Lee Sedol 9P and Kong Jie 7P have succeeded going up to the final of the 13th Samsung Cup International Baduk Open by beating Hwang Yijung 7P and Zhou Ruiyang 5P respectively on December 17, in Busan, Korea.

The game between Lee and Hwang showed clearly two different styles, territory oriented and emphasizing thickness. In the middle stage, While Hwang made a slow, wrong direction move at the upper right corner,
Lee took the initiative of the game and led safely with aiming at black’s big baseless group. In the end, Hwang resigned after 174 moves. 

On the other hand, Kong was leading in the beginning as a result of the lower side which is good for white.
Afterward Zhou chased through out the middle stage and the game became quite close. However Kong’s endgame was more profound and Zhou failed to reverse the game.

The time limit of Samsung Cup is 2 hours each and 60 seconds 5 times countdown.
The best-three final of the 13th Samsung Cup International Baduk Open will be played on January 19,21,22 2009 in Seoul, Korea.     

Lee Sedol 9P (left), Hwang Yijung 7P (right)

Kong Jie 7P (left), Zhou Ruiyang 5P (right)