Shin Shin-seo 9th dan continued his winning streak. Park Jung-hwan 9th dan was pushed to a deadlocked score. In another battle for the title between the No. 1 and No. 2 players, the center of gravity of the title match, the 12th of their careers, was tilted in Shin Shin-seo’s favor.
On the afternoon of the 24th, Shin Shin-seo 9 defeated Park Jung-hwan 9 in the second game of the 4th Saw Palmetto Sanol Supreme Knight Decision Challenge 5 at K-Baduk Studio with a 156-move draw. This was his second victory in as many days after winning Game 1 in 197 moves.
Around the 30th move, the fate of the second game was decided by a time-honored idol. In that battle, Park Jung-hwan 9th dan made a fatal mistake.
He saw a move called “Jin Shindu” but didn’t play it. It is the equivalent of a sheep’s head, and Park had a chance to show it off. Here’s the scene below.
(30~44) Black is Park Jung-hwan, white is Shin Shin-seo. After playing up to 44 in the idol room, Black has a good move.
Black 1 (or A) is the so-called “jinsindu”, the number corresponding to the axis heads of both sides.
One is that Black 1 is the axis head against White 2 and below.
The other is where black 1 acts as the axis head for white 2 and below (black 9 is a △joint).
(45~60) Practice. Here, the AI gave Black a 33% chance of winning. However, in the game, the win rate dropped to single digits as soon as Black 45 was played.
It wasn’t that 9th dan Park didn’t see it. “I saw it, but I thought it wouldn’t be good if I got a slap from this side or that side,” he said to the broadcasters. He saw it, but he didn’t think it was good.
In response to this scene, Shin Shin-seo 9th dan said, “I thought that since there were only two possible positions, one for practice and one for jinshindu, I would choose one or the other. I didn’t think too much about it, thinking that it would be a good idea to play the Jinshindu position.”
A flawless execution, a dominant performance, and another title defense.
It’s a shame that he didn’t get the rare ‘Jin Xin Du’ to come out and show his form. After that, the game went on for a while, but he was unable 안전놀이터 to recover his win percentage graph after the early losses. In the end, Shin Shin-seo 9th dan had 23 minutes and 15 seconds left, and Park Jung-hwan 9th dan had 17 minutes and 55 seconds left. Below are their post-fight comments.
“I thought I did well in the early battles. Later on, I thought I was chased a little bit, but as the stones got thicker, I thought I definitely got better.” (Shin Shin-seo)
Park Jong-hwan 9th dan, an undefeated challenger in eight matches in the main competition, suffered his second loss in Challenge 5.
“I think it was too much for me to go down by one point in the beginning, and I had to compromise by going out the other side. I didn’t see many good moves after I went out like in practice.” (Park Jung-hwan)
Challenge 2 was the 61st meeting between the two knights. Shin Shin-seo 9th dan has 38 wins and Park Jung-hwan 9th dan has 23 wins. Shin Shin-seo has won nine consecutive matches since August 2022 to widen the gap. In the last 11 title fights, Shin has won seven times and Park four times.
At the end of the match, Park hung his head and shook his head in frustration.
After completing two countries, Challenge 5 will take place on June 27 in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, after a break of more than a month. In the meantime, the two knights will compete in the KB League postseason, while Shin Shin-seo 9th dan will travel to China for the third round of the Nanga Bae Finals.
The fourth edition of the Top Knight Determination Competition, which began in December last year, is competing for the title in the following stages: first qualifier, second qualifier, final qualifier, main league, and challenge five. The prize money is 70 million won for the winner and 20 million won for the runner-up.