In a week, the 27th Samsung Cup World Go Masters will begin. The much-awaited wildcard candidates in the list of participants in this competition have finally settled.
There are a total of 32 seats in the Samsung Cup, of which 31 have long been determined, and the specific candidates are 11 from China: Yang Dingxin, Zhao Chenyu, Ke Jie, Tang Weixing, Tan Xiao, Li Xuanhao, Gu Zihao, Fan Tingyu, Yu Yuting, Dang Yifei, and Yu Zhiying.
There are a total of 15 players in the Korean Chess Academy: Shin Jin-hyun, Park Young-hwan, Bian Sang-il, Shin Min-yun, Kim Ji-seok, Kang Dong-yun, Lee Chang-ho, Choi Jing, Won Sung-hin, Kim Myung-hoon, Yu Min-sung, Lee Kyung-jin, Han You-heon, Koon Chun-hyun, and Kwon Hyo-jin.
Cui Jing Kudan
The four places in Japan are: Atsushi Sada, Kiki Ita, Xu Jiayuan, and Ichiriryo. The 1 candidate for Chinese Taipei is: Hsu Hao-chi.
When the Samsung Cup only had a wild card candidate in the hands of the organizer had not yet been finalized, domestic netizens talked about it, believing that in the case of the South Korean team's post-80s, post-90s and post-00s three age groups, South Korea should highlight its grace and issue wild cards to Japanese or Chinese hopes, such as Zhongyi Pansy, Wang Xinghao, and Li Weiqing. Everyone said that this move will make this Samsung Cup more interesting.
In this regard, more chess fans and friends feel that this is pure wishful thinking, because the virtue of some people in South Korea determines that they will not have that realm. On the contrary, the South Korean side will rack its brains and do everything possible to let its own players win the championship, and will not add strong opponents out of nothing. Wang Xinghao and Li Weiqing, two outstanding chess players, have had highlight moments this year when they captured South Korea's first person, Shin Jin-hyun, and the South Korean side will naturally regard them as "thorns in the eye" and will definitely not let them be shortlisted for the Samsung Cup lineup with wild cards.
Wu Yuzhen
Now that the Samsung Cup wild card has surfaced, the South Korean side is indeed fertile water that does not flow to outsiders, and accidentally handed it over to Wu Youzhen, who won the fifth Wu Qingyuan Cup Women's World Series not long ago.
Although Wang Xinghao and Li Weiqing, two rising stars, did not participate in this Samsung Cup, Japan's popular star Nakayi Pansy appeared on the list of the top 32 of the Samsung Cup for the first time.
It turned out that the Japanese team's Kiki Ita was banned for his own entanglement with the Japanese chess academy, and the time happened to conflict with the Samsung Cup, so Kiki Ita could not play. In the end, I don't know if it was a unilateral decision of the Japanese chess academy, or it was determined after negotiations between Japan and South Korea, and the genius girl Zhongyi Pansy took the last train of the Samsung Cup.
The winner of this Samsung Cup will receive 300 million won and the runner-up prize will be 100 million won. All five rounds will be held between October 27 and November 9, and the winner will be announced by then. The first four rounds are knockout rounds, and the final is a triple game. The last championship and runner-up were won by South Korea's Park Yong-hwan and Shin Jin-hyun.
Zhongyi Pansy
Take a closer look at the lineup of this year's Samsung Cup, there are four female players among the 32 chess players, Cui Jing and Yu Zhiying, who qualified in the selection competition, and Wu Youzhen and Zhongyi Pansy, who relied on wild cards.
In view of the fact that the beauty in the chess world accounts for one-eighth of the total number of participants, the author dares to joke: This Samsung Cup is about to become a women's competition!
So which of these four heroes can win the gender war, successfully advance to the round of 16, or even the quarterfinals, or be eliminated in the first round? Let's wait and see.