LG Cup
LG Cup is a major international Go tournament that has been held annually since 1997. It is the successor to Korea's domestic Kiwang tournament and it is often referred to as "LG Cup World Kiwang Tournament". The organiser is Chosun Ilbo (조선일보), one of Korea's largest media groups. The sponsor is LG Corporation. It is not to be confused with the domestic Korean LG Cup (also know as LG Refined Oil Cup, discontinued).
A knockout format has always been used - 31 players in term 1, 24 players in term 2-9, and 32 players since term 10. The finals are best-of-3 (were best-of-5 before 2006). Each year since term 10, half of the seats are decided via a preliminary tournament. Two seats are reserved for the winner and runner-up of previous term. The rest are allocated to top Asian players: Korea 6, Japan 3, China 3, Chinese Taipei 1, and wild card 1. European and American representatives were present before 2006, but have disappeared due to the loss of their reserved seats and the introduction of highly competitive preliminary tournament.
- The almighty Lee Changho won the title 4 times and entered the final 7 times in total.
- Past titles went to a large pool of players, including Zhou Junxun, who secured the only international title for Taiwan in year 2007.
- The strong recovery of Chinese professional Go in the previous decade is clearly evident in this event as China secured six consecutive wins between 2009 and 2014, and 8 out of 10 titles (with 8 different players!).
- While almost all Korean professionals participate the preliminary tournaments, China and Japan only send selected players, mainly for cost reasons.
- Despite being outnumbered, China has done really well in these preliminary tournaments, partly because only established players and promising new talents are sent to compete. Japan, on the other hand, has a dismal record, as indicated in the table below showing the number of qualifiers.
- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the international preliminary tournament was cancelled and seats were allocated to individual countries. Many games had to be played on the Internet.
- Statistics of preliminary tournaments:
|
Term
|
China
|
Korea
|
Japan
|
Chinese Taipei
|
|
10
|
9
|
5
|
2
|
0
|
|
11
|
6
|
7
|
2
|
1
|
|
12
|
6
|
9
|
1
|
0
|
|
13
|
7
|
9
|
0
|
0
|
|
14
|
7/49
|
9
|
0
|
0
|
|
15
|
11/55
|
5/224
|
0/49
|
0/15
|
|
16
|
5
|
11
|
0
|
0
|
|
17
|
12/55
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
|
18
|
8/81
|
8/230
|
0/36
|
0/18
|
|
19
|
12/87
|
4/224
|
0/23
|
0/13
|
|
20
|
7/93
|
5/215
|
0/13
|
0/19
|
| 21 | 11/85 | 5/194 | 0/7 | 0/22 |
| 22 | 3/77 | 13/216 | 0/31 | 0/20 |
| 23 | 12/88 | 4/198 | 0/30 | 0/23 |
| 24 | 13/86 | 3/203 | 0/37 | 0/24 |
Term | Year | Winner | Score | Runner-up | Game Records |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1997 | Lee Changho | 3-0 | Yoo Changhyuk |
|
2 | 1998 | O Rissei | 3-2 | Yoo Changhyuk |
|
3 | 1999 | Lee Changho | 3-0 | Ma Xiaochun |
|
4 | 2000 | Yu Bin | 3-1 | Yoo Changhyuk |
|
5 | 2001 | Lee Changho | 3-2 | Lee Sedol |
|
6 | 2002 | Yoo Changhyuk | 3-2 | Cho Hunhyun |
|
7 | 2003 | Lee Sedol | 3-1 | Lee Changho |
|
8 | 2004 | Lee Changho | 3-1 | Mok Jinseok |
|
9 | 2005 | Cho U | 3-1 | Yu Bin |
|
10 | 2006 | Gu Li | 3-2 | Chen Yaoye |
|
11 | 2007 | Zhou Junxun | 2-1 | Hu Yaoyu |
|
12 | 2008 | Lee Sedol | 2-1 | Han Sanghoon |
|
13 | 2009 | Gu Li | 2-0 | Lee Sedol |
|
14 | 2010 | Kong Jie | 2-0 | Lee Changho |
|
15 | 2011 | Piao Wenyao | 2-0 | Kong Jie |
|
16 | 2012 | Jiang Weijie | 2-0 | Lee Changho |
|
17 | 2013 | Shi Yue | 2-0 | Weon Seongjin |
|
18 | 2014 | Tuo Jiaxi | 2-1 | Zhou Ruiyang |
|
19 | 2015 | Park Junghwan | 2-1 | Kim Jiseok |
|
20 | 2016 | Kang Dongyun | 2-1 | Park Yeonghun |
|
21 | 2017 | Dang Yifei | 2-0 | Zhou Ruiyang |
|
22 | 2018 | Xie Erhao | 2-1 | Iyama Yuta |
|
23 | 2019 | Yang Dingxin | 2-1 | Shi Yue |
|
24 | 2020 | Shin Jinseo | 2-0 | Park Junghwan |
|
25 | 2021 | Shin Minjun | 2-1 | Ke Jie |
|
