Interview with Mr. Nakamura
Transcription
Interview with Mr. Nakamura
Interview with Mr. Nakamura (by Ants Soosõrv after WC 2009, translated by Kazumasa Tamura) 1. Our last interview was 10 years ago. Can you please tell us what changes in your life have you had during these years and what are main perspectives and goals in your life now? My favorite hobby is going to a hot spring. So, I have centered a hot spring in my life for this ten years. However, I have gradually put emphasis on playing a renju in my life rom 2 years ago as my goal was this WC. My next goal is to win at TWC. 2. Why did you made come back to international arena exactly now? Was it because opening rules change or for some other reasons? Anyway, I reply this interview in my birthday when is August 22th. Today, I 1 would be 50 years old. I think that the change of generations is coming in Japan. The reason why I participated in WC this time is... I thought if I don't challenge WC this time, I will not be able to join in WC because younger players may beat me. Therefore, I just tried to play Yamaguchi rule from 2009. Then, I had an anxiety. 3. What expectations did you have before WC? Was it disappoinment to hear that your main competitor Ando Meritee will not take part? I didn't have the infomation of overseas players, so I didn't consider especially. And also, that Ando Meritee didn't take part in ths WC was regrettable, but I wish that he will come to TWC next year. 4. How much have changed an average playing strength of players in WC AT with last 20 years? There are lots of young players in all over the world. I would like to bring up the young players from Japan who can win the A tournament in WC. 5. How much influenced your result in Czech unusaual playing conditions for Japanese players absence of air conditioner and so on? I saw you putting medicine to your eyes, did eyes problems disturbe you during tournament? I failed to adjust a time difference, but because I had the time to adjust in Pardubice, I regulated my condition consequently. When I play a renju, my eyestrain is violent. So, I have a eye drop as my household medicine. 6. How good is your physical shape now? Did you get very tired during tournament? I was suffering from the time difference. 7. What do you think about Yamaguchi opening rule, is it good change? What is your opinion about other opening rules like Taraguchi, Sakata, Jonsson (Soosyrv). Which is best rule in your opinion? Generally, we are difficult to receive the new opening rule, however the rule has already chagend, so we have to adapt ourself to this change. Regarding the others opening rule, I think that it is very hard for us to correspond at the point of spread for Renju. 8. Who will play for Japan in next Team WC? What expectation do have for your 2 team? Do you have good chances to beat Russia, China and Estonia if they will be with best possible players? I guess that Japanese-Meijin and me would be chosen. Please ask Kawamura-san in regard with the rest of the player. Although 3 countries which is Estonia, Russia and China is so strong, we will do our best through our united efforts. 9. What do you think about internet as possible means to make gomoku and renju more popular? Do you see any signs in Japan games getting more known? I don't join on the internet. However, I contribute to the spread. 10. What is your opinion of gomoku (swap 2) as sport discipline comparing with renju? What can perspective of development for gomoku? I understand that Renju is one of Gomoku as th whole. As Japan Renju Federation, we would like to develp and popularize Renju to the world. 11. How much did you know about Czech Republic before going there? Did you have enough time to see this beautiful country? What are your impressions? I didn't have the knowledge of Czech Republic. Prague was so nice city. 12. Did you know anything about Ondrej Nykl before playing with him? Did you expect so strong play from him? I didn't guess at all. The world is really wide. 13. What were strong and weak sides of WC organisation? We have to play according to administrator of the tournament. But, I wanted the smoking place. 14. Did you know anything about such country as Estonia, before you got to know about Ando Meritee and other Estonian renjuplayers? I know only BARUTO who is Estonian smo wrestler. 15. What are your plans for future, can we see more often in international arena? At first, I will participate in Team World Championship. Thereafter is undecided, but we will be able to meet with you again. 