New 9-dans on KGS

It is very hard to get the much wanted 9-dan rank on KGS by playing other 8-dans, as their level is so high nowadays. So recently we are seeing new faces getting to 9-dan by giving many handicap stones to mid/low dan-players.

'WH1114' [he uses the Chinese (Taiwan) client], for example, became solid 9d after beating 'Javaness' 3d on 5 stones. It is of course a legitimate method, but it seems that they cannot perform so well against other 9-dans in even games. The game that you can see here was WH1114's first (and only) game against someone stronger than 6d. He lost (no surprise there, as his opponent was 'eku'...).

The game was really enjoyable, and you can learn a lot about shapes by reviewing it, especially cutting tesujis. White 94-100 is a nice example. And, as we know, 'eku' is a great fighter, so his games are always fun to watch (as usual, he killed one of his opponent's dragon). After W158, Black's big group is cut and doomed, so 'WH1114' resigned a few moves later.

Another player who got a nice rank recently by playing handicap games is 'SunnyLucky' (who also uses the Chinese client... Could they be the same person?). When 'SunnyLucky' became solid 9d, he finally played a high-dan player: 'kghin'. He was crushed in that game ('kghin' also killed one of his big dragons). It is clear from his other games that he is not 9-dan in strength.

The only true and not-so-famous 9-dan that has appeared recently is 'WoonSai', from South Korea. Unfortunately, he is not playing on KGS anymore (was the server too weak for him?). You can check http://files.gokgs.com/games/2011/4/2/WoonSai-kghin.sgf to see his game against 'kghin', which 'WoonSai' won by 43,5 points. Really impressive!