese Shinjin-O and the Chinese Xinren Wang.
Click here for a list of BC CARD CUP WINNERS AND CHALLENGERS.