16. What do you think about senior WC? Do you plan to take part in future? In the present situation, if the tournament will be held in Japan, the many players would not gather. I also was 50 years old, but am I a senior player? 3 17. Which game was your best in last WC? Before the generation change, I want Japanese young player to see Nakamurarenju, however I could not help saying that best game is Okebe's game. I haven't got my concentration and fighting spirit, and plunged into this WC since I participated in official tournament three years ago. 18. " You played 7 games as White in WC and got 4,5 points, and 4 games as Black, getting 3 points. Do you prefer white colour? Was it good tactics this time?" These days, I chose white many times. It means that I get used to play at white. So, I chose white more times at WC. Anyway, I didn't have any tactics. To utilize the advantage, I think I should choose black. Dai Xiaohan's renjuclass Dai Xiaohan: Champion of 6th Zhejiang Invitational Tournament, 2009 4th place in individual competition, 3rd place in team competition in 1st National Mind Sports, 2009 Mr. Dai Xiaohan is now giving online renju classes to more than 20 students. Below is one of his classes for the students at beginner’s level. 4 (Dai Xiaohan in Fujian Team in 1st National Mind Sports) Dai Xiaohan’s Renju Class for Beginners: Cultivation of Swift Reaction to Easy VCTs Definition of VCT: VCT is short for „Victory of Continuous Threes‟. It means to win by continually making open threes. In contrast, VCF means to win by making continuous fours. Habit of solving easy VCTs: Do you need to think about the keyboard mapping before you type? Do you need to think before you move your mouse? Repetition of behavior leads to habit. In respect of renju, an advanced player spends less than a second in solving 4- or 5-move VCTs. Then, how to acquire the habit of solving VCT? General procedure: 1. Discern what and how many connections you have and consider your opponent‟s counterattacks. 5 2. Look for all your combinations of continuous attacking routes. Don‟t miss the VCF routes. Recognise the ones which would be disturbed by your opponent. 3. Routes sorting: Give priority to the combinations of strongest continuous attacks. The attacking routes that would be disturbed are of low priority, but don‟t neglect them. 4. Consider both attacks and defenses. If the condition is very advantageous, you can calculate defenses while attacking. While the condition is complex, „feel‟ the attacks and check the defenses. 5. Cultivation of intuition: There are many little skills in easy VCTs, such as creating VCF, grasping initiatives, and sensing essential points. These skills can‟t be taught by words. Instead, they can only be mastered by practicing. For beginners, detailed analysis and careful thinking is very useful in forming intuition. Key points: 1. I‟m not talking about the calculation of VCT, but the cultivation of habits. 2. Don‟t worry about the speed at the beginning. You will be swift after you pracitse a lot. 3. The methods are like a life buoy. You can throw it away once you can swim. What you keep is your sensibility to shapes and intuition to details. Objective: Find the solution to easy VCTs at first glance. 12 Illustration: How to solve the following VCT? 11 4 10 7 6 2 3 1 5 10 9 8 8 7 9 6 5 4 b c d e f g h i j 1. Find out the connections of black: 2 twos and 1 fake three. You should also see the potential three of the white in defending. If not, the consequence is serious. 2. Consider all the combinations of continuous attacks. As the picture shows, there 6 are A~G combinations: 12 3. Sort the routes. The combinations of AEBF 6 10 will lead to counter 2 3 9 attacks, so give them low 1 5 8 8 priority. CDG will not B C 7 cause counter attacks, so consider them first. After 9 6 thinking, you will find that G F 5 C is the smoothest 4 attacking route. Be careful, h i j AE are given low priority but can‟t be neglected. Actually, although A would be countered, it could continue to attack at F10 to win. One of the most common mistakes of beginners is that they are used to calculating certain attacking routes before they consider all the possible ones. Many beginners tend to calculate A but neglect the easy BC. 11 4 D 10 7 A E b c d e f g 12 11 C 4 B 7 6 10 2 3 9 1 5 8 A 8 7 10 9 6 5 4 b c d e f g h i j 4 They are also likely to consider 2 6 11 5 10 3 9 1 4 7 10 8 8 11 7 9 4 f g h i j 7 10 2 3 9 1 5 A D B 8 8 11 C 9 7 13 12 6 14 k 5 4 