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Report from the Zhugang Cup World Weiqi Team Championship

“It was our great pleasure and honor” to play in the recent Zhugang Cup World Weiqi Team Championship (Korea Wins New International Tournament 1/3 EJ), reports Mingming (Stephanie) Yin 1P (at right). 

Yin, along with MingJiu Jiang 7P (at left) and Zhaonian (Michael) Chen 6D (bottom right) represented the U.S. at the event in Guangzhou, China, where strong players from around the world gathered in teams of three to compete for a total prize pot of over 5,000,000 RMB ($825,000 USD). “After three rounds of heavy competition among unseeded teams, the US team was successfully able to defeat opponents in the qualification sessions and gain entry into the ranked session,” Yin says. “There, we went up against five teams, all of which had a line-up of world-class competitors.” In the first round, the US played China’s seeded team with Shi Yue 9P, Zhou RuiYang 9P, and Chen YaoYe 9P. 

 In the third round, they played Japan’s Wild Card Team with Takemiya Masaki 9P, Kobayashi Koichi 9P and Cho Chikun 9P, and in the fifth round, the US played Korea’s Wild Card Team with Cho Hun-hyeon 9P, Yoo Chang-hyuk 9P and Lee Chang-ho 9P. “We lost to these incredibly strong teams but finished the tournament with a 2-3 record because of 3-0 wins against the Canadian and Czech Republic teams. To our surprise, we were presented with a Zhugang Cup World Team Go Championship ‘Outstanding Contribution Award.” photos courtesy Mingming (Stephanie) Yin