by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal

Globis Cup Update: China and Korea share semifinal places: Play in the second Globis Cup got off to a start on Friday, May 8, with the first two games of the first round being played in the four groups (click here for photos of all the players on the Nihon Kiin’s japanese-language site). For four players, two games were enough, as successive wins secured them places in the quarterfinals. Two of them, Huang Yunsong and Li Qincheng, are from China, and the other two, Lee Donghun and Na Hyun, are from Korea. (Previously I called Huang Kuang, but Huang is correct.) The six Japanese players all scored 1-1, which meant that their fate would be decided by the third game in the first round, played on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, the non-Far Eastern players, Pavol Lisy of Slovakia, Lionel Zhang of the USA, and Krit Jamkachornkiat of Thailand, were eliminated on Friday. There’s another correction: the program lists Krit as amateur 7-dan, but he is actually 4-dan. The fourth player eliminated on the first day was Lin Junyan of Chinese Taipei.
Here are full results for the first day.
Group A: (Game 1) Huang Yunsong 3P (China) beat Ichiriki Ryo 7P (Japan) by resig.; Yo Seiki 7P (Japan) (B) beat Lin Junyan 6P (Chinese Taipei) by half a point. (Game 2) Huang (B) beat Yo by resig.; Ichiriki beat Lin by resig.
Group B: (Game 1) Lee Donghun 5P (Korea) beat Fujimura 2P (Japan) by resig. (colors not given in chart), Yang Dingxin beat Pavol Lisy 1P (Slovakia) by resig. (Game 2) Lee (B) beat Yang by resig;  Fujimura beat Lisy by resig.
Group C: (Game 1) Li Qincheng 2P (China) beat Motoki Katsuya 3P (Japan) by resig. (colors not given), Shin Jin Seo 3P (Korea) beat Lionel Zhang 7D (USA) by 12.5 points.  (Game 2) Li beat Shin by resig., Motoki beat Zhang by 9.5 points.
Group D: (Game 1) Na Hyun 6P (Korea) beat Sada Atsushi 2P (Japan) by resig., Koyama Kuya 2P (Japan) (B) beat Krit Jamkachornkiat 4D (Thailand) by resig. (Game 2) Na beat Koyama by resig., Sada (B) beat Jamkachornkiat on time.

The third game of the first round was played on Saturday morning. With six Japanese representatives surviving in the four groups day, that meant that meant four of them had to play each other. Unfortunately for Japan, its top two players ran into each other. Yo Seiki prevailed, eliminating last year’s tournament winner, Ichiriki.
Full results: Yo (B) beat Ichiriki by resig.; Yang beat Fujimura by resig.; Shin beat Motoki by resig.; Sada (B) beat Koyama by 2.5 points. 

The result was that all the three Chinese players in the tournament and all the three Korean players made the quarterfinals, along with two Japanese representatives. The quarterfinals were played on Saturday afternoon, starting at one o’clock.
Results: Huang beat Shin by resig.; Lee beat Yo by resig.; Li beat Sada by 6.5 points; Na beat Yang by resig.

The pairings in the semifinals, to start at ten o’clock on Sunday morning, are Huang vs. Lee and Li vs. Na.

The Globis Cup World Igo U-20 is organized by the Nihon Ki-in and the main sponsor is the Globis Corporation, with Otsuka Pharmaceuticals and Kitami Hakka Tsusho Inc. acting as supporting sponsors. 

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