YI CH'ANG-HO TAKES FOURTH SUCCESSIVE WANGWI
World number 1 Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan held off a strong challenge from Yu Ch'ang-hyeok 9-dan to win the 33rd Wangwi title, his fourth consecutive victory. After a mere half-pointer in Game 1 on 2 August which Yu won - beating Yi in an endgame battle must have surprised him - the next four games stylistically suited Yu, being slugfests that ended in early resignations. But Yi won three of them, including the decisive last one on 27 September.
Meanwhile, we now know the next challenger to Yi will come from the eight players who have already secured their places in the 34th League.
Yang Chae-ho 9-dan, Yun Hyeon-seok 5-dan, An Cho-yeong 5-dan and Weon Seo-ho 2-dan battled through the preliminaries to join the four who keep their places from last year: Yu Ch'ang-hyeok 9-dan, Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan, Seo Pong-su 9-dan and Yi Se-tol 2-dan.
Especially remarkable is the emergence of young Weon - only 14 - but it is no fluke, as he has been showing up well in other tournaments. Yi Se-tol is only 16 and An must feel like an old man at 20 - but he is another who has been performing well elsewhere.
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Older News From 5th October 1999:
1999 WANGWI CHALLENGER DECIDED
Yu Ch'ang-hyeok 9-dan has won the right to challenge world number one Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan for the 33rd Wangwi title.
Yu, regarded by Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan as the best middle-game player in the world (Yi is the best in the endgame), became the challenger by beating Cho (world's best in the opening!) by 1.5 points in the last game of the Wangwi league. Yu thus notched up a perfect 7-0 record.
The Wangwi is unusual among Korean tournaments in having a league, as opposed to a knockout to find the challenger, and may currently be regarded as the premier Korean domestic title.
HOW DOES THE WANGWI TOURNAMENT WORK?
The Wangwi tournament is sponsored by the Chung-ang Il-po (Central Daily News).The main tournament is an 8-man league (all-play-all once) to find a challenger to the holder. The bottom four in the league drop out.
Komi is 5.5. Time limits are 5 hours each in the final and 4 hours elsewhere.
The final was a best of seven from terms 16 to 31 (otherwise best offive).
The prize fund was increased to 270 million won (winner 35m won; second 6m won) in 1996 from 230 million won (winner 30m won).
Wangwi (Japanese Oi, Chinese Wangwei) means Throne.
Click here for a list of the WANGWI WINNERS AND CHALLENGERS.
