Go Commentary: Gu Li ve Zhou Ruiyang – 10th Chunlan Cup

This is game 2 from the 10th Chunlan Cup final.

The game was played between Gu Li 9p and Zhou Ruiyang 9p on June 10, 2015, in Zhangjiajie, China.

Gu won game 1 of the final by resignation on June 8, 2015, and this was game 2 from the best three match.

Zhou Ruiyang 9 dan (left) and Gu Li 9 dan at the 10th Chunlan Cup final.

Gu Li

Gu Li is currently ranked #8 in China, but he used to be #1 for a long time in his prime.

Gu Li 9 dan at the 10th Chunlan Cup final.

He won the 10th LG Cup defeating Chen Yaoye 9p in 2006, and it was his first international title in his career.

In 2007, he won the 6th Chunlan Cup, and he won the 21st Fujitsu Cup in 2008.

In 2009, Gu became invincible. He won the 4th Toyota-Denso Cup, the 13th LG Cup and the 1st BC Card Cup respectively, and he became unarguably the best in the world. Especially, he defeated Lee Sedol 9p by 2-0 in LG Cup, and he was in his peak.

In 2010, he won the 15th Samsung Cup, but surprisingly Gu didn’t add any international title since then.

Gu lost to Lee Sedol in the final of the 3rd BC Card Cup, and he was also defeated by Won Seongjin 9p at the 16th Samsung Cup in 2011.

Gu was in the final of the 1st MLily Cup in 2013, but he lost to Mi Yuting 9p, who was unknown by that time, and it was shocking news for his fans.

There was a historical match between Gu Li and Lee Sedol in 2014 called MLily Gu vs Lee Jubango, and Gu lost to Lee badly by 6-2 score. Most of Go fans might have thought it’ll take a while for Gu to overcome from the defeat, but Gu won against Kim Jiseok 9p in the semifinals at the end of 2014, and he proceeded to the final.

In this Chunlan Cup, Gu defeated Lee Sedol, Cho U 9p, and Kim Jiseok 9p respectively to proceeded to the final.

Zhou Ruiyang

Zhou Ruiyang 9 dan at the 10th Chunlan Cup final.

Zhou Ruiyang was born in 1991, and became a pro in 2002.

He’s currently ranked #5 in China, but he also used to be #1 in China for a year between 2010 and 2011.

His results in the international matches weren’t outstanding when he was ranked #1, but he was getting better since 2012, and he eventually won the 1st Bailing Cup by defeating Chen Yaoye in early 2013.

At the time, Chen was ranked #1, but Zhou shutout Chen by 3-0. Zhou’s style of play is practical and lively, and somehow that’s working very well against Chen’s thick and solid style of play.

He won two domestic titles (13th Liguang Cup and 1st Luoyang Longmen Qisheng) after winning the Bailing Cup in the same year.

In 2014, he proceeded to the final of the 18th LG Cup to challenge for another title, but he lost to Tuo Jiaxi 9p.

This final is his 2nd challenge to win his 2nd international title.

Zhou defeated Iyama Yuta 9p, Shi Yue 9p and Chen Yaoye 9p to the final in this Chunlan Cup.

Let’s have look at the final of the 10th Chunlan Cup.

Gu Li 9 dan (left) and Zhou Ruiyang 9 dan after the game.

Commented game record

Gu Li vs Zhou Ruiyang

gliftWidget = glift.create({“divId”:”glift_display1″,”sgf”:”https:\/\/gogameguru.com\/i\/2015\/06\/Gu-Li-vs-Zhou-Ruiyang-20150603-Commentary-An-Younggil.sgf”,”display”:{“theme”:”DEPTH”,”goBoardBackground”:”https:\/\/gogameguru.com\/i\/glift\/purty_wood.jpg”,”drawBoardCoords”:”1″}});

Our Go game diagrams and Go problems require JavaScript to work.

Please enable it when viewing Go Game Guru.

Download SGF File (Go Game Record)