Athough the seemingly unstoppable train called Yi Se-tol 3-dan ran into the buffers a few times as he moved up to play the top players, it was only a matter of time before he captured his first significant title. A short time at that. On 6 December 2000, he trounced Yu Chae-hyeong 4-dan 3-0 after winning Game 3 of the 5th Bacchus Cup for the Chunweon (Korean Tengen) title.
Having earlier this year featured as part of the record double bill in which brothers contested a title for the first time, Yi Se-tol and his elder brother Yi Sang-hun 3-dan now share a record, we believe, for being the first brothers to hold titles concurrently.
Se-tol is still only 17, but has been a pro since 1995. Sang-hun is eight years older and has been a pro since 1990. He has been a slow mover, but has recently picked up the pace as his brother has (presumably) spurred him on.
Older News From 26 November 2000: YI TAKES ANOTHER STEP TOWARDS GLORY
Yi Se-tol 3-dan moved another step towards his first major title when he defeated Yu Chae-hyeong 4-dan in Game 2 of the 5th Bacchus Cup for the Chunweon (Korean Tengen) title on 26 November 2000 in Seoul. He took just 143 moves to move into a 2-0 lead.
Game 3 is on 1 December and, if needed in this best-of-five, Game 4 is on 6 December.
Yi Se-tol deep in thought during his LG Cup quarter-final in Paris
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Older News From 30 October 2000: UNSTOPPABLE YI HAS EYES ON MAJOR TITLE
Young superstar Yi Se-tol 3-dan, almost invincible this year, has staked a claim to his first major title by winning Game 1of the 5th Bacchus Cup for the Chunweon (Korean Tengen) title on 29 October 2000. His opponent in the best-of-five series is Yu Chae-hyeong 4-dan who is 23 years old.
Yu should not be underestimated. He beat Rui Naiwei 9-dan in the semi-finals, and put her dream of being a multiple title holder on ice. Yi's victim in the semis was veteran Seo Pong-su 9-dan.
Yu Chae-hyeong
Game 2 is on 25 November.
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Older News From 10 June 2000: RUI THREATENS AGAIN
Having scaled one peak in winning the Kuksu title, Chinese superstar Rui Naiwei 9-dan is threatening to match that achievement in the 5th Bacchus Cup for the Chunweon (Korean Tengen) title. She overcame Ch'oe Kyu-pyeong 9-dan on 8 June 2000 to move into the last four.
She will have been helped by the fact that holder Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan crashed out at the same stage, the quarter-finals, to a lowly 4-dan, Yu Chae-hyeong.
The Chunweon tournament is more fully known as the Bacchus Cup: Chunweon Title and it is the successor to the Bacchus Cup. Sponsors of both cups are Tong-a Che-yak (Far East Pharmaceuticals) and Mae-il Kyeong-che Sin-mun (Daily Economic newspaper), with some assistance from the paper Sports Seoul.
The main tournament is a 16-man knockout culminating in a five-game final. Komi is 5.5. Time limits are 5 hours each in the final, 4 hours in the main knockout and 3 hours in the preliminaries. The final (best-of-five) takes place in the winter. The old Bacchus Cup had the same format but the final was in June-July.
First prize in 1998 was 11 million won, second 4m won, from a 120 million won prize fund.
Chunweon, like the Chinese Tianyuan, is borrowed from the Japanese word Tengen (origin of Heaven) which, in its go sense of centre of the board, is attributed to the Imperial astronomer Shibukawa Shunkai (1639-1715; he was 7-dan in go). For this reason the tournament is sometimes known as the Korean Tengen.
