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2008 NZ Open Report
From go.org.nz
The Auckland Go Club hosted the 2008 National Tournament (see the details and entry form). The tournament was a great success with 28 people entering the open division, including five at fifth dan! Ciaran Pearson even nipped over from Sydney for the event.
Due to the unusually high rank of kyu players entering the tournament, the handicap division was replaced with a 'B-division' (no-handicaps) - if this continues then perhaps something like McMahon will be adopted for future tournaments?
The first surprise of the tournament was Corrin Lakeland (2d) beating Ken Xie (5d) in the opening round (Image:Corrin-ken.sgf). By the end of the first day, four players were undefeated (Tracey, Do Young Kim, David Wu, and ?).
After the first day's play the AGM was held as usual, followed by dinner at the local Chinese restaurant and silly games at Colin's house. First up was a Kriegspiel tournament (a cross between go and battleships -- see ), won by Ciaran and Corrin, who then played off to give the 'Platinum medal' to Corrin - Proving he is more of a trickster than anybody else! Surprisingly, the tournament showed some tactics can be applied to the game with the winners carefully counting how many stones were unknown and the minimum moves to prevent live shape. As always, the finer points in the rules were questioned and need to be clarified - if two single stones are in atari, should the referee say 'two stones are in atari'?
Arthur Zimek, a visitor from Germany, proposed a variation known as Phantom Rengo in Europe (like Rengo Kriegspiel) which looks like fast becoming a huge hit. By placing a player and a competitor at each board it is almost like two independent games being played simultaneously - great fun and with a lot of go skill.
In the second day, Tracy quickly showed she was the person to beat by producing some stunning games. In the end she was the only person to finish with straight wins, making her the clear champion.