Ke Jie Photo: VCG
"The match has turned into a huge trauma for me, plunging me into endless darkness. Every night when I close my eyes, the memories keep replaying in my mind," Chinese Go player Ke Jie talked about the LG Cup final during a live stream on Sunday night.
Ke lost in the LG Cup finals in South Korea last week due to "rule violations," as he failed to place captured stones in the designated stone container lid on two occasions during the second game of the 29th LG Cup finals in accordance to the latest Go rules in South Korea. This marks the first time a rule violation has led to a loss in a world-class Go tournament final.
During the live stream, Ke stated that he felt threatened during the match, as dozens of eyes were staring at him. "I was too afraid to move, worried that I might accidentally violate some rules again," he said.
"The LG Cup final was extremely important to me because it was going to be my ninth world championship, an unprecedented achievement. I put in a lot of effort for it," Ke said. "I deleted all my favorite games and social media apps and spent months studying intensively."
Recalling his loss at the game, Ke said when he was first penalized 2 points, he had explained that he had read the rules and only said the stones had to be placed into a stone container lid, without specifying when.
"The referee said that the right to interpret the rules was his, and that what he said was final," Ke recalled. "He then told me and my coach that if we continued to argue and delay the game, he would immediately declare us losers."
"The referee intervened three times while my opponent was thinking. Why did he accuse us of delaying the game? Why use such discriminatory language to insult us?" Ke asked.
Ke also recalled that during his protests, his opponent was even chatting and laughing with someone on the side.
In the third game of the LG Cup final, Ke was penalized again for failing to place a stone into the container lid, in accordance with the Korean Go rules. The referee then intervened and paused the game. At the time, his opponent Byun was still thinking of his next move, and Ke protested, requesting that the game be paused only after Byun made his move. However, the referee's team did not accept his request. Unsatisfied with the ruling, Ke chose to forfeit the match.
"The game pause was a critical moment; it gave Byun additional time to think," Chinese Go player Tao Xin told the Global Times on Monday. "Even though both players left the board, they could still calculate the positions in their minds."
Byun spoke about Ke's rules violation in an after-match media interview, saying that he was also unaware of the new rule. He only learned about it when the referee announced Ke's first violation during the game.
"I think that rules like the stone placement violation are unnecessary, because they have nothing to do with the outcome of the game," Byun said.
Ke's father, Ke Guofan who is also a well-known Go player, expressed similar views. He believes that the referee's intervention to pause the game was disrespectful to the players and inappropriate, as it interfered with their ability to think.
"It felt like the game wasn't even about Go anymore," he told the media. "When the outcome of the match depends more on rules than the actual game itself, it seems a bit disconnected from the essence of Go."