The 1st

Nongshim Cup The Nongshim Cup is a Go tournament sponsored by Nongshim, an instant noodle food company of South Korea. Outline The Nongshim Cup is a gathering of the best players from South Korea, Japan, and China. The Nongshim Cup is sponsored by Nongshim ...

was the inaugural edition of the team Go tournament consisting of five players each from China, Japan and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

. The tournament began on 16 December 1999 in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

and finished on 28 March 2000. On

Lee Chang-ho Lee Chang-ho ( ko, 이창호; born 29 July 1975 in Jeonju, North Jeolla) is a South Korean professional Go player of 9-dan rank. He is regarded by many as the best Go player of the late 1990s and early 2000s. He was a student of Cho Hu ...

and

Ma Xiaochun Ma Xiaochun (; born 26 August 1964) is a Chinese people, Chinese professional Go (board game), Go player. Biography Ma was born in Zhejiang, China. He began playing Go at the age of nine and was awarded 7 dan rank in 1982. In 1983, Ma was pro ...

met in the final, with Lee defeating China's top player and leading Korea to their first of six straight Nongshim Cup titles.

Teams

Preliminaries were held in Korea, while Japan and China sent pre-selected teams. Players listed in order that they appeared for their respective teams. China * Qiu Jun * Luo Xihe * Wang Lei * Chang Hao *

Japan *

Yamashita Keigo is a professional Go player. Yamashita adopted the name Honinbo Dowa after winning his first Honinbo title in 2010. Biography A student of Yasuro Kikuchi, Yamashita turned professional in 1993. He won the 19th Kisei 2 dan division in 199 ...

Kudo Norio is a professional Go player. Biography Kudo turned professional in 1955 and was promoted to 9 dan in 1976. Although he did not win many tournaments, he was known for teaching Go to many people, even if they were just starting to learn, or we ...

Yoda Norimoto is a professional Go player. Biography Yoda is a student of Takeo Ando. He has won 35 titles so far in his career, the seventh highest in Japan. He became a professional in 1980, and reached 9 dan in 1993. In 2006, he was the heart of the Ja ...

* Yamada Kimio * Cho Sonjin

Mok Jin-seok Mok Jin-seok (born 20 January 1980) is a professional Go player. Biography Mok Jin Seok became a professional Go player in 1994 when he was 14 and reached 9 Dan, the highest level, in 2005. He is called 'Goe dong' by media, which means a Bo ...

* Kim Yeong-sam * Cho Hunhyun *

Yoo Changhyuk Yoo Changhyuk (born April 25, 1966) is a professional Go player in South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land bor ...

Tournament

of Korea defeated

in the first game. He would go on to defeat China representative Qiu Jun before losing to Japanese player

on 19 December. Luo Xihe beat Kudo Norio before the tournament moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. Luo lost to Kim Yeong-sam of Korea, who then lost to Japan's

. Korea's Cho Hunhyun defeated Yoda after the Japanese representative eliminated China's Wang Lei from the tournament. The third and final stage moved to

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

. Korea had three players left (including Hunhyun), while China ( Chang Hao and

) and Japan ( Cho Sonjin and Yamada Kimio) were left with two players each. Cho Hunhyun would lose the opening match of the third stage to Chang, who then stringed together two more victories by defeating Yamada (Japan) and

(Korea). Cho Sonjin of Japan defeated Chang, but then lost his next match against Korea's

Teams

Tournament

First stage

Second stage

Third stage

References