Due to lack of content on this website mainpage, I was driven to write this report on recent 29th World Amateur Go Championship despite a small part of my mind saying “No! I dont want people to know how badly I did!”
As a spoiler to this rather lengthy report, I, representing Malaysia was placed 46th after winning 3 games out of 8.
I arrived at Narita Airport early morning on 26th May after about seven hours of red-eye JAL flight from Kuala Lumpur. From there I took shuttle bus to Narita Airport Hotel nearby as instructed by the documents couriered earlier from International Go Federation, IGF. I checked in early and had to pay 3000 yen (not covered by IGF).
The players registration was scheduled at 4p.m. , so I had plenty of time to tour around Narita before that. Again, I took shuttle bus to the city centre, and from there I began my walk to Shinshoji temple, a famous tourist attraction in Narita.
At 4.00 p.m. , WAGC participants gathered at the hotel lobby. I met familiar faces, Than Chi Tranh from Vietnam, Martin Putera from Indonesia, Ruechagorn Trairatananusorn from Thailand and Stanislav, strongman of Bulgaria. I also got acquainted with Martin of the Philippines and Stan introduced me to Cornel Burzo, among top amateur Europeans from Romania.
Players registration is actually the time we receive pocket money from the organizer, amounting to 14,000 yen. It was also the time for most representatives to renew their countries yearly membership to IGF for a fee of 12,000 yen.
Later in the evening, most of us went to the playing room in the hotel and had friendly games among ourselves. I was amazed to see how focused all of them were, to the point of missing dinner! Anyway, during the game, I had the chance to glance at the game between Hong Kong’s Nai San Chai and Sweden’s Martin Xiangdongli, where San Chai played a rather interesting “joseki”. Wah, this kid is strong, I thought. San Chai later obtained the 4th place.
The following day, we were brought to Nihon Ki-in in Ichigaya area, in Tokyo. It wasn’t the tournament day yet, but we were there to attend the orientation session and IGF meeting.
Yes, true the Nihon Ki-in was similar to the one in the anime Hikaru No Go, the place where Shindou Hikaru started on the path of Go professional. Sadly, I was 25 years-old already and couldn’t be too hyped up about the resemblance.
Anyway during the orientation session, we were told about the rules and educated on the way to use the tournament clock. For that, we were separated into many groups depending on our language preference. The IGF had hired few translators there to aid with any lingual interoperability problem. (sorry for my choice of word, I work in telco).
Also, the IGF general meeting was held, and I was suprised to find myself being able to vote. Well basically I just raised my hand at every proposal tabled.
After lunch, it was a session for blind go demonstration where two visually impaired players showed their skill using special board designed by universities. A professor was there answering few questions from the media. The session was held in Japanese with occasional translation to English by James Davies. Yes, that James Davies who wrote the Tesuji book of Elementary Go Series, from which I had learnt a lot.
I also visited the shop on the second floor, pouring over some of the huge go books there. I cant remember what day exactly did I buy the books, but I returned to Malaysia later with 11 new go books in Japanese, including two Dictionary of Life and Death from Cho Chikun.
For match drawing, the participants were divided into three groups based on ranking and past country achievement; the first 17, last 17, and the middle. This was done to avoid first 17 and last 17 playing against each other on the first day. Participants then each took number from a box to determine their opponents.
All players and most officials stay in Grand Arc Hanzomon, located about 20 minutes walk from Nihon Ki-in. We all had single room, and mine was nicely placed overlooking picturesque scene of Tokyo.
With no reference to the day of the matches, I shall briefly describe each match.
Match 1 (won) vs Kumar Shah, India
The game started well, and I managed to kill a corner early in the game and went on smoothly to win later.
Match 2 (lost) vs Sung Bong Ha, Korea
He didnt seem to play any special, tricky move but killed a large group of mine. That’s the sign of strength of this Korean, who went on to win this tournament eventually.
Match 3 (won) vs Martin Benenati Michelena, Uruguay
A real nice fighting game where the game could have ended at many points.
Match 4 (lost) vs Mozheng Guan, U.S.A
This guy played an unusual fuseki of tenuki-ing here and there and killed a large group of mine early in the game. In desperation, I outlined a huge moyo but he managed to invade and live.
Match 5 (lost) vs Slovakia
I thought I was ahead in territory and went to divide the left side with a stone in the middle. However, the opponent placed a shoulder-hit move, and only then I realised the danger of the grand sized moyo at the bottom. I had special weakness against moyo, and it’s just unfortunate that I misjudged the size and strength of opponent’s moyo.
Match 6 (lost) vs Lauri Paatero, Finland
He played some Korean fuseki against me, which I was not familiar with at all. To be honest, the previous losses to Slovakia and U.S.A affected me greatly and I couldn’t play best. A review of this game with the pro showed me few simple tesujis that I missed.
Match 7 (won) vs Fatih Sulak, Turkey
A rather peaceful, tactical game which is based on my attack on his centre group. Still a close game, but luckily I won.
Match 8 (lost) vs Franz Huttler, Austria
The game I regret the most. I could kill the corner, but I thought, “I’ll do that after answering his gote move”. Well, he ignored my reply and saved the corner stones. I lost by 1.5 moku.
Well anyway, learned a lot from this tournament, particularly regarding emotion and mentality. Also I enjoyed the trip a lot, probably too much to the point of losing focus on the tournament. Overall I got 46th place out of 69, or 70, not sure. And in apparent upset at the result, I bought 11 more go books. Hopefully I can and will study a lot more to improve my skill.
Plane departed home to Kuala Lumpur on 1st June.
wow! a great report. enjoyed reading it. do you have the game records? i only managed to find your game record against the Mozheng. very interesting game.
also, re your comment on the Korea rep, I had the same feeling when playing with the China rep (who eventually won the WAGC- his name Hu yuqing) in Bangkok. All the moves looked so normal, nothing fancy but all of a sudden, i find my group cannot live. the experience is really an eye opener for me.
yea, that game against Mozheng was difficult for me. There was almost no fuseki, and fighting straightaway.
also it was the same against all strong players. I took 4 stones against 9 dan pro before, and lost so smoothly that I hardly realised when it started.
I lost smoothly also against Rin Kono 9 dan; thier move seems so natural until you realised you are lagging.
Kono Rin was amazing. Must be great to play such a person.
That’s Japanese style I guess.. all natural but real power.
I really like meeting utile info, this post has got me even more info!