Korean Women's League

Submitted by macelee on 2015-02-01 21:13; Last upda ted on: 2016-07-05 21:33
Overview: 

First introduced in 2015, this tournament is Korea's response to China's popular Women's League that helps sharpen the skills of top Chinese female players. This is even more interesting because it accommodates more players and allows top-level foreign players to join. The tournament is sponsored by MDM, a real estate company.

Tournament Format: 

There are eight teams, each having three regular players. Teams may have substitute players, as well as inviting guest players from other countries. The regular season runs like proper European football leagues - each team plays all other teams twice (one home and one away match). There are 56 matches and 168 games in the regular season. Several rounds are held in a congress format, meaning that all teams gather to play and perform Go promoting activities. Three best teams enter the playoff stage, with the No. 3 team challenging the No. 2 team, and the winner in turn challenging the No. 1 team.

Prize Money: 
The tournament has a total budget of 780,000,000 KRW. For every game, winner takes a game fee of 1,000,000 KRW and loser 300,000 KRW. The prize for the top finishing teams are: 50,000,000 KRW for the champion team; 30,000,000 for the runner-up; 20,000,000 for the 3rd-placed team.
Time System: 
For each three-game match between two teams, there are one slow game (1 hour reserved time for each side) and two fast games (10 minutes reserved time). These are followed by 5 periods of 40-second 'byoyomi'.
Ruleset and Komi: 
Korean rule with 6.5-point komi.
Key Players, Events and Statistics: 
  • Guest players of term 1: Yu Zhiying, Rui Naiwei, Wang Chenxing and Hei Jiajia (Joanne Missingham).
  • Guest players of term 2: Yu Zhiying, Wang Chenxing, Rui Naiwei, Li He, Xie Yimin and Fujisawa Rina.
Historical Results: 

Term

Year

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

1

2015

Team Inje

Team Busan

Team Pohang

2

2016

Team Seoul

Team Inje

Team Pohang
Reference Links: 
Go4Go's collection of Korean Women's League games
Go4Go Collection Note: 
Go4Go has collected all games played so far.
Tournament Tag: 
Korean Tournament
Women's League