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Sumire gets her first domestic title after moving to Korea

Sumire 4P, who achieved her first official tournament victory since to KBA as a guest player in March of last year. She had previously been the runner-up three times in Korea.

In the final of the 4th Hyorim Cup Future Empress Tournament played on 6th November, Sumire 4P defeated Jung Yujin 5P and obtained her first official domestic tournament victory ever since coming to Korea. The tightly contested match ultimately saw Jung Yujin 5P crumble on her own after making a critical blunder during a battle on the upper side. Due to that single move, her win probability plummeted from 63% to 3%. That early failure was immensely costly.

The game fluctuated wildly in the endgame. A critical moment came for Jung Yujin to launch a decisive attack on her opponent’s large group of stones, which was being played with excessive leniency. After she failed to find the precise attacking point and missed her chance, Sumire also became confused, causing the win-rate graph to swing back and forth.

Despite the chaos, Sumire still managed to win the game by resignation in the end after 2 hours and 247 moves. Sumire 4-dan also widened her head-to-head record against the three-years-older Jung Yujin 5P to 4 wins and 1 loss.

The Hyorim Cup is a competitive ground for young female Baduk players. This year, it was a mini-tournament open to players born in 2003 or later. Eighteen players, including those born as late as 2009, registered to compete. Previous winners like Kim Eunji 9P (born 2007) and Park Soyul 4P (born 2004) were ineligible to participate.

She bitterly reflected on the taste of defeat in the finals. She had been the runner-up in the Haesung Women’s Kiseong tournament and the Harim Cup Pro Women’s Guksu tournament in December of last year, and the Ibuung Cup Newcomer’s Top Ranking tournament in March. She was stopped, respectively, by Choi Jeong 9P, Kim Chaeyeong 9P, and Kim Dabin 3P. Her victory at the International Chunhyang Selection Tournament in June of last year was a non-official tournament of the Korea Baduk Association.

Sumire, who is currently ranked 4th in the women’s rankings, was considered the top-ranked favorite to win among the entrants in this tournament. It seems many fans will be disappointed that she won’t be able to compete in the next tournament (as she will likely age out of the “Newcomer” criteria).

After the game, Sumire 4P shared her thoughts, saying, “The game just ended, but I’m satisfied that I was still able to get a good result. I’m not the type to worry about my opponent, so it didn’t feel like a burden.” She concluded by saying, “I want to express my gratitude to my parents, who always take such good care of me.”

The tournament was sponsored by Hyorim Accounting Firm. The games were played under Fischer Rule timing, with 20 minutes of main time plus an additional 20 seconds per move. The winner gets 10 million KRW while the runner-up gets 4 million KRW.

More pictures

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It seems like the Korean Prime Minister Cup is running concurrently with Samsung Cup at a different location, and Lee Sedol made a special appearance there.

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Spot Vadim Efimenko in the background on the left (will GoMagic make a video about this year’s event?)

And KPMC is a big deal for the international amateur tournaments.

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The first two rounds for the main tournament in the 20th KPMC (Korea Prime Minister Cup International Baduk Championship) were held today.

Here is some info from EGF (and they have livestream)

And here are the result pages from the official KPMC website