An Jungki turns pro at the 2nd MLily Cup

The main tournament of the 2nd MLily Cup began in Beijing this week, with the round of 64 and the round of 32 played on July 7 and 9 respectively.

The round of 64 at the 2nd MLily Cup, in Beijing, China.

Round of 64

China dominates the draw

Many Chinese players progressed through the preliminaries in late May, to join the round of 64.

Overall, there were 38 players from China, 17 from Korea, 3 from Japan, 2 from Taiwan, 2 from Europe and 2 from the US in the round of 64.

After the dust settled, 22 Chinese players and 10 Korean players proceeded through to the next round. Sadly, all other countries were eliminated.

Favorites knocked out

Lee Donghoon 5 dan (left) and Mi Yuting 9 dan at the 2nd MLily Cup.

Mi Yuting 9p, the defending champion from the 1st MLily Cup didn’t show his power this time and lost to Lee Donghoon 5p.

Gu Li 9p, the finalist from the 1st MLily Cup, faced Shi Yue 9p and was defeated.

Kim Jiseok 9p, who is ranked #2 in Korea, was also defeated by Wang Zejin 3p, who is a 16 year old boy. Korean baduk fans were shocked by the news.

An Jungki turns pro!

An Jungki 5d amateur defeated Hu Yuqing 8 dan amateur (left) to become a pro.

An Jungki 5 dan defeated Hu Yuqing 8 dan (left) to become a pro.

An Jungki 5d (amateur) defeated Hu Yuqing 8d (amateur).

In the process he achieved the 100 points necessary to qualify as a pro in Korea!

Under a relatively new qualification system, amateur players can earn points towards turning professional by qualifying for and performing well in professional level tournaments.

We recently interviewed An Jungki and you can learn more about him here and review one of his games here.

Yu Zhiying and Wang Chenxing

Two women also proceeded to the next round. Yu Zhiying 5p and Wang Chenxing 5p defeated Huang Yizhong 8p, and Chen Yusen 2p respectively.

However, the other two women in the draw, Rui Naiwei 9p and Park Jiyeon 4p, were defeated.

Tuo Jiaxi 9 dan (left) plays Wang Chenxing 5 dan in the round of 32.

North America and Europe

Europe’s Ilya Shikshin 1p played against Park Junghwan 9p. Shikshin played quite well, but Park was just too strong for him in the end.

Meanwhile, North America’s Eric Lui 6d (amateur) faced Byun Sangil 3p.

A new pattern in the Taisha joseki appeared and Lui tried to attack Black’s weaknesses. However, Byun managed the game very well and Lui couldn’t catch up.

Alexander Dinerchtein 3p (Europe) was defeated by Kim Sedong 5p and Yang Huiren 1p (North America) lost to Lian Xiao 7p.

Round of 32

Park Junghwan edges out Chen Yaoye

In the round of 32, 11 players from China and 5 from Korea proceeded to round of 16.

Park Junghwan 9p, ranked #1 in Korea, defeated Chen Yaoye 9p, who is ranked #6 in China.

Their head to head record before this game stood at 14 all, and Park won their 29th game together.

Chen Yaoye 9 dan (left) and Park Junghwan 9 dan at the 2nd MLily Cup.

Meanwhile, Park Younghun (Korea’s #5) bested Lian Xiao 7p (China’s #4) by a half a point.

Chang Hao is back!

Veteran, Chang Hao 9p defeated the much younger Shin Minjoon 3p to proceeded to the round of 16.

The last time Chang reached the round of 16 in an international tournament was at the 1st Bailing Cup in 2010.

Won Seongjin 9p was defeated by Xie Ke 1p, and that was the biggest upset in the round of 32.

Wu Guangya 6p knocked out Shi Yue (#1 in China), paving the way for his second career appearance in the round of 16 of an international tournament.

The two remaining women, Yu Zhiying and Wang Chenxing, were defeated by Zhou Ruiyang 9p and Tuo Jiaxi 9p, and didn’t proceed further.

Zhou Ruiyang 9 dan (left) and Yi Zhiying 5 dan at the 2nd MLily Cup.

An Jungki too excited?

Having already succeeded in turning pro, An Jungki was knocked out by Kim Sedong after 81 moves.

Perhaps the excitement got the better of him. Who could blame him?

Round of 16 draw

The date and venue for the round 16 haven’t been decided yet, but play will resume with the following pairings:

Park Junghwan 9p vs Zhou Ruiyang 9p
Lee Sedol 9p vs Ding Hao 2p
Park Younghun 9p vs Chang Hao 9p
Tuo Jiaxi 9p vs Ahn Seongjun 6p
Kim Sedong 5p vs Rong Yi 4p
Tang Weixing 9p vs Li Qincheng 2p
Ke Jie 9p vs Wang Zejin 3p, and
Wu Guangya 6p vs Xie Ke 1p.

The MLily Cup

The MLily Cup is a biennial international Go tournament, which started in 2013 and is sponsored by MLily Meng Baihe – a mattress and bedding company.

It’s intended that it will alternate with the (also biennial) Bailing Cup, every other year.

The draw consists of 16 seeded players from China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan and 48 players from preliminary rounds, including 4 women and 4 amateurs.

Each player receives 2 hours thinking time and 5 x 1 minute byo-yomi. The main time is increased to 3 hours each for the final. The semifinals are played as best of three matches and the final is a best of five match.

The winner receives 1.8 million RMB (about $290,000 USD at the time of writing) and the runner up receives 600,000 RMB. This puts the tournament in the same league as the Bailing Cup and Samsung Cup, in terms of prize money.

The official name, ‘MLily Meng Baihe Cup World Go Open Tournament’ (try saying that 10 times) uses the sponsor’s double barrel English and Chinese names.

The Chinese name, 梦百合 Meng (=dream) Baihe (=lilies), translates literally to ‘dream of lilies’. A looser, but more natural translation would be something like ‘sweet dreams’. This explains the somewhat cryptic ‘MLily’ moniker.

Game records

Mi Yuting vs Lee Donghoon

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