A few simple rules ... limitless possibilities

Su Sheng-fang

Su Sheng-fang, the 16-year-old pro from Chinese Taipei, was one of the eight unseeded players in the women’s division. She came to the World Mind Games with her mother, who lent moral support during the following interview with Ranka.

Ranka: First, please tell us about the three games you played here against Irene Sha, Park Jieun, and Mukai Chiaki.
Su: All three of them were very strong. In the last two games I tried hard to win, but I wasn’t able to.

Ranka: How old were you when you started to play go?
Su: I was eight. I was a noisy child and I wasn’t good at arithmetic, so Mother started sending me to a go club. She thought it would do me good.

Ranka: And then?
Su: A year or so after that I became an insei, and then last year I made professional shodan.

Ranka: What tournaments have you won so far?
Su: Quite a lot of amateur tournaments. I was women’s champion in Chinese Taipei three years in a row.

Ranka: Have you played in other international tournaments before this one?
Su: Yes, seven times, six times in China and once in Korea. But this is my first SportAccord event.

Ranka: Is there any professional player that you particularly admire?
Su: Lee Sedol.

Ranka: What are your outside interests and hobbies?
Su: Singing and dancing. I like street dancing, sort of like what we saw at the Opening Ceremony.

Ranka: Thank you.

Natalia Kovaleva

White: Joanne MISSINGHAM (Chinese Taipei) 6p
Black: Natalia KOVALEVA (Russia) 5d

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock 

I saw Kovaleva (Russia) in Japan recently at the Pair Go Championships, where she and her partner were among the stronger pairs, and she did well here this week in the SportAccord World Mind Games Women’s Individual event.
In this game against Joanne Missingham 6P of Taiwan, Kovaleva’s attack backfires when Missingham counter-attacks with a devastating ko…

Click here to start the game viewer.

Mu Ying (standing)

December 17 dawned clear and cold in Beijing, excellent weather for a group of World Mind Games players and officials from China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Korea, and North America to pay an afternoon visit to the Shuang Huayuan campus of the Beijing Chaoyang Fangcaodi International school to take on thirty-three primary schoolchildren in simultaneous games. Upon arrival, the visitors were ushered into the gymnasium, where 33 young opponents, uniformed in blue and white trainers, were seated at go boards waiting for them. Ms Mu Ying, the school’s principal, welcomed the group with a brisk speech in which she explained that the school had 450 teachers and 4400 students, including 800 foreign students from countries all over the world. The students are distributed over eight campuses so that almost all of them can walk to school. Since 2003 the school has had a sports club program that includes chess, xiangqi, and go. The go club boasts nearly 100 members, who meet to study and play go four days a week. They also play online and participate in provincial tournaments, including an annual Fangcao Cup that is attended by 600 primary school players.

Play began immediately after the welcoming speech. The schoolchildren, dressed in blue and white trainers, put nine stones down on their boards. Sixteen World Mind Games players and officials, including vice tournament director Michael Redmond and women’s gold medalist Li He, set to work. While they were playing, Ms Xie Yujuan, who leads the youth club program at the school, explained that the strongest of the school players were a pair of 2-dan boys, who were taking on China’s Tianyuan Chen Yaoye and Chinese Taipei’s bronze medalist Lin Chi-han.

Both of these boys played well but lost large groups of stones. The three boys who played Li He found their groups getting into similar trouble. ‘We’re totally outclassed,’ one said to another. On other boards the story was generally the same, but Japan’s Mukai Chiaki saved the day for the home team by making sure that one of her two opponents won his game. Win or lose, it was clear that, as Ms Xie said, these kids love to play go, and their enthusiasm was infectious; the visiting players were having a good time too.

Most of the players had finished their games by the time the end of the match was announced. The visitors presented the home team with souvenirs, which were received by two of the shoolchildren, and Ms Mu presented the visiting officials and organizers with letters of thanks. And then the visitors bundled themselves onto the buses that took them back to the Beijing Continental Grand Hotel in plenty of time for dinner.

- James Davies

Joanne Missingham

White: Jeun PARK (Korea) 9p
Black: Joanne MISSINGHAM (Chinese Taipei) 6p

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock 

This is a critical game because whoever loses will be knocked out; this is a double-elimination tournament and both players have one loss.
Joanne Missingham, born in Australia,lived in California for a few years and now represents ChineseTaipei; she’s also the official Go Ambassador at the 2nd SAWMG.
Park Jieun was one of the first Korean female players to really challenge Rui Naiwei when Rui was playing in Korea. So she’s been one of the top Korean players for quite a while…

Click here to start the game viewer.

The four players took their seats in the playing room at the Beijing International Conference Center ten minutes before the starting time of round 7. Choi Chulhan and Kang Dongyoon, playing for the men’s individual gold medal and $100,000 sat facing each other in stony Korean silence. Li He and Rui Naiwei, playing for the women’s individual gold medal and $40,000, chatted cheerily in Chinese. The silver medals come with awards of $40,000 (men) and $20,000 (women).

From left: Kang Dongyoon, Choi Chulhan and Lin Chi-han

Chief referee Hua Yigang gave the starting instructions, and play began promptly at 3:00. At both boards the younger players, Kang Dongyoon and Li He, guessed even/odd correctly and got black. The Choi-Kang game was broadcast live on YouTube with Michael Redmond and Chris Garlock doing the move-by-move commentary.

