The JIANW(P) Crowd

It was more than once today that over 600 observers gathered together to watch a game played by JIANW(P) 9d on Tygem, and really, it's no surprise.  A quick look at his game history shows that he's a formidable match for the average 9d on Tygem, having won 75% of his last twenty games, playing frequently against well known Tygem stars such as joonki 9d (http://www.gosensations.com/index.php?id=2&server_id=4&new_id=349) and 번개소문(P) 9d (http://www.gosensations.com/?id=2&server_id=4&new_id=455).  

     But who is this famous Tygem star?  I'm really not sure!  I did some investigation into JIANW(P) 9d, but couldn't find much information at all, except for a brief mention of his ID in a game review.  Since the ID is a pro ID using the Chinese client, if I had to guess, I might say that JIANW(P) could be Luo Jianwen (http://senseis.xmp.net/?LuoJianwen), but that's only because of his last name.  Like I said, I don't really know who he is, but at least Luo Jianwen has a similar name.

The Opponent

JIANW(P) 9d's honorable opponent for today's featured game was another popular professional player on Tygem, 국산바(P).  I did some investigation into 국산바(P) on the net, and noticed that some people believe that 국산바(P) is the famous 서봉수 (Seo Pongsu) from Korea.  However, this article: http://www.tygem.com/news/news/viewpage.asp?pagec=1&seq=9307&gubun=2&find=&findword=

seems to contradict this, because it mentions Seo Pongsu playing separately from 국산바(P) in a tournament.

     Further investigation suggests that 국산바(P) is thought to be one of two pros: Park Yeonghun 9p or Choi Cheolhan 9p, as is referenced here:

http://www.cyberoro.com/board/oro_view.htm?bd_num=2660&div_no=1

     

So there's some speculation as to who this all star pro on Tygem really is - Park Yeonghun 9p, Choi Cheolhan 9p, Seo Pongsu 9p, or even somebody else - but without a doubt, 국산바(P) is a top-notch player.  

The following article:

http://www.leechangho.com/news/view_01.asp?seq=9723&pagec=82

Discusses 국산바(P) a little bit, and talks about the origin of his name - which was the same as my guess before reading the article: 국산바 is short for 국산 바둑, which means "Korean-produced Go".  Something I didn't know before the article was that the name was shortened due to the length restriction on the characters for the userid.  The article also mentions that 국산바(P)'s game record is not that great, but if you look more closely at the individual kifus, no matter what player 국산바(P) plays against, he's typically not overwhelmingly defeated...

Today's Game

But was that true today?  I'm not sure if his defeat was overwhelming, but 국산바(P) was defeated by JIANW(P) in just 173 moves.  If 국산바(P) really is a top-flight pro, I suppose that this simply speaks to JIANW(P)'s great skill - he HAS been doing great, lately!  There were a couple of moves that I found interesting in this game, starting with 국산바(P)'s attachment at move 18.  The sequence looked like an interesting way to settle the top white group. If the sequence is joseki, I'm not aware of it, yet.  I was also slightly surprised with W50, as I thought that the invasion was a little deep (but what do I know?).  Black returned the favor with B89, making an invasion of his own.

All in all, this was an exciting game that attracted, as mentioned above, more than 600 observers.  It's also interesting to note that, while 600 observers is significant in itself, the game was competing with the broadcast of the liuxing 7p and Lee Changho 9p game that was being played out on wBaduk and Tygem today, so there may be an even larger crowd for future JIANW(P) 9d games!

Player Stats

JIANW(P) 9d:

Last 20 Games: 15 wins - 5 losses

Overall Record: 186 wins - 138 losses

Record as 9d: 186 wins - 138 losses

Ranking Points: 34403

국산바(P) 9d:

Last 20 Games: 11 wins - 9 losses

Overall Record: 554 wins - 488 losses

Record as 9d: 552 wins - 481 losses

Ranking points: 36133