The Haifong Cup is one of the oldest tournaments in Taiwan with this edition being the fourteenth time it’s been held. The favorite for the title surely was Xu Haohong 7p, who won this title last year (three times in total) and holds four other titles as well. His opponent Lin Junyan (left on the photo) was promoted to 9p after having enough wins by winning the semifinals [120 wins after being promoted to 8p, as I understand].
The tournament is a single knockout tournament with 68 players, of whom 4 are seeded (Xu Haohong, Jian Jingting, Lin Junyan, and Wang Yuanjun). The finals are a best of three, so one can only afford one loss. In the first game (played on January 24th), Xu Haohong won by 1.5 points. And unfortunately for Lin Junyan, game three was never played, as he lost game two with 4.5 points (played January 27th).