| |
| Youngest pro ever is female |
|
|
 The youngest ever pro 1-dan is about to emerge in Japan and she is female. On April 1, Fujisawa Rina (l) will be inducted at the age of 11 years 6 months, three months younger than Cho Chikun when he became 1-dan, and far ahead of Xie Yimin who was the previous youngest female 1-dan at 14 years 4 months. Rina is the daughter of Fujisawa Kazunari 8-dan, and thus the granddaughter of Fujisawa Hideyuki. She says her style is quite different from grandad's, she likes territory and he liked thickness.
Her teacher was Hong Mal-keun Saem, a Korean long time resident in Japan who himself qualified as a pro just last year. Rina qualified in the women's section of the Nihon Ki-in's qualification system, which is not quite as tough as the open section, but women in the Nihon Ki-in have been posting some good results lately; Mukai Chiaki beat Kudo Norio 9-dan in the Oza a fortnight ago. (We trust this is not an early eloquent April's Fool from dear John, PD).
- by John Fairbairn, on godiscussions.com - reprinted from the fresh AGA e-Journal |
| placed by Peter Dijkema at 04:21 Tue 09 February 2010 |
|
| First week February: sprint to lead KILL-A |
|
|
 In the first week of play in KILL - ending last evening - 'danigabi' from Argentina has sprinted to an enormous lead of 11-0, including one win over number two, three against number three and one to teacher Ilya Shiksin.
The successfull sniper strategy of 'Artem92' in January might misfire this month, as he incurred an unexpected early loss to 'ha' (from France) who is second at 2-1, while his countryman 'Arlequ1' is third at 4-4. Artem Kachanovskij shares fourth with 'j13' (1-1). |
| placed by Peter Dijkema at 03:04 Tue 09 February 2010 |
|
| 1st Bochum Blitz up for February 20 |
|
|
 The yearly Bochum Bambus has its firm place on the calendar. Now the club from Bochum bids for a new - every quarter - tradition: the Bochum Blitz. We will still start this Winter, the first is set for February 20 and entrance is free. You can register at their club-site. In phase with their intended frequency, time allowance is generous - a full quarter of an hour! Games are with reduced (by two stones) handicaps. |
| placed by Peter Dijkema at 02:45 Tue 09 February 2010 |
|
| Veteran Vladimir victorious in Erdingen |
|
|
 Erdingen - Players from the capitals Munich and Prague dominated in the top of the 13th Erdinger Turnier, where 128 took part. Veteran Vladimir Danek 5d (Prague) won all five. Jonas Fincke (4d, Munich) lost only to him. Prague youngster Lukas Podpera 3d hadreached 15 just a few days before. He celebrated his birthday with bronze - ahead on SODOS of Thomas Kettenring 3d (Munich). Alongside the main event was a 13x13-marathon, which drew five more people. In the main, only Stefan Fischmeister 5k (Linz, Austria) also won all his five games. |
| placed by Peter Dijkema at 02:30 Tue 09 February 2010 |
|
| Mat Mac 1st win: Wanstead |
|
|
  Wanstead, January 30 - "Wanstead returned to its old early year spot, but kept the same Wanstead House venue in East London.
Matthew Macfadyen got his first tournament win of the year. Other players winning all three were: Mike Cumpstey (3 kyu Manchester), Eric Hall (5 kyu Swindon) and Gary Gibson (7 kyu Wanstead). 32 players took part", informed us the BGA-site recently. |
| placed by Peter Dijkema at 02:00 Tue 09 February 2010 |
|
| Three on top in Leuven Lustrum jubilee |
|
|
 Jan Bogaerts 3d looked like sweeping the 20th tournament of Leuven last weekend, until he lost last round to rising star Kim Ouweleen 1d from Amsterdam. Also Yong Sen Huang 3d won four games. Together they filled the podium. For the jubilee edition 43 players showed up. Marie Jémine 4k and Cédric Declerfayt 5k (both Le Pantin, Brussels) were the only two to win five.
Photo (by Ton Mol): Kim (r) as a self-appointed 4d in the blitz-trophee at Go-OG in Amsterdam last Thursday, losing to its winner Harry Weerheijm.
