Lee Sedol 9 dan (left) and Tang Weixing 9 dan at the 2nd MLily Cup quarter finals.
Tang Weixing is ranked #10 in China, and he was the winner of the 2013 Samsung Cup.
He defeated Shi Yue 9p in the 2013 Samsung Cup semifinals, and faced Lee Sedol in the final.
Many Go fans expected Lee Sedol to take home another international title, because Tang was still relatively unknown back then.
However, Tang showed his strength and power, and defeated Lee 2-0 to win his first career title.
He hadn’t even won any domestic titles in China at the time, so he made a rapid transition from dark horse to world champion.
With his victory and others, Chinese players swept all the international individual titles for the first time in 2013.
In 2014, Tang won the 13th Xinan Wang, defeating Chang Hao 9p in the final, and he defended the title against Shi Yue 9p, who is ranked #1 in China, this year.
He also proceeded to the final of the 2014 Samsung Cup, defeating Park Junghwan 9p in the semifinals as defending champion.
However, he couldn’t maintain his grip on the Samsung Cup and he lost the final to Kim Jiseok 9p 2-0.
Tang’s style of play is territorial and persistent. He’s very good at sabaki, so he doesn’t mind complicated battles in his opponent’s sphere of influence.
In this MLily Cup, Tang defeated Yuki Satoshi 9p, Kong Jie 9p and Li Qincheng 1p respectively en route to the quarter finals.
Lee Sedol
Lee Sedol is currently ranked #2 in Korea, just behind the younger Park Junghwan 9p.
Kim Jiseok 9p held the #2 position for more than a year, but Lee has made a comeback to #2 with a higher winning percentage lately.
Just four days before this game, he won the 27th Asian TV Cup.
He played wonderfully against Park Junghwan 9p in the final, adding a 4th Asian TV Cup to his international record.
He hasn’t won any domestic Korean titles in 2015 so far, but he’s still very powerful when he’s in good form.
As we discussed above, Lee lost the 2013 Samsung Cup to Tang Weixing, so this was his opportunity for reprisal.
These two haven’t met in any other tournaments. This was only their 3rd game together.
In this MLily Cup, Lee defeated Xie Erhao 2p, Byun Sangil 4p and Ding Hao 2p respectively, starting in from the round of 64.
Anyway, let’s have a look at Lee and Tang’s interesting game.
Tang Weixing 9 dan (left) and Lee Sedol 9 dan on the night before the quarter finals.
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