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China’s half-point victory clinches win in 2019 World Amateur Go Championships; U.S. places 4th, Can

Wang Chen, China's representative to the 2019 World Amateur Go Championship edged out his Korean rival Lee Jaesong in a tense half-point game to take top honors, while the US player, Albert Yen, and Canadian Wu Qi You scored outstanding results at 4th and 6th place respectively. Along with Hungarian Pal Balogh in 5th and Ukrainian Dmytro Bogatskyi in
7th, half of the top eight finishers were from outside Asia. Third place went to Chan Nai San of Hong Kong and 8th to Kawaguchi Tsubasa of Japan.

Full results are here. Wang went undefeated in the eight-round, four-day event in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, Japan, securing the win at the end of the day three when he beat Lee. It was Lee's only defeat.

Both players started the game very steadily, taking few risks, and in fact there was very little fighting at any point in the game. When white played the shoulder hit of 60, black opted to link his stones on the upper side with 61, but then white’s capture of 62–68 gave white a locally favorable result. Following that, white kept the game in his grip, and even with the successful invasion of black 121, etc., white was favored for the win. The decisive fight broke out with black 145. White’s defense was solid and, up to 175, he still held the lead. However, white 180 let black complicate the situation, when a jump at around f10 would have been good enough. White 186 is probably the losing move: black 187 captured six stones in the center, and although white could then return to capture four black stones with 194, black had profited slightly from the whole exchange. The rest of the endgame was played precisely by both sides, and it does not look like there was a way for white to avoid a half-point loss.

Among the players who won six of their eight games, the Hong Kong player benefited from having played the top four starters and defeating two of them, while Albert Yen lost only to China and Korea.

The Asada Shizuo Fighting Spirit special prize, awarded to the player who best shows good manners and sportsmanlike conduct, was given to Singaporean Kwa Jie Hui, who placed ninth. While Kwa's award may have been given for his generous response to a clock mishap in his game with Japan, discussion at the playing site also noted his patient demeanor in the face of fearsome pairings. Kwa played against all of the top six starters, China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, a French 7-dan, and a German 6-dan, and still came in 5–3. He also represented Singapore in 2018 and played against China, Korea, Taiwan, and strong players from Russia,
Canada, and Finland, similarly scoring 5–3.
- reported by Andy Okun; commentary by Antti Törmänen

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