European Go Congress

Its a bit late, but here is my European go congress report.


European Go Congress Main Tournament/and results.
A lot of people have been asking me why I went to the EGC instead of the AGC, my main reason was because I wanted to see my friends from Korea. Also I wanted an excuse to travel in europe this summer.



I got off the airplane, and got to the bus. I had somehow not counted on needing money and had nothing in my pocket. Luckily I was able to trade a 3/4 empty bottle of Grappa for a bus ticket.



I found the congress site pretty easily, it was the source of all the elderly japanese people wandering about. Actually this was quite amusing, I imagine, for the locals. Suddenly the City of Tampere had a drastic increase of Japanese. I wonder what sort of ideas they had...



The congress was held at the Aleksantari school. I arrived and registered without a problem. I could not really find what to do so I just started talking to some german people. I was lucky to find a very interesting person. He had just biked from germany through Scandinavia and then taken a ferry to finland and biked the rest of the way to congress. He was also a 2d go player, and a geo-cacher, in fact for teh past 2 years i believe he finds at least one cache a day.



I spent the day hanging out with him, I found my first cache, and went swimming in a nice big Finnish lake. Also I was very surprised to eat one of the best donuts I have ever tasted.





Here are the "results"

• I played as a 1 kyu in the tournament. I had an ok result of 5 wins 5 losses. But I was not satisfied since i won 4 games the first week and only one the second.


• In the weekend tournament I did very poorly, I only won 1 game out of 5.


• My pair go partner, Kim Chaelim, and I got to the top 8, but we lost a very close game in the quarter finals.


• The team I played on in the football tournament got 4th place.

In general I was surprised after the first week that I was able to get 4 wins. I expected to not be able to hold my 1kyu level so well. The weekend tournament dissapointed me, but i blamed that on too much partying and poor sleeping conditions. I thought that my winning streak would start again after my win on the first day of the second week, but I ended up losing the last 4 games. To be honest, I was pretty disapointed with myself in losing the last game. I had a really good opening, yet somehow in the endgame my level suddenly dropped back down to 30kyu. I played Ko's I didn't need, missed ataris and didn't defend after blocking on the first line.

Overall I am satisfied with my 5-5 result, but I think I could have done better.

(Photo by EuroGoTv)

A New Adventure

I haven't been writing anything itneresting for quite some time now, but Its that time again!! I am packing my bag and heading off; first to Germany, then Finland for the European Go Congress and then...I am not sure.

I will be updating frequently, so please come by and read from time to time.

League Game #7 vs Vlom

Hard fought game, but Vlom, he played better.

Bamboo joint

Nakamura Kaicho gives us short lectures after our meditation sessions.

Today he talked about the Bamboo Joint "setsu"
Bamboo joint is the foundation or, the core of the otherwise hollow bamboo grass. Without it the grass would not be as strong and resilient and would just break when the wind blew hard.

What this means to us as karate-ka and as people is that you have to have a strong core of discipline, so that when faced with hardships you can stay standing and be flexible and resilient.

Also the bamboo joint is a rather strong shape in go isn't it?

OSU!

League Game #6 vs MZ500

This was a very close, and tough game for me.

In the beginning I was doing well but for some reason I played c7 at move 65, and made the game at least twice as hard as it had to be...

I got lucky when my opponent left a weakness at D13, After that I managed to stay ahead

The Go Students

The New York Go Center has undergone many changes recently. Primarily Vincent Liu has become the full time host. I am not sure if this is the main reason, but many more people have started to show up. I came to the center today and about 10 people came to play and study go. It is quite nice to have some really young kids playing at the center. There is one 5 year old Japanese boy who aspires to be a professional. His name is Ken-chan, perhaps he will be pro one day, but for now he has to learn to sit through a 45 minute lesson on life and death ^^.

Vincent (Yong Xin) Liu 6d

There are also two young kids who have been under Vincent's tutelage since this March, have been getting quite good. Well at least at life and death. They are able to solve some of the more difficult problems already. The two brothers are 4, and 8 years old.

Also, the main reason for this post, I am taking a photography class and wanted to share my first printed photograph. It is of the two brothers.

Camera: Nikon SLR; Film Tri-X kodak 400 iso.

Exposure 30@1.8 printed on fiber paper. Click on image to view full size

Graduation at Myongj University

Myongji University.

MU is a school in Korea, it is unique in that it is the only school in the world that offers a Masters and a Bachelors degree in Baduk Studies (Go studies)

The Baduk department was started in 1997, and has provided many yonguseng (Korean Insei) an opportunity to get a college degree. (Generally yonguseng don't have a chance to study in high school, as they devote all of their time to Baduk. When it comes time to get into University it is difficult) Myongji's classes teach them "how" to teach. Also about how to teach abroad. For weaker players they offer theory and technique classes. Most of the students are quite strong though (7d) This school accepts players of all strengths 18 kyu- 9 dan Pro.

