On January 30, the second half of the first round of the 38th Tongli Cup Tianyuan Battle ended in the Chinese Go Association in Beijing, and Lian Xiao Jiuduan, Fan Tingyu Jiuduan, Yang Kaiwen Jiuduan, Wang Xinghao Jiuduan and other masters advanced to the top 16. In the eight games, except for Tao Xinran's nine-dan loss to Xue Guanhua in the 2022 National Individual Championship, there was no other upset.
This year's Tianyuan Battle was the first open qualifier, with a total of 184 participants, divided into 16 groups, and the first place in each group qualified and entered the lineup of this competition. Shi Yue 9th Duan, Tao Xinran 9th Duan, Huang Yunsong 9th Duan, Peng Liyao 8th Duan, Han Yizhou 8th Duan, Fan Yin 8th Duan and other 16 people qualified. Together with the 16 seeded players who entered the tournament directly, the challenger will be determined through five rounds, and then challenge the reigning Tian Yuan Qi Yuting 9 Dan.
The 16 chess players who directly entered this competition are: the top four in the last session: Dang Yifei 9 duan, Lian Xiao 9 duan, Ding Hao 9 duan, Zhao Chenyu 9 duan; 2023 World Series champions and runners-up: Gu Zihao 9th duan, Yang Dingxin 9th duan, Li Xuanhao 9th duan, Xie Ke 9th duan, Xie Erhao 9th duan; Domestic competition champions: Wang Xinghao 9 duan, Li Weiqing 9 duan, Yang Kaiwen 9 duan, Xue Guanhua 6 duan, Wang Shiyi 7 duan; The ranking of the grade score is high: Xu Jiayang 9 duan, Fan Tingyu 9 duan.
In the eight-set match in the first half of the first round on January 29, strong players such as Gu Zihao 9 duan, Xie Erhao 9 duan, Ding Hao 9 duan, and Xie Ke 9 duan successfully passed. The second half of today's game appeared to be "strong and weak", and the first to end was the 2023 National Individual Champion Wang Shiyi's 7th Duan Zhiba vs. Peng Liyao's 8th Duan, the latter had a serious miscalculation in the prelude, causing the upper left block to be attacked, and the upper block was also in prison. Wang Shiyi, who had an early advantage, locked in the victory after a concise big switch and took the lead to win.
Lian Xiao Jiuduan, who has won the 31st to 33rd Tianyuan in 2017-2019, played against Chen Zhengxun 7 duan, and Chen Zhengxun, who had defeated Li Xuanhao 9 Duan and Tan Xiao 9 Duan in the Weijia League, did not play well in this game. Under the big disadvantage, Chen Zhengxun forcibly killed the upper right white dragon, but this was destined to be a difficult task to complete. With the help of the thin flavor of black, white can easily do the work, and the outcome of the game loses any suspense.
In 2020, the 34th Tianyuan War Champion Yang Dingxin Jiuduan Zhiba against Han Yizhou encountered a dangerous situation, in the right board battle, white chess sealed the black chess inside, and built a considerable external momentum in the middle of the abdomen, with a winning rate of nearly 90%, and then Han Yizhou took off the ground too fiercely, causing the white chess on the right board to enter the robbery dilemma, which was too heavy and the winning rate reversed.
In order to win the robbery and live the white dragon, Han Yizhou paid a heavy price, the super dragon only worked hard with two eyes, and the periphery became the external momentum of black chess, the situation reversed, and the defeat of white chess was decided.
Coupled with Gu Zihao's nine sections that qualified the day before, the three former Tianyuan battle champions who participated in the first round of this year's Tianyuan Battle all passed.
Gu Lingyi's seven duans as early as 2013 in the 27th Tianyuan Battle challenged the reigning champion Chen Yaoye nine duan, this time the black against the big chess champion Yang Kaiwen nine duan, the latter crazy ground, and then in the right board and right beautiful lonely, black chess even if the belly is empty, it is difficult to save the defeat, Yang Kaiwen won in the middle game.
Fan Tingyu 9th dan played against the dark horse Ma Jingyuan 4th dan who qualified for the qualifiers of this year's Tianyuan War, who upset and eliminated the world champion Chu Jiaxi 9th dan in the qualifiers. In the middle of the game, black led the winning rate for a while, but the two sides suffered heavy losses in the robbery, and the winning rate reversed. After that, Fan Tingyu showed his veteran control skills, although the advantage was not outstanding, but the winning rate did not move, and finally won with 1 4 sons.
Wang Xinghao's nine-dan black vs. Rong Yi's seventh-dan battle, black chess with the help of the robbery in the upper left corner, in one fell swoop. After that, black throws a cold arrow at the bottom left, devouring white, and wins.
In the other two sets, Xue Guanhua defeated Tao Xinran in six paragraphs, and Li Weiqing defeated Yi Lingtao in nine paragraphs. The round of 16 was played on January 31, against: Lian Xiao 9 Duan vs Wang Xinghao 9 Duan, Yang Dingxin 9 Duan vs Xue Guanhua 6 Duan, Fan Tingyu 9 Duan vs Yang Kaiwen 9 Duan, Shi Yue 9 Duan vs Fan Yin 8 Duan, Gu Zihao 9 Duan vs Ding Hao 9 Duan, Xu Jiayang 9 Duan vs Wang Shiyi 7 Duan, Li Weiqing 9 Duan vs Xie Erhao 9 Duan, Xie Ke 9 Duan vs Liu Yuhang 7 Duan.
The prize money for the champion and runner-up of Tianyuan is 400,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan respectively. The final trilogy will be held in Tongli Ancient Town in April.