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| Big Nick |
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There were three goplayers in a bar. They were playing a bit, drinking beers (quite expensive in Finland) and having fun. Suddenly, another player walked in. (Let's call him Harry).
Harry said to the other players: Can you buy me a beer, please? I'm broke, and I shure am thirsty.
One of the players spoke: Well, I think that's a strange request. I mean, we don't even know you.
Fair enough, said Harry, but if you buy me a beer, I'll show you a miracle.
The players were curious enough to accept his offer. They bought him a beer, and he said. Big Nick, appear!!! Loud thunder rolled, and a big man, wearing a Kimono, walked in. He was more than 2.20 tall. He sat down behind a go board and said: Master Harry, I'm your servant, ready for a game!
The other players were impressed. Where did you find this servant, this Big Nick?
Harry said: Outside the village there's a big old oak tree. If you walk around it three times and shout out your wish, you'll be rewarded.
One of the players said: I'm going to try this out. Harry gave him directions (and received another beer) and the man was gone.
Two hours later, he walked back in, looking bewilderd. He said: this tree is a bit deaf.
What do you mean, said the others.
Well, said the man, look what's behind me.
He clapped his hands, an a million bees flew in, each dropping a bit of honey on his head.
How can this be? You're all covered in honey?
The player said: I asked for a lot of money, but the tree is really hard of hearing.
Harry said: I agree, I didn't ask for a big Nick...
Next morning, they showed up at the congress with a hangover. But that can happen to the best of us. |
| placed by HW9x9 at 16:50 Fri 30 July 2010 |
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| bad moves |
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That was a bad move
No, it looked good when I played it.
Still, I think it was bad.
No, it's not the move that's bad.
What do you mean?
It's the moves around it that make it look bad.
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| placed by Bill Splate at 16:31 Fri 30 July 2010 |
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| Ilya Shikshin rules! |
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 The big showdown took place today. Two of the favourites, Shikshin and Kang, had to play the game to decide who would be the leader in the tournament, with 5 wins!
The game started with Ilya Shikshin waiting for half an hour. Then, Kang appeared. She had probably overslept. Kang made her move, and within a second, Shikshin replied. After the first two moves, Kang thought about her third move for half an hour! The clam shells were once again very heavy...
In the end, after an intense game, Ilya won. But the real winners were the audience. Thank you, Kang and Shikshin, for this exciting game. |
| placed by HW9x9 at 16:26 Fri 30 July 2010 |
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| Impressive victory by Ilia Shikshin 7d |
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It was the 4th round of the EGC and we were down to 4 undefeated players among the high dans. The game between Catalin and Iyla attracted almost 700 viewers on KGS and 250 viewers on the live video stream. I think most people missed the start of the game because almost everybody ,including Ilya, was watching the game between Artem and Ms. Kang (300 viewers watching video stream). That game took less than 2 hours and then the position on board 2 was like how you see in the photo. White ended up capturing the black ponuki in the center with a ko fight. The ko was worth about 40 points and Catalin made a forcing move which was worth much less than 40 points...so many people on KGS correctly predicted the win for white(Iyla). The game took 5 hours to complete and in the end, white had a nice end game move of thowing in to force black to capture a group that was already dead...giving white the win with 2.5 points.
Photos from day6.
Current results
4th Round Pairings
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| placed by HW9x9 at 09:00 Fri 30 July 2010 |
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| Ilia Shikshin 7d 13x13 Champion |
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Last wednessday won Ilia Shikshin 7d with 9 straight wins the yearly 13x13 side tournament (as usual perfectly organised by Robert Jasiek 5d).
As in the semi final against Ondrey Silt 6d, did Ilia start bad, but in both cases he was better in keeping focus on the whole board.
All games were broadcasted to KGS, IGS and EuroGoTV and the final game between Ilia(r) and Jung-Hyeop Kim 7d(l) was watched by over 300 people. |
| placed by HW9x9 at 23:19 Thu 29 July 2010 |
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| Chin-seok Mok 9p & Klára Žaloudková 3d Pair Go Champions |
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Chin-seok Mok 9p & Klára Žaloudková 3d are the Pair Go Champions of the European Go Congress 2010 by forcing Laura Avram 2d & Ilia Shikshin 7d to resign.