The initial pace of play was nearly twice as fast on the women’s board as on the men’s board. Li He played aggressively and Rui Naiwei did not shrink from fighting. The pace of play slowed considerably in the middle game, which left the outcome to be decided in the endgame, but this is where the younger player outshone her opponent. Rui was close to four stones (eight points) behind when she finally resigned, just before six o’clock, just five moves short of the end of the game had she chosen to count the score.

This was Li’s second big victory of the year over Rui, the first having come in the Mt. Qionglong Bingsheng Cup. It was also her third SportAccord World Mind Games gold medal; she won two in team and pair competition last year. Since both the gold medalist Li and the silver medalist Rui had defeated the bronze medalist Choi Jeong in earlier rounds, Li now has every right to be considered the world’s best go-playing woman.

On the men’s board, the outcome of the fighting through the first 128 moves was a dead black group in the top left corner and a dead white group on the lower side. Had normal endgame play continued, white seemed to be slightly ahead, so black pressed for some extra profit, provoking a wild fight. After another fifty moves or so the fighting ended in a ko exchange that revived the black group in the top left but transformed the lower side from black territory to white territory. This exchange was considerably in white’s favor. After 192 moves, Kang Dongyoon, gold medalist at the 2008 World Mind Sport Games in Beijing, resigned and accepted the silver medal at the 2012 World Mind Games. Choi Chulhan’s gold medal gives him possession of two world titles, the other being the Ing Cup he won in 2009.

From left: Rui Naiwei, Liu Siming, Li He, Choi Jeong and Yang Yichun

The medals were awarded in evening ceremonies at a convention hall in the Conference Center. Choi Chulhan, Kang Dongyoon, and Lin Chi-han mounted the dais at 8:00 to accept the men’s gold, silver, and bronze medals from Mr Matsumura Koichi, president of the International Go Federation, and certificates from Mr Vincent Liu, Senior Manager of Event Marketing of BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd. Two Korean flags and one representing Chinese Taipei were raised to the accompaniement of the Korean National anthem. The bronze medal won by Chinese Taipei is another sign of their rise in the international go scene, following a bronze medal in the women’s team competition at the Asian Games in 2010.

Next, at 8:15, China’s Li He and Rui Naiwei and Korea’s Choi Jeong took the dais to accept the womens medals from Mr Liu Siming, IGF vice-president, and certificates from Mr Yang Yichun, President of Project English Education & Research Branch of Beijing Academic Society for Education. Two Chinese and one Korean flag were raised to the accompaniement of the Chinese National anthem.

And with that the ceremony was over, but this is not the end of the go competition at the World Mind Games. Starting on December 18th, Li, Lin, and the two Choi’s will contend for further medals in the pair go competition, where Choi Chulhan is partnered with Choi Jeong, Li He with Jiang Weijie, and Lin Chi-han with Joanne Missingham.

- James Davies

Redmond (left) and Sun

Only one game took place in the playing room at the Beijing International Convention Center on the morning of December 16. Sun Naijing, winner of the Pandanet-SportAccord Online Go Tournament and official guest at the World Mind Games, took on Michael Redmond in a regulation game with clocks, broadcast live on the Internet by Sina.com. Ms Taki Hiroko of Pandanet was on hand to give the players their starting instructions. Mr Sun spent most of the game rescuing a large black group, and although it survived, the collateral damage was so great that he resigned. Shortly after the game ended, he gave interviews to IEC TV and Ranka.

IEC TV: How do you feel about the game you’ve just played? Can you explain why you lost?
Sun: I tried my best, but I was playing a professional 9-dan, and he was much stronger. This wasn’t a tournament game, it was a goodwill match, so I didn’t feel under any psychological pressure, but time pressure was a factor. I would have liked more time to think about my last few moves.

IEC TV: Did you enjoy the game?
Sun: Yes. As an amateur player, I play more for fun than to win.

Ranka: How did you come to start playing go at the age of nine?
Sun: I was in primary school in Shanghai at the time. A go teacher came to our school, and that’s when I started playing and studying the game. Afterwards we moved to Anhui Province, and I continued studying there.

Ranka: Do you remember your first tournament?
Sun: Yes, it was in Anhui Province, when I was twelve years old. My results were only so-so.

Ranka: Please tell us about your education and work.
Sun: I majored in mathematics, and now I direct the Scientific Research Institution in the Statistical Bureau of Anhui Province.

Ranka: And please tell us about your family.
Sun: I have a daughter. She plays go a little.

Ranka: Had you played any foreign players before Michael Redmond?
Sun: I think I’ve played with foreign go players before on the Internet, but this was the first time I faced a foreign opponent in person. I was playing black without compensation, so I might have had some chance of winning if I had played better, but he was very strong.

Ranka: Besides playing on the Internet, what are your current go activities?
Sun: I play in local tournaments in Anhui Province.

Ranka: Thank you and good look in your next tournament.

Los Sport Accord World Mind Games constituyen una nueva oportunidad para enfrentar a jugadores del más alto nivel.
Los juegos de este año se desarrollan en el mismo sitio en el que se disputaron los Juegos Mundiales de Deportes Mentales de Beijing 2008.

Sala de Estudio

El recuerdo de aquel evento grandioso le da un sabor especial a estos juegos. La escala es menor, pero la organización cuidadosa del detalle y la calidez de los anfitriones, hacen que uno se sienta a gusto y pueda disfrutar a fondo de las partidas, los comentarios, los encuentros con conocidos y las charlas ocasionales con gente de otros deportes.
En el exterior del edificio, en cambio, el clima no es tan cálido: la nieve cubre los automóviles, las calles y el renombrado “Nido de Pájaro”.

