1st Kiseon Championship

Announcements
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[1st Kiseon Championship] New World Tournament with a Prize Money of 400 million KRW kicks off

The 1st Shinhan Bank World Kiseon Championship, established with the largest winner’s prize of 400 million KRW for an annual international tournament, officially kicked off its competition for the title with an opening ceremony and bracket draw on 23rd December.

The main tournament consists of a 32-player bracket. By affiliation, the field is composed of 15 players from Korea, 7 from China, 7 from Japan, 2 from Taiwan, and 1 from Vietnam. Notably, 12 of these participants (5 from Korea, 6 from China, and 1 from Japan) are former champions of major international titles.

The draw for the Round of 32, which drew significant attention, resulted in several high-profile early clashes:

  • Shin Jinseo 9p (Korea’s No. 1) will face Li Xuanhao 9p (China’s No. 9)

  • Park Junghwan 9p (Korea’s No. 2) will go up against Hsu Haohung 9p, the top player in Taiwan.

The Round of 32 will be held at the Korea Baduk Association over two days, December 24 and 25, with eight matches taking place each day. The tournament utilizes the Fischer Rule, providing a base time of 30 minutes with a 20-second increment per move. Matches will proceed daily through the semifinals without any rest days, and the final best-of-three series is scheduled to take place next February.

Below is the full schedule and match-ups. All rounds will be broadcast on BadukTV and major Go servers.

Round of 32 Part 1 – 24th December 2025 10am KST

Byun Sangil 9p (Korea) VS Lai Junfu 9p (Taiwan)
Kim Jiseok 9p (Korea) VS Wang Xinghao 9p (China)
An Sungjoon 9p (Korea) VS Yang Kaiwen 9p (China)
Lee Changseok 9p (Korea) VS Ding Hao 9p (China)

Round of 32 Part 2 – 24th December 2025 2pm KST

Park Junghwan 9p (Korea) VS Hsu Haohung 9p (Taiwan)
Park Jinsol 9p (Korea) VS Iyama Yuta 9p (Japan)
Heo Youngrak 5p (Korea) VS Ichiriki Ryo 9p (Japan)
Han Seungjoo 9p (Korea) VS Tan Xiao 9p (China)

Round of 32 Part 3 – 25th December 2025 10am KST

Nakamura Sumire 4p (Korea) VS Hsu Chiayuan 9p (Japan)
Shin Minjun 9p (Korea) VS Koyama Kuya 7p (Japan)
Shin Jinseo 9p (Korea) VS Li Xuanhao 9p (China)
Kim Myunghoon 9p (Korea) VS Li Qincheng 9p (China)

Round of 32 Part 4 – 25th December 2025 2pm KST

Park Minkyu 9p (Korea) VS Ha Quynh Anh 5d (Vietnam)
Lee Jihyun 9p (Korea) VS Shibano Toramaru 9p (Japan)
Murakawa Daisuke 9p (Japan) VS Dang Yifei 9p (China)
Yun Junsang 9p (Korea) VS Sada Atsushi 7p (Japan)

Round of 16 – 26th to 27th December 2025

Round of 8 – 28th December 2025

Semi-finals – 29th December 2025

Finals best-of-three – February 2026

More pictures

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Is it capped?

Oh is she not playing for Japan? Did she change federation?

Does have this word a meaning in Korean language?

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It’s not mentioned so I’m not sure. I’m guessing no caps.

Oh is she not playing for Japan? Did she change federation?

She’s playing in Korea as a guest player now and she received the wild card to join this tournament.

It’s means “Go Saint”, same meaning as Qisheng in Chinese and Kisei in Japanese.

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Round of 32 Part 1 Streams:

Games will start at 2025-12-24T01:00:00Z.

BadukTV Stream Link

Kim Jiseok 9p (Korea) VS Wang Xinghao 9p (China)
Lee Changseok 9p (Korea) VS Ding Hao 9p (China)

Bilibili Chinese Streams

The other two games are:

An Sungjoon 9p (Korea) VS Yang Kaiwen 9p (China)
Byun Sangil 9p (Korea) VS Lai Junfu 9p (Taiwan)

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I just realised it’s a different word. Still probably means “Go Saint”, but different from Qisheng and Kisei.

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If they use the same clock as the Korean pro league, then there is no cap (maybe a hardware limit of the display, like 99:59:59)

The official word they used is 기선전, and the official Shinhan Bank uses the translation of 棋仙戰, 기선 is the word 棋仙 (전 just means battles/tournaments). 기성(棋聖), which is the equivalent of to “Go Saint”, is pronounced slightly differently, Kiseong.

棋仙 Kiseon, with the word 仙, has a different meaning, in Chinese 仙 (Xian) means something like divine spirit, or immortal beings (they can be mortals becoming immortals), and no often used in the context of baduk.

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That’s faster than some of my tournament games.

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Yeah so it’s probably the most cost-effective tournament ever :joy:

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From the livestream side camera, showing how the setup of the top-down view is filmed.

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Live stream proves that there is no cap for the “main time”, Wang played extremely fast in the openings, and exceed the initial base time.

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We need to see how much Li Qincheng can exceed the initial time by…

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With drawn out ko fight, the total length of a game with this “fast” Fischer time setting can still last more than 2 and a half hours between Lee Changseok and Ding Hao, and they even had to refill the bowls at the very end before they ran out of stones (and 2 more empty lids, for the captives I suppose)

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Round of 32 Part 2 Streams:

Games will start at 2025-12-24T05:00:00Z

BadukTV Stream Link

Park Junghwan 9p (Korea) VS Hsu Haohung 9p (Taiwan)
Park Jinsol 9p (Korea) VS Iyama Yuta 9p (Japan)

Bilibili Chinese Streams

The other two games are:

Heo Youngrak 5p (Korea) VS Ichiriki Ryo 9p (Japan)
Han Seungjoo 9p (Korea) VS Tan Xiao 9p (China)

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what are the results of part 1?

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Korea lost all 4 games

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how about part 2?

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Round of 32 Part 3 Streams:

Games will start at 2025-12-25T01:00:00Z

BadukTV Stream Link

Nakamura Sumire 4p (Korea) VS Hsu Chiayuan 9p (Japan)
Shin Jinseo 9p (Korea) VS Li Xuanhao 9p (China)

Bilibili Chinese Streams

The other two games are:

Shin Minjun 9p (Korea) VS Koyama Kuya 7p (Japan)
Kim Myunghoon 9p (Korea) VS Li Qincheng 9p (China)

For the full results and games, please refer to here.

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Round of 32 Part 4 Streams:

Games will start at 2025-12-25T05:00:00Z

BadukTV Stream Link

Park Minkyu 9p (Korea) VS Ha Quynh Anh 5d (Vietnam)
Lee Jihyun 9p (Korea) VS Shibano Toramaru 9p (Japan)

Bilibili Chinese Streams

The other two games are:

Murakawa Daisuke 9p (Japan) VS Dang Yifei 9p (China)
Yun Junsang 9p (Korea) VS Sada Atsushi 7p (Japan)

For the full results and games, please refer to here.

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Park Junghwan 9p (Korea) 1-0 Hsu Haohung 9p (Taiwan)
Park Jinsol 9p (Korea) 1-0 Iyama Yuta 9p (Japan)
Heo Youngrak 5p (Korea) 0-1 Ichiriki Ryo 9p (Japan)
Han Seungjoo 9p (Korea) 1-0 Tan Xiao 9p (China)

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Recorded down the full results and games here.

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