c d e f g h i j k 6 5 e 10 6 ABC but overlook D. It is not because they cannot calculate the winning of D, but because they don‟t consider it at all. l 7 4. Calculate and recalculate The condition in this picture is complex for black. It is not easy to find out the definite win of the black. Sense the likely winning points and check them one by one. 5. It is most essential to have intuition in solving VCT. Once you master the right habits in VCT, you can quickly sense some key points that are not easy to be found: 12 11 5 4 6 2 3 1 10 8 9 11 10 9 8 7 12 13 A 7 6 14 5 4 3 e f g h 8 i j k l (I) Before the Game 1. Variant Analysis and Reservation One of the most common mistakes is that we tend to neglect the advantageous openings. The following example was played by Wu Di vs. Duan Ran. The first 21 moves were the actual moves played in the game. The 22th in the picture is the only defence to the 21st. Unfortunately, Duan failed to play the right 21 and thus lost the game. 13 22 12 20 4 1 2 7 13 10 5 9 3 8 6 21 18 11 17 10 19 9 16 8 14 12 15 7 11 6 5 4 g h i j k l m n Duan was told of this variant by Li Ruifan just before the game and decided to test Wu Di in the game. However, he was so confident that he thought he could defend no matter how Wu Di would play. He did not analyse the 21st move and missed the only defence. In this case we can see that we should analyse a variant thoroughly if we want to use it in tournaments. As for „reservation‟, I‟d like to point out that we should not disclose the variants we intend to use in tournaments or let our opponents know what variants we want to use. At the same time, it is wise to find out if our opponents know the variants. 15 14 21 25 16 22 18 19 12 26 9 11 17 20 24 27 7 13 4 23 10 2 6 14 9 2. Never test your opponent the 8 1 strongest variants Most players memorise only the strongest variants when they get 3 renju manuals. Weaker but c d e f g h complicated variants are usually neglected. Below is an example (Cao Dong vs. Chen Xin 1:0): 9 13 11 8 10 12 15 5 i 7 6 j k l The 15th move in this game was analysed as white win. Chen Xin knew this manual and memorised perfectly the variants after the strongest 21st move. However, Cao Dong was unfamiliar with the following variants. He played a strong 21 but not the strongest one. Chen Xin did not play the correct moves and lost the game anyway. 3. Study your opponent well (1) Review your opponent‟s past games Past games can most accurately reveal your opponent‟s advantages and disadvantages. By learning your opponent‟s past games, you can make educated guesses on what opening he/she would make. Before my game with Zhou Keding in He‟nan Tournament in 2008, I reviewed Zhou‟s previous games. Surprisingly, I found out that he opened D8 most of the time. I also concluded that Cao Dong and Qiu Yunfei are most likely to open D8, while Wu Hao likes to open D11. (2) Make use of advantages and bypass disadvantages If a player is most familiar with D8, it is a bad decision to play the 2 nd or 3rd alternatives of D8. In contrast, 1st alternative or I6 might be good. 54 13 52 56 12 33 55 50 16 49 34 40 39 37 15 2 47 38 6 44 7 35 36 8 9 46 45 43 19 20 1 10 29 5 3 13 26 4 14 51 11 53 48 10 32 9 30 31 8 25 7 23 6 12 11 27 24 5 17 18 28 4 42 41 21 3 22 c d e f g h i 2 j k l m n Qiu and Zhang are good friends, and they know each other well. Qiu was best at D8 but Zhang was most afraid of D8. However, Zhang had prepared to play D8 with Qiu for years. Qiu opened D8 because he knew that Zhang was not good at it. To Qiu‟s surprise, Zhang did not swap and left the 1st alternative. Finally, Qiu failed to attack and lost the game. 4. Simulate with your friend Simulation is important before a real game. The best person to simulate with is a trustful friend who is similar with your opponent‟s style. 10 5. Believe in yourself Seizing the initiative is essential to lead the development of the game. Choose your variants bravely after analysing your opponent. 12 1. Transform timely to avoid traps Below is my game with Li Lei in 2008 (Li Lei vs. Shen Zan 1:0). The 5th move put me into an unfamiliar condition. After the weak 8, I was easily beaten. 11 5 2 1 9 10 4 3 9 8 8 6 7 7 6 5 e f g h i j k l Another example is Lu Hai vs. Zhou Keding 0:1 10 6 1 2 4 9 3 5 7 9 7 8 6 10 8 5 f g h i j k l Before the game, Lu was told that this 9th move was black win. For all other 9s, white can defend. It was Zhou that made the opening. Because Lu knew the correct 9, he played according to the manual. However, he did not calculate the complicated winning route after the 10th move and was beaten in the end. It can be seen that the earlier you transform, the earlier you have the initiative. 