YI WINS
World No. 1 Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan won the 31st Myeongin title on 23 October 2000 when he completed a clean sweep 3-0 against his teacher Cho Hun-hyeon.
It was perhaps a little bit of an anticlimax to the new-look competition - a league format and uprating to a best-of-five final - but Yi obviously decided the old look with him holding the trophy was rather better. It is the 9th time he has won it in the last 10 years, though he still has some way to go to match Ma Xiaochun's record in the equivalent Mingren title matches in China.
Here is Game 3 in downloadable sgf format.
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Older News From 10 October 2000:
YI MOVES FURTHER AHEAD
Still almost unbeatable with Black, Yi Ch'ang-ho moved into a 2-0 lead on 10 October 2000 in the final of the 31st Myeongin title, defeating challenger Cho Hun-hyeon in just 201 moves.
Here are the first two games of the final in downloadable sgf format.
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Older News From 28 September 2000:
YI STARTS DEFENCE BY CRUSHING TEACHER
The best-of-five series to decide the 31st Myeongin title and the SK Yukong Cup began with a decisive victory with White by holder Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan against his teacher Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan. Game 2 is scheduled for 9 October.
Cho earned his place by first beating Yu Ch'ang-hyeok in his last game in the league, forcing a playoff among three contenders. First, on 15 September, Ch'oe Myeong-hun beat Yu, but on 18 September Cho beat Ch'oe in a system where rank has its privileges.
The final league standings were:
| |
C |
C |
Y |
I |
C |
Y |
K |
M |
|
| Ch'oe Myeong-hun 7d |
- |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
= 5-2 |
| Cho Hun-hyeon 9d |
0 |
- |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
= 5-2 |
| Yang Chae-ho 9d |
0 |
0 |
- |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
= 4-3 |
| Im Chang-sik 6d |
0 |
0 |
0 |
- |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
= 0-7 |
| Ch'oe Kyu-pyeong 9d |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
- |
0 |
0 |
0 |
= 1-6 |
| Yu Ch'ang-hyeok 9d |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
- |
1 |
1 |
= 5-2 |
| Kim Seung-chun 7d |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
- |
1 |
= 4-3 |
| Mok Chin-seok 7d |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
- |
= 4-3 |
From term 31 inclusive komi in this event is now 6.5 but the prize fund remains at 24 million won for the winner and 6 million won for second place.
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Older News From 1 May 2000:
MYEONGIN LEAGUE UPDATE
The league to decide the challenger to holder Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan in the 31st Myeong-in was almost at the halfway stage in April. Yu Ch'ang-hyeok was looking like an early favourite.
MYEONGIN ARCHIVES
HOW DOES THE MYEONGIN TOURNAMENT WORK?
The Myeongin (sometimes spelt Myungin) tournament is sponsored by Han-kuk Il-po (Korea Daily News). From term 27 inclusive it has been played also for the Yukong Cup then the SK Yukong Cup (Yukong Limited is a company in the Sunkyong or SK group, which became co-sponsors from Term 28, replacing Daewoo Securities). SK Corporation describes itself as "the first and biggest energy and chemicals company in Korea" based on a complex in Ulsan.
The total prize fund was increased in 1997 to 300 million won (winner 40m won; second 8m won) from 130 million won (winner 11m won), but has been reduced (apparently temporarily) to 200 million won (winner 24m won) at present as a result of the recent crisis in Asian financial markets.
Up to Term 30 the format was for twelve qualifiers to join four seeds in the main tournament, a 16-man knockout, which culminated in a best-of-three final to find a challenger to the holder. From Term 31 this has been changed to an 8-player league with a repechage knockout for the qualifiers. The title-match final, a best of five, takes place in early Autumn.
Time limits are 5 hours each in the title final, 4 hours in the knockout and 3 hours elsewhere. Komi was 5.5 points up to Term 30 inclusive. It is now 6.5 points.
Myeongin, although originally a Chinese word denoting a Master of some esoteric science such as medicine, in its go context was, like the Chinese Mingren, copied from the Japanese Meijin. The event is sometimes called the Korean Meijin.
Click here for a list of MYEONGIN FINALISTS.
