Taiwanese wins prestigious South Korean Go tournament for 1st time

台灣人首次贏得著名的韓國圍棋錦標賽冠軍

Lai Jun-fu beat South Korean Go master Shin Jin-seo in close match


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — In a historic first, Taiwanese professional Go player Lai Jun-fu (賴均輔) placed first at the Kuksu Mountains International Baduk (Go) Championships in South Korea on Monday (Aug. 5).

Lai narrowly beat South Korean Shin Jin-seo, the world's number one Go player, by half a point at the 10th edition of the Kuksu Mountains Go championships, CNA reported. The win marked the first time a Taiwanese has won this prestigious tournament.

This year's championship prize increased to NT$24 million. Lai defeated notable players such as Park Min-kyu of South Korea and Fan Tingyu (范廷鈺) of China after his teammate, Hsu Hao-hung (許皓鋐), was eliminated early.

The previous best performance by a Taiwanese player at the South Korean tournament was Wang Yuan-jun's (王元均) runner-up finish in 2018.