Lee Changho – Last Man Standing
9-12 March, Japan, China and Korea teams play in last stage of 11th Nongshim Cup. Before they start, recent result was really good for China. Korea and Japan had only one player and China had 3 members. Japan termination was sure, but because Korea had some changes team had Lee Changho, who is famous of his nickname “invincible” in the Nongshim Cup.
Japan Termination
In first game Hane Naoki 9p — Honnibo title holder — play against Liu Xing 7p from China. Liu Xing is famous of his innovate style of play. In the game both sides play very unique opening. Liu Xing, who play with black stones show much thicker than Hane Naoki.
When they enter middle stage of the game, Hane Naoki turns into passive mode and lost his territory advance from the opening. In the result of this, game turned into very close one until Hane Naoki made a huge mistake in the byo yomi.
Under time pressure he answer opponent sente move with a peep. Unfortunately he end it in gote. Liu Xing capture several stones on the right side and gain huge profit of about 25-30 points. This give him solid lead and he even giveup ko fight in upper side. After 243 moves Liu Xing won by five and half a point.
Lee Changho in Bad Shape?
In second game of the 3rd stage of Nongshim Cup Liu XIng play with the last man standing from Korea team — Lee Changho 9p. Before the match everyone speculate about Lee Changho form.
Commentator’s said that Lee Changho is in the bad shape, after very stressful flight to Shanghai. You can read information of this topic at JustPlayGo.com article “Lee Changho’s condition is not good”.
Liu Xing again play novel opening. This time white 12 is the new move. Lee Changho decided to take big corner, which was good decision. In the opening Lee Changho play territorial, but with 45 he change strategy. Instead of 45 I was sure he would play on the right side with two space extension to extend his territory lead.
In the middle game Lee Changho play very strongly making situation even worse for white. In the middle game Liu Xing lost his creativity and after 147 concede the game. With this victory Lee Changho show that he’s in good form and only if he won’t made big mistake he’s able to win the title.
Game Against China #2 – Gu Li 9p
Next, Lee Changho face one of the strongest players in China – Gu Li 9p. According to Go4Go.net website, the score between them before the game was 5-5. The interesting thing is that they play in Nongshim Cup with each other 3 years ago.
That time Lee Changho who is known as opening master play very badly in first half of the game, but Gu Li who is known as big fighter play some slack moves in second part and lost the lead. Lee Changho won that game by 1,5 point.
Gu Li for sure wanted to get revenge. He took white stones and again surprising play relatively better opening than Lee Changho. Again Lee Changho play very strongly in the chuban. Moves like black 3 are really rare in his games. Situation become really chaotic.
In close combat Gu Li made some mistakes and let Lee Changho to destroy white territory on the left side. After black 131 Lee Changho established superiority. Gu Li fight like a hell, but situation become only worse and after 237 moves he resigned, because Lee Changho kill his big white dragon.
Against Best Friend
In last day of Nongshim Cup Lee Changho play against his best friend from China – Chang Hao. They play 35 games before the this game according to Go4Go.net. The score was 23-11 to Lee Changho, but in last years Chang Hao was catching up.
In the opening Chang Hao who took white play very good and take a lead. Chang Hao is famous of his speedy approach to the game. Lee Changho play very calm even in bad situation, waiting for the time to attack. Chang Hao play careless move by playing wrong atari. Instead he shoud play at H4.
Lee Changho use the opportunity and overture the situation. Black take a lead but game was still long. They play big ko fight. Finally Lee Changho kill white on the left side, but mus pay some price on the bottom side.
Black in bottom right corner was dead for the moment, until Lee Changho started approach ko, which turned into big sacrifice to revival for black group in the corner. After 231 moves white hadn’t enouch territory and resigned.
Invincible man in Nongshim Cup
Lee Changho is again invincible in the Nongshim. This international team tournament is his favorite. Korea won this tournament 9 out of 11 times and 8 times thanks to Lee Changho miracles victories.
This year victory is not only another win to the his Nongshim collection, but also very important climax point of his carrer. In last international tournaments he lost many finals and this victory will give him boost and confidence in next games against world’s top masters in the international tournaments.
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