“I was very nervous before the match and I think I prepared differently than usual. Since the final is coming up, I need to calm my excitement and return to my daily routine.”
Park Gun-ho, who rose to 7th place in the rankings, made it to the finals of the 2022 Crown Haitai Cup. Park Gun-ho, 6th dan, was defeated by Yun Seong-sik, 2nd dan, in the semi-finals held at the Baduk TV studio on the afternoon of the 25th, and won in 1 hour and 17 minutes, 132 moves.
“I felt that the two players studied hard in the beginning, but it seems that Park Geon-ho had more depth in the amount of study. The flow of leading the board was good, and the ability to organize after gaining the upper hand was excellent,” said Hong Seong-ji, a commentator on Go TV. 스포츠토토
Gunho Park, 6th Dan, expressed his impressions, saying, “At the beginning, I was able to play relatively quickly because I knew it. In the middle, Seongsik Yoon may have left it a bit bland while attacking. I thought it was a good break from the lower right.”
It is the second time that 9-year-old pro Park Geon-ho, who joined in 2015, has advanced to the finals. The first was in January 2018, when he was a 2nd dan, the 3rd Future Star Rookie Strongest Match (with 4 years of experience and 2 players each from China, Japan, and Taiwan invited). At that time, he defeated Ryuhei Onishi, Xinghao Wang, and Ha-min Park, and lost to 3rd dan Ahn Jung-gi in the final.
In the third round of the finals to win the first championship, we meet the winners of Shin Min-jun and Keum Ji-woo. He is behind 6th place Shin Min-joon 9th Dan with 2 wins and 5 losses, while he won 1 win each in 2021 and 2022 against 65th place Ranking 4th Dan Woo Geum-woo.