I was considering to go to this school before I found out about the IBA. I still would like to go, but I have to learn Korean better. We came late to my friends graduation (she almost missed it) but it all turned out OK. We walked in just as it was ending, we got to miss all the boring stuff.



Diana Koszegi

Diana (Dia) is a professional Baduk player. She is one of the few westerners to ever make it pro. She grew up in Hungary, and learned Baduk from her father (2d) and helped him teach at his go classes. Last year after making it to 2nd class yonguseng (out of 5) the Hanguk Kiwon promoted her to Pro. This was not undeserved, as she proceeded to defeat her first opponent (8p)

Anyway this Wednesday she graduated from Myongji University, I followed her around as a photographer sort of... Anyway here are some pictures.

Apidet (Mod) and Dia not noticing the Camera

Dia and Mod posing looking happy

I gave her that hammer as a Graduation Gift

Dia, and Mod receiving their diplomas

Professor Chihyung Nam. This was my first time meeting her. She gave me the impression that she is very nice. She also seems to be a very strong woman. I got some free Baduk books from her, *yay* ^__^

Hey Look Simon and I graduated Myongji... Anyway just a bunch of people that came to say thank you to Professor nam

Lee DoYun (right with the peace sign) Lee Chang Ho's girlfriend graduated last Wednesday too Unfortunately he was not there, so I could not meet him.

Ji Young another one of my teachers, she came to celebrate Dia too. Nandor is a Serbian 1d, he is a cool guy currently studies at Myongji Professor Nam

Simon Sleeping on the ride back from Myongji

New Apartment, Life, Departure

I have not written in month, but I have been busy...

This is more of a personal blog post.

In the past month lots of things have happened. I signed papers with my girlfriend. I got to "AGA 4k" I quit my job. I moved out of my house and in with my Sunny (Girlfriend). I said my goodbyes to my friends and packed my bag. On Monday I will leave to Korea. I will travel 11 hours into the future and arrive Tuesday night.

I will spend the first night at my Uncle's house, and then I will be joining the IBA.

As much as I am excited to go and travel, I am a little sad leaving my Sunny in our new apartment all by herself.

On why we moved in together, I love her dearly, and I have been planning to live with her for sometime now. All of a sudden, she decided to leave her home and move out. So I moved in with her. Her dad is helping us out a lot with rent and stuff, I can not wait to get back and continue living with her in our little broken down apartment.

Sunny is an artist, she is an aspiring mangaka. For the holidays I made her sort of a table easel so that she can draw more comfortably. I really hope that while I am away she creates her rough draft of her manga series.

In the past few months I finally reconected with my best friend from childhood, Roman. He got into go recently ^__^ he is already 13k KGS. He is helping me out running the tournaments while I am in Korea. Its a little sad to leave...he should be kidnapped and brought to me in Korea....

I moved out of my moms house so suddenly, she seems sad these days, I hope she will be Ok.

I have worked a lot at the New York Go Center in the past months... I hope it is still standing when I come back ^__^

I will be back in 6 months a better smarter stronger person.

As for my posts while I am in Korea... Likely tri-weekly. I will be posting experiences as well as My games and my teacher's comments on them...

Hope you guys keep reading. See you soon.

New York Open 2008

The New York Open is a Tournament I created.

I enlisted the help of Christopher Vu to be my Tournament Director.

While I was the tournament organizer.

The Idea of it was to have a annually or Semi-Annually occurring large tournament in NYC.

I advertised it to have a relatively large first place prize of $500.

It would take place over 2 days have 5 rounds.

All games would be even, and it would be broken up into separate divisions.

Here is the report...



October 10th-
The New York Go Open is the next day. The New York Go Center was a mess. Christopher Vu, the tournament director, and I, The organizer were at the go center until 12 am reorganizing, and decorating. Hiding holes in the wall, shooing away moths and setting up all the tables.

We finally got home and to bed around 2 am. Chris stayed on my couch so that he would not have to trek 1 hour in the middle of the night.

My main concern was that we would have enough seats to fit everyone in.

October 11th-

42 people showed up for the tournament. 48 had pre-registered, and a few people promised they would bring friends. Only 42 people actually made it. The main problem with this was providing the $500 top prize that I had promised. We made it by, if the Go Center was more strict with rent, I do not know what we would have done.

Anyway it was a lot more action the our club had seen in a long time so we were pretty happy regardless.

We set up a Go In Our Garden Review Area where many player were studying in between rounds.

A notable quote from Andy Liu "When you are 1d you should be able to remember your games. This is one of the big differences between a 1d and a 4kyu"

I did awful in my games today. Although I won the first one I played by 5.5, I lost the second two. The second game, I lost when my opponenet threatened to, either a. Cut two groups in half, or b. capture a stone. I chose the wrong one. We went back and counted what would happen if i chose b....I would have won by 12.

The third game I played I just played horrendously the whole time, I lost an even game to a supposed 13k. (I think he was sandbagging since he finished 2wins 3 losses in the 9k-1k division)
BTW he was the Tournament Organizer, and he entered this division so that we would have an even number of players.

