Quzhou Lanke Go Supermatch

Overview

The Quzhou Lanke Go Supermatch was a professional game between Ke Jie and Lian Xiao, played on December 1 (from 3am UTC (GMT) / 10pm EST).

It was won by Ke Jie, as White. The (four hour) broadcast is here.

Ke Jie, as the top Chinese player, was chosen in advance to play. An online vote was held in China to decide his opponent, which Lian Xiao reportedly won with about 900,000 votes.

The time control is 2 hr + 5 x 1m byo-yomi.

Name, sponsors and broadcast

The hanzi form of Quzhou Lanke is 衢州 爛柯. The tones are Qúzhōu Lànkē.

The pronunciation can be approximated in English, tonelessly, as "Choo-jo Lun-ka". In (American) IPA this is /ˈtʃuːdʒoʊ ˈlʌnkə/. In BBC text spelling it is /choojoh luhnkuh/. A Japanese style orthography would be /chūjō lanka/.

Quzhou Lanke is the namesake sponsor (bugcat: iirc a construction company), also the sponsor of the Quzhou Lanke Cup, "the richest tournament in China".

Its name derives from Mt. Lanke, where the legend to which it lends its name (known in Japanese as Ranka), concerning the rotten axe handle, took place. Quzhou is the region of China in which the mountain is located. The event is also sponsored by the Quzhou tourism board, and adverts for the area are shown on the broadcast.

The name is not a direct translation from the Chinese; it was composed by Stephen Hu who, with Michael Redmond, is an English language commentator on the match.

English language broadcasting is handled by the AGA on their Twitch channel.