Park Jung-hwan and Kim Myung-hoon reached the quarterfinals of the Samsung Hwa-jae Go Masters.
South Korea’s No. 2 Park Jung-hwan defeated China’s Tan Xiao 9 in 193 moves on the second day of the round of 16 at the 2023 Samsung Fireworks World Go Masters at the Samsung Fire Global Campus in Goyang City, Gyeonggi-do, on Tuesday.
Park secured the upper hand in the early middlegame with a bold move on the right side of the board that allowed him to capture his opponent’s white king on the bottom side without being penalized.
Park, the 2021 Samsung Cultivator of the Year, now advances to the quarterfinals as he seeks his second career title.
South Korea’s fifth-ranked Kim Myung-hoon 9-dan won a back-and-forth match against China’s Huang Yun-song 9-dan in a game that reached 315 moves.
Kim took a commanding lead after the midgame, but allowed Huang Yunsong to pull away in the closing stages.
Han Woong-kyu 9 dan and Kim Nuri 4 dan, who also played in the round of 16 on the day, were eliminated after losing to Xu Shenghao 9 dan and Lian Xiao 9 dan, respectively.
South Korea had three players in the quarterfinals, including Shin Shin-seo 9-dan, who won the previous day’s round of 16 match.
China, on the other hand, had a numerical advantage with five players reaching the quarterfinals, including 9th dan Guo Zhihao, 9th dan She Shenghao, 9th dan Lian Xiao, 9th dan Ding Hao, and 9th dan Xu Ziyang.
After the round of 16, the draw for the quarterfinals on Nov. 21 pits Park Jung-hwan against Lian Xiao and Xu Zhaoyang against Gu Zhihao.
Park trails Lian Xiao in the head-to-head series with 3 wins and 5 losses.
The quarterfinals on the 22nd will feature Shin Shin-seo versus Xu Shehao and Kim Myung-hoon versus Ding Hao.
So far, Shin has a commanding 7-1 head-to-head lead over Xu Shehao.
Kim Myung-hoon is 1-1 against Ding Hao.
The prize money for the Samsung Flower Farming Championship is 300 million won, while the runner-up prize is 100 million won.
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