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WAGC Game Report: Round 1

The World Amateur Go Championship games are played with basic time of one hour per player, followed by thirty-seconds-per move overtime, each player having three thirty-second periods to use. In Round 1 on Sunday morning, among the four seeded players, Qiao Zhijian (China), Lee Hyunjoon (Korea), and Yuan Zhou (U.S.A.) won handily, but Remi Campagnie (France) was upended by Pavol Lisy (Slovakia). This was a come-from-behind victory. ‘I was losing,’ Pavol said, ‘but my opponent made a big mistake, and after that I was winning.’

It was not an upset, however: both players are ranked 5-dan. In the other battles of the 5-dans, Leon Matoh (Slovenia) defeated Igor Popov (Russia), Lukas Podpera (Czechia) won a close 2.5-point victory over Longyang Li (New Zealand), and Eduardo Lopez (Argentina) prevailed over Martin Li (Sweden) by 8.5 points. The two youngest contestants both won their games, Chen Cheng-Hsun (Chinese Taipei) beating Carlos Acuna (Colombia) and Chan Chihin (Hong Kong) beating Felicien Mazille (Switzerland). Nakazono Seizo (Japan) won by a comfortable margin against Saechen Panjawat (Thailand), and in a very short game, Ri Kwang Hyok (DPR Korea) defeated Fang Xiaoyan (the second Chinese player). Chan Kouk Wang (Macau) won by forfeit when Ismail Ja (Morocco) failed to show up. Last to end was the game between Pal Balogh (Hungary, 6d) and Andreas Gotzfried (Luxembourg, 4d). ‘I thought it was about even through the middle game, but I lost a lot of points in the endgame,’ Andreas said. He had turned in a creditable performance, against one of the strongest players in Europe.

- excerpted from James Davies' report on Ranka Online.
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Click here for online game records for the following Round 1 games: DPR Korea-China (Commentary by So Yokoku 8P, shown at left in photo at top right, with translator Ting Ting Chen and American Go E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock);Thailand-Japan (Commentary by Yang Shuang 3P); US-Norway; Brazil-Korea.  
Bottom photo: Cornel Burzo (Romania) reviews his Round 1 game with Zaid Waqi (Malaysia). 
photos by John Pinkerton