Kong Jie won 14th LG Cup
22 and 24 February, Lee Changho 9p from Korea and Kong Jie 9p from China play in the final of 14th LG Cup. Kong Jie 9p and Lee Changho 9p along with Lee Sedol 9p from Korea and Gu Li 9p from China are strongest players in the world, so the final was pretty exciting.
In first game Lee Changho took back stones and play very thick in the opening. Kong Jie also show godd attitude and play outstanding attachment. Overall situation after opening was prety complex but black was relatively easier to play. White was busy with his few weak groups inside black moyo.
Everything changed after do or die move. Unexpectedly Lee Changho tolerate it and give a lot of territory to white. Game was pretty even from this point, but it was hard to overtune the situation. After 242 moves Kong Jie won by two and half a point.
After day of the break they play 2nd game of the final. This time Kong Jie took black stones. They play recently very popular joseki in upper right corner, which settled big part of the board in the opening. In the end stage of opening Lee Changho again show great monumentum and build nice wall, but unfortunately he didn’t use it’s potential and let Kong Jie to connect his stones very effectively.
In the middle game, Kong Jie attack white big dragon. Lee Changho manage to make life, but with a huge cost. Game started to be very even and endgame could decide the result of the game, but Lee Changho don’t want to play this way and play ko. Maybe it was better to extend instead of hane
Ko fight lead to some sort of exchanges, which gives Kong Jie small but solid lead. After 309 moves he won the game by one and half a point. With this victory he won 14th LG Cup with perfect score 2-0. Kong Jie is holding 3 international titles: LG Cup, Samsung Cup and Asian TV Cup, which made him #1 in the world. In China he hold two titles: Qiwang and CCTV Cup.
Kong Jie was always admitted to be one the strongest player in the world (his reading skill is #1), but always had problems in important matches. 2009/2010 looks like breaking point in his career.
Here are some photos from the final. Sources: Cyberoro, TYGEM and TOM
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