Round of 16 – 15^th KPMC

The round of 16 in the 15th KPMC was completed on the 19th and 20th of August.  

In group A, the Poland v Canada game looked like being the highlight.  Canada was ranked 7^th so was the seeded player but their representative was the 16 year old Brady (Bei Ming) Zhang, “5-dan”.  His opponent was the 24 year old Czechia player Stanislaw Frejlak (7D) one of the strongest amateur players in Europe.   In the event, Frejlak got hammered and a comment by someone in an online commentary suggested he may be about to be promoted to 1d Pro in the North American league.   Move 68 was the beginning of the downhill slide for Stanislaw and move 103 was an indication of the aggressive confidence of Brady.

In group B games went according to rank, though the Hong Kong v Germany game was close, with Park of HK (or “Hong Kong. China” as the organizers would have it!) defeating Weltike of Germany by 3.5 points.   Jonas started by playing mirror go and after the mirror was broken at move 47, built up a small lead (84%) by move 122.  But some ponderous play in the centre saw the game level by move 143.

So after the dust settled in the round of 32, Europe found itself with no players represented in the quarter finals.

There are some juicy games to enjoy in the quarterfinals.  How will the 16 year old Brady Zhang from Canada fare against the 17 year old Euihyun Lee from South Korean.  Lee has hardly been tested so far.  It will be fascinating to see how the South African player Guang Chow fares against Minoru Ozeki from Japan.  As usual check the Tygem Championship room for the times of these games which are scheduled to be played on 23 August.

Round of 32 – 15^th KPMC

Almost all of the seeds made it though the round of 32 safely, but more of that later!

Chahine (5D) came close to an upset win in his game a against Nikola Mitic (7D) of Serbia but his endgame let him down.  It was an awkward game in which decisions about vital points, attacks on weak groups and timing of invasions exercised both players.  Check out his comments on the game.

While Chahine just missed out on what would have been a fantastic win there was at least one upset in the round of 32.  Interest in the Ukraine/Argentina game was justified as the 12 year old Vsevolod Ovsiienko (3D) beat the 60 year old Fernando Aguilar (7D) by 6.5 points.

Rie (6D) of Australia was unable to produce a similar miracle against Ma (7D) after the tail of his group was eaten while fleeing from the dragon’s den.

Jan Hora (6D) just missed an upset against Guang Chow (7D), at least  a win by Hora could have been considered an upset because of their rank difference.  But in fact Hora was seeded 6th because of the past performance of Czechia at this tournament.  At more than one point in the game he was rated by Katago at better than a 90% chance to win.  The game was analysed live by Go Pro Yeon Woo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLMTfinhd4M with many insights throughout the analysis.  It’s a long video but judicious use of the fast forward button should help find the best bits, especially at 2:09 when Chow engineered a remarkable comeback.

Matches to watch out for in the round of 16?  China v Serbia will match two players ranked as 7D, though the odds would have to be with China.  After Guang Chow’s shaky win against Jan Hora maybe the youngster from Ukraine has a chance of another upset.

The round of 16 is scheduled for August 19^th and 20^th.  The best way to find the times of these games is to check the listing for the games in the Tygem Championship room.