6. Disturb your opponent wisely (1) Time strategy Duan Ran, who was mentioned in the first example of this article, is not a patient player. He is one of the best players in playing quick games, but not so good at slow games. In the first example, Wu Di spent more than half an hour on the 21 st move. During that time, Duan Ran went to toilet twice and could not wait longer. He spent only two minutes on the vital 22nd move and undoubtedly lost the game. Another example is Cao Dong. It is well known that Cao Dong usually spends a lot of time in thinking. His opponents are often induced to make him run out of time. While 11 they are induced, Cao Dong is still playing robustly and using his opponent‟s time to think. Therefore, Cao Dong often has more opportunity to win than his opponent in the last few minutes, or even seconds, in a game. (2) Draw Offer Wu Di once mentioned an example, Li Ruifan vs. Wang Di, in his article. In that game, Li had little opportunity to win. After making a move in a place that had no obvious advantage, Li offered a draw. Wang rejected without a second thought and made a radical move. However, he was misled by Li‟s offer. After Wang‟s radical move, Li easily won with a VCF. (3) Eye contact and Facial expressions Cao Dong tends to stare at his opponents and Wu Di likes to give his opponents mysterious smiles at times. In the game, a facial expression hints something and might misguide your opponent successfully (4) Little disruptions Going to the toilet, drinking water, and languages… These are not so decent, but are sometimes critical. (5) Persuade to surrender Persuade your opponent to draw or resign. But it is not advisable. 7. Opponent Forecasting Most tournaments in China use Swiss system, so the opponents are usually predictable. I once heard an example from Li Ruifan. In a league tournament among Beijing universities, Wu Bo had high points. He predicted that he was to play with Cao Dong if he won that game. Therefore, he decided to draw in order to avoid Cao Dong. 8. Some Tips No discrimination Be careful with every opponent, no matter how weak you think he/she is. In the national tournament in 2008, Tian Hanfa lost a game to a little boy. No friends in games Even the best friend would be your enemy in tournaments. Don‟t be upset. It is exciting to play a powerful game, isn‟t it? Never give up Be patient at all times during games, whether under advantageous or disadvantageous conditions. Don‟t think about the results, focus on the process! 12 Don‟t make responses too quickly Sometimes you know the variants that your opponent is testing you, but don‟t let your opponent know that you know. Think about the variants thoroughly to make sure that you know them all. Huang Liqin vs. Li Yi (1:0) The 16th move is not common. In the game, 14 11 Huang thought for 50 28 13 10 minutes after Li played 24 27 4 2 11 9 the 4th move. The time limit in that game was 23 10 1 9 5 12 8 75 minutes! Huang was 26 25 21 17 15 18 6 7 7 thinking about the victorious route of the 22 19 29 3 8 6 second proposal of the 20 16 5 5th move. He made the 1st and 2nd alternatives 4 after he was sure that 3 he memorised the complete route. b c d e f g h i j k l m Otherwise, he would play the 1st and 3rd alternatives. 11 12 15 11 8 2 7 9 1 10 6 3 5 10 18 9 17 13 8 16 7 4 6 14 5 4 d e f g h i j k 1. Qiu Yunfei vs. Huang Jinxian 1:0 l 13 m The variant in the game was specially prepared for Qiu. It originates from the following: 12 18 11 8 7 10 2 9 9 1 10 8 6 3 5 19 20 7 4 14 16 17 6 13 15 21 22 5 28 27 23 4 25 24 3 26 2 1 c d e f g h i Because of the board end, the 28th move is not winning. Huang predicted that Qiu would test him the above variant if he played D8. It happened, but the result was that Qiu was trapped into the winning 15th move prepared by Huang. j k l m n o 4. My Hypothesis Here I'd like to take Yi Haili for example. Yi Haili lost to Dai Xiaohan in Zhejiang Invitational Tournament in 2009: t can be inferred from that game that Yi is not adept at old theories. Since Yi lost to Dai in 2009, he must have researched that variant a lot. So I guess that Yi is very good at that variant of I3 now. Can I test him again on that variant? Yes, I will! I will test him not because he is not good at it, but rather because he is very good at it! 11 12 18 11 5 6 1 2 14 10 13 3 8 9 4 7 24 20 10 16 9 15 8 17 7 22 19 6 23 5 21 4 9 3 1 e f g h i j k l m 4 8 n 2 3 5 7 6 6 7 5 8 4 3 f 14 g h i j k 10 12 14 11 1 2 9 10 4 3 9 13 5 16 8 15 7 6 5 8 4 3 f g guess Yi might well know this variant. But is this variant winning? 