The preliminary rounds of the 13th Sankei Cup were played on 31 October and 2 November 2016.
This is the third time that the Kansai Ki-in invites foreign pros to play in the annual tournament sponsored by the Sankei newspaper. Europe was represented by the EGF pros Artem Kachanovskiy 1p and Mateusz Surma 1p, while Gansheng Shi 1p and Eric Lui 1p played for the AGA. The games were broadcasted live on the Kansai Ki-in homepage.

Two years ago, when Pavol Lisy 1p and Ali Jabarin 1p played in the 11th Sankei Cup, neither of them could pass the preliminary rounds, but they both left a deep impression on the players and organisers of Japan.
Past reports on EuroGoTV: #1 #2

The following year Ali Jabarin 1p and Mateusz Surma 1p participated in the 12th Sankei Cup. AGA pros Gansheng Shi 1p and Andy Liu 1p were invited as well. Apart from Andy 1p, every foreign pro was eliminated in the first round. Andy barrelled through the preliminary rounds and went on to play in the main tournament.
Report

This feat was achieved again by Artem Kachanovskiy 1p, this time in the 13th edition of the Sankei Cup. Artem won all three games in the preliminaries of the pro division to advance to the main tournament that will take place next spring. Amongst others, Artem defeated Sonoda Yuichi 9p in the final round, by 0,5.


According to the format of the Sankei Cup, 16 pros that qualified through the pro preliminaries, including Artem, will face 16 top amateurs, qualified through a separate event, in the first round of the main tournament (top 32 knock-out format), with a handicap of no komi. Last year Andy Liu 1p won this first round, but was eliminated in the top 16 by the later winner Murakawa Daisuke 8p. Let's look forward to Artem's performance in this edition's Sankei Cup main tournament!

Results and kifu:

Round 1:
Artem Kachanovskiy 1p (W) vs. Hashiyama Shozo 7p, W+26,5
Mateusz Surma 1p (W) vs. Sato Yuta 1p, W+Res
Gansheng Shi 1p (W) vs. Shintani Yosuke 1p, W+Res
Eric Lui 1p (W) vs. Yoshida Mika 8p, B+4,5

Round 2:
Artem Kachavovskiy 1p (W) vs. Inoue Naoki 3p, W+Res
Mateusz Surma 1p (B) vs. Moriyama Naoki 9p, W+Res
Gansheng Shi 1p (W) vs. Kiyonari Tetsuya 9p, W+Res

Round 3:
Artem Kachanovskiy 1p (W) vs. Sonoda Yuichi 9p, W+0,5

Selected games will be commented in a follow-up article.