El sistema de torneo, por doble eliminación, otorga una segunda oportunidad a quien sufre un traspié.
El azar, combinado con el sorteo en base a cabezas de serie, hizo que enfrentara en primera ronda a Chen Yaoye 9-dan, uno de los más conocidos entre los jóvenes brillantes de China.
Mi segunda oportunidad fue ante Lin Chi-han 9-dan de China Taipéi, un jugador con una trayectoria larga en su país.
Enfrentar a jugadores de este nivel es siempre una experiencia estimulante, pero requiere desarrollar al máximo la capacidad de concentración, ya que cualquier decido puede ser fatal. Perdí ambas partidas por abandono.
El nivel de juego ha mejorado en Occidente, pero se mantiene la brecha entre el juego profesional y el amateur. Esto se debe, entre otras cosas, a que en las últimas décadas ha aumentado el nivel de los jugadores más fuertes, o sea, se ha profundizado en el conocimiento del go.

El torneo termina para quien queda eliminado, pero no la experiencia, porque es realmente interesante seguir las alternativas de las partidas de quienes siguen en carrera, desde la sala de estudio contigua a la sala de juego.
Chen Yaoye llegó a la final de la ronda de ganadores, pero cayó ante Choi Chulhan 9-dan de Corea, tras un intento fallido de matar un grupo. Lin Chi-han avanzó en la ronda de perdedores, derrotando a su compatriota Lin Chun-yen. Mientras escribo estas líneas, Chen y Lin se enfrentan buscando un lugar en las semifinales.
Es igualmente digno de ver el torneo individual femenino, que se desarrolla en forma paralela al masculino.
En la final de la ronda de ganadoras, Rui Naiwei 9-dan de China, se lanzó en un ataque a fondo contra un grupo de Li He 3-dan (también de China), quien maniobró hábilmente para producir un escape que parecía imposible, y de ese modo forzar el abandono.

También fue interesante de ver la partida entre dos jugadoras amateur que se mantenían en competencia: Natalia Kovaleva de Rusia venció a Vanessa Wong de Gran Bretaña.
Mi mente volvió una vez más a aquellos Juegos del 2008, en los que mi país pudo presentar un equipo completo para todas las categorías en ambos géneros.
La última partida en terminar fue la que enfrentó a Joanne Missingham, 6-dan de China Taipéi, quien fue designada embajadora para representar al go en este evento multi-deportivo, versus Park Jieun 9-dan de Corea.
La partida tuvo un trámite parejo, y sobre el final parecía que la jugadora coreana mantenía una ventaja mínima, pero un yose descuidado la llevó a perder por 3/4 punto (1,5 puntos según el conteo a la japonesa).

Conteo

En este torneo, el conteo es realizado por un árbitro luego que los jugadores retiran las piedras muertas.
El método es el siguiente: para ganar la partida se requiere superar la mitad de los puntos del tablero, o sea 180,5 puntos, contando un punto por cada piedra en el tablero, uno por cada punto vacío rodeado por piedras del propio color, y medio punto por cada punto que se comparte con el adversario en un seki.
Se cuenta el territorio de un solo color. Si de Blanco, a la suma hay que agregar el valor del komi (3 3/4 puntos en este torneo), y ver si supera los 180,5 puntos. Si de Negro, se necesita ver si supera los 180,5 puntos más el komi (en este torneo, los 184,25 puntos).
Para contar el territorio, se reordenan los espacios para que queden múltiplos de 10, agregando o quitando piedras del mismo color en caso que sea necesario. Se llega de ese modo a una cantidad de decenas de puntos vacíos rodeados.
Luego se cuentan las piedras de ese color que han quedado en el tablero, agrupándolas también por decenas.
En el caso de la partida de Joanne Missingham, la cuenta del territorio blanco dio 70 puntos vacíos rodeados y 106 piedras. Sumando el komi de 3 3/4 al total de 176 puntos, se llega a 179 3/4 puntos, por lo cual Blanco (la jugadora coreana) quedó 3/4 puntos por debajo.
Para quien está acostumbrado al método de conteo japonés, todo este procedimiento parece extraño, pero una vez que se entiende la mecánica, pierde gran parte del misterio.

Los Sport Accord World Mind Games son una oportunidad excelente de competencia internacional.
El nivel de juego está aumentando en los distintos continentes, por lo cual es preciso que redoblemos los esfuerzos por el desarrollo del go en nuestra región.
Por lo pronto, estuve hace poco tiempo en Caracas, Venezuela, dando un apoyo en capacitación para los profesores del programa “Gakko no Go” de enseñanza a niños en edad escolar. Esto, en el marco de un proyecto auspiciado por la International Go Federation, que tiene por objetivo el desarrollo de un sistema de enseñanza del go adaptado a nuestra realidad.
La experiencia de Venezuela es sumamente interesante, y no es la única que está en marcha en la región, ya que hay experiencias valiosas en otros países también.
En la medida que podamos articular esfuerzos, estaremos en condiciones de producir un crecimiento sostenido, y de ese modo ponernos a la altura de otras regiones que nos preceden.
Es un gran desafío que tenemos de cara al futuro.

