King of Kings started

        The 8th Tong Yang Securities Tygem King of Kings Cup started yesterday with the  preliminary rounds from groups 16 - 27 (12 groups). Each of these groups has 8 players. It's a knock-out  system , one round a day, so that only tomorrow we'll find out the names of the 12 winners who will accede to the next stage.
        The next stage begins on May 15, after the list of all finalists is completed. There are 240 players from groups 1 - 15 (16 players each) plus 12 players coming from the qualifying rounds. I think the first 4 from the last edition will complete the table for the perfect 256 even number of a knock-out tournament.
       With 50000 USD the first prize, I bet we shall see the best of the best Tygem players in action and I think it will be extremely exciting. The idea of organizing such a tournament is wonderful.
        Until then, back to the preliminary rounds. You might be  surprised to discover "allKO(P)" (supposed to be Gu Li, 9P) in group 18, fighting for a place in the final, therefore not directly qualified. He won the first round relatively easy, against "mrongshs" from Korea, in 130 moves. Today, in the second preliminary round, he had a tougher opponent, "strongestt", from China. It was an impressive game and "allKO(P)" seemed to be untouchable once more. Look at the way he invaded with move 136 and lived where it should have been almost certain a huge black territory. I just admired his skill. It was like reading a book about invasions.
       Tomorrow, "allKO(P)" will meet "hjhzzang" in the decisive qualification round. "hjzzang" won the first 2 rounds against "daybreaks" from Japan and "qingcheng3" from China.

                     "allKO(P)" 9D (Gu Li, 9P), China : 279 - 115 (37067 p)
                     "strongestt" 9D, China : 245 - 105 (36681 p)
                     "hjhzzang" 9D, China : 89 - 63 (35791 p)