Avram & Shikshin just made the final by a win on time when their opponants couldnt make the last pass before the time control. |
| placed by HW9x9 at 20:41 Thu 29 July 2010 |
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| Funniest remark on KGS today |
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| Hellhuman [1d]: is robert jasiek married? |
| placed by HW9x9 at 14:40 Thu 29 July 2010 |
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| The Finnish system |
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Yesterday, before we went to the bars, we were hanging around with a lot of Go players in the park just next to the school. As usual, people drank a lot of beer and more beer, so there were a lot of empty cans and bottles to be disposed of.
Finnish cans and bottles have a 15 to 40 cent deposit value, probably one of the reasons they are so expensive. But the dudes who introduced this were very thoughtful.
Some guy who looked like a beggar approached us and picked up all the empty cans and bottles that he could find. He even asked us to give him our empty cans and bottles.
I conclude that he either did this for the deposit, or to keep the park clean from empty cans and bottles. Maybe both.
I have to admit that this bottle deposit system proves very effective. It makes picking up trash in the park have a double purpose. In Go too, we are looking for moves that serve as many and effective purposes as possible.
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| placed by sandmann at 15:40 Wed 28 July 2010 |
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| did you know...? |
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 Some interesting stuff from the congress that you might not have noticed yet:
-The flags and the posters of the tournament show a very flashy Go-board, with a few stones placed on it. But... look closely: it's an 18 by 18 board!
-In Utrecht, in the Netherlands, there's an 18 by 19 board, but they didnt use that for last year's congress.
-Andreas Drost (4d) took a ko without playing a ko threat (which he should have done). He therefore lost his game in round three.
-In some countries, this would not have been counted as a loss, he simply could retract his move and play somewhere else.
-The third round game between Taranu and Van Zeijst was a big hit on Eurogo tv.
-Catalin Taranu had never beaten Rob van Zeijst before. He calls him his Nemesis.
-During the game, a viewer commented: If they keep pulling their hair like this, they will both be bald before the next round starts.
-They were pulling their own hair, not the opponent's. |
| placed by Bill Splate at 14:54 Wed 28 July 2010 |
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| after round 3 |
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 After the third round, only four of the top players have the perfect score of three points. Kang, Shikshin, Taranu and Kachanovskyy lead the pack. Some favourites for the title are pretty close behind. Rob van Zeijst, still a possible champion, lost his game to Catalin Taranu by 3.5 points. He had been ahead in the game, but the endgame cost him dearly.
Another interesting struggle lies ahead for Akiko Morita. There are more players who have not scored a win yet, but Akiko Morita is also the lowest ranked of those, so it will be quite an acclomplishment if this player improves from 411th position.
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| placed by Bill Splate at 14:45 Wed 28 July 2010 |
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| The Monkey Jump |
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 The monkey jump can be a very dangerous and funny play. but do you now the origin of the term Monkey Jump?
It started years ago, in a Go club somewhere in the Wild West. You must remember, that Go clubs in those days were like cafe's. O.k, there would be serious play, but you could also expect to see a piano player with a big cigar, playing it again, Sam. And of course there'd be a chorus line of pretty girls, dancing and singing.
Well, one day a young cowboy walked in through the saloon doors, to find himself in this Go club. He was challenged to a game by the local sheriff. He ordered a beer and a go set at the bar. The deal in those days was very simple: the loser of the game had to pay for the rent of the board and the stones.
It was agreed that the young cowboy played black. The sheriff was very experienced, and the cowboy was a novice player.
But something very strange happened. As soon as the young cowboy opened his bowl of stones, a monkey jumped down from the lamp overhead, and peed in the bowl. Well folks, of course the young man was upset. He called the bartender and explained what had just happened. He demanded a new bowl of black stones. He got one, looked around for the monkey, didn't see it anywhere, and opened the new bowl. But there it was, the monkey. It seemed to have come out of nowhere. It jumped on the table and peed in the bowl of black stones. The cowboy was now very upset. The smell was terrible and the piano sounds in the background made his head reel. Still, despite feeling a strong urge to puke, he wanted another bowl of stones. The barkeeper brought him the new bowl and he said: Young man, you better take care of these stones, because you won't get another one from me.
