51st European Go Congress, Alexander Dinerstein report after 2 days

Dear friends, we are glad to present you the special issue of the Goama newsletter, covering the first two rounds of the European Go Congress in Villach, Austria.

This time the organization looks excellent. We play in the Congress Center in the central of the city. It’s a modern building with big playing rooms, air-conditioner, clean toilets, internet access and other features. The organizers surprised me by allowing the top masters to play with slate and shell stones on thick and quality gobans. Together with large time control ( 2 and half hours for top players) the tournament looks like a Professional World Go Championship – Fujitsu or LG cup. Also they broadcast the games online like in real pro tournament.

The atmosphere is excellent. I did not notice any conflicts. It was possible to create one in my game from the second round, but I decided to be a gentleman. My opponent - Hong Seokui, 7-dan from Korea switched off the clocks immediately after filling all dames. He did not say pass and did not give me the chance to say pass too. Was it possible to invite the referee and tell him that my opponent resigned the game by switching off the clocks? Finally I lost this game by 4.5 points.

Alexander Dinerchtein(7d) - HongSeokui(7d) - W+4.5

First 2 rounds bring some sensations. Mero Csaba, 6-dan from Hungary beat Hong Seulgi, 7-dan, who was the winner of the European Go Congress in S-Petersburg few years ago. Mero was slightly behind, if my calculations were correct, but the situation changed a lot after few strange furikawaris. Vladimir Danek, 6-dan won the game against Cristian Pop, who is one of the main candidates for the European Champion title. He got all territory on the board and successfully destroyed Black’s moyo Andrew Kulkov, 6-dan who won the 3rd prize last year was crushed by Li Ting – young Chinese woman. Is she so strong? Maybe, but why did she lose her second game to Matti Siivola, who is only 4-dan according to the European rating? Matti played the Kobayashi opening, got the early lead on territory and keep it till the end of the game, even after making some endgame mistakes.

Not all strong Koreans were allowed to take part in the supergroup (top MacMahon bar). Some of them started from the second group and they are winning all of their games. We can see that the system is strange. Some Europeans, who play in the supergroup are 2-3 stones weaker than Korean 6-7 dans, who were blocked from the supergroup, because of "Eight Asians only limitation".

You may observe the games from the first 3 boards daily on IGS, expect Wednesdays. On the week-end they will probably broadcast the games from the European Masters tournament.

Video-analiz by Alexander Dinerstien of his second game
Part 1

Length: 6 minutes and 33 seconds

Part 2

Length: 7 minutes and 53 seconds