His latest victim was Ma Xiaochun 9-dan. Resuming on 7 June 2000 in Game 4 after a long lay-off since February, the two met in Yinchuan in northern China, the stopping off point for trips to the Gobi Desert. Ma, unusually for him, tried a Sideways Chinese opening, but it did not put Chang off his stroke, and he emerged a 3-1 winner. Below are the games of the final in downloadable sgf format. Details of the 3rd Lebaishi Cup final are still sparse, but we have established that Chang moved into a 2-1 lead by winning Game 3 on 18 February.
Honours are even so far.
Chang won Game 1 on 14 February 2000, and Ma came back to take Game 2 on 16 February. For reasons that are still unclear to us, the Lebaishi Cup is not being reported as extensively as one might expect for such a major event and some results are missing. Be that as it may, Ma won the challengership by beating Yu Bin 9-dan. The 3rd Lebaishi Cup is well under way, with Stages 1 and 2 completed. As will be seen from the list, the cream does float to the top.