2017 NZGS Championship Report

2017 NZGS Championship Report

By Colin Grierson

Pictures from the tournament:

Click to view the gallery.

The tournament will be held in Auckland and for many years now the company where I work, SASIT has provided the venue for Auckland tournaments. However the room we have been using, perfect for our tournaments, is now filled with work stations. Will I still be able to have the tournament here? The GM says “Yes”, we can use the lunch room and the meeting room we used to use as our overflow area. I plan to have the main tournament in the meeting room and use the lunch room as overflow, We’re good to go.

As the tournament registrations come in the numbers look good, and yes, we’ll be able to have a beginner's event - possibly 2 - most of the children in Kevin’s Go classes will be playing. This will be a big tournament. Laris agrees to look after supplying food. Many thanks.

Friday before the start of the tournament. I’m checking the meeting room - I’ll pull the tables and we’ll have 6 people on each… Eh?... The tables are bolted together and can’t come apart. We can’t use this room for tournament games at all. I’m feeling a bit sick… What can I do in the lunch room?  There are 4 tables. Dismantle the table tennis table (a pity not to have this available) move the lounge chairs to the side, bring up 2 more tables. That will accommodate 36 people and there is a small meeting room with 2 tables we can use. It’s more work to set up but we’re good. Relief.

Saturday

I’m at SAS early to do the set up. Kevin and his partner Catherine arrive a while later. Kevin has hurt his arm so Catherine helps me carry two tables up the stairs. The room is looking good when people start arriving. Catherine helps a lot as the tournament progresses - many thanks.

Registration always feels disorganised, but people are arriving, Kevin is collecting money, Laris has the food and I’m getting the draws organised on the computer. We’re good. Most people are chatting, some are clustered over go boards and there are a lot of children around. Some of the children’s parents are here too. It’s busy.  Du Shiyoung has bought along a big box full of bags of potato chips. Quite a lot of chips are on the floor already.

Half an hour after the advertised start time people stop arriving. Kevin’s three strongest students have joined the main draw - 26 players now, and there are seven children and one adult in the beginner’s division. Finally we get the tournament underway. The room becomes quiet. Ahh, I can relax. No point in getting stressed about my game - I’ve drawn Kevin Liu - so I know the result already, it’s just a matter of playing a respectable game. We’re in the room with the beginners and we break a few times to organise things, it does not affect our result which is a comfortable win to Kevin and a respectable game by me :-) though I didn’t feel Kevin was really going for me.

No surprises in the first round.

Lunch. Most people eat what we supplied but some preferred the yum char at the Enjoy Inn restaurant next door.

In the beginner’s division three rounds have been played already. Andy, Nino and Ethan had two wins. Gregory, the adult, has retired - he was too strong for this division. Thanks Gregory.  

My second round game was against Robert Ni, one of Kevin’s students. He needs to be more confident and willing to fight. I wonder if this was his first serious game against an adult?

In the top group Laris Du beat Roger Li. Kevin Liu beat Dennis Liu. Shuo Chen Yang beat BJ Lee. KunXuan Li beat Ken Xie. Longyang Li beat Henry Chen, Summer Li and Juhau Zhou drew and Du Shiyoung drew with Alan Guerin.

Third round, The top group is getting smaller.  Laris beat Shuo Chen. Kevin beat Longyang. Summer beat KunXuan and Juhau beat Alan. I played Du Shiyoung and in the late middle game thought I was winning. But when I’d invaded his side moyo I’d pretty much forced him to make moves that did very bad things to my corner group - and he knew it while I did not :-(

The beginner’s division is finished. Seven rounds in one day so everyone has played everyone. I’d been worried that a prize giving on Saturday would be disruptive and would not work well but no. Everyone has come out, and with the parents too we have a good crowd. Andy and Nino won 6 games and are first equal. Anya won 5 and is third. All the games were played with great spirit - well done everyone.

We’d planned a social event for Saturday evening. Dinner together then go to someone’s house to play more, talk, have a drink or two… But almost everyone just headed home so only a few of us share a very nice dinner at the Enjoy Inn - and then we all go home.

Sunday

Much quieter today. Much. It’s nice but the enthusiasm of the children is nice to have around too. Just four in the top group now. Laris plays Juhau and Kevin plays Summer… I see Kevin and Summer’s game - Summer has a really strange looking group with a painful shape. How did that happen? Later they showed us, the game record is here: (Kevin is black) https://share.yikeweiqi.com/sgf/mysgf/id/3414873?from=singlemessage&isappinstalled=1

AGM. After lunch we had the NZGS AGM. I don’t like AGM’s much especially as I keep getting elected secretary. But this is a good AGM as they go - even though I’m secretary yet again. (The AGM minutes will be published on our new web site once they have been checked by the committee which is Kevin Liu (President) Colin Grierson (Secretary) Ning Hu (Treasurer) Alan Guerin, John Chen, Summer Li, Tony Li and Laris Du (general committee)

Final round. Kevin vs Laris, both undefeated. Shuo Chen, Dennis, Ken, Roger One loss. Summer, Juhua, Alan one loss and a draw. … After the dust had settled Kevin was still undefeated and champion again! - Here is the game record (Kevin is black): https://share.yikeweiqi.com/golive/detail/id/4598?from=singlemessage&isappinstalled=1

Laris, Shou Chen and Roger have one loss and share second place. Summer and Juhau have a loss and a draw and share fifth. Prize giving then the cleanup. There is a lot to clean up, but everyone joins in and seems to enjoy the job - I’m certainly enjoying all the help! The whole tournament was pretty good. Many thanks everyone.

Results

Open Division

Beginner’s Division