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ROUNDS 6 &7 HIGHLIGHTS: Korea Looking to Lock Down 2010 WAGC; Czechia Pushing for Best in The West

With just one round left to play, Korea appears to have a lock on the 2010 World Amateur Go Championship. Hongsuk Song (r) defeated Naisan Chan (l) of Hong Kong in Round 6 on Friday and Lazareev Alexey of Russia Saturday morning to extend his thus-far unbroken string of wins to seven. He’s strongly favored in his Round 8 game against Czechia’s Ondrej Silt, who seems to have a solid grip on the best showing for Europe and the West. The winner of the China-Hong Kong game should be a shoo-in for second place, and the battle for third is in flux, with Taipei and North Korea in contention. Sweden’s Fredrik Blomback and Hungary’s Pal Balogh have turned in excellent results and should make the top ten, while the chances of North America – the U.S., Canada and Mexico are all 4-3 -- breaking back into that group are looking pretty slim. Check out James Davies’ thorough report on Round 6 on Ranka online (with a Round 7 report expected soon) and click here for latest standings. - Chris Garlock; photo by John Pinkerton