6 7 e This is I4 rather than I3, but I will lead the condition to what he is familiar with. h i j k l 10 12 m As you can see, it is a fake three for 29-35. Black cannot win here. 18 11 1 2 9 10 4 5 3 7 Of course it is only an example. What would happen in the real game? Nobody knows. But I guess that it is very likely to happen as I expected. 8 14 9 13 8 16 15 7 6 17 34 6 20 30 22 31 25 5 24 19 33 27 26 4 21 29 28 32 3 23 35 2 1 e f g h i j k l m n o st China’s 1 National Mind Sports China‟s 1st National Mind Sports was sponsored by the General Administration of Sports. The tournament was held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, from November 13 th to 23rd, 2009. The tournament included go, Chinese chess, chess, renju and draughts. Renju tournament involved men‟s individual, women‟s individual and team competition. There were 11 rounds in individual competition and 7 rounds in team competition. During the team competition, each team should consist of 3 men and 1 woman. More than 100 players in 28 teams from different places or industries participated in the renju tournament. Men’s Result: Place Name Team Points 1 He Qifa Guangdong 9 Province 2 Wu Di Railway Sports 8.5 15 3 Lu Hai 4 5 6 Dai Xiaohan Cao Dong Huang Shengming Association Railway Sports Association Fujian Province Beijing Sichuan Province Women’s Result: Place Name Team 1 Wang Qingqing Sichuan Province 2 Hu Xi Beijing 3 Zheng Weinan Shanghai 4 Xu Lingqin Zhejiang Province 5 Yao Jinrui Beijing 6 Jiang Siyu Zhejiang Province Team Result: Place Team Points Guangdong Province 5.5 1 2 Beijing 5 3 Fujian Province 5 4 Sichuan Province 5 5 Zhejiang Province 4.5 6 Anhui Province 4.5 8.5 8.5 8 8 Points 9.5 8 8 8 7 7 Lu Hai’s 2 Comments on China’s 1st Mind Sports (Translated by He Jiabei) Lu Hai (first from the right) and his teammates of Railway Sports Association in China‟s 1st Mind Sports 16 9 23 13 10 17 12 16 5 24 14 11 22 46 12 47 20 3 11 19 30 25 61 6 7 18 33 60 21 2 4 1 13 31 9 8 32 34 35 8 48 49 26 44 28 15 27 40 37 7 50 58 59 41 38 6 42 5 29 36 54 53 45 51 43 52 39 e 10 f 57 55 4 56 3 g h i j k l m n In this round, Wu Di and I were sitting side by side. Interestingly, we both opened D3 to our opponents. Ai Xianping might be affected by that and played an unusual 6th move after Wu played the 5 which was widely believed as white-advantageous. Below is the common variant: 5 3 o 2 4 1 In contrast, the real game between Wu and Ai is as the following: 10 11 h 7 10 6 8 i j 9 8 k 12 Ai‟s 6 was probably 9 5 14 11 to escape from Wu‟s „trap‟. 7 was normal. 12 3 11 10 8 blocked. 9 was a good move but not 6 2 4 7 9 hard to think out. 10 blocked. 11 made the 1 13 8 8 shape strong for g h i j k l black to attack. 12 responded swiftly at G10 as if Ai wanted the shape. I analysed the 12 afterwards and found it the same as how Blackstone played. Black had been disrupted by white and had no direct VCT. 13 blocked white‟s two. 14 defended at the upper side. 15 seized the critical point. 17 9 10 17 16 5 12 20 3 11 18 6 2 4 7 21 1 13 8 14 11 19 10 9 8 15 g h 16 consumed black‟s shape with initiative. 17 defended at I12 but at the same time prepared more materials for attack. 18 defended at the critical point of black. 19 made a three. At that time, white could defend at either side. Playing at I10 was to prepare for counterattack. 21 could not continue attacking and so defended at the critical point of white, waiting for the opportunity to attack. 12 i j 7 k l 23 9 13 10 17 12 16 5 24 20 3 11 19 14 22 12 25 6 2 4 7 18 33 21 1 13 8 32 34 28 15 27 29 36 j k 26 e f g h i 11 30 10 31 35 8 7 6 l m n 23 13 10 17 9 16 12 5 24 14 22 46 12 47 20 3 11 19 30 25 61 6 7 18 33 60 21 2 9 4 1 13 11 10 31 8 32 34 35 22 started to attack. The shape looked good but might be a trap. 23 defended by making a three. After 25th move, which was at E9, white was not able to attack any more. 26 defended. 27 opened a new area. 28 continued to defend. 29 was a good move, which expanded black‟s connections as well as disrupted white‟s potential advantages. 30 aimed to block the fake three‟s connections with the lower area. 31 comfortably blocked the two and made a new two for itself. White‟s following moves seemed to be a bit impetuous. 9 8 After a series of defences, white played at 36. 