Taiwanese whiz kid wins nation's first go world title

Move over Wang Chien-ming (王建民): There is now officially another "Light of Taiwan."

Chou Chun-hsun (周俊勳) emerged victorious from the final match of the LG Cup in Seoul yesterday, becoming the first ever contestant representing Taiwan to be named world champion.

Chou edged his Chinese opponent Hu Yaoyu (胡耀宇) by the smallest of margins, just half a point, in the final round of the best-of-three championship series to claim the 250 million won (US$265,500) prize and a place in Taiwanese go history.

Chou may not yet be as well known as Yankees pitcher Wang, with whom he shares the "Light of Taiwan" nickname, but that may be about to change.

The match was extra-sweet redemption for Chou, who squandered his first opportunity to claim the title by falling in a devastating half-point loss to Hu just the day before. Chou appeared to have the championship within his grasp after winning the first match without much trouble on Monday and taking a commanding lead at the outset of Wednesday's match, only to have a slipup with less than 10 of his stones left to play extend the series for Hu.

Chou appeared rattled by the upset during an emotional press conference following the loss, but steadied himself and played with enough composure yesterday to take the final nail-biter.

The win is just one of a series of firsts for Chou, who was also the first player to rise to the professional game's top tier, level nine, while in Taiwan.

In a sport in which most top Taiwanese players move abroad to play tougher competition in Japan and South Korea, Chou stayed in Taiwan and has represented his country for the past 10 years at major international tournaments.

Another Taiwanese player, Cho U (張栩), won the cup two years ago, but was representing Japan at the time.

Chou was born in 1980 in Taipei County's Yingko Township (鶯歌). As a child he was mocked by schoolmates for a large birthmark on the side of his face, but the insults only motivated him to devote more energy to improving his go skills.

His father, also an avid fan of the game, began teaching him to play at age six.

When he was 12, Chou was crowned national champion and represented Taiwan at major international tournaments, and at 14 he became the youngest player at the time to go pro.

Although he had won dozens of tournaments during his career, he was not able to get past the semi-finals of an international tournament until yesterday.

A second Taiwanese player, Lin Chih-han (林至涵), battled his way into the quarter-finals from an initial pool of 256 competitors.