- Fernando Aguilar

Ranka interviewed Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chi-han just after his victory over China’s Chen Yaoye.

Lin Chi-han

Ranka: Congratulations on your win and forthcoming medal.
Lin: Thanks.

Ranka: Please tell us something about your career.
Lin: I was born in Taipei. I started playing go when I was about six years old. I was still in kindergarten, but my uncle could play go, and Mother thought it would be good for me to learn. When I was about nine or ten I started taking lessons from Lin Sheng-hsian, a 7-dan pro. To become his disciple there was a kowtowing ceremony I had to go through, touching my head to the ground in front of him. This is an important ceremony in Chinese Taipei.

Ranka: Were there many other children like you studying go that seriously at that age?
Lin: Not many, but one of them was Chang Hsu (known as Cho U in Japan, where he is currently one of the top pros). We were the same age, although we had different teachers.

Ranka: When did you become professional?
Lin: In 2000. I also began studying business administration at Taiwan National University around then. I graduated in 2004, but I had already starting winning professional tournaments and was committed to a professional career. My university training may prove useful later when it comes to investing my earnings, but it has not been of any direct use to me as a go player.

Ranka: What was your first professional tournament win?
Lin: It was in the tournament that is now known as the Taiwan Oza, although it had a different name then. I still consider it my most important victory.

Ranka: And your first win in an amateur tournament?
Lin: There’ve been so many that I can’t remember.

Ranka: Are you able to make a living as a professional player?
Lin: Yes, definitely, both by teaching and by playing in tournaments. I like doing both of those things, but if I had to choose one or the other, I could make a living doing either one.

Ranka: That must mean that there are a lot of people playing go in Chinese Taipei these days.
Lin: Indeed there are. Every weekend there must be five or ten tournaments played somehwere in Taiwan, with participation ranging from one or two hundred at the smaller ones to several thousand at the larger ones. And most of these tournaments are for young kids, from beginners to about shodan-level players.

Ranka: And now let’s hear about your games here so far, starting with your loss to Japan’s Fujita Akihiko in the first round.
Lin: He was very strong, and I lost by playing badly in the endgame.

Ranka: And which was the toughest of the games you won?
Lin: The last game against Chen Yaoye.

Ranka: You have a game coming up against Korea’s Kang Dongyoon in the next round. Have you played him before?
Lin: Yes, once in Korea, although not in a tournament as big as this one.

Ranka: What are your interests outside of go?
Lin: Reading and basketball. I’m a big NBA fan.

Ranka: Thank you, and good luck in the upcoming medal rounds.

Ryui Naiwei (left) playing against

Round 6 began after lunch on December 15, with the same eight players playing as in the morning. This was the round that would decide third, fourth, and fifth places. On the top board China’s Lin Chi-han was playing Korea’s Kang Dongyoon, the winner to proceed into the men’s gold/silver medal final, the loser to take the third-place bronze medal. On the next board China’s Chen Yaoye was playing Korea’s Park Jeonghwan, the winner to finish fourth, the loser fifth. Beside them a similar fourth-fifth place playoff was set up in the women’s division, Chinese Taipei’s Joanne Missingham playing Russia’s Natalia Kovaleva. On the last board, China’s Rui Naiwei faced Korea’s Choi Jeong in the women’s medal battle. Michael Redmond gave the players their starting instructions before heading to the YouTube broadcast booth to comment on the Kang-Lin game.

The Missingham-Kovaleva game ended in resignation by Kovaleva in a hopeless ko fight for the life of a very large group. ‘It was an interesting game for me,’ she said. Joanne Missingham’s comment: ‘I didn’t play well in the opening, but then Natalia didn’t play well in the middle game.’ The financial rewards in the women’s division are $8000 for fourth place (Missingham) and $6000 for fifth place (Kovaleva).

The men’s fourth-place-fifth-place playoff also ended in resignation, when China’s Chen Yaoye brought a beleagured group to safety in the center and captured one of the groups attacking it. The financial rewards in the men’s division are larger. Chen gets $16,000 for fourth place, while Korea’s Park Jeonghwan gets $10,000 for fifth place.

The women’s medal battle turned into a free-for-all in the center with both sides taking numerous captives. Rui Naiwei’s take was the larger and she proceeds into final round. Choi Jeong takes the bronze medal and $12,000.

The men’s medal battle is the only game that ended without massive capturing. Korea’s Kang Dongyoon won with room to spare, finishing 5-3/4 stones (11.5 points) ahead. Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chi-han wins the bronze medal and $30,000.

The final matches for the gold and silver medals will be an all-Korean affair, Choi Chulhan vs Kang Dongyoon, in the men’s division and an all-Chinese affair, Li He vs Rui Naiwei, in the women’s division. Play starts at 3:00 p.m. on December 16.

- James Davies

Canada’s Bill (Tianyu) Lin was one of the first four players to be eliminated, losing to China’s Jiang Weijie in round 1 and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-yen in round 2. He then became the first player to give Ranka an interview.

Bill Lin (right) playing against Jiang Weijie

Ranka: Do you prefer to be called Tianyu or Bill?
Lin: I prefer Bill. When I registered for the World Mind Games I was still officially named Tianyu, so that’s how I’m listed in the program, but after that I officially changed my name to Bill in Canada.