We add a few lines from the report Frank Segers - former editor of Belgo - sent us: "The birthday was celebrated properly by self-made cake for everyone" (see photo). "Strong play was shown by Marie Jemine (4k) who clearly made much progress after a stay of a few months in China and by the president of the Belgian Go Federation, Cédric Declerfayt (5k)." |
| placed by Peter Dijkema at 00:01 Tue 09 February 2010 |
|
| Metta takes Tortellino |
|
|
 Carlo Metta 1d from Pisa won all his games in the Tortellina tournament in Vignola (Modena), Italy. Paolo Montrasio 1k (Milano) lost only to Carlo, while Mirco Fanti won bronze as he had best Sos among those with three wins. Among 28 players, only local Modena man Jacopo Silingardi 15k also won all his five rounds.
The gallery full of photos from this event does not mention any names, but still reveals they had something to celebrate: "Il torneo di GO del decennale del Go Club del Tortellino!". |
| placed by Peter Dijkema at 23:00 Sun 07 February 2010 |
|
| Törmänen Takes Takapotku |
|
|
 Antii Törmänen (5d) snapped back from his defeat in the Finnish Championship to capture the Takapotku Open. The Divine Child of Oulu was clearly at home in the Helsinki settings, and crushed all opposition with a perfect 5 points from 5. In second place was Austrian Viktor Lin (4d), while 3rd place was claimed by another Oulu player Janne Määttä (4d). This adds further weight to the legends of the sacred Oulu Joseki Dictionary that lies hidden in the frozen north.
The tournament was well attended, with 70 players turning out to do battle. Amongst the rest where Su Yang (jeffchang, KGS 9d) who could only manage 5th place, and veteran Viktor Bogdanov, who true to his usual form in Finland, finished in 16th place. The full results are online. |
| placed by Javaness at 21:38 Sun 07 February 2010 |
|
| Oscar Anguila Spanish Champion |
|
|
 Oscar Anguila became 'Campeón de Espana' in a tournament held during the middle weekend of January in Barcelona.
Many other 3-dans took part, but he simply won all his games. Antonio Egea won silver and Ignacio Cernuda took bronze.
The final was played over five rounds with eight players.
Congratulations to Oscar, who will play for Spain in the next WAGC up in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province in China.
And thank you to Krzysztof Bozek for transmitting the news. |
| placed by Peter Dijkema at 08:40 Sun 07 February 2010 |
|
| Toppers flock to Amsterdam Open |
|
|
 With the web-site up since some weeks, toppers dominate among early entries:
Yanqi Zhang - she is current French Champion (read our report in the archive), former Dutch Champion Merlijn Kuin (also 6d), current co-winner of the Dutch finals Peter Brouwer and former winner of Amsterdam Open Robert Rehm, recently the first Senior Champion of Holland (also in our archive).
Both latter are local 5-dans. Together they are the top-four among the first nine to register. |
| placed by Peter Dijkema at 10:00 Fri 05 February 2010 |
|
| Artem92 wins first KILL-A |
|
|
 Artem Kachanovskij won the first A-division of KILL in January. His sniper strategy worked well. First he waited, who would emerge as early leader, while he played only a few games to the teachers and weaker opponents. Next he challenged 'j13' from Finland and defeated him in all their four games. Rankings in KILL are decided by winning percentage. Artem scored 10-5, which beat the impressive 19-11 (= 63%) of 'j13', who lost 1-7 to the trainers. Also Artem played his maximum of eight games with the teachers. They caused his only losses. The most active players of each division were invited for a bonus simul to audio-teacher Cho 1p. Only 'j13' won, which caused sensation, so Alex analysed the game for his site go-sensations. Here he also announced some changes of the rules. We had noticed as well, that some players avoided teaching games, afraid to spoil their good score. So, from February, losses against teachers do not count for the winning percentage. Next, with many wanting to enter, each league now got twelve players. One of the new names appearing in A is 'cgarlock' (US), an editor eager to learn and compete. |
| placed by Peter Dijkema at 23:50 Tue 02 February 2010 |
|
| Hungarian Champs: new top-pair takes title |
|
|
  For the Hungarian Title, a new pair was formed from proven Champs. Rita Pocsai 4d is the daughter of Tibor, European Champion in 1988. She is current Hungarian Champ. She switched her partner of last year's title for strongman Pál Balogh 6d, also Hungarian Champion.
