Sixteen-year-old professional go player Lin Yi-ting unexpectedly defeated fourth-dan professional Lu Yu-hua by a half-point with the black stones in the Synmosa Cup Woman Ace Player Tournament in Taipei on Friday, becoming the youngest champion in the tournament’s nine-year history.
Lin lifted the trophy and received NT$500,000 in prize money after winning her first professional title, something the new champion from Hsinchu said she had never expected in her wildest dreams. Runner-up Lu received NT$200,000. The tournament is the top event for female go players in Taiwan.
“I lost more than 10 games in a row in the first half of the year, and that made playing go not so much fun for me,” Lin said.
Photo: CNA
As a result, she spent less time playing go after finishing her daily training at HaiFong Go Association.
She said she told herself: “It is okay to play worse now I practice less.”
However, the adjustment enabled Lin to approach each game with a better mindset and propelled her past Taiwan’s Hangzhou Asian Games national team players Lu and Yang Tzu-hsuan, a fifth-dan professional and the defending Woman Ace champion.
“I used to think that I would make a big name for myself if I could beat them, but now I see each game as the same and that helps me a lot,” said Lin, who had never defeated Lu and Yang in a formal competition.
Lin, who in a pre-game interview said it would be impossible for her to win Friday’s match, said she has not decided how to spend the prize money yet.
Synmosa Biopharma Corp chairman Lin Chih-hui, the top sponsor of the tournament, said that as Lin is not yet 17, she could inspire younger local go players.
Ninth-dan professional veteran Chou Chun-hsun said that unlike Lu and Yang, who have developed their own winning formulas, Lin’s game is more comprehensive, but not yet as good.
Lin stands a chance against the two seniors if she can put them in situations they are unused to, Chou added.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946