The key event of this weekend was the visit at Hankuk Kiwon, where there was the preliminary phase of the 14th LG Cup (LG배 세계기왕전): it's one of the most important international go tournament, and the final phase there are 32 players, 16 coming from the preliminary and 16 by invitation. The winner's pursue is 50.000.000₩, or about 150.000€ or 190.000$.

This weekend the prelimary phase was in program, and I got the chance to be there for 3 days (Thursday 16, Friday 17 and Saturday 18 April) and follow some games. It was a very nice and particular experience, I really didn't expected to have so much fun. Obviously many professionals were present, many of them are very famous and very important: it was very interesting also to see so many professionals playing, how they behave, the face they make, how they spend the time, how they feel and live a game, how long they take for a move, all things it's impossibile to understand looking at a game record (기보, Gibo in coreano). The games last 2 hours and 55 minutes and 5 times 60 seconds.
Among all the players, for one reason or the other, I'd like to mention in no particular order Kono Rin (河野 臨, 9 dan japanese), Kim Sung Rae (김성래, 4 dan korean, our teacher), Lee Sula (이슬아, 1 dan korean), Rui Naiwei (芮乃偉 in chinese e 예내위 in korean, 9 dan) and his husband Jiang Zhujiu (江铸久 in chinese, 9 dan), Kim Sung Ryong (김성룡, 9 dan korean), Yu Bin (兪斌, 9 dan chinese), Mok Jinseok (목진석, 9 dan korean), Park Jieun (박지은, 9 dan korean), Choi Cheolhan (최철한, 9 dan korean), Chun Poong Jho (천풍조, 8 dan korean), Cho Hunhyun (조훈현, 9 dan korean) and many others. There were also Lee Sedol (이세돌, 9 dan korean) and Lee Changho (이창호, 9 dan korean), but they were there only for a while and I didn't see them.
To look at the actual situation of the tournament in english it's possibile to go to this website.

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