Speaking of the Korean Wave, everyone will think of Cho Hyun Hyun and the first Ying Cup final in 1989. But what may surprise many people is that it is not Cho Hyun-hyun who really makes the world recognize the Korean stream and admit that his Go theory is backward, but another "inconspicuous" Korean chess player, Seo Bong-so.
Why? Because after the first Ying Cup final was won by Cao Xuanxuan in 1989, the Chinese Go community and the Japanese Go community were actually unconvinced.
The Chinese side believed that it was not well prepared for the battle, which led Nie Weiping to go to Singapore alone on the wrong plane in the middle of the game, and then switched planes and caused a cold and poor physical condition. The way the South Korean team changed the location of the game halfway and Cao Xuanxuan invested $100,000 to gather many masters to collectively study Nie Weiping also made Chinese chess fans feel very unhappy and think that it was unfair. Although it has now become common sense and common practice to collectively study a chess player, it was not easy to be accepted by the Chinese side at that time.
The Japanese side is more interesting, and the Japanese side thinks that it is too careless. In 1990, Masaki Takemiya, the world champion of the Fujitsu Cup, won 2:0 in the peak battle with the world's strongest champion Cho Kao-hyun, the champion of the Ying Cup. They also believe that Cao Xuanxuan's ability to win the Ying Cup does not mean anything. This understanding has been reinforced especially after Japanese players have won the Fujitsu Cup consecutively. At the same time, Cho Kaoru Hyun is a closed disciple of the Japanese master Kensaku Setsukoshi and the inheritor of Japanese Go. Cho's victory was also a triumph for Japanese Go.
As for the Korean stream, there was no such mention at the time. The Chinese and Japanese Go community is convinced of the conclusion that Japanese Go theory is leading, and many Korean players are skeptical or even dismissive and negative. They think that they are contrary to the logic of chess, blindly doing things, damaging the beauty of Go and making Go unsightly.
But the good sense of self in the Sino-Japanese Go community was completely shattered in the second Ying Cup in 1992. In this cup, because of the boycott of Rui Naiwei, Chinese chess players collectively boycotted. Seo Bong-so was included in the invitation list for the second Ying's Cup. At the time of the first Ying's Cup, Xu Fengsu was not invited by the organizers of the Ying's Cup because he was not recognized by mainstream Go. As a famous local representative of Korean Go, this is undoubtedly a humiliation for Seo Bong-so and Korean Go. Therefore, after Xu Fengsu won the second Ying Cup, he said that the Ying Cup was his salvation in life.
In this Year's Ying Cup competition, Japanese chess players went all out. Cho Hyun-hyun, Liu Chang-hyuk, and the future generation god Lee Chang-ho were all eliminated. Cho Ji-hoon, Daetake Hero, Rui Naiwei and Seo Bong-so. Reached the final four.
It is worth mentioning that Seo Bong-so entered the final four after defeating the Japanese legend Hideyuki Fujisawa and the super-first-class chess player Masaki Takemiya. No one thought that Seo Bong-so could defeat Cho Ji-hoon, especially the three-game game. But Seo Bong-so eliminated Cho Ji-hoon 2-1. A big cold door broke out. In the final. It seems that the heavens have arranged such a game, and the king of korean local chess players, Xu Bongsu, who is known as the commander of the field, and ohtake Hero, a Japanese super-first-class chess player known as an aesthetic chess player, will play a duel on the highest level of the world chess arena. No one looked at Seo Bong-so before the game, thinking that the hero of Daetake would easily hang Seo Bong-so. However, the result of the game was not diverted by the public's hobbies and prejudices, and Seo Bong-so finally defeated Otake Hero with a 3:2 reversal. Especially in the fifth game, Xu Fengsu was in a situation of inevitable defeat, all kinds of turmoil, all kinds of hidden forbearance, and the tenacious character of the wild grass was brought into full play. And the personality of the hero of Dazhu who resolutely does not admit defeat under this disadvantage of Seo Bong-so is obviously angry and wants to show his killing power, and KO drops Seo Bong-so in one fell swoop. But after a chaotic battle, it was Xu Bongsu, who was bound to lose, who ko lost the hero of Dazhu.
The 2nd Ying's Cup schedule
First round (the previous top eight were seeded players, directly into the second round) Chen Jiarui won 3 points against Shoji Hashimoto Yoshiki Ida won 1 point against Wu Songsheng Rui Naiwei won the white mid-game victory hideki Komatsu Leung Jae-ho wins 1 point over Mike Raymond Seo Bong-so wins by Winning Zheng Minghuang in the middle of the white game Wang Minghuan won the black mid-game victory ishii Kuni Liu Changhe won 3 points against Peng Jinghua Awaji Shuzo Black 9 points win Wang Licheng Second round Hero Dazhu won 11 points against Chen Jiarui Lin Haifeng won 1 point with black Ichiki Ida Rui Naiwei Insisted on winning against Lee Chang-ho Liang Zaihao won 9 points to win Jiang Zhujiu Seo Bong-so wins by 7 points over Hideyuki Fujisawa Wu Gong Masaki Insists on White And Does Not Count Points to Win Wang Minghuan Zhao Zhixun won 7 points over Liu Changhe Shuzo Awaji won 3 points against Cho Kaoru Hyun Third round Hero Oftake Black wins lin haifeng at 7 points Rui Naiwei won 7 points against Liang Zaihao Seo Bong-so wins at 9 o'clock in the white and Masaki Takemiya Zhao Zhixun won the black 5 points victory Awaji Shuzo semifinal Heroes of Otake defeated Rui Naiwei 2-1 Seo Bong-so wins 2-1 against Cho Ji-hoon final Seo Bong-so wins 3-2 against Hero Daetake
Seo Bong-so's victory left the Chinese and Japanese players dumbfounded. Seo Bong-so won the final championship with consecutive victories over Hideyuki Fujisawa, Masaki Takemiya, Cho Ji-hoon, and Hero Otake, and the gold content is beyond doubt. The Chinese Go strike is more like a wayward and ignorant child behavior.
Nie Wei Pingqi later said:
At the second Ying Cup, for some reasons Chinese chess players collectively abstained. It is said that Mr. Ying lao could actually terminate his support for us at that time, but he still supported us as always, very generously. Mr. Ying not only made great contributions to Go and strait exchanges, but also the realm of being a human being is also worth learning.
Seo Bong-so is a native Korean chess player who has not received guidance from famous teachers and is completely self-taught. Unlike Cho Hyun, who had been trained by Master Kensaku Setsu in Japan, he had not crossed to Japan and competed with Japanese masters. He only became a professional chess player at the age of 17.
Seo Bong-so's success has allowed the world to finally appreciate and recognize Korean go, and began to reflect on whether Japanese Go theory has begun to lag behind. But Seo Bong-so's glory did not end, from 1996 to 1997, the fifth Zhenlu Cup Three Kingdoms Go Tournament, Seo Bong-so won nine consecutive one-shot clearance. He completely beat all the top masters of Sino-Japanese Go at that time. Seo Bong-so has also become one of the four kings of Korean Go. Before that, everyone thought that Seo Bong-so was weak, and that he was the number of the four great kings of Korea. Until now, the eight super-first-class recognized by the world chess world do not include Xu Fengsu. The eight super-first-class ones are Japan's six supers and Nie Weiping and Cao Xuanxuan.
Korea Stream was co-founded by Cho Hwan-hyun and Seo Bong-so. The historical status of Cho Hwan-hyun is undoubtedly higher, but the legendary success of Seo Bong-so has truly allowed the world to recognize the leading position of Korean Go theory.