Indeed they swept the field of six 5-0. Julia Seres (last year she won silver in the Youth Champs, but this year she is too old - or rather not young enough anymore) and Peter Markó took home silver, while Szonja Miskolczy and György Czismadia won bronze. New faces to remember for the future are the emerging young twin-sisters of Adrienn and Bettina Ferencz with partners.
Also on January 30 in Budapest, Youth and Children Titles were at stake. Because of big bad snow not many showed up. Domonkos Albrecht 3k prolongued his grip on the Youth title, ahead of Dominik Bovíz (both 3k) and 3rd Sebastyén Csóti 7k. Favourite Róbert Czismadia 6k - last year he was 4th at the Kid's EC in Banja Luka - won once more the Title for the Youngest, while Gorgy Záhonyi lost only to him.
A day earlier, the penultimate 6th round of team handicap title was played. Teams of three play mini-matches of three games each with their opponents. Both top-teams won. Origo easily defeated Pagoda-2 8-1, but MGE-1 had an exiting match with Pagoda Agro - a double-digit team, who were at 3rd place. Despite most against full handicap, many games were close. The top-team prevailed 5-4. Equal in matchpoints, Origo leads by a margin of a win and a jigo. But for the last round they face the tough and handy handicappers of Agro, while MGE-1 meets Pagoda Sanrensei.
(Based on three reports by Peter K. Korossy) |
| placed by Peter Dijkema at 23:54 Sun 31 January 2010 |
|
| Dutch Champs: two tie for title |
|
|
 Peter Brouwer and Geert Groenen tied for first place in the finals of the Dutch Championship 2010.
They will play a best-of-three later in Spring to decide the title.
The finals were a slaughterhouse, where after five rounds all had lost one or more and no one was without a win. Four leaders with three at their heels, anything could happen.
In the only mutual game - between Amsterdam 5-dans Peter and Robert Rehm, Senior Champ of Holland - the younger player prevailed.
 The others got paired down: Geert Groenen won, but Emil Nijhuis lost - to Filip Vanderstappen. Two leaders left, but they had already met in the decider of the first weekend of play. So both got paired down - and won.
Last round: same story. Geert got his play-off, like last year. Emil, Filip, Michiel Eijkhout and Willem-Koen Pomstra shared 3rd prize. Robert, former Champs Merlijn Kuin and Frank Janssen, and Herman Hiddema keep their seats for the finals of 2011. The other six players drop back to the qualifier's tourney.
Anne van Leeuwen continued her firm grip on the women's title. She is really amazing. Despite small differences in rating, she still did not falter. Once more 5-0. Her fourth win like that in a row. The only difference with last years: a trophee. |
| placed by Peter Dijkema at 23:51 Sun 31 January 2010 |
|
| 3 Europeans in Students World Oza |
|
|
| Artem Kachanovskij 6d (Rivne, Ukraine), Jan Simara 5d (Zlín) and Anna Prokopova 1k Ricany (both Czech republic) qualified by internet games for the final sixteen of the World Students Throne (or Oza in Japanese), to be held in Tokio March 1-5. |
| placed by Peter Dijkema at 00:07 Sat 30 January 2010 |
|
| European Fujitsu Qualifiers |
|
|
This year the EGF board decided that their representative to the Fujitsu Cup would be decided over the internet. The highest four finishers from the European Go Congress were selected to take part in a knockout competition - Csaba Mero, Catalin Taranu, Cristian Pop and Alexander Dinerchtein.
  The first game between Popic and Sasha was played on the KGS Go Server on the 27th of January. Most thought Popica Grande ahead after the opening, but breakfast pulled back by yose to win by resignation.
The second game was on the evening of the 28th of January. In what was a pretty confusing fight for most spectators, Csaba Mero emerged with a lead in the opening. Despite Catalin's best efforts he held on to it to earn a date with breakfast in the final.
The final will be played on KGS at 13:00 GMT on the 30th of January. |
| placed by Javaness at 16:05 Thu 28 January 2010 |
|
