The Korean student Hikaru runs into in Tokyo, the one who'd had the losing streak, he wins. The whole point of the story is that winning against the innately brilliant Hikaru is what turns him around and sends him back home ready to /become/ a pro and a champion. He keeps being mentioned afterwards so I always assumed they'd meet again, and when near the end the press guys started talking about an international tourney, that would be when it happened. OTOH I probably have my rumours about the ending mixed up, since I wasn't paying that much attention to what people were saying about HnG two and three years back.