Taiwanese go player Hsu Hao-hung, the 2022 Asian Games gold medalist, has claimed his first domestic title of this year by fending off challenger Hsu Ching-en 4-2 in a best-of-seven Taiwan Tengen final series.
The ninth-dan Hsu Hao-hung, playing black on Monday, defeated Hsu Ching-en in Taipei after the latter resigned on the 257th move. It was the first match in the series in which the winner played as black.
The victory marked Hsu Hao-hung’s fourth consecutive Tengen title, tying the record for the longest winning streak in the event’s history with former Taiwanese go ace Wang Yuan-chun.
Photo: CNA
Wang dominated the annual tournament from 2015 to 2018 and still holds the record for the most Tengen titles, with six — two more than Hsu Hao-hung.
The title was Hsu Hao-hung’s first of the year after he swept all eight major domestic tournaments last year and shifted his focus to international competition.
He skipped the HaiFong Tournament, which traditionally opens the pro calendar, and suffered a quarter-final exit at the Taiwan Meijin, the domestic tournament with the most prize money.
Hsu Hao-hung also came close to faltering in Monday’s match, with his winning probability at one point dropping to single digits, according to a go-playing artificial intelligence program.
“I made some mistakes early in the match, but my opponent gave me a chance later on as he played more conservatively — probably because he was confident about winning,” Hsu Hao-hung said in a post-game interview.
“I think the first match was the key. I gained more confidence after pulling off a comeback win,” Hsu Hao-hung said.
Lin Shih-hsun, an eighth-dan professional who served as commentator on Monday, said the match showcased Hsu Hao-hung’s strength in the endgame.
However, Lin also said that the 4-2 series result pointed to the emergence of 18-year-old sixth-dan Hsu Ching-en, saying he could become a real threat to Hsu Hao-hung within two years if he continued to improve.
‘DEVASTATED’: Argentina’s win was a reversal of their 28-24 defeat last week, with Australian forward Fraser McReight adding that ‘we did the same thing last week’ Argentina flyhalf Santiago Carreras punished an undisciplined Australia with 23 points off the tee as the Pumas held on grimly for a 28-26 win in Sydney yesterday to breathe new life into their Rugby Championship campaign. A try-fest beckoned in afternoon sunshine at Sydney Football Stadium, but Argentina needed only one through captain Julian Montoya, with Carreras doing the damage with seven penalties and a conversion in front of a sell-out crowd. A week after letting a 14-point lead slip in a 28-24 defeat to Australia in Townsville, Argentina saw most of a 21-point advantage erased in the final quarter as the
Captain Vijay Kumar led the way yesterday as the Hsinchu Titans claimed the Taiwan Premier League title at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), beating PCCT by 27 runs. The weather was a topic again, but not the rain that played a role in previous matches in the often-delayed tournament. Kumar, who made 80 not out from 63 deliveries, and teammate Vishwajit Kumar (58 from 43) rescued the Titans from a precarious state at the end of the power play in the T20 match. The visitors were put in to bat and struggled to 26-3 as PCCT
China’s state-run People’s Daily newspaper on Monday published an essay about Chinese basketball it said was written by LeBron James, but a representative for the NBA star said on Thursday that the article was based on a series of interviews. The paper, better known as the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, had said James authored the essay, “Basketball is a Bridge that Connects Us,” a tribute to Chinese players and fans of the sport written in the first person. “LeBron James Pens an Article in the People’s Daily,” read a post published on the newspaper’s official WeChat account. On Thursday, a representative
San Francisco Giants pitcher Teng Kai-wei impressed against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday despite an 8-1 loss in the opener of the team’s nine-game road trip. Teng, the only Taiwanese pitcher active in MLB, struck out five while allowing two hits and one walk over four innings at Chase Field to finish with a no decision, as the teams were tied 1-1 when he finished his outing. He surrendered the lone run of his outing in the bottom of the first, which began with a walk, a hit-by-pitch and two strikeouts. Diamondbacks leadoff hitter Geraldo Perdomo advanced to third on
RSS