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by Zhiiping You
April 5, 2004
China's upset
victory in the recent Power House Team Match has
been the occasion for much celebrating in the
Chinese weiqi (go) community. Competition was
fierce: Japan, which swept the Match last year,
wanted to hold onto the title, while South Korea
was determined to win the top honors that eluded
them last time around.
While Japan, South Korea and Taiwan all sent teams
made up of top players, including some
title-holders, China sent what many jokingly
referred to as the "B
team."; Instead of sending the "top"
players, China not only held qualifying rounds to
select players, but made them one-game elimination
rounds, thus dramatically increasing chance as a
factor. Since only two of the five top-ranked
Chinese players made the team, nobody harbored high
hopes for China's chances this
year.
In the Power House Team Match, each 5-member plays
every other team in a round-robin format; whichever
team wins three or more games wins that round.
Surprising everyone (except maybe themselves), the
Chinese "B-team"
team did exceptionally well, edging out Japan 3:2
and beating Taiwan 4:1 before facing Number 1
contender South Korea, which had only lost one game
in the first two days, shutting out Taiwan 5:0 and
trouncing Japan 4:1. With this convincing 9-1
record, South Korea's dream team
seemed unstoppable but the Chinese underdogs were
unimpressed, allowing South Korea just one win on
their way to a 4:1 rout. Japan lost to Taiwan 2:3
in the final round; final standings were China,
South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan.
The whole Chinese weiqi community has been giddy
with the joy of victory since their
team's Powerhouse Team Match
win, with the leader of the China WeiQi Institute
jokingly claiming they can form four such
"B" teams.
Interestingly, the only player from South Korea's
team who won all his games was Lee Chang-Ho and my
own personal view is that he is still a little
above everybody. The rest of the players are about
equal in strength, and China clearly has many
strong players.
- Zhiiping You 5d lives in the Boston area, where
he teaches a weiqi class in a local Chinese
school.
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