The first four opening games will be played at Nongshim’s Qingdao factory from 3rd September onwards. The time control is 1 hour plus one 1-minute byoyomi period. One game will be played per day and the loser will be eliminated while the winner stays on to fight the next player. The last surviving team wins the tournament.
The winning team gets a prize money of 500 million won. From the third consecutive win onward, the streak bonus per victory is 10 million won.
Korea is aiming for its 18th overall championship, along with a 6th consecutive title for the Nongshim Cup.
I can provide some background for the senior group event, it is called 농심 백산수배 세계바둑 시니어 최강전 (农心白山水杯世界围棋元老最强战 in Chinese, 農心白山水杯世界囲碁シニア最強戦 in Japanese) and held concurrently with the main group. It had been held since 2023, and this is only the 3rd time this year. The Korean team won the 1st one the year before last year, and the Chinese team won the 2nd one last year. And to “qualify” for the elderly group, players must be born before 1972 (> 53 years old)
So far, the Japanese team had won the first 2 rounds this year by Nakano Hironari, eliminating Cao Dayuan from the Chinese team, and Kim Yeong-hwan from the Korean team. Rui Naiwei is the next in line for the Chinese team to fight Nakano Hironari today.
I honestly don’t know why. Maybe to keep the player pools to a limited size? Or maybe it was just the first one held in 2023, set an age limit to be born before Jan 1, 1970, and kept adding one year each year ended up with before Jan 1, 1972 this year.