37 and 39 expanded 50 58 59 29 36 41 38 6 new area by making VCF. White 54 53 45 51 43 52 39 42 5 had no choice but to defend. 57 55 4 Black‟s 43 at I5 made its situation very comfortable. Black had 56 3 enough space and plenty of e f g h i j k l m n o connections. 44 blocked black‟s fake 3 and made its 2 own threes, hoping to create come resources to defend. 45 was a good move for both expansion 48 49 26 44 28 15 27 40 37 18 7 and control. White‟s continuous fours from 46-50 was trying to force black into forbidden point. However, black had VCT and won by beautiful continuous attacks. Overall, at the beginning of this game, the uncommon 6 may not be a right choice. During the game, Ai was too impatient to attack so early, which led to the impetuous defences at last. 42 41 32 25 39 40 31 26 37 21 43 30 33 19 28 29 18 22 23 34 44 35 36 14 24 27 13 20 38 45 5 12 13 3 10 9 10 2 4 7 6 15 9 1 17 8 14 16 8 46 c d e 2 4 1 f g h i h 3 10 7 6 9 j 10 9 8 i j 11 8 11 g 11 11 5 12 12 k 7 l 19 k 7 l Wu Di played this 5 again. Differently, He Qifa responded with the right 6. The first 11 moves were played according to the standard theory. There were several choices for 12. Below is a popular one, which is regarded as white advantageous: However, He played the old theory – K11, which was also a safe choice. 17 defended right beside the white to block white‟s potential attack on the left. 18 seized the essential point of the black and expanded its own space. 25 26 18 27 13 21 20 12 19 5 12 22 13 3 10 9 10 2 4 7 6 15 9 1 17 8 14 16 8 23 24 11 11 f g After long thinking, Wu also defended at the white‟s essential point. 20 was a good move! It not only created another fake three, but also connected the existing fake three on the right. Meanwhile, it accumulated downward power. 21 was not direct defence. Maybe Wu had realized that direct defence was not effective. 22 was a reasonable move. 23 defended and felt the potential counterattack on the lower part. 26 played at G13! It connected white‟s power on both sides and was actually winning. The correct VCT is as below: 14 h i j 7 k l 25 26 14 24 21 30 28 29 31 19 18 32 13 20 12 5 12 13 3 10 9 10 2 4 7 6 15 9 1 17 8 14 16 8 22 23 27 11 11 c d e f g h i j k 7 l Unfortunately, He did not play right in the actual game. 32 at D13 seemed to be frightening but black could have the opportunity to counterattack. After 38, white had 20 abundant attacking materials while black did not have enough time left. By that time, Wu still had an opportunity to defend, as the following picture shows (39 at H15): 39 15 25 32 In the actual game, black put itself into a bad condition. After analysis, I found out that if black could control the lower part, it would still have the opportunity not to lose, like the picture shows: 28 31 26 37 21 30 33 19 29 18 22 23 34 35 36 14 24 38 27 13 20 12 5 12 11 13 3 10 9 10 2 4 7 6 15 9 1 17 8 14 16 8 11 c d e f g h i j k 7 l However, because of the 17, black had to defend white on the upper right to avoid the 4*4 forbidden point. 42 41 32 25 39 40 31 26 37 21 43 30 33 19 28 29 18 22 23 34 44 35 36 14 24 38 27 13 20 12 5 12 11 13 3 10 9 10 2 4 7 6 15 9 1 17 8 14 16 8 11 7 45 c d e f g In this case, Wu had no choice but to defend at L12. White happily occupied the lower board. 6 h i j k 21 l After 46, Wu ran out of time. 42 41 32 25 39 40 31 26 37 21 43 30 33 19 28 29 18 22 23 34 44 35 36 14 24 27 13 20 38 45 5 12 13 3 10 9 10 2 4 7 6 15 9 1 17 8 14 16 8 46 c d e 12 11 11 f g h i j k 7 l Zhejiang Renju Committee held its 2010‟s annual meeting in Ningbo Children‟s Palace on March 27, 2010. The annual meeting reviewed the achievements in 2009 and discussed major affairs of 2010. Zhejiang Renju Committee will vigorously popularize renju in all 11 districts in Zhejiang. The main tasks include: 1. Introduction to renju and Zhejiang Renju Committee among people by posters 2. Train professional teachers or renju fans to be primary renju teachers 3. Renju contests in different cities The tournaments to participate: 1. rd 3 Chinese Youth Renju Championship in Jiangsu Province 2. st 1 National Primary and Secondary School Renju Team Tournament 22 The tournaments to host: 1. 