Level of Amateurs in Korea
16 January 1st round of BC Card Cup was played between 64 players. Mostly professionals, but in main tournament also played 5 Korean ama players. To get to the tournament they needed to beat a lot pro in the preliminary, so they level are really huge.
Comparision with Japanese Professionals
Honik on the go4go forum write comparison between Japanese pros and Korean ama base on preliminary to 2nd BC Card Cup:
- Number of participants:
- Japanese Professionals: 22
- Korean Amateurs: 19
- Number of qualifiers:
- Japanese Professionals: 0
- Korean Amateurs: 5
- Win Loss Ratio:
- Japanese Professionals: 11-22 (33,33%)
- Korean Amateurs: 23-14 (62,16%)
- Mutual score: Japanesse pros vs Korean amateurs 0:5
Of course this comparison is not ideal, because in preliminary Japan send not so strong players and on the other hand in preliminary play strongest Korean amateurs. Most of Korean ama players from preliminary are strongest insei, so they level is very close to pro level.
1st round of BC Card Cup
In the first round ama players play with strongest players in the world: Gu Li 9p, Lee Sedol 9p, Lee Changho 9p, Park Yeonghun 9p, Iyama Yuta 9p. No one expected that one of ama players could beat this masters.
In the game Na Hyun play very well, but in endgame he let cut his group into two pieces. Iyama Yuta attack both groups very well and establish superior position. After 182 moves Iyama Yuta won the game.
In game between Park Yeongyong and Park Yeonghun 9p opponents play like even. Fight was complex. Unfortunately for amateur player, Park Yeonghun 9p show better endgame skill and won after 206 moves.
In third game Gu Li 9p play against Choi Hyunjae. In the opening Gu Li play very thick. Which give him in the second part of chuban initiative. Game was pretty close to the end. After 292 moves Gu Li won by one an half point.
Forth game was pretty interesting because it was first game after Lee Sedol break. Lee Sedol 9p play against Lee Juhyung. This was the most complex game in this tournament. From the start to the end both players play the most complicate variations with a lot of ko fights. In the end Lee Sedol was leading by 3,5 points.
Of course the game of the tournament was between Lee Changho and Han Taehee. Han Taehee show very good opening and in the middle game he shocked everyone with brilliant tesuji which give him a lead – White 64. Lee Changho resigned after only 96 moves, showing respect to his opponent. Here is video of Lee Hajin 3p review from insei-league.com:
What do you think about level of Korean amateurs?
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