I revive Japan!

In the game 10 of the 11th Nongshim Cup held in Nongshim Hotel in Busan at 2pm on Jan. 23rd, Hane Naoki 9p (B) defeated Park Younghoon 9p by resignation after 191 moves. As Hane Naoki 9p aggressively knocked out Park Younghoon 9p, Korea's 2nd last player, as well after stopping Xie He 7p's winning streak, he won 2 straight games.

It was almost a complete victory of Hane Naoki 9p. The situation on the board, that turned out to be ¡®a gap "thicker" than 10 points on the board (without having compensation counted) after the middle game, came to a gap that widened up to 15 points. Concluding there was no stone left unturned, Park Younghoon 9p resigned and the game ended at about 5:20 pm. The Baduk TV commentator, Kim Youngsam 8p, added, "Hane Naoki 9p played very well without making any big mistakes today and yesterday. Both games were brilliant games."

It was a shocking result for Korea. Including the 4th last player, Kim Seungjae 3p, Yun Junsang 7p (the 3rd last player) and Park Younghoon 9p (the 2nd last player) were defeated with one stroke each by Chinese and Japanese fighters. Korea, being totally defeated in all games in the 2nd round, is also down to a single player, Lee Changho who is the team leader as well as Japan having Hane Naoki 9p only.

On the other hand, China came to be able to prepare for the 3rd round much more comfortably, after Xie He 7p had won 5 straight games. China still has Chang Hao 9p, Gu Li 9p and Liu Xing 7p.

The 3rd round will begin in Shanghai on Mar. 8th. China wins the Nongshim Cup if China wins 2 games as of now. On the other hand, Japan and Korea have to win 4 games and 3 games respectively to win the Nongshim Cup. Korea is looking for the great performance of Lee Changho 9p who will take part in the game 12.

-  Doyoon Lee, Cyberoro.com