The 6th Maxim Cup

This cup is for all nine dan players. The format has changed over the years, now it is a speed go tournament broadcast on Baduk TV. It is a knock-out tournament where the final is probably a three game match as in previous years. The thinking time of the games on Baduk TV has become almost the same for every tournament. Starting with a limited number of minutes each on the clock -- 10 minutes in this Cup, thereafter the byoyomi is 45 seconds and there are three extra thinking periods of one minute that a player can use while in byoyomi. The whole broadcast (and game) takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

In the first rounds the game commentators are Yi Cheong-weon 2d and Cho Hun-hyeon 9d. As far as I know Cho is not participating in this tournament, so I think they will do all the comments.

What makes these games interesting is that some of these players are senior players that are not often seen in the other main stream tournaments where the young stars rule. The seniors do not play the fashionable fuseki's of the young, they have a different style.

All the game records (until now) have been taken directly from the Baduk TV broadcasts. They contain notes and comments as far as I could understand the comments. Sometimes Cho is so enthousiastic that he actually stands straight in front of the demonstration board, and it is impossible to see the sequences he puts on the board:-)

Source: Baduk TV. Notes and records made by Jan van Rongen, november-december 2004. I have used the broadcast dates of the games, not the actual playing dates. The tournament table can be found here.