Park Junghwan (33) wins against Wang Xinghao by 2-1 in the 1st World Kiseon Championship, clinching his 6th world major title
In the finals of the 1st Shinhan Bank World Kiseon Championship best-of-three, Park Junghwan 9p won against Wang Xinghao 9p by 2-1 and clinched his 6th world major title at the age of 33. It has been 5 years since he last won another title during Samsung Cup in 2021. With that, he also obtained the prize money of 400 million KRW, which is the largest prize money for an annual international tournament. This is also the highest age for a major title winner ever since Cho Chikun 9p won the Samsung Cup at the age of 47 in 2003.
Since the round of 32, Park won against Hsu Haohung 9p, Yang Kaiwen 9p, Ichiriki Ryo 9p and Dang Yifei 9p to get into the finals. On the other hand, Wang beat Kim Jiseok 9p, Park Minkyu 9p, World No. 1 Shin Jinseo 9p and Shibano Toramaru 9p to get into the finals. In the finals best-of-three, Park won the first game easily after Wang made some serious mistakes in the middle game. In the second game, Wang played well and Park managed to catch up but still lost by 1.5 points. In the third game, it was complicated and Wang had some big chances but after the fight in the middle game ended he seemed very pessimistic and played problem moves one after another, allowing Park to seize the opportunity to end the game.
The tournament utilizes the Fischer Rule, providing a base time of 30 minutes with a 20-second increment per move.
For the full results and games, please refer to here.
Congratulations to Park Junghwan!
Prize Presentation and Interview