2. st 1 Chinese Renju Open Tournament (in the city of Ningbo, June) st 1 National Primary and Secondary School Renju Team Tournament (September) 3. th 7 Zhejiang Open Tournament (in the city of Wenzhou, August) 4. nd 2 Zhejiang Youth Renju Championship (in the city of Shaoxing, October) 5. st 1 Ningbo Youth Renju Championship (in the city of Ningbo, July) 6. st 1 Wenzhou Youth Renju Championship (in the city of Wenzhou, December) 23 Tournaments meant competition, nervousness and stress to me. As being a very beginner, I was especially afraid of losing all the games. The trip to Pardubice was aimed to meet my „old friend‟ Ants, my Chinese renju friends, and new friends of course. However, surprise to me, the whole tournament was very enjoyable and the women were very lovely. 24 At the tournament hall, I had the honour to meet the famous women players. They were beautiful and intelligent. I thought they would be very unwilling and impatient to play with me. Maybe they would think: „Why don‟t you just resign as early as possible?‟ However, throughout the 10 rounds, I never felt any impatience towards me. Although I lost most of the games, I was able to think as long as I wanted to during the games. Nobody pushed me to make the next move or to resign. When I played with Miss Irina Metreveli, she once thought for a very long time. I thought that I made a problem for her. After she made her move, I soon found myself dead. When the game was over, she illustrated to me several ways of beating me, which she thought out and examined during that long time. I was shocked. She is a master and I am nobody. She could easily beat me in whatever way she likes, but she still played so carefully and respected her opponentWhen I played with Miss Tatyana Krayeva, I made wrong 5th alternatives. After the game, she opened her notebook and showed me her record of a game where she made the exactly same error. The game was played many years ago but she still had it in her notebook. She even wrote down the game she played with me. Before, I just knew that she was very beautiful, but at that moment, I also admired her attitude towards renju very much. There were also some players who were not so strong but still enjoyed themselves. Before, I rarely played in tournaments just because I couldn‟t get good places. After WT, I changed my mind. Tournaments are not only for competition but also for communication and friends-making. After all, it was a very interesting experience to play in WT. Many thanks to the organisers and referees. :) Results of Women World Championship P Participant l 1 Countr y 1 Yulia Russia Savrasova 2 Jinrui Yao China 0 3 Xi Hu China 0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Pts Berg 1 1 ½ 0 1 1 1 1 1 36.0 1 8½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 32.5 1 7½ 0 ½ 25 8 31.2 5 4 Irina Metreveli 5 1 0 1 1 1 1 7 27.7 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 25.5 0 1 1 1 1 1 5 12.0 0 1 ½ 1 13.2 1 4½ 5 1 1 1 0 1 2½ 9.75 ½ ½ 0 Czech Monika Republi Zowadova c 1 0 0 0 6 Emma Warner Sweden 0 0 0 0 0 7 Madli Mirme Estonia 0 0 0 1 0 0 8 Tatyana Krayeva Russia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 Alyona Ukraine Yakovleva 0 0 1 0 0 0 ½ 0 Russia 1 1 0 Jiabei He China 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 Aki Savik Estonia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 4.50 2 2.50 0 0.00 My evaluation of the players: Yulia Savrasova - Well, every player in AT was afraid of Yulia's 7,5 points in AT :) (Yulia got 4,5 points in AT 2005 and 6 points in AT 2007), so AT players probably felt probably relieved to not see her in same hall with them :) Maybe also because she is too beautiful and it mess players minds up :) We remember as well that Sushkov and Taimla both lost to Yulia in AT 2007... Actually it was not clear what Yulia will do after QT, to play BT or WT. BT could be better experience for future thanks for higher playing level. But Yulia had “only” 9 world champion titles so far, so it was time to get 10th :). Her start in the tournament was far from best. She lost to Monika in the first round and made quick draw in the second round with her trainer Irina. As she was free in the third round, she was far from leaders that moment. But after rest she started to show her real power, first beating previous women world champion Tatyana Kraeva and later all others. Finally first place again! Yao Yinrui and Hu Xi – It was big surprise to see them as representatives of China in QT. Definitely there are many stronger players in China who could take part instead and also enter to AT and why not to show good result there as well. But for Chinese girls it was very valuable experience of course. After weak start in QT they gathered good shape for WT and achieved to get medals. Irina Metreveli – Unlucky again! In previous WT she had easy win against Kraeva, but