Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan retained his title in the 34th P'aewang tournament by taking a 2-1 lead in Game 3 of the on 3 April 2000, defeating challenger Yi Seong-chae 5-dan by 4.5 points in 256 moves.
This final was a re-run of the last event in 1997, except that the final has been shortened to three games. This is a result of the financial problems in Asia that began in July 1997, and which saw the prize fund for this event reduced to 90 million won (Cho, as winner takes one-tenth of that).
Here are the games of the 34th final in downloadable sgf format:
Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan struck back immediately in game 2 of the 34th P'aewang, defeating challenger Yi Seong-chae 5-dan in 205 moves on 17 March. Game 3 is scheduled for 3 April.
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Older News From 10 March 2000: THE OTHER YI STAKES FIRST CLAIM TO P'AEWANG
Yi Seong-chae 5-dan, the first player featured in the New Kids series on this site, is repeating his challenge of two years ago as he faces holder Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan in the slightly revamped 34th P'aewang. He got off to the best possible start on 9 March 2000 with victory in 139 moves in Game 1, Cho possibly having yet to get over his mauling by Rui Naiwei in the Kuksu. It makes a change to have a Korean final not contested by Yi Ch'ang-ho!
The other Yu who made it to the Challengers' final will not be familiar to many. He is a 22-year-old from Kimhae who made 3-dan as long ago as 1995 but seems to have stalled since.
Game 2 is scheduled for 17 March.
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Earlier results from Challenger's tournament:
Quarter-final 1 (26 November 1999): Seo Pong-su 9d 1-0 Seo Neung-uk 9d Quarter-final 2 (3 December): Yi Seong-chae 5d 1-0 Yi Sang-hun 6d Quarter-final 3 (23 December): Yu Chae-hyung 3d 1-0 Han Chong-chin 3d Quarter-final 4 (23 December): Cho Han-seung 3d 1-0 Yi Se-tol 3d
Semi-final 1 (24 January 2000): Yi Seong-chae 1-0 Cho Han-seung Semi-final 2 (28 January): Yu Chae-hyung 1-0 Seo Pong-su
Challengers' final (11 February) Yi Seong-chae 1-0 Yu Chae-hyung
HOW DOES THE P'AEWANG TOURNAMENT WORK?
The P'aewang tournament, one of the oldest in Korea though it has had gaps, is sponsored by the Seoul Sinmun (Seoul Newspaper), now known as the Taehan Maeil newspaper.
The total prize fund was set at 100m won in 1996 (winner 12m won; runner-up 5m won) but, as a result of the financial turbulence in Asian markets, Term 34 was postponed for a year and the prize fund has been temporarily reduced. The winner's prize for year 1999-2000 will be 9 million won, with 2.5 million won for the runner-up. Players also currently compete for the OneShot 018 Cup.
The main tournament is a knockout with a main tournament of 16 players, the winner (latterly from a 3-game final) challenging the title holder to a 5-game match (temporarily reduced to 3 games in term 34) which has taken place in mid-winter or, latterly, in the spring.
Time limits are 5 hours each. Komi is 5.5 points but will change to 6.5 points in Term 35.
