Foreign Tournament Report

Andrew Simons wrote:

I have been playing in the 13th Korean Prime Minister's Cup. This year many game records are available online as the system is automated: every board has a camera above it recording which then has some image recognition software that converts it into a game record. The time difference meant it was hard to watch them live in the UK, but the games are saved on YouTube (and Oro server), and results and records are available on the KPMC website.

It's a 6 round Swiss, with the first round pairing being split and slide based on each country's position last year. That did lead to an unfortunate initial 7d battle with Dusan Mitic of Serbia (who sent a much weaker player last year) vs Taiwan.

Despite some having troubles with flights nearly 30 players from the UK enjoyed the sun in Pisa for this year's European Go Congress. The event itself had a record turn-out with over 1400 players having pre-registered; the main tournament had around 850 players.

Leading the way for the British players were teenagers Tom Bradbury (5k) and Edmund Smith (5k). In the main tournament, after a barnstorming start, Edmund ended up with 7/10, and Tom with 6/10. In the Weekend tournament Edmund got 4/5 while Tom got 3/4. The rest of the players had a mixture of results.

While not playing Go the participants attended lectures and had game reviews, or explored Tuscany, including the cities of Florence, Siena and Lucca as well as Pisa itself.

Here is a full set of results.

During the 5th Annual World Collegiate Weichi Championship in Cambridge BGA reporter Andrew Simons had a chat with some of the players.

Interview 1

AS: Hi. What's your name and where do you come from?

YW: Hi. My name is Yuzhang Wu and I'm from China originally but studying at Manchester University in England.

AS: What are you studying?

YW: Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering.

AS: Did you learn Go here or in China?

YW: I learnt in China, but now Eric Zhang in Manchester is my teacher, maybe you know him?

AS: Ah, Yangran, yes I know him well, we often meet at the London Open tournament. So what group are you playing in and how was your first game?

The fifth Annual World Collegiate Weiqi Championship (AWCC) was held in Cambridge this year and organised by the International University Weichi Federation (IUWF). Naturally it was supported by the BGA and sets were provided by the Ing Foundation in Shanghai. Many of the organising team were students at British Universities including Daniel Hu, Junan Jiang, Weichin Dai and Joanne Leung.

The tournament had 102 players (a view of one of the two playing rooms is shown here). It was held over two days and six rounds, apart from the A group that also had semi-finals and final (shown below) on the third day, the Friday. This was broadcast on a Chinese Go server, like the pro games, and analysed by professionals (shown below middle with Daniel Hu translating) for the other student players.

The 5th Annual World Collegiate Weichi Championships (AWCC) started on Tuesday in Cambridge with an Opening Ceremony. About an hour of speeches was followed by a dinner. Participants were welcomed by a number of dignitaries, including BGA President Toby Manning.

The first three rounds of the Championship take place on Wednesday, with the remaining 3 rounds on Thursday. UK hopes are resting on British Champion Daniel Hu, from Cambridge University and current British Champion, but he lost 2 of his first 3 games.

Alongside the Championship are the semifinals of the Chang Qi Cup, a Professional Tournament normally held in China. The photo shows the start of the second game between Shi Yue and Mi Yuting; Mi Yuting defeated Shi Yue 2-0 in the best of-three match.

Having finished second in the B-League our team would have to play a best-of-five play-off against the second bottom A-League team for promotion. At first it was thought it was going to be against Serbia, but Italy had their lost points reinstated as the allegations of using computer assistance were over turned. Unfortunately short notice at exam period meant some of our top players were unavailable, but the five players we did field definitely stood a chance of winning their way to the A-League, the opponent's grades being 5d, 4d, 4d, 3d and 3d.

The first two boards were played on 29th May, which were both lost, and so we had to win all three games a week later on 5th June.

Chris Bryant wrote: I lost my game against Carlo Metta by resignation. It's been a long time since I felt that outclassed in a game.

In the ninth and last round of the season, the UK (second) beat Sweden three games to one. This left the British total at an impressive seven wins and two draws. Assuming Germany did not draw or lose to Turkey (they won four-nil), the team's next game will be a best-of-five play-off against Italy, the second-bottom team in the A League, to try for promotion on 29th May. This would have been Serbia, but the appeal against the claim of computer-assistance was in Italy's favour and their forfeits will be cancelled, moving Serbia down to bottom.

Andrew Simons wrote: For a change I finished in under two hours, winning by resignation against Martin Li 4d. The opening was Alpha/Leela Zero inspired (I've recently been studying with the Lizzie interface, highly recommended!), with a kiai-filled tenuki fest in which I ignored a double approach on my 4-4 to press and surround his group.

Chan Yi-Tien of Chinese Taipei was unbeaten to win the 39th World Amateur Go Championships held at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo. Kim Sangcheon of Korea was second with seven wins. The next group all had six wins: Wang of China, Frejlak of Poland, Murakami of Japan, Kuronen of Finland, Dusan Mitic of Serbia and Islas of Mexico.

The UK's representative, British Champion Daniel Hu, ended on four wins and in 26th place of 61. In the last four rounds he beat Frank Hestvik from Norway, lost to Juri Kuronen, beat Willem Pomstra of the Netherlands and lost to Wichrich Karuehawanit of Thailand.

Ireland's Michael Thai ended with three wins in 48th. In the final rounds he beat Azerbaijan, lost to Portugal and Brazil, but beat Chile.

Results Ranka Reports, including interviews

After a few years in other countries, the World Amateur Go Championships has returned to Japan. The 39th edition has the restaurant review website Gurunami as its sponsor and is being held at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo. 61 players from around the world are taking part.

As expected after four rounds it is the big four that are unbeaten: Japan, China, Korea and Chinese Taipei. Several of the top European players are on three wins.

The UK's representative is British Champion Daniel Hu. After four out of eight rounds he has two wins and is in 26th place. He lost to Dmitry Surin of Russia, beat Jose Islas of Mexico and Stjepan Mestrovic of Croatia, and lost to Stanislaw Frejlak of Poland. He next plays the player from Norway.

Ireland's Michael Thai is on one win, having beaten Theodor Nedev of Bulgaria, but lost to the players from Denmark, Indonesia and Croatia.

A great win in the eighth round - against the strong third-place team from the Netherlands - sees the UK guaranteed at least second place in the Pandanet B League. With just Sweden to go for the UK, unless there is an upset by Turkey against top team Germany in the last round, the team will be in the play-off position and will have a chance for promotion by playing a team from the bottom of the A League. This is likely to be Serbia and the team would have good chances in a best-of-five match against them. Well done to the team for playing so well.

Andrew Simons wrote: I lost against Gilles van Eeden 6d by resignation.