Li Xuanhao

Chinese player born 1995-02-01 in Chongqing. He is called "Xuan-tificial Intelligence" (轩工智能). Promoted 1 dan 2008-07-24, 9 dan 2022-04-13. On the 2024-01-02 rating list, Li is now #11 in the world and #8 in China. His debut in the Chinese Go League A was in 2009 and he has been on the Team Chongqing in the Chinese Go League A every time he has taken part in it. Li ranks first in June 2024 and July 2024 in the Chinese professional Go player rating list, with 2695.4 scores in June and 2707.8 scores in July.

Achievements

• Winner of the 6th Xinxiu in 2012
• Winner of the 2012 China weiqi League, as member of the Team Chongqing
• Winner of the 2013 China weiqi League, as member of the Team Chongqing
• Winner of the Okage Cup World New Star in 2017 and 2018
• Winner of the Lanke Cup in 2022
• Winner of King of Kings in 2022
• Runner-up in the King of Kings in 2023 (to Li Weiqing)
• Runner-up in the Chunlan Cup in 2023
• Winner of the MLily Cup in 2024 (over Dang Yifei)
• Winner of King of Kings in 2024 (over Wang Xinghao)
• Winner of GBA Cup in 2024 (over Yang Kaiwen)

Controversy

On December 21, 2022, he defeated Shin Jinseo in the 14th Chunlan Cup semi-final and entered into his career first international finals. On December 22, Yang Dingxin, who had long been Li's teammate and best friend, questioned his honesty on the WeChat social media platform accusing him of cheating. A rough translation ( by a Reddit user idevcg) from Mandarin Chinese:

"I wanted to post it tomorrow, but I'll post it now and then go to sleep. Xuanhao, I want to play a 20-game match with you, no washroom breaks allowed, no time limits, a game a day, in a room with no signals, and release the kifu for all the games for everyone to judge, if everyone thinks I falsely accused you then I will retire after my LG cup finals, are you brave enough to accept my challenge?

Good night, don't pm me, reply in this thread :D"

After that, Yang was criticized by the Chinese Go Association and the Chinese National Go team which led him apologizing and deleting his post. The Chinese Go Association's investigation did not find that Li had cheated, and Yang was banned from most professional games by the Chinese Go Association for six months on December 30th. Initially participating in LG Cup was an exception from the ban, but the rules changed on the way, and Yang was also exceptioned from some other games.

A year earlier, Li had suffered the same accusation from Ke Jie and other Chinese professionals. For more information, see the video by Yeonwoo and the video by the Pro Go Baduk Weiqi Podcast.

Links

Japanese profile

Videos

• A post-game interview after the 2017 Mingren challenger semi-final win over Tang Weixing. bilibili link
• A post-game interview after reaching the finals in the Chunlan Cup in December 2022. YouTube link

Pictures

li xuanhao chunlan dec2022 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

li xuanhao mlily 2023 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)