10 Years After Lee Sedol... Shin Jinseo Finally Defeats "The Strongest" KataGo

A Four-and-a-Half Point Victory After 290 Moves Against KataGo
Avenging His Game 1 Loss... A New Milestone in Human Go

Shin Jinseo, currently the world’s top-ranked Go player, has achieved a historic milestone by clinching his first official match victory against KataGo, the strongest existing Go artificial intelligence (AI) as of July 19, 2026. This marks the first such win in ten years since Lee Sedol’s legendary victory over AlphaGo in 2016.

On July 19, at the Hankyung TV studio in Jung-gu, Seoul, Shin Jinseo faced KataGo in Game 2 of the three-game "Ssen Math·Hankyung Gisin Match" series. In a fiercely contested battle that lasted over 4 hours and 50 minutes, and went on for 290 moves, Shin Jinseo emerged victorious by a margin of four and a half points.

This match was played under a two-stone handicap system, with Shin Jinseo taking black and placing two stones first. Despite the handicap, this is the first time that KataGo, regarded as the world’s strongest Go AI, has been defeated by a human in an official match.

Shin Jinseo 9-dan is playing a match against Katago at the Korea Economic TV studio in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 19th. Korea Baduk Association

Until now, KataGo has shown overwhelming strength in practice games against professional players, often winning even when giving up two stones. There have been several cases where professionals, even after starting with three stones, could not withstand the AI, and even in four-stone handicapped games, some pros have been defeated, reinforcing KataGo’s reputation as an almost insurmountable opponent for humans.

In Game 1, played on July 17, Shin Jinseo lost by resignation after 245 moves, failing to maintain his early lead. However, in Game 2, he chose a strategy that minimized complex variations by steering the game toward the large-scale patterns favored by KataGo right from the start.

Having smoothly navigated the large corner pattern that extended to the 53rd move, Shin Jinseo maintained a predicted win rate of 99% for a significant portion of the match, sustaining a stable lead. Although his win probability dropped to 89% during a central battle in the mid-game, he calmly countered KataGo’s attacks and regained dominance. By continuing to play accurate moves in the subsequent central fight, Shin Jinseo maintained his lead until the very end and secured victory.

This win brings Shin Jinseo’s match record to one win and one loss, leveling the series. The final and decisive third game is scheduled for July 21, with Shin Jinseo now vying for a come-from-behind victory against the AI.

The "Ssen Math·Hankyung Gisin Match" is a special event organized by the Hankyung Media Group and supervised by the Korea Baduk Association. For each game, Shin Jinseo receives a fee of 50 million won, with an additional 50 million won paid for every win. If he achieves two or more victories, he will also receive a Genesis G90 as a special prize.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.