2006 NZ Open

From go.org.nz

A brief description of the 2006 New Zealand Go championship, held September 30th and October 1st in Auckland - by Colin Grierson.

The tournament followed the usual Auckland formula:

Venue: SAS building 520Gt South Rd, Greenlane

Director: Colin Grierson

Catering: Roman (it's usually him or Steve Taylor)

Reception: Mike Taler

As usual, few entries were received in advance. Most people arrive on the day. In years past we tried to fight this. Now we accept and expect it. Some of the entries were interesting: Ciaran, {“it's 'Kirin' (like the beer) not 'Sirran'”} claimed 9dan. Jimmy Yuan claimed to be strongest in the country. Young Ken Xie, 11yrs old, is back. In the Auckland champs earlier this year he kept his honour – winning 2 of 6 games in the open section. Graeme Parmenter called on Friday night saying he could not come. A shame, many of us were looking forward to seeing him again.

As usual most people arrived well on time, but there were unusually many. 25 in the main draw and six in the handicap section. 25 Grr, an odd number - Graeme's fault for not showing up ;-) Most people have played here before, know the procedure, and make organising easy – but it takes time. As usual we started a little late and as usual finished the first round in plenty of time.

The first round went smoothly, I started with a win :-). '9dan Ciaran' drew with Patrick Zhou. For the second round Don, a kyu player, volunteered to play in the open division to make the numbers up, and Jade, Ciaran's partner, entered the handicap division.

Near the end of the second round we had a request from 3 more players to enter the tournament. What to do? Declining is contrary to the spirit of promoting the game. Allowing them to enter makes for difficulties with the tournament results and SOS... But we always get defaults, which create their own difficulties. All three were mid strength, unlikely to win. I accepted them with the proviso they could not be the tournament winner and gave them a 1 point each. We now had an odd number again, so Mike Taler joined the open division too.

At the end of the first day Ken Xie and Long Yang Li had three wins, Ciaran and Patrick 2.5. Ken seems to have got a lot stronger in the last 6 months! Another notable result was Roman (3dan) losing to Mike Taler (2kyu) Mike and Roman play often, and usually Mike gets teased unmercifully by Roman. This was a very, very sweet moment for Mike. Roman, remember: Connections before dame.

After a brief break we held the NZGS AGM. As AGM's go it was not bad, only taking about an hour. Most people stayed which was also good. After the meeting the people with enthusiasm left, and freedom to play, went to Mike's place for pizza and more Go. There were only about 10 of us, but the pizza and company was good. Thanks Mike.

The second day started with three defaults – not bad – fewer than usual, but now we have an odd number again :-( Also, as usual, people started playing more slowly. In the first round Li beat Patrick and Ciaran had his second draw, against Ken. I was still trying for my second win :-(

For the second round we had Ken and Li playing for top position and a host of people with 3 wins chasing them. Ken won. I got my second win :-)

Final round. Anyone could win. Ken is leading on 4.5 Li, Jeong Bong Lee, Ciaran and Barry Phease all had 4. When the dust settled Ken had beaten Lee, Ciaran failed to draw with Li (winning by 2), and Barry lost to Patrick. Great work guys. Ken 5.5 first. Ciaran 5 second. Patrick 4.5 third. No need for SOS! Other notable results: Jimmy - 4 wins, not quite living up to his hype, but not bad either. Young Eric Kim - also 4 wins - watch out Ken. And 2kyu Mike Taler, with a default win in the last round, finishing 'ahead' of both Roman and I!

In the handicap section Chaoshi Zhu won with 5 wins from 6 games. Young Mark Xu, given an incorrect handicap, came last – but was always full of enthusiasm.

Finally prize giving, photos, and cleaning up. Thanks to all for attending. Thanks to those who helped, particularly Mark, who did more than most. Thanks to Barry for loaning his laptop for recording Ken's last two games. Thanks to everyone for co-operating and being so easy to organise.

I hope to see you next time.

Colin Grierson

Here are the results: Media:2006 NZGS Results.xls,

Here are pictures from the event: 2006 NZGS Pictures