The Sopal Kosanol Cup, which was postponed due to the LG Cup turmoil, opened on the 26th, and Ke Jie was finally absent

The first Sopal Kosanol Cup, the world's top chess player, which was postponed due to the announcement of the Chinese Chess Academy's non-participation, will be held at a later date. The Korea Chess Academy said on the 24th that the Sopal Kosanol Cup for the world's highest chess player will be held from the 26th to the 30th at the Go TV Studio on Machang-ro, Seongdong-gu.

Ke Jie

The following year's Sopal Kosanol Cup will feature nine players from South Korea, China, Japan and Chinese Taipei to decide the champion.

The competition was originally scheduled to open on the 6th of last month. However, after Chinese player Ke Jie Jiudan was found guilty of a foul in the LG Cup final held at the end of January for violating the rules governing the management of the dead son (already raised), the Chinese Chess Academy strongly protested and announced that it would not participate in the competition for the best player in the world, and the schedule was postponed.

Dang Yifei

As the Korean Chess Academy hurriedly abolished the "Dead Son (Raised) Management Rules" that had become a problem, the Chinese Chess Academy changed its policy of participation, but Ke Jie, who was invited as a wild card, finally refused to participate.

Ke Jie has not played chess for more than two months after the 2025 LG Cup final. In the end, the Chinese Chess Academy decided to let Dang Yifei play in place of Ke Jie. Dang Yifei, who suddenly came to first place in the Chinese Go rankings in March, served as a foreign aid for the Yinglin team in the 2024-2025 KB National Bank Go League.

South Korea's Shin Jin-jung

In the first Sopal Kosanol Cup World Best Chess Player Competition, the South Korean side will send Shin Jinzhen, Park Tinghuan, Shin Minjun, and Kang Dong-yun to play, and Xu Jiayang Jiudan and Tu Xiaoyu 8th Dan, who passed the national selection competition, will represent China. The Japanese team and the Chinese Taipei team were respectively represented by Fukuoka Hangtaro 7th dan and Hangzhou Asian Games gold medalist Hsu Haohong 9th dan.

The Sopal Kosanol Cup World Player of the Year competition will be held from June 9 to 12, following the first phase of this week. The top two players in the league will decide the championship trophy in the third stage final in October. The prize money for the first place is 200 million won, and the second place prize is 100 million won.