The cowboy said: well, fair enough, but please explain about the monkey that keeps peeing in my bowl. The barkeeper said: well, I just started work here yesterday, so I don't know about the monkey. But ask the piano player. He's worked here for over 20 years.
The young cowboy goes to the piano player and waits untill he has finished the song. Then he asks him: Mister piano player, do you know the monkey that pisses in my bowl of stones?
No, says the piano player. But If you hum a few bars, I'll just play along.
In the background, the monkey was jumping up and down on the Go board, untill the sheriff couldn't stand it anymore and shot it. |
| placed by Bill Splate at 14:06 Tue 27 July 2010 |
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| Coverage of the 2010 European Go Congress |
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Round 1 brought us a very exciting game between Alexandr Dinerstein and Cornel Burzo. I think most players agreed that Cornel was ahead with the capture of a 10 stone group in the NE corner. As the game progressed, a ko broke out and then Cornel's position became more unclear. It really seemed that Alexandr had the win until they counted it. 20 black and 13 white..... 0.5 point win for Cornel! The game was at 1 time followed by 550 people including guo juan on kgs and 200 viewers on the video stream. Registered users on eurogotv.com were also given the option of betting their vip points on the next possible move. Vip points can be earned by tagging photos in the photo section.
Photos from day1 day2 day3 day4 day5.
All results
Pairings
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| placed by guerecon at 23:05 Sun 25 July 2010 |
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| 2010 World Youth Goe Championship Peng-Hu (Taiwan) |
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Peng-Hu (22.-28.7. 2010)
Totally 22 players from 14 countries take part on this year event. The place of the venue is small island Penghu belonging to Taiwan.
23.7. Round 1:
U12: Singapore-Romania, Korea-Ukraine, UK-Japan
U16: Czechia-Taiwan, Poland-Thailand, UK-Singapore
24.7. Round 2
U12: Romania-Taiwan, UK-Japan, Ukraine-USA
U16: UK-Taiwan, Singapore-Czechia, Poland-USA
Round 3
U12: Romania-USA, UK-Ukraine
U16: UK-Japan, Czechia-Canada, Poland-Penghu
25.7. Round 4
U12: Romania-Ukraine, UK-Penghu
U16: Czechia-USA, UK-Thailand, Poland-Canada
Round 5
U12: Singapore-Ukraine, Romania-UK
U16: Czechia-UK, Taiwan-Poland
Results:
U12: 7. UK 2 pts., 8.-10. Ukraine, Romania 1 pt.
U16: 6. Czechia 3 pts., 7.-9. UK, Poland 2 pts.
No Europan player qualified to play-off.
Semi-finals:
U12: China-Singapore, Korea-Taiwan
U16: USA-Korea, China-Taiwan
List of players
Results continuously updated...
Pictures |
| placed by mil0s at 10:52 Fri 23 July 2010 |
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| New faces top Pardubice Open |
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Attendance was somewhat down this year, with only 56 players showing up to do battle. Last year's top 3 (In-Seong Hwang, Artem Kachanovskyj and Chi-Min Oh) didn't turn up to defend their titles, so this year we had 3 new players in the medal positions. Top of the Class was Korean Kyeong-nang Kang (7d) with 6/6. Then, in something of a suprise, Pavol Lisy (4d) of Slovakia and Bernd Scheutze (4d) of Germany tieing in second place with 4/6 ahead on SOSOS of top Czech players Ondrej Kruml (4d) and Ondrej Silt (6d).
Other noteable mentions in 7th place, EuroGoTV's 1p Pal Balogh :) (photo)10th place Martin Reindl of emptytriangle fame, and lastly Mikulas Nozar (14k) winning most undergraded prize with 5/6.
All results. |
| placed by Javaness at 10:40 Mon 19 July 2010 |
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