(Continuing from part 1)
Definitely one of the best things at the congress this year for me was the chance to meet again many of the people who I'd grown fond of while I was an insei in Japan. This included English class professionals, and just like in Japan, I continued to get my games reviewed by them. We did use the opportunity to go touring together a bit, too, and had a few restaurant evenings together as well. I did my best to introduce the professionals to Nikola Mitic of Serbia, who is becoming an insei this October (and who'll likely be the next person who'll get his games commented by them).
Katsura Atsushi 4 dan professional, commenting a game just outside of the congress venue
Ōhashi Hirofumi 5 dan professional, playing a simultaneous game in the foyer of the congress venue
The main playing hall of EGC 2012
On the first Wednesday, which is a free day from the main tournament, we went to Cologne for a visit with some of my friends from Japan (and two from Finland). The cathedral of Cologne was as spectacular as ever — the last time I saw it was in 2004, when I participated in the European Youth Go Championship tournament.
I like high places, so I couldn't help climbing up the tower of the cathedral since there was a chance to do so. The view wasn't bad at all, either! The river shown in the photo is of course the Rhein.
Jeff had initially set me a target for the congress, namely that I have to get in the cup tournament for the European championship after seven rounds. This meant that to surely get in, I'd have to get five wins out of the seven first games. Four games might have been enough to get into a playoff for a place in the cup, but with my SOS, that started looking difficult after four rounds. My result for the first seven rounds was adequate, winning exactly the required five games, and losing only to two Koreans. Both of the games with Koreans were good too — the first game I threw away due to two relatively simple misreads near the very end, and while the second game was clearly more difficult, even there I had chances late into the middle game.
Shown in the following is the record of my game with Ryu Seung-hee 7 dan of Korea, the game I lost due to the two misreads. Unfortunately it seems I didn't record the game during the congress, and I can now remember only up to 128 moves. Most of the comments included are again courtesy of Yū Hō 6 dan professional.
Edit August 17, 22:02: I found the complete game record after all; it was stored in an unlikely place. Comments now included until the end!
[Embedded SGF File]
Continued in part 3.