Ranka: Where were you born, and when did you emigrate to Canada?
Lin: I was born in Ningbo, a city south of Shanghai. When I was ten, in my fifth year in primary school, my parents decided to emigrate. One reason was that a lot of their friends had emigrated, and another reason was that they didn’t like the school examination system in China. So we moved to Vancouver.

Ranka: Could you speak any English when your arrived?
Lin: Only greetings. I took classes in English as a second language for two years. After that I had no problems.

Ranka: And when did you start playing go?
Lin: When I was six years old, still going to kindergarten. My father had been crazy about go in his university days, and there was a go board in the house. I became very interested in playing five-in-a-row, and then I started playing go. An amateur 5-dan named Fan Jiunling had a go school that I attended twice a week for four and a half years until we emigrated. By then I was an amateur 3 dan in China.

Ranka: And you kept the game up in Canada?
Lin: Yes. I liked reading Chinese go literature. Not doing life-and-death problems, just reading go books.

Ranka: How did you get those books in Canada?
Lin: My father owns a factory in China, where they manufacture home electronics goods: coffee makers, for example. Like many emigrants, he’s constantly traveling back and forth between Canada and China. Each time he comes back he brings the latest go books with him. I must have two or three hundred of those books on my shelves now.

Ranka: When did you start participating in Canadian tournaments?
Lin: My first tournament was the Canadian Open. My mother contacted a go player in Vancouver, and was told about it. It sounded interesting, so I registered in the B division, which was 3-5 dan. The competition was close, but I took first place. After that I continued to play in local and national tournaments, and tournaments in the United States. I didn’t study a lot but I kept improving. I guess you improve as you mature.

Ranka: And how did you qualify for the World Mind Games?
Lin: I saw a notice about the first SportAccord World Mind Games last year. It looked like fun, so I registered for the qualifier. The qualifier was played online and it was tough. I beat Feng Yun, a 9-dan pro, but still failed to qualify. So I tried again this September, but without expecting to win. I was rather surprised when I did win. It was a smaller field, so I only needed to win three games.

Ranka: And what of your results here in Beijing?
Lin: I did as well as I expected. When I saw the results of the draw for pairings, I knew my chances would be slim. I played my best, but I had no chance at all against Jiang Weijie in the first round. In the second round I may have had some chances.

Ranka: Do you like living in Canada?
Lin: Yes. It’s hard to explain, but I like having space to express myself. I can do more things. In China all I did was study and play go. In Canada I’ve done some swimming and tried other sports.

Ranka: Where are you going to school now and what are your future plans?
Lin: I’m going to an all-boys’ school. I think it’s considered the top school in British Columbia. I have college entrance examinations coming up soon. I’d like to study engineering or business in college, perhaps in the United States, maybe even in Europe. I like to go to different places.

Ranka: Thank you.

Round 5, which started at 9:30 a.m. on December 15, was the round that would separate the award-winners from the medal-winners. The two Korean men, Kang Dongyoon and Park Jeonghwan, took their seats at the top board in the playing room, next to China’s Chen Yaoye and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chi-han. On the next board China’s Rui Naiwei was seated with eyes closed awaiting the start of her second game against Russia’s Natalia Kovaleva, whom she had beaten in round 1. On the last board the two youngest players were facing each other: Chinese Taipei’s Joanne Missingham (18) and Korea’s Choi Jeong (15).

Kovaleva (left) and Rui

The Rui-Kovaleva game was the first to end. Natalia played consistently for territory in the opening, even to the point of leaving a weak group undefended in the center. Rui attacked it immediately, sliced it into two pieces, and killed the larger piece unconditionally, its death struggles only increasing the size of the loss. The Russian player resigned a little after 10:30.

In the Chen-Lin game Chen also played for territory. He promptly invaded the large framework that Lin constructed, linked his invading group to safety, and seemed headed for victory, but then overplayed his position in the center and found himself forced to resort to ko complications to try to catch up in the endgame. When the ko fighting resolved itself, Chinese Taipei’s Lin had taken over possession of the bottom right corner, and shortly thereafter won by resignation.

Lin (left) vs Chen

The Kang-Park game and Missingham-Choi game were fighting games from the outset. Kang’s opening strategy was built around a single huge framework, supposedly a dangerous strategy, but in this game it turned out to be dangerous for his opponent. When Park invaded, a running fight developed, the outcome of which was that the framework grew larger and all the invading stones died. Kang won by resignation. At the other end of the room, Joanne Missingham challenged her opponent with some unconventional joseki variations, but Choi handled them adroitly. This was the only game that was played out to the end. In round 2 Choi had won by resignation, but this time her margin of victory was a modest 2-1/4 stones (4.5 points).

All games were over in plenty of time for a noon lunch at the Beijing Continental grand Hotel. As for the medal tally, in the men’s section Korea will win two and Chinese Taipei one, and in the women’s section China will win two and Korea one, but who will win which medal remains to be decided in the next two rounds.

- James Davies

Kang Dangyoon

White: JIANG Weijie (China) 9p
Black: KANG Dangyoon (Korea) 9p

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock 

Weijie Jiang and Dongyoon Kang are both relatively young players and I’ve not seen a lot of their games. Kang is the more senior and has a stable style, not colorful like Choi Chulhan; I’m sure he has a nickname, as most of the Korean players do, but I don’t know it. My impression is that Jiang is in good form and has been doing well in tournaments lately…

Click here to start the game viewer.

