On 5th February, the first round of LG final finishes in Japan Ki-in, Xie Erhao 5P(CHN) defeats Iyama Yuta 9P(JPN) and takes the first win in the best of three. Since Cho U entered the final of Toyota Cup(World Cup) in January, 2007, Japanese professional players haven’t enter the World Cup final for 11 years.
In this game, Iyama Yuta gets black stones, and he plays positive in the beginning. But Xie Erhao plays really well in the fight of the left side and takes the advantage (here is the game record of the match). Black’s 95 releases his winning hand, and Xie positively answers this fight. After a fierce fight, Xie successfully kills a group of Iyama Yuta, and black resigns.
The 2nd game will be played at 8:00 (Tokyo) on 7th February.