There was one incident at the event. One of the 5d players lost on time. He made a huge fuss about it. His logic was since his clock did not warn him he was running out of time, it was somehow not fair. Keep in mind the time settings were 1h base and 5 of 30 byo-yomi.

He was yelling and making threats, so to calm him down I gave him an additional 30 sec period, that beeped every second.

He lost the game by a large margin to a 12 year old 5d, Andrew Huang.

I felt awful for the kid because his opponent was creating such a fuss. I am not sure what I would have done in the kids place.

Overall the first day was a success. One thing that I must mention is that all the food that you participants ate was donated by our Tournament Director Christopher Vu. Next time you see him make sure to thank him.

Pictures from day 1.

1. Me (blue shirt) V. Chris Vu

2.Anthony Fiengold 3k John Mangual 5k
Matthew Palumbo 2k Robin Xu 4k (back to front right to left)

3. Howard Wong 5k

4. S-division (6d+)



1. Four 6d battling.
2. John David 5d vs. Andrew Huang 5d
3. Andy Liu 9d vs Jie Liang 8d
4. Dae Yol Kim 7d, and Xiliang Liu 7d in thought
5. Hyodo Shunichi 7d (second from the front)

1. Post game review
Haskel Small, Alfred Teng Michael Fodera (all 3d)
2. Kyu section

October 12th-

Chris and I made it over to the Center at 9:15 am, the tournament would be starting at 10, and we had a little work to do.

About 15 people dropped out of the second day, and 2 more joined in. The games went smoothly and people seemed pretty happy Overall.

The prizes were as Follows:

S Division
1st Place $400.00 (Andy Liu 9d)
2nd Place $100.00 (Xiliang Liu 7d)

A Division

1st Place $100.00 (Ke Lu 5d)
2nd Place $60.00 (June Joung Kim 2d)

B Division

1st Place $90.00 (Afa Zhou 1k)
2nd Place Book or Go Equipment of choice (Robin Xu 4k)

C Division
1st Place Book or Go Equipment of choice (Jesy Felicia 14k)
2nd (tie) Book or Go Equipment of choice (Betsey small 13k, and Fredrick Smadja 12k)

Winners Pictures

1. All together
2. C Division
3. A Division
4. S division

Anyway I hope everyone had a great time.

Next year I will try my best to make the tournament bigger and better, and more organized as far as starting times go.

Final standings whole tournament

OPEN DIVISION

1. Andy Liu (9893) (5-0)
2. Xiliang Liu (14179) (4-1)
3. Young Kwon (433) (3-2)
4. Oh Tae Hwan (4350) (3-2)
5. Liang Jie (11018) (2-3)
6. Zhong, Yu (8975) (2-3)
7. Kim, Dae-Yol (3039) (2-1)
8. Zhou, Xun (7316) (2-1)
9. Hyodo, Shunichi (6157) (1-4)
10. Chen, Yong (5018) (1-3)
11. Verkhovsky, Simon (6769) (1-2)
12. Liu, Yong-xin (3700) (0-3)

A DIVISION

1. Ke Lu (11746) (5-0)

2. Kim, Joung June (99999) (4-1)

3. Teng, Yu Jen (14233) (4-1)
4. Andrew Huang (13637) (4-1)
5. Chen, Walter (11796) (3-2)
6. Paul Anderson (1448) (2-3)
7. Marc Palmer (4291) (2-3)
8. Fodera, Michael (16547) (2-3)
9. Haskell Small (1062) (2-3)
10. Saul Lapidus (10587) (2-3)
11. Matthew Bengtson (19) (2-1)
12. Yu, Stephen (4002) (0-5)
13. John David (99998) (0-3)
14. Justin Johnson (14909) (0-3)

Division B – Final Standings

1. Afa Zhou (10817) [4.5-0.5]
2. Robin Xu (16845) [4.0-1.0]
3. Howard Wong (14893) [3.0-2.0]
4. John Mangual (11454) [3.0-2.0]
5. Anthony Feingold (14448) [3.0-1.0]
6. Carrie Lapidus (10828) [2.0-3.0]
7. Christopher Vu (11614) [2.0-3.0]
8. Leonaurd Baum (9420) [1.0-4.0]
9. Boris Bernandsky (13734) [1.0-4.0]
10. Avi Mowshovitz (14885) [1.0-1.0]
11. Joshua Gang (14514) [1.0-0.0]
12. Matthew Palumbo (14643) [0.0-3.0]

Division C – Final Standings

1. Jesy Feliccia (14592) [5.0-0.0]
2. Frederic Smadja (16887) [3.0-2.0]

2. Elizabeth Small (2098) [3.0-2.0]
3. Barbara Huang (14149) [2.0-3.0]
4. Diana Huang (14150) [2.0-3.0]
5. Daren Huang (14165) [2.0-3.0]
6. Joanne Huang (14145) [1.0-4.0]
7. Janis Rancourt (16005) [0.0-3.0]

-Boris Bernadsky about 4k.