The snowfall in the morning of December 14 did not deter the SportAccord staff from taking their daily run, setting an inspiring example for us all, but the snow stopped well before the 3:00 p.m. starting time of the fourth round. After lunch, the players began to head for the playing room for the final games of the main men’s and women’s knockouts and six games in the repechage sections. The winners of the two knockout games would be assured of a gold or silver medal. The losers would be assured of at least a fifth-place award, and would have a good shot at a medal, since their next opponents would be players who had lost in the first round. The repechage winners, like the losers of the final knockout games, would get at least an award and would contend for medals in the next rounds tomorrow.

Michael Redmond (left) and Chris Garlock

The playing room was set up with the women’s games in the front row and the men’s games in back. Great Britain’s Vanessa Wong and Russia’s Natalia Kovaleva were the first to take their seats, fifteen minutes early, facing each other silently across the board. The television cameras were trained on the game between Korea’s Park Jieun and Chinese Taipei’s Joanne Missingham in the women’s repechage. In the TV commentator’s booth just outside the playing room, Michael Redmond and Chris Garlock were giving a live commentary on this game for a worldwide YouTube audience on 54 platforms in countries from Afghanistan on down. The two players obliged them by playing at a brisk pace in the opening.

For the second straight day China’s unbeaten Chen Yaoye found himself facing a Korean opponent. Today it was Choi Chulhan, also unbeaten in the World Mind Games, but whom Chen had defeated in two straight games in the China-Korea Tianyuan-Chunwon (Tengen) playoff in September. This game started more slowly.
The first game to end was in the all-Chinese women’s knockout. Rui Naiwei played aggressively but resigned before five o’clock when her attempt to kill a large group backfired. Li He, who rescued the group with a classic demonstration of clumping tactics, now gets to rest for the next two rounds before playing for the gold medal in round 7.

From the left: Li, Rui, Missingham, Kovaleva, Choi

The next game to end was in the women’s repechage. Natalia Kovaleva proved that territory around the sides trumps territory in the center to win by 2-1/4 stones (4.5 points). She thereby gained joyful revenge for a loss to Vanessa Wong in this year’s European Championship. Natalia will be Rui Naiwei’s next opponent.
In the all Chinese-Taipei game in the men’s repechage, Lin Chun-yen resigned after a protracted and unsuccessful attempt to overturn a big lead taken by his opponent Lin Chi-han, who moves on into round 5. Korea’s Park Jeonghwan and Kang Dongyoon also advance to round 5; they beat China’s Jiang Weijie by resignation and Japan’s Fujita Akihiko by and 1-3/4 stones (3.5 points). The game between Park and Jiang was another story of an attack that miscarried, with disastrous consequences for the attacker.
In the women’s repechage section, Korea split two games. Choi Jeong beat Japan’s Mukai Chiaki by resignation, but Park Jieun lost the televised match by 3/4 of a stone (1.5 points), in the endgame. Joanne Missingham, go’s ambassador at the World Mind Games, who lost to Choi Jeong in round 2, will get a second chance at her in round 5.

From the left: Choi, Park, Chen, Donyonn, Lin

The men’s knockout game ended in much the same way as the women’s knockout game and the Park-Jiang game. China’s Chen Yaoye launched a serious attack on a large white group, only to have Korea’s ‘Viper’ Choi Chulhan turn the tables and capture most of the attacking black stones in a ko fight, leaving Chen no choice but to resign. Chen will next play Lin Chi-han in the repechage, while Choi rests up for the gold-medal final.

Both the men’s and women’s fields have now been reduced to five players: in the men’s section, three are from Korea, one from China, and one from Chinese Taipei; in the women’s section, two are from China, one from Chinese Taipei, and one from Russia.

- James Davies

Chen Yaoye

White: CHEN Yaoye (China) 9p
Black: PARK Jeonghwan (Korea) 9p

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock 

Park is one of the top Korean players; he’s been on the international scene for several years. He’s a steady player with no obvious weak points. Chen’s also a top player from China; he’s very knowledgeable about some of the more complicated josekis so his opening can sometimes be quite interesting. On the whole, I think he’s a strong fighting player, and we certainly will see that in this game…

Click here to start the game viewer.

Shikshin (left) and Murakawa

White: MURAKAWA Daisuke (Japan) 7p
Black: Ilya SHIKSIN (Russia) 7d

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock 

Click here to start the game viewer.

Choi Chulhan

White: TUO Jaxi (China) 3p
Black: CHOI Chulhan (Korea) 9p

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock 

Tuo is a relatively young player, very high in the world rankings right now. Choi has been representing Korea for some time now; he’s known for his fighting strength and usually plays an exciting game, as you’ll see here.
This was the most evenly-matched game of the first round, featuring top players from Korea and China…

Click here to start the game viewer.

Zhang Wei (left) and Michael Redmond

Round 3 started at 3:00 p.m. on December 12th, with twelve men and all twelve women competing. In the undefeated men’s section, China’s Chen Yaoye was matched against Korea’s Park Jeonghwan, and Koreans Choi Chulhan and Kang Dongyoon were matched against each other. In the undefeated women’s section, China’s Rui Naiwei was matched against Korea’s Park Jieun, a player who had occasionally managed to defeat her in title matches when Rui was playing professionally in Korea, and China’s Li He was matched against Korea’s teenaged Myung-in Choi Jeong. Most players took their seats early. Rui Naiwei and Choi Jeong spent the pre-game minutes meditating with closed eyes.

