The round of 16 and the quarter finals of the 2nd MLily Cup took place on August 30 and September 1, 2015, in Guangzhou, China.

It was a showdown between China and Korea, with Japanese and Taiwanese players eliminated in earlier rounds.

Defeating a natural enemy

Zhou Ruiyang 9p defeated Park Junghwan 9p in a very meaningful victory for Zhou.

Zhou Ruiyang 9 dan (left) defeats natural enemy Park Junghwan 9 dan at the 2nd MLily Cup

Their head to head record before this game stood at 8-1 in Park’s favor, which is very unbalanced between world champion players.

However, Zhou’s excellent sabaki in this game was a tour de force and he was able to overcome his natural enemy.

Upset of the round

Ahn Seongjun 6p caused a stir by unexpectedly upsetting Chinese heavyweight, Tuo Jiaxi 9p.

An Sungjoon 6 dan (left) upsets world champion, Tuo Jiaxi 9 dan at the 2nd MLily Cup

Other round of 16 games

Lee Sedol 9p and Park Younghun 9p easily defeated their respective opponents, Ding Hao 2p and Chinese veteran, Chang Hao 9p.

Rong Yi 4p defeated Kim Sedong 5p by a half a point in the only game not decided by resignation.

Tang Weixing 9p, Ke Jie 9p and Xie Ke 1p were too good for fellow countrymen, Li Qincheng 1p, Wang Zejin 3p and Wu Guangya 6p.

Quarter finals

After a brief day’s respite, eight remaining players regrouped to vie for a spot in the semifinal.

Ahn Seongjun 6p continued his run by defeating China’s Xie Ke 1p.

An will take on Lee Sedol 9p, who ended Tang Weixing’s hopes to proceed to the quarter finals.

An Sungjoon 6 dan (left) delighted to take on Lee Sedol 9 dan in the 2nd MLily Cup semifinal

Park Younghun 9p halted Zhou Ruiyang’s run in fine form.

Park will face China’s sole hope in the semifinal, Ke Jie 9p, who bested Rong Yi 4p.

Ke Jie 9 dan (left) will take on Park Younghun 9 dan (right) in the semifinals of the 2nd MLily Cup

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

Zhou Ruiyang vs Park Junghwan

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Tuo Jiaxi vs Ahn Seongjun

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Tang Weixing vs Lee Sedol

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Park Younghun vs Zhou Ruiyang

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Xie Ke vs Ahn Seongjun

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Ke Jie vs Rong Yi

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Lee Sedol 9p defeated Park Junghwan 9p in the final of the the 27th Asian TV Cup, on August 28, 2015.

The final was played in Seoul, Korea, and Lee won by resignation after 207 moves.

Lee Sedol played wonderfully against Park Junghwan in the final, and added a 4th Asian TV Cup to his international record.

Park Junghwan 9 dan (left) and Lee Sedol 9 dan at the 27th Asian TV Cup final.

Lee Sedol’s comeback

Lee Sedol won the 19th Asian TV Cup, defeating Chen Yaoye 9p in 2007, and he won again the following year, defeating Cho Hanseung 9p.

Lee Sedol won his 4th Asian TV Cup title.

In 2008, both Lee Sedol and Cho Hanseung donated their prize money to the Sichuan earthquake relief fun.

In 2014, Lee defeated Kono Rin 9p in the final, and it was his 3rd Asian TV Cup title.

In 2009, just before the 21st Asian TV Cup, Lee decided to retire. The final against Kong Jie 9p was his last game before his retirement.

At an interview before the final, he said tearfully, “this will be the last game of my career in Korea.”

However, at this year’s event he recalled that time and said, “I was so depressed and I couldn’t concentrate because of the conflict with the Korean Baduk Association and my retirement. I lost the game too.”

“This is the same venue as in 2009, and now I have good memories of this place and I’m very happy about that.”

Lee decided to make a comeback after taking a 6 month break, and he soon recovered his strength and sense of play. This was very fortunate for Go fans, including myself, who enjoy watching Lee’s dynamic and insightful style of play.

Park Junghwan’s defeat

Meanwhile, this was Park Junghwan’s 2nd Asian TV Cup final.

Park Junghwan 9 dan was the runner up at the 27th Asian TV Cup.

He was in the final of 25th Asian TV Cup in 2013, but he lost to Iyama Yuta 9p and it was a painful defeat for him.

That’s because Park and Iyama were ranked #1, in Korea and Japan respectively, at the time.

