▲Jeong Jun-woo (정준우) and Kim Yun-tae (김윤태) have met in the final of the Kim In Kuksu Cup. -Jung Jun-woo (정준우) beats Kim Yun-tae (김윤태) in the winners' final to advance to the final －Kim Yun-tae (김윤태) makes a comeback through the losers' bracket… rematch with Jung Jun-woo －Champion to be decided in a best-of-three final over two days, the 23rd and 24th Jeong Jun-woo (정준우) 4 dan and Kim Yun-tae (김윤태) 4 dan will face each other for the title at the 2026 Kim In Guksu Cup. On the 9th, in the loser's bracket final of the 2026 Kim In Kuksu Cup Rising Stars Championship held at the Korea Baduk Association's Baduk TV studio, Kim Yun-tae (김윤태) defeated 3-dan Kim Gi-eon (김기언) by resignation, playing White, in 268 moves, and advanced to the final. In the winners' bracket final held earlier on the 5th, Jeong Jun-woo (정준우) defeated Kim Yun-tae (김윤태) by 3.5 points with White in 238 moves to reach the final first. Kim, who had been pushed into the losers' bracket by that loss to Jeong, made a comeback in the losers' bracket final, setting up a rematch between the two. Both players turned pro in 2022. Jeong Jun-woo (정준우) is ranked 70th and Kim Yun-tae (김윤태) is ranked 72nd, and Jeong leads their head-to-head record 2-1. Jeong Jun-woo (정준우) finished runner-up at the 13th Ha Chan-seok Kuksu Cup in 2025 and the 4th Yanggu County Center of Korea Cup in 2026, while Kim Yoon-tae (김윤태) is reaching his first final since turning pro. The 2026 Kim In Kuksu Cup Rising Stars Championship (2026 김인국수배 신예바둑 최강전) drew 66 professionals from the Korea Baduk Association who have been pros for five years or less. The field was cut to 16 main-tournament qualifiers in the preliminaries held in September, and through the main tournament's repechage bracket, Jeong Jun-u (정준우) and Kim Yun-tae (김윤태) advanced to the final. The 2026 Kim In Kuksu Cup Rookie Baduk Championship, resuming for the first time in three years since 2023, is sponsored by the family of the late Kim In (김인) Kuksu and hosted and organized by the Korea Baduk Association (한국기원). The winner's prize is 20 million won and the runner-up receives 10 million won. The time control is cumulative, with each player given 10 minutes plus 30 seconds of added time.