The starting instructions were given in English by Michael Redmond, standing in for the chief referee: mobile phones off, photographers allowed in to take pictures for only the first 15 minutes. This last instruction did not apply to the television crew that was broadcasting the Chen-Park game.

Rui Naiwei

On most boards play started slowly. The exceptions were the Li-Choi game in the main women’s section, the Missingham-Okuda game in the women’s repechage section, the Csaba-Lin game in the men’s repechage, and the televised game between Park Jeonghwan and Chen Yaoye. In this last game, Korea suffered its first loss when Park tried to take control of the game by attacking a large white group. Chen refuted the attack and developed an overwhelming lead in the middle game, and Park resigned.

The other game between undefeated men was won by Choi Chulhan, who will face Chen Yaoye in the fourth round. In the women’s main section, China was doubly triumphant. Li He defeated Choi Jeong relatively quickly and Rui Naiwei, in the longest game of the day, beat Park Jieun by 1-3/4 stones.

Lin Chun-yen

In the repechage sections, the eight players who survived to advance into the fourth round were: Lin Chi-han of Chinese Taipei, who eliminated Csaba Mero of Hungary (‘His reading was too fast for me to keep up with,’ was Csaba’s comment); Lin Chun-yen of Chinese Taipei, who surprisingly eliminated Tuo Jiaxi of China, setting up a match between the two remaining Lin’s in the fourth round, ensuring that at least one player from Chinese Taipei will reach the fifth round; Jiang Weijie of China, who eliminated Murakawa Daisuke of Japan by winning a fight in the middle of the board; Fujita Akihiko of Japan, who eliminated countrymate Uchida Shuhei; Mukai Chiaki of Japan, who eliminated Su Sheng-fang of Chinese Taipei; Joanne Missingham of Chinese Taipei, who stormed back from her morning loss to eliminate Okuda Aya of Japan; Natalia Kovaleva of Russia, who eliminated Irene Sha of Canada in a long fighting game that ended with no groups dead but many groups reduced to just two eyes and Natalia slightly ahead; and Vanessa Wong of Great Britain, who eliminated Rita Pocsai of Hungary, whom she had also beaten in the European Women’s Championship this year.

The sum total of the first three rounds is that sixteen players remain in contention: five from Korea, four from China, three from Chinese Taipei, two from Japan, and two European women. Which six of these sixteen will win the medals is anybody’s guess.

- James Davies

Jiang (left) and Kong

Round 2 of the SportAccord World Mind Games began at 9:30 a.m. on December 12. Outside, the ground was still covered with snow, but the temperature was pleasantly warm within the playing venue at the Beijing International Convention Center. All 16 men were competing, eight in the main section, eight in the repechage. Eight of the 12 women were competing, including the four seeded players who had byes in the first round and the four who had won their first-round games.

In the men’s division, two games promised to be particularly noteworthy. One was the match between China’s Jiang Weijie and Korea’s Kang Dongyoon. Jiang’s triumphs so far this year have included the LG Cup, the Dachongjiu Cup, and the China-Japan-Korea Mingren-Meijin-Myung-in playoff. Kang won the men’s individual event at the 2008 World Mind Sports Games in Beijing, the 2009 Fujitsu Cup, and the 2009 Korean Chunwon title. The other particularly noteworthy game was the match between Czechia’s Jan Hora and Hungary’s Csaba Mero in the repechage section. The winner of that game would advance to the third round and at least double his monetary prize. Csaba, a former insei in Japan, played this game seated cross-legged in his chair.

In the women’s division, the two Chinese players were playing the two Japanese, and the two Koreans were playing the two from Chinese Taipei. All four of these games were well matched.

In the men’s repechage section, Russia’s Ilya Shikshin, Argentina’s Fernando Aguilar, and Canada’s Tianyu (Bill) Lin had no luck against China’s Tuo Jiaxi and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chi-han and Lin Chun-yen. For the losers of these games, the tournament was now over.

Li He

In the men’s and women’s main sections Japan’s magnificent fortunes of the first round suffered a total reversal. First Okuda Aya lost to China’s Li He in the women’s division. Li He is in good form, having won the Mt. Qionglong Bingsheng Cup in November. Next, in the men’s division, Fujita Akihiko lost by a wide margin to China’s Chen Yaoye. Chen is a leading prospect for a medal, having recently won his way into the final of the Chunlan Cup by beating Park Jeonghwan and Jiang Weijie. Soon afterward Japan’s Murakawa Daisuke lost by resignation to Korea’s Choi Chulhan. The last Japanese players to lose were Uchida Shuhei, by resignation, to Korea’s Park Jeonghwan, and Mukai Chiaki, by resignation, to China’s Rui Naiwei.

Elsewhere in the women’s division Korea’s Choi Jeong, women’s Myung-in (Meijin) at age 15, defeated the go ambassador of the Games, Chinese Taipei’s Joanne Missingham, by resignation.

Hora (left) and Mero

The last two games to end were the Jiang-Kang men’s game and the women’s game between Park Jieun (Korea) and Su Sheng-fang (Chinese Taipei). The women’s game was not close. Park Jieun, bronze medalist at Beijing in 2008 and winner of the Bingsheng Cup in 2010 and 2011, beat her oppononent by a double-digit margin (by Japanese counting). The Jiang-Kang game, however, turned into an exciting three-hour marathon littered with dead stones, ending in victory by Kang Dongyoon by 3/4 stone (1.5 points). After two rounds, the five Koreans are still undefeated.

