After six rounds I have 3 wins. I have had a few fortunate wins, mind you, with a win yesterday a forfeit due to an illegal move, and one of the wins today due to a terrible mistake from my opponent. I’m not sure how we would have dealt with the illegal move, had it actually mattered, as my opponent had already pressed the clock, but his move, which was a ko threat played in the wrong place (into a ponnuki), was too small, and I was definitely going to ignore it anyway, which would have guaranteed a win.
Today I was fortunate to meeet Aketa-sensei, he arrived just as I finished my game against Mongolia. As you may know, Aketa is a big friend of Mongolian go as well, and he knew both of us. Aketa reviewed our game, after which I played a teaching game with Aketa. It was a 3 stone game, which he won by 1.5 points. Aketa then dragged a few of us to some go function, which was very enjoyable, with excellent (and free) food and beer. We had to all give speeches introducing ourselves, so in that sense we had to sing for our supper. However, I’ve given a few interviews here in Japan, so this wasn’t too uncomfortable. Aketa is a very fit looking 74 year old, and looks quite smart with his shaven head. He sends his fond regards to all his friends in South Africa. There is a picture of Aketa reviewing our game on the Mongolian Go Association Facebook page: Mongolian FB page
Tomorrow is the last round, then on Friday we are spending the day on a tour of the earthquake and tsunami damaged site. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the devastation from the disaster is uppermost on the minds of local residents, and it seems that at least to some extent they are viewing this Go event as an opportunity to show people from around the world how they are recovering from the events of 2 years ago.
I have had most of my games reviewed so far
game 2 vs Luxembourg 1d
game 3 vs Cyprus 1k
game 4 vs Argentina 1d
game 5 vs Belarus 1k
game 6 vs Mongolia 1d
Posted by Chris Welsh as WAGC at 4:42 PM, No Comments »
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