Many of his fans in Korea were disappointed when he lost to Iyama.

This time, he defeated Liao Xingwen 5p and Lee Donghoon 5p to proceed to the final, but his run was stopped by Lee Sedol.

The head to head record between Lee Sedol and Park Junghwan is 13-6 in Lee’s favor, including this final.

It looks like Park still hasn’t overtaken Lee, even though Park’s been ranked #1 in Korea for nearly two years now.

At a post-game interview, Park said “I wanted to play a good game without worrying about the result, but I couldn’t do so. I’ll study hard and I hope to meet Lee in another final soon.”

The Chinese and Japanese contenders

Ichiriki Ryo 7 dan (left) and Yang Dingxin 3 dan at the 27th Asian TV Cup.

All the Japanese players in this event were eliminated at an early stage.

Iyama Yuta won the tournament in 2013, and Kono Rin came 2nd in 2014, but this year’s results weren’t satisfactory for the Japanese players.

Ida Atsushi 8p and Ichiriki Ryo 7p were also defeated, by Lee Donghun 5p and Yang Dingxin 3p respectively.

China’s representatives didn’t fare much better. Yang Dingxin won his 1st round game, but he lost to Lee Sedol in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, Liao Xingwen 5p was defeated by Park Junghwan in round 1.

Kong Jie 9p has won the Asian TV Cup three times in a row, from 2009 to 2011, but somehow Chinese players haven’t done well in this lightning tournament since then.

The Asian TV Cup

The Asian TV Cup is a lightning Go tournament open to the winners and runners up of domestic Chinese, Japanese and Korean lightning tournaments.

The name ‘Asian TV’ came about because the domestic lightning tournaments were all sponsored by local broadcasting stations – CCTV, NHK and KBS respectively.

However, in 2013, China spoiled the party by changing the sponsor of their qualifying tournament to CITIC Bank.

Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul take turns as tournament hosts.

The previous year’s winner is seeded into the semifinals while the other six players battle it out for the three remaining semifinal places.

The players receive 10 minutes main time and 30 seconds byo-yomi for their games.

Yang-Dingxin 3 dan (left) and Lee Sedol 9 dan at the 27th Asian TV Cup semifinals.

Game records

Lee Sedol vs Park Junghwan

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Lee Sedol vs Yang Dingxin

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Lee Donghoon vs Park Junghwan

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Yang Dingxin vs Ichiriki Ryo

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This game is from the 2013 Samsung Cup, round of 16.

The game was played between Lee Sedol 9p and Chen Yaoye 9p on October 8, 2013, in Daejeon, Korea.

Chen Yaoye 9 dan (left) and Lee Sedol 9 dan at the 2013 Samsung Cup, round of 16.

Chen Yaoye

Lee Sedol and Chen Yaoye already played each other in the group stage of this Samsung Cup, and Chen won the game.

Chen Yaoye 9 dan at the 2013 Samsung Cup, round of 16.

However, Lee defeated Komatsu Hideki 9p to pass through the group stage, and they faced in the round of 16 again.

They also played at the 9th Chunlan Cup final in June 2013, and Chen defeated Lee and winning the title with a 2-1 score.

That was Chen Yaoye’s first career international title, and it seemed as if Chen’s period had begun.

After Chen won the 9th Chunlan Cup, many Go fans regarded him as the strongest player in the world.

That’s because both Chen and Lee were ranked #1 in China and Korea, so their final was regarded as a grand final.

The title deciding game of the Chunlan Cup was a masterpiece of these two players.

Lee Sedol

Lee Sedol was in deep slump in the 1st half of 2013. He lost to Park Junghwan 9p in the 14th Maxim Cup final, and he was also defeated by Kim Jiseok 9p in the 18th GS Caltex Cup final.

Lee Sedol 9 dan at the 2013 Samsung Cup, round of 16.

However, he was getting better from the slump in the 2nd half of 2013, and he was in good form again when he was playing this game.

Many of his fans still considered him as the best player, and he needed to show his power and strength in the international matches like this Samsung Cup.

Their head to head records before this game was tie with 5-5. However, Chen was winning their last three games in a row, and I assume that this would have been a tough game for Lee.

Chen was very strong against top Korean players by that time, with his solid and defensive style of play. He hardly made mistakes when he was in good shape, and he was getting stronger against Lee as well.

Anyway, let’s have a look at their dynamic game.

Commented game record

Lee Sedol vs Chen Yaoye

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