And the repechage contest between Csaba Mero and Jan Hora? The winner, by 3-3/4 stones (7.5 points) was Hungary’s Csaba Mero. He now proceeds into the third round, where his opponent will be Lin Chi-han.

- James Davies

Hein Verbruggen

The opening ceremony of the SportAccord World Mind Games was held in the Convention Hall at the Beijing International Conference Center, hosted by Liu Jingmin, Deputy Director of the Committee of Education, Science, Health and Sports, which operates within China’s CPPCC National Committee. At 6:30 p.m. a selection of participating mind athletes from the five disciplines of bridge, chess, draughts, go, and xiangqi paraded onto the stage. The flags of the People’s Republic of China and SportAccord were hoisted to flutter vigorously in an artificial breeze, anthems were played, and the attending athletes, officials, staff, and guests were treated to a succession of speeches. Like the addresses at the morning press conference, these stressed the educational, cultural, and social benefits of mind games. Perhaps the key remark was delivered by SportAccord president Hein Verbruggen: ‘Mind sports are deeply rooted in Chinese culture.’ For the benefit of non-English speakers, his speech was translated into Chinese text displayed on a large raised screen, and the three Chinese speeches were similarly translated into English text.

Banquet at the Beijing Continental Grand Hotel

The speeches were followed by the athletes’ oath and the referees’ oath, which brought the proceedings to 7:00. The rest of the ceremony was a magnificent arts performance. It included a martial arts dance that looked rather like classical ballet, an instrumental performance by the Girls’ Crystal Band in which the eight girls wielded their traditional Chinese instruments in much the style of a 1920′s jazz band, an athletic street dance with a chessboard theme that sent the dancers’ neckties and shirttails flying, a Peking Opera performance with a contract bridge theme and much crashing of gongs and cymbals, and then a grand finale with all groups taking the stage. Each performance was preceded by an elaborate sand painting display by Gao Zanmin.
And this performance left the athletes, officials, staff, and guests in just the right mood for the sumptuous Chinese banquet that followed at the adjoining Beijing Continental Grand Hotel.

- James Davies

The first round of the men’s and women’s individual competition at the SportAccord World Mind Games was played in the afternoon of December 12 at the Beijing International Convention Center, conveniently joined to the Beijing Continental Grand hotel by an enclosed passage so that the players did not have to venture out into the snow that had been falling since morning.

Before the drawing for pairings on the 11th, the Japanese players had been studying the tournament chart posted outside the meeting room. ‘Oh-oh — two losses and you’re out,’ one of them had said. Well, they needn’t have worried. In the first round the Japanese went undefeated, as did the Koreans.

Shikshin (left) and Murakawa

In a game broadcast live to a YouTube audience with commentary by Michael Redmond, anchored by Chris Garlock, Japan’s Murakawa Daisuke, a Kansai Kiin player who recently won a place in the Meijin League, took an early lead against Russia’s Ilya Shikshin, but Ilya kept the game lively and complicated. Eventually the fighting came down to an indirect ko. The three-time European champion, currently a history major at Kazan State University, was a move behind and resigned.

The game between Japan’s Fujita Akihiko, runner-up in this year’s Japanese New King (Shinjin-O) tournament, and Lin Chi-Han, winner of some 26 titles in Chinese Taipei during the past decade, was closer. To the spectators watching on the computer monitor screen in the room adjoining the closed playing room, it looked too close to call, but when the score was counted, the Japanese players was a fraction of a stone ahead (1.5 points by Japanese counting).

Pocsai (left) and Okuda

The game between Japan’s Uchida Shuhei and Czechia’s Jan Hora was one of the last to finish, but there was no doubt about this result; the Japanese player was more than 10 stones (20 points) ahead. In the women’s competition, Japan’s Okuda Aya also won decisively against Hungary’s Rita Pocsai after a joseki error by Rita in the opening.

The centerpiece of the first round, however, was the game between Choi Chulhan, who holds the Siptan (10-dan) and Chunwon (Tengen) titles in Korea and the Ing Cup internationally, and Tuo Jiaxi, winner of the Chinese edition of the Ing Cup (the Chang-ki cup) in 2012. Their game finished almost simultaneously with the Fujita-Lin game. Choi captured a corner group and won by the comfortable margin of 2-3/4 stones (5.5 points). The other three Korean victories came at the expense of Hungary’s Csaba Mero (beaten by Park Jeonghwan), Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-yen (beaten by Kang Dongyoon), and Great Britain’s Vanessa Wong (beaten by 15-year-old Choi Jeong).

As for the host country, Tuo’s loss to Choi was their only setback. In the men’s competition Chen Yoaye, Tian-yuan (Tengen) since 2009, defeated Argentina’s Fernando Aguilar in just 90 moves, and Jiang Weijie, winner of three Chinese titles in 2012, captured over 30 stones, forcing Canada’s Tianyu (Bill) Lin to resign in 142 moves. In the women’s competition Rui Naiwei, winner of the 2012 Jishou Invitational Cup, defeated Russia’s Natalia Kovaleva in a rapidly-played 159 moves.
For Chinese Taipei, the victory by 16-year-old Su Sheng-fang over Canada’s Irene Sha in the women’s competition was some compensation for their double defeat in the men’s.

And then, having completed their first-round games, the players moved downstairs to the opening ceremony.

- James Davies