Taipei, Dec. 13 (CNA) Taiwan's professional Go player Hsu Hao-hung (許皓鋐) made history on Monday by clinching the Go Grandmaster Tournament (棋王) championship for his seventh title of the year after beating the current holder Lin Chun-yen (林君諺) in a nearly six-hour match.
"I think I'm back in the groove now," Hsu, who suffered ups and downs in the first six months of the year, said in a postgame interview, adding that he hoped everyone can keep cheering for all Taiwanese Go players.
The 21-year-old Taiwan Meijin (名人), who became Taiwan's ninth professional Go player with a ninth-dan ranking on Dec. 8 after topping the Speed Go Tournament (快棋爭霸戰) for his sixth title in 2022, played with black stones at the HaiFong Go Association in Taipei on Monday.
The win pushed his title-holding record for a single year to an unprecedented seven, and got him to bag NT$1.2 million (US$39,081) in prize money. So far this year, Hsu has earned himself at least NT$6.9 million from the prize money of Taiwan's seven major titles.
Despite his historical achievement, Hsu said the outcome was better than he deserved.
"I think I was fortunate in the first half of the year. I did win those games, but actually, I didn't play really well. I did not play well in the international games this year, either, so maybe other Taiwanese Go players have to keep working," Hsu said.
The Go player now stands a huge chance of adding NT$400,000 more to the number, as he is taking a 2-0 lead versus the challenger Chen Chi-jui (陳祈睿) in the National Champion Tournament (國手) finals and looking to close out the series on Tuesday to secure the title for the third straight year and his eighth victory this year.
Lin, who finished runner-up in the tournament, praised Hsu for his strong games in the series.
"I didn't adjust myself well in this series, but the main reason (for my losses) was because Hao-hung had great performances. Even though I didn't play badly in the four lost games, he did not give me too many opportunities, either," Lin said after the match.
Lin was awarded with NT$400,000 after being unseated by Hsu from the Taiwan Grandmaster. He has held the title over the past year after he outsmarted Hsu 4-3 in the best-of-seven (BO7) finals in November 2021.
Monday's triumph also marked Hsu's second victory over Lin in the BO7 series.
Whereas Hsu was recognized as the most dominant Go player in Taiwan over the past few years, Lin was known as Kryptonite to Hsu in the BO7 series by the end of 2021.
Before Hsu swept Lin this April to secure the back-to-back Taiwan Meijin title, he has yielded to Lin in all of the previous three BO7 series.
Li Wei (李維), a sixth-dan professional Go player and the commentator for Monday's match, was impressed by how Hsu has ruled the board in Taiwan in 2022.
"What's truly amazing is that, be it Lin Chun-yen or Wang Yuan-jyun (王元均), none of Taiwan's elite Go players could really threaten Hao-hung's position this year. We might say it's because they were not in good condition, but it may also suggest that Hao-hung is on another level now," Li said during the game.
Since he won the CMC Grandmaster Tournament (中環碁聖) for his first major professional title in Taiwan in 2017, Hsu has made steady progress year by year. He clinched two titles in 2018, three in 2019, four in 2020, and five in 2021.
As of November, Hsu led the other professional Go players in Taiwan with the highest winning rate (79 percent), nailing 72 matches while yielding only 19, according to the HaiFong Go Association.
Hsu's 72 wins were also the second most in Taiwan, behind only the 78 wins of Lai Jyun-fu (賴均甫), who ranked second in winning rate (77 percent) with 23 losses.
Lai is now holding the CMC title, the only one of the nine domestic major titles that Hsu has failed to grab in 2022.
