Bring out the thesaurus and look up stupendous. Yet there are probably not enough words there to describe the achievement of Rui Naiwei 9-dan. Winning the third and final game of the 43rd Kuksu title match against Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan on 21 February 2000, she has become the first woman to win a major go title in any country. And it was no fluke. Apart from Cho, one world champion title holder, on the way she beat another, Yi Ch'ang-ho. The Kuksu is also the oldest tournament in Korea.
Rui already holds the Women's Kuksu title, so is now a Double Kuksu - that's one record the men will never get!
Rui is Chinese but is playing in Korea as a guest. The original intention on the Korean side was that, by her presence, she would help their female pros improve. It remains to be seen how they react to the notion that it could be the men who get the most benefit, but Rui is hugely popular with the Korean go media. She makes herself available for technical articles and takes time out to answer their questions.
In reply to one question she said she regarded Cho Hun-hyeon in part as her teacher. She knows all the right moves!
Here, for the record books, is Game 3 in downloadable sgf format.
Here are the first two games in downloadable sgf format.
Older News From 1 February 2000: YET ANOTHER PEAK SCALED BY RUI
After losing the first game of the 43rd Kuksu final to holder Cho Hun-hyeon, China's Rui Naiwei 9-dan, guesting in Korea, came back to win Game 2 of the three-game series on 31 January 2000. Rui already set a record of being the first woman to contest a major final. Now this is the highest-level game ever won by a woman.
We have an agonising wait now to see whether she can make the final step. Game 3 is scheduled for 21 February. Who needs Super Bowls!
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Older News From January 6 2000: HISTORIC FIRST FOR WOMANKIND
Rui Naiwei 9-dan has become the first woman ever to challenge for a major go title. Since she beat Yi Ch'ang-ho in the Challengers' Final of the 43rd Kuksu in Korea on 4 January - what a way to start the Millennium - no-one can deny she can leap the final hurdle. Although she will be playing no less than Cho Hun-hyeon, she has already beaten him in 1999.
Rui, a Chinese guesting in Korea after spells in Japan and North America, already has the highest winning percentage (86%) of all active pros in Korea in 1999, although it was boosted by her overwhelming superiority in the women's games. She has already won the Women's Kuksu title in 1999, and if she can add the open title to it she will have achieved a record no man can ever match.
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Older News from December 9 1999: RUI MOVES CLOSE TO FIRST MAJOR TITLE CHALLENGE
Top woman's player Rui Naiwei 9-dan, so long excluded from competing at the highest levels for reasons that currently can only be explained more by rumour than by fact, has moved just one match away from mounting her first challenge for a major title in her new home, Korea.
If she succeeds in beating the winner of the Yi-Ch'ang-ho/Ch'oe Kyu-pyeing game, she will be pitted against Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan in the final in the final of the 43rd Kuksu.
She is certainly in form. This year her win-loss record is an astonishing 85%. She has already won the Women's Kuksu final this year, but that was more of a romp.
Husband Jiang Zhujiu 9-dan also featured in the Kuksu, but failed to register any success.
RESULTS
Winners' section
Round 1: Yi Ch'ang-ho 1-0 Heo Chang-heui; Kim Seung-chun 1-0 Jiang Zhujiu; Cho Han-seung 1-0 Kim Myeong-hwan; Rui Naiwei 1-0 Ch'oe Kyu-pyeong
Round 2: Kim Seung-chun 1-0 Yi Ch'ang-ho; Rui Naiwei 1-0 Cho Han-seung
Round 2: Yi Ch'ang-ho 1-0 Kim Myeong-hwan; Ch'oe Kyu-pyeong 1-0 Cho Han-seung
Click here to download the game in sgf format between Kim Seung-chun and Yi Ch'ang-ho in Round 2 of the Winners' section.
HOW DOES THE KUKSU TOURNAMENT WORK?
The Kuksu, the longest running tournament in Korea, is sponsored by the Tong-a Il-po (Far East Daily News).
The main tournament is a seeded knockout of eight players (Winners' section) with the losers going across, according to the stage at which they lose, into a parallel repechage knockout (Losers' section), like the Judan in Japan. Until 1998, the winners of the two sections usually played a 3-game match to challenge the holder in a 5-game match (now a 3-game match). However, the earliest terms, with fewer players available, show some variation in format.
Total prize money in 1997 was 200 million won (winner 22m won), increased from 150m won (winner 18m won), but after the Asian financial turbulence in 1998 it fell back to 100 million won (winner 10m won), with the number of games in the final also being reduced.
Komi is 5.5 points. Time limits are 5 hours each in the final, 4 hours in the knockout final, 3 hours elsewhere.
A kuksu (sometimes also written kuksoo or guksu) is the Korean version of the Chinese guoshou and means a person who guides the country through excelling in his field. In practice it was limited to fields such as medicine and go.
