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WORLD GO NEWS: Hane Naoki To Play Kono Rin In NEC Cup Final; Lee Changho Advances To Kuksu Finals; L

HANE NAOKI TO PLAY KONO RIN IN NEC CUP FINAL: Hane Naoki (NEC) and Kono Rin 9P will face each other in the 29th NEC Cup final match after winning their respective semifinal matches against Ko Iso 7P and Yamashita Keigo (K). Both victories were by sizable margins of 7.5 points. Hane was seeded into the second round, where he defeated Cho U http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=19 9P before meeting Ko Iso. Kono started off by defeating Iyama Yuta http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=379 9P, then Kataoka Satoshi http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp Click here http://www.justplaygo.com/ for the games. - JustPlayGo http://www.justplaygo.com/

LEE CHANGHO ADVANCES TO KUKSU FINALS: Lee Changho 9P defeated Joo Hyeongwuk 5P by resignation in the semi-final match of the 53rd Kuksu (National Champion) tournament on February 10. Lee will face either Hong Kipyo 4P or An Hyungjun 2P in the tournament finals. The winner will play current Kuksu title holder Lee Sedol in the title match. Lee Changho has held the Kuksu -- Korea’s highest honor in professional tournament play -- nine times and played in 16 of the last 20 Kuksu title matches. - JustPlayGo http://www.justplaygo.com/

LEE CHANGHO AND LEE SEDOL PLAY TO HELP HAITI: Lee Changho and Lee Sedol played a benefit match last week to help the victims of Haiti’s devastating earthquake. Charitable donations for the refugees were raised through the Go TV broadcast of the game and given to the UNICEF South Korea Committee. The game was the idea of go sponsor Kingsfield Ltd, which has just signed an advertising contract with Lee Sedol. Lee has not met Lee Changho since their three-game match-up in the KBS Cup final 11 months ago, so there was great interest in their first encounter since Lee Sedol’s reinstatement in January. The players waived their usual fees. Although it was a “real game”, the result didn’t really matter, the players said, and they concentrated on producing an entertaining game. Lee Changoho won. Click here http://www.justplaygo.com/ for the game. - JustPlayGo and CyberOro, with translation assistance from John Fairbairn

THREE-WAY TIE IN HONINBO LEAGUE: With only two more games for the players in the Honinbo League http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/pg_titlelist_detail.php?title=Honinbo to determine the challenger for the title held by Hane Naoki http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=22 9P, three players have records of 4-1. Iyama Yuta http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=379 9P, who had the lead earlier with 4-0, lost to Yamashita Keigo http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=45 9P, who is also at 4-1. The third player is Takao Shinji http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=214 9P. Of these three, only Takao has held this title--he was Honinbo for three years, 2005-2007; he lost the title to Hane in 2008, and Hane defended it successfully in 2009 against Takao as challenger. - Go News, GoGameWorld, Sensei's Library