How can we make this website better? YOU can discuss it today; click here.
Please improve an article!!
32nd World Amateur Go Championship
From go.org.nz
The 32nd WAGC was held in Shimane, Japan between 2011-05-27 and 2011-06-01. Corrin Lakeland represented New Zealand.
Contents |
[edit] Corrin's Report
I won't bother with the general results type stuff except to say China won convincingly with only Korea in contention (see for more).
I came 28th which I guess is about average for NZ in recent years. I've attached all my game records with comments on the moves inline.
[edit] Game summaries
Game 1 (Cyprus): he managed to force me into a moyo game but I was able to kill his invasion - a risky way to win. I had hoped he'd reduce and give me an easy dozen point win. perhaps I should have started converting influence into points earlier.
Game 2 (Japan). I never recovered from a Joseki mistake on move 9 which cost me sente and things went downhill from there - no real contest.
Game 3 (Denmark). A good hard game - I felt we were evenly matched. I was pleased with the win and the general lack of big mistakes by either side. Lots of counting.
Game 4: (Vietnam). I was outclassed and an early mistake meant I shouldn't have had a chance. However a later overplay by him enabled me to create a hundred or more point ko. Unfortunately I played the ko badly - too used to smaller ko - and didn't think of sacrificing large chunks of stones as ko threats so lost the ko and therefore the game.
Game 5 (Argentina, but not aguillar). A good game where I felt stronger but just couldn't pull ahead until finally he made a fifteen point misread in early yose which made the rest quite easy. I won by 15 so would've been very close without the blunder.
Game 6 (Finland). A frustrating game because I thought I was doing fine but every time I counted he was further ahead. A crazy overplay by me in late yose to try and catch up was punished brutally to give the rather depressing 35 point loss.
Game 7 (Belarus). Easily my worst game of the tournament with an appalling standard of play by both. Strategically I completely failed to keep the game under control but locally his reading was much too weak and he lost points in every skirmish. I stopped counting when I got about 30 ahead.
Game 8 (Lithuania). My most disappointing game of the tournament. I made a fuseki error and fell slightly behind, but a couple small and unpunished overplays put me about 5 points ahead. Unfortunately I misread a tsumego (usually best to defend before attacking) and so lost quarter of the board and the game. I'm still annoyed with myself over it.
I won all four friendship matches, managing to keep the wins small, safe and well controlled. I also won most of the social games - It seems NZ ranks have become somewhat harder than elsewhere with me playing just over six Japanese dan and three European dan.
[edit] Other comments
1. It was suggested to me that NZ upload tournament results to EGD for consistency of ranks between cities and also with the rest of the world - effectively giving everyone european ranks - thoughts?
2. With the first two days of the tournament having no formal games, there's no real need to go early. Nobody at the Nihon ki-in was able to give me an even game, the strongest was 5 dan, so it wasn't much use for training.
3. I needed more souvenirs - one for each opponent plus a few extra - didn't we have some pins made one year? Maybe honey would be good?
4. Almost all of the players had some form of financial assistance from their respective governments. Worth investigating.
5. Everyone was really nice and friendly. It was a very enjoyable atmosphere. It was a little hard talking to say Taiwan due to limited English but everyone made a huge effort. I was one of the oldest people competing.
6. Too much sightseeing, I would've preferred an extra round even though I was exhausted by the end.
7. After so little serious practice I was surprised to find i was comfortable with the standard of play outside the top ten to be similar to a NZ nationals - for instance Vietnam's play reminded me of Du Shi Yong.
8. The Polish fuseki has been born - long live the 2-3 point. It's good to see some new ideas about the early game.
9. We have a competitor to kriegspiel for best game to play on a go board when your brain is too fried to think with petanque go invented about six months ago in France.
10. Everyone thought we should move the nationals to avoid school exams. Closer to Christmas was the (narrow) majority opinion.
11. Various tournament ideas were floated - quarterly single day tournaments with half the points of a normal regional open to encourage more tournament style play and also the players who don't usually come to the club, a rengo tournament to encourage more women, and a southern hemisphere tournament to promote more interaction with Australia.
12. A couple people are coming for the world cup - it was suggested we do some activities at the same time for visitors.
[edit] Photos
I've put some photos up at () for anyone interested.
Any questions or comments, just let me know.
Corrin