Pro go player Hsu Ching-en won two games in a row to defeat Lin Yan-cheng in the Speed Go Championship final in Taipei on Monday and become the youngest winner of the title.
The 16-year-old phenomenon took a mere 69 minutes to bring down fourth dan Lin in Game 2 at the HaiFong Go Association and bag the NT$600,000 (US$19,042) top prize.
“I played better than I did in the first match against Lin and I’m super happy to have won the tournament,” said fifth dan Hsu, who was crowned the “King of Newcomers” in June.
Photo courtesy of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee
The tournament is held annually for newcomers under the age of 25 who have not won any of the four major titles in Taiwan — each of which boasts a top prize of more than NT$1 million.
Despite his victory, Hsu said he still felt he was not a good enough speed go player.
Compared with regular matches, Hsu said he believes speed go “relies much more on intuition, because of the shorter time frame,” and he believes his slow go game is better.
In a pro game in Taiwan, a player generally has at least one hour to ponder their moves, but they only have 10 minutes in a speed go game, apart from during the byo-yomi phase, when players have additional time to make moves.
Lin said his debut in the best-of-three final had been “terrible” and he had been too nervous.
He added that he messed up the opening phase of Game 1 on Monday last week, failed to occupy territory on Monday, and misjudged his middlegame.
“I hope I will be less nervous when playing games in the future,” said Lin, who still won NT$200,000 for finishing second.
The conclusion of the Speed Go Championship means that all of this year’s nine major domestic tourneys are complete.
Asian Games gold medalist Hsu Hao-hung won six titles, with ninth dan Wang Yuan-jyun, eighth dan Lai Jyun-fu and Hsu Ching-en each winning one of the other three.
Wang, now 27, swept Hsu Ching-en 2-0 in March to take the HaiFong Tournament title, while Lai won his first Taiwan Meijin tournament in the middle of May.
Hsu Ching-en, who turns 17 on Dec. 26, was the youngest male player to compete for Taiwan in the Hangzhou Asian Games in September and October, and is considered, along with Lai, to be a rising star.
Wang, who was commentating the match on Monday, said that Hsu Ching-en’s rise was expected, as he and Hsu Hao-hung both peaked in Taiwanese go by the time they were 18.
“History keeps repeating itself,” Wang said.
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