Gu Li back on top, wins 10th Chunlan Cup

On June 3, 2015, Gu Li 9p defeated Zhou Ruiyang 9p 2-0 to win the 10th Chunlan Cup in Zhangjiajie, China.

Zhou Ruiyang 9 dan takes on Gu Li 9 dan in the final of the 10th Chunlan Cup.

Gu and Zhou earned their places in the final by defeating Kim Jiseok 9p and Chen Yaoye 9p respectively, in the semifinals.

Gu ends a long drought

Gu Li 9 dan digs deep to win the 10th Chunlan Cup.

After two nail biting games, Gu finally ended a long drought of international titles.

While Gu has long been a regular in the finals of international Go tournaments, this is his first international title since the 15th Samsung Cup in 2010!

In 2014, Gu focused his energies on his historic jubango against Lee Sedol 9p.

However, despite being a hard fought match, Gu eventually lost 6-2 and didn’t play through to the end of the 10 game match.

This must have been a disappointing outcome for Gu.

Nevertheless, Gu’s die hard fans hope that this win will mark the start Gu’s resurgence in 2015.

Third place playoff

Defending champion Chen Yaoye defeated Kim Jiseok to win the third place playoff, which was also played on June 1, 2015.

Kim Jiseok 9 dan couldn’t overcome Chen Yaoye 9 dan to take third place at the 10th Chunlan Cup.

Chen, now 26, was a child prodigy who won the 2005 Chinese National Weiqi Individual Championship when he was just 16 and was the runner up in the 10th LG Cup (where he lost to Gu Li) that same year.

He finally made his long anticipated international breakthrough in 2013, when he won the 9th Chunlan Cup against Lee Sedol. However, he hasn’t won any other international titles since then.

The Chunlan Cup

The Chunlan Cup is an invitational Go tournament for 24 top players from around the world. In addition to players from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, a European and a North American representative are also invited. The tournament started out being held annually, but is now biennial.

The top 8 seeded players proceed directly to round two, while the remaining 16 play a single elimination round, knocking out 8 players. After the first round, the remaining 16 players compete in a knockout tournament, culminating in a best of three final.

The tournament is sponsored by Chunlan Group, a Chinese conglomerate with interests in the air conditioning, domestic appliance, automotive, finance and alternative energy industries.

The Chunlan Cup uses Chinese rules, with a komi of 7.5 points, and offers a prize of $150,000 USD to the winner.

Game records

Zhou Ruiyang vs Gu Li – Game 1

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Gu Li vs Zhou Ruiyang – Game 2

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