SEOUL - The South Korean capital Seoul is the stage for another important three-cushion tournament in the upcoming days. Starting today, January 20, to Thursday, January 22 the Asian championship will be played there. The defending champion is Kyung-Roul Kim, the challengers amongst others the world champion Sung-Won Choi, Jung Han Heo, Jae-Ho Cho, HaengJik Kim, Dong Koong Kang and the Vietnamese players Tran and Nguyen Nguyen.
The Koreans enter the championship with thirteen players, the most opposition is to be expected from Vietnam, the country where for the first time a World Cup is organized this year. The Japanese players are with eight in Seoul.
The first session starts 14.00 today (Asian time), the matches are until 6.00 am. The games are broadcast live by Kozoom Korea.
The Korean top guns meet each other in the first rounds. Kyung-Roul Kim faces the current number two of Korea, Cho Yeon Chi, Sung-Won Choi plays against the number one in his country, Jung Han Heo. Jae Ho Cho against Hyung Bum Hwang and the Korean super talent Haeng Jik Kim against Dong Koong Kang.
Besides the Asian title, the positions for the world ranking are at stake. Sung-Won Choi will be still the leader after this tournament. He has to lose sixteen points, is eight points ahead of Eddy Merckx and deserves eight point only to participate in the tournament.
Much more important is the performance of the Asian champion Kyung-Roul Kim, who won the last edition and defends eighty points. The 'great Kim' couldn't show his great class last year due to his business companies. His top twelve position is in danger: Kim must at least be in the top three in Seoul.
One of the feared opponents for the Koreans is O Takeshima from Japan, who took the silver medal at the last Asian championship. Also from Japan comes former world champion Ryuji Umeda, Hideaki Kobayashi and the young talent Yusuke Mori.
The Vietnamese Quyet Chien Tran is currently the number twelve on the world ranking. Well known countryman are Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Vinh The Ly and Xuan Cuong Ma.
Kozoom Korea sends all games live, but with a time difference of -8 hours.
The players and referees during the opening ceremony of the Asian championship.
The schedule: first round (32 players), Tuesday, January 20th from 14:00 - 20:00 local time.
Knockout round, quarter-finals on 21 January
Semifinals, finals on 22 January.