Chunlan Cup

Overview: 

Chunlan Cuo LogoChunlan Cup World Professional Weiqi Championship (春兰杯世界职业围棋锦标赛) is the first major international Go tournament organised by mainland China. It is named after the main sponsor Chunlan Corporation, one of the 50 large Chinese enterprises and best known for its air-conditioning products. Since term 3, the tournament has been held once every two years. Early rounds are often hosted at the city of Taizhou in Jiangsu province where Chunlan's headquarter is based.

Chunlan Cup About the Chunlan Cup: Chunlan Cup, the trophy, is a modern piece of artwork modelled after pottery utensils widely used in Yangshao Culture, an antient Chinese civilisation. The culture flourished along the Yellow River in China 5,000 - 7,000 years ago. Its artisans are known to craft fine pottery works.

Tournament Format: 

The main event is a knockout for 24 players, with 8 players (normally the stronger ones) seeded to round 2 directly. Seats are mostly allocated to major Go playing countries but Chunlan is also kind enough to always invite European and North American representatives to compete in the tournament. Players are often paired a way that those from the same country do not meet in early rounds. The finals are best-of-3. Two losers of semi-final round play one extra game to compete for an automatic entry (together with the two finalists) in the next term.

Prize Money: 
The Chinese sponsor has always been paying the prize money in US dollars. Winner: 150,000 USD; runner-up: 50,000 USD; 3rd place: 30,000 USD; 4th place: 15,000 USD. Losers of round 1, round 2 and quarter-final also receive generous game fees of 2000, 4000 and 7000 USD, respectively.
Time System: 
3 hours each side, followed by 1-minute byoyomi (5 chances to go beyond 1 minute).
Ruleset and Komi: 
Chinese rule with 3 and 3/4 stones komi (equivalent to 7.5 points). The komi was 2 and 3/4 stones for term 3 and earlier.
Key Players, Events and Statistics: 
  • Lee Changho is the best performer in this tournament, winning it twice and entering the finals four times. Gu Li also won the title twice.
  • Strange incident in term 10 - Lee Changho somehow forgot and therefore forfeited his scheduled game in his country's preliminary tournament, so he was unable to represent Korea to play.
Historical Results: 

Term

Year

Winner

Score

Runner-up

Game Records

1

1999

Cho Hunhyun

2-1

Lee Changho

2

2000

O Rissei

2-1

Ma Xiaochun

3

2001

Yoo Changhyuk

2-1

O Rissei

4

2003

Lee Changho

2-0

Hane Naoki

5

2005

Lee Changho

2-1

Zhou Heyang

6

2007

Gu Li

2-0

Chang Hao

7

2009

Chang Hao

2-0

Lee Changho

8

2011

Lee Sedol

2-1

Xie He

9

2013

Chen Yaoye

2-1

Lee Sedol

10

2015

Gu Li

2-0

Zhou Ruiyang

11

2017

Tan Xiao

2-1

Park Yeonghun

Go4Go Collection Note: 
Go4Go has all game records of the main tournaments. A small number of preliminary tournament games are also available.