“Rather than the record or honor of consecutive losses, I am happy that I have achieved great growth during my 5 consecutive wins at the GS Caltex Cup. I want to lose in a row, but I don’t think it will be easy. For now, I will aim to win one more championship.”
Shin Jin-seo, 9th Dan, who set a new record for ‘the first 5 consecutive losses in the championship’ at the 27th GS Caltex Cup held last year, did not hide his desire for ‘6 consecutive losses’. And the stage of the finals for the 6th straight victory that Shin Jin-seo set as a goal begins in earnest.
On the 16th, at the ‘GS Caltex Cup Pro Tournament Final Match Draw Ceremony’ held in the final match room on the 4th floor of Korea Kiwon, the matchup for the round of 24 was completed. At the draw ceremony, which was broadcast on the Go TV YouTube channel, more than 200 Go officials and fans gathered and left messages of support.
The GS Caltex Cup Pro Tournament, which started in 1996 and celebrated its 28th anniversary, is co-hosted by Maeil Business Daily, MBN, and Korea Kiwon, and sponsored by GS Caltex. The GS Caltex Cup Professional Competition has the largest prize money of 70 million won among individual competitions in Korea. Shin Jin-seo, who has won 350 million won in the GS Caltex Cup professional tournament over the past 5 years, succeeded in ‘5 consecutive losses’ and increased the cumulative prize money this year to 880,600,519 won, and now challenges the record of ‘6 consecutive losses’ and ‘the most wins in the tournament’ .
The tournament starts in the round of 24. The 4 players who reached the semifinals last year and the 4 top rankings advance to the round of 16, and the 16 players who came up through the preliminaries will face off first to decide the 8 winners. Afterwards, the seed and ranking players will face off in earnest in the round of 16.
‘Defending champions’ Shin Jin-seo 9p, Byeon Sang-il 9p, Park Jin-sol 9p, and Park Jung-hwan 9p, who reached the semifinals at last year’s tournament, were seeded and advanced to the round of 16 in advance. Kang Dong-yoon 9p, Shin Min-joon 9p, Won Seong-jin 9p, and Kim Ji-seok 9p, who are highly ranked among the 20 players including 9p, also made their names in the round of 16 first.
The prelude to the fierce competition in the finals begins with a face-to-face confrontation between the 16 finalists. From the 23rd of next month, the ‘Single Match’, which will be held every Thursday and Friday at 1:00 pm, will be broadcast live on Go TV.
You cannot underestimate your skills just because you have passed the preliminary round. A whopping 302 people voted for the 28th GS Caltex Cup Pro Tournament held this year. The competition rate reached 15.9 to 1 with the largest number of people in the history of domestic qualifiers, as well as GS Caltex Bae. In detail, there were 246 males and 56 females. By generation, 141 people in their teens and 20s, 113 people in their 30s and 40s, and 48 people in their 50s and older participated. Seongjun Ahn 9p, Jeong Choi 9p, Hyeonjun Seol 8p, Seongji Hong 9p, Wonyoung Lee 9p, Chulhan Choi 9p, Minhyung Ryu 8p, Jaeik Shim 6p, Sangjin Park 6p, Junsang Yoon 9p, Hongseok Baek 9p, Youngrak Heo 3rd dan, Heo Young-ho 9th dan, Yang Woo-seok 5th dan, Kim Beom-seo 4th dan, Kwak Won-geun 4th dan succeeded in advancing to the finals.
Of course, the ‘single game’ towards the championship is just the beginning. If you are careless even for a moment, you will be eliminated. Of course, the eyes and ears of the finalists were drawn to the draw for the first match. 토토사이트
First of all, Shin Jin-seo, who is aiming for ‘6 consecutive losses’, will meet the winner of Lee Won-young and Baek Hong-seok in the round of 16. It’s just a shame to meet the strongest opponent so early. Shin Jin-seo has no time to be vigilant. Following last year’s first 5 consecutive losses in the championship, this time, he is determined to set a new record for ‘the most wins in the tournament’ (6 wins), surpassing Lee Chang-ho.
The player who drew the most attention on the day was Choi Jeong, the only female pro player who made it to the finals. Last month, Choi Jeong-eun became the first female professional player to reach 700 career wins, and last year, at the 2022 Samsung Fire Cup World Go Masters, she became the first female player to reach the final of a major world tournament, rewriting her baduk history. She could face Shin Jin-seo in the semi-final if Choi Jeong-gi, who faces 8th Dan Ryu Min-hyung in the round of 24, puts on a winning streak. This is also the match that Go fans want to see the most.
Choi Jeong-eun said, “I didn’t think about match luck because GS Caltex Cup has so many outstanding players.” He did not hide his determination. In addition, Yang Woo-seok, who succeeded in making it to the finals after 10 challenges, faced Park Sang-jin, 6th Dan, and Kim Bum-seo, the terrifying youngest knight born in 2004, who conquered the rookie competition, is facing his first confrontation with Shim Jae-ik, 6th Dan.