played in wrong order and lost instead. This time she got only 4 th place, but I 26 would like to say, that this WT was surely much stronger than previous. Monika Zowadowa - As well as Yulia, Chinese girls and Emma Monika took part in QT and got good practise after not beeing involved with renju for a quite long pause. But she also was very busy with different WC organising things during tournament, so she definitely got tired. After nice start – 5 wins in a row – she coudnt held success and finally didnt get even medal, really pity! Emma Warner – she is ambitious, so she probably wanted better place. Still, I think place was good in such rather strong competition, maybe she could take more points. Madli Mirme - 7th place was good this time. But surely not 2013 in AT :). Tatyana Kraeva – It is difficult to play if you need to protect your title, but you havent prepared... She have been busy with her studies. Alyona Yakovleva – Some weeks before WC we met in Kiev and I encouraged her to take part in WT. I promised she will take some points even without practising and any preparation. As you can see, I kept my promise :). He Jiabei – She came to WC as interpreter, but left already as serious renjuplayer :). Not bad success :). Aki Savik – She doesnt take renju as sport. Still, I believe, one day she will surprise us :). WC 2009 Renju Qualification tournament by Ants Soosõrv We had biggest number of players in QT so far – 27. Odd number was not so good (as we saw Chen who got free round in the beginning reached to final), but organisers didnt have any candidates to extraplace. Although there were absent such people expected to take part as Meritee, Chingin, Oll, Demjan, still lot of strong players participated. Among favorites were counted Cao Dong, Tarannikov, Savrasova, Okabe, Karlsson, Osumi and many others. As organising country Czech Republic had right to have one place in final and sure entry to final was only for top 4 from qualification tournament, really hard battle was expected and it was also clear some surprises are coming. It was also very exciting to see who of three Czech players can reach to AT. I predicted that also one Polish player will get place in final. Sometimes with not so many players 4 points have been enough to reach to AT. For example Vladimir Sushkov was such a lucky man 2005 (actually Albert Poghosyan got into final with only 3,5 points 1995, but there was only 8 players in QT this time).As we had so many players and just 4 places to AT I was not sure if 5 points with bad Buchholz quality is enough this time. I remember EC QT 2004 with 30 players, 8 best gathered 5 or more points! In first round most interesting pairs were Okabe – Savrasova and Maciej Nowakowski – Cao Dong. Maciej didnt participate in Polish qualification, because he was in Africa same time, so in the beginning Polish team to QT was Nowak, Fitzermann and Tarasinski. But as Tarasinski became sick and no other Polish player 27 showed up Nowakowski had opportunity to play. In my opinion his playing level is high and he is very good fighter. Cao Dong playing white got better position against him in opening stage – Maciej doesnt know much theory and didnt choose best variant in my opinion. But Cao was playing a bit in Artemyev style – getting into time trouble, even when there is no much reason for that :). Finally Cao won after hard struggle. It was most interesting game for spectators in the first round. Savrasova managed to overplay Okabe and Lu Wei-yuan Tarannikov. In the second round Savrasova was beaten by Osumi. Cao Dong won over countrymate Yin Licheng, who was rather unknown opponent for European players. Little surprise was Igor Eged's win over Kazumasa Tamura. Other favorites were succesful. After this round still 27 players had theoretical chances to go to final. In the third round six leaders with 2 points had to play with each other. The only lucky winner was Stefan Karlsson defeating Pawel Nowak. In games Osumi – Cao and Eged – Chen was made draw. Okabe beat Ono, whom it was second lose in a row and seemed that he has not so many realistic chances come to final. Standings after 3 rounds: 9. Karlsson 3 2.-5. Eged, Cao, Osumi and Chen 2,5 5. - 13. Okabe, Nowakowski, Nykl, Wei Yuan-Lu, Tarannikov, Nowak, Yin, Jonsson 2 Still about 24 players had more or less theoretical chances to go to final... In the forth round Karlsson lost to Chen. Stefan played risky variant, but seemed his tactics worked, as he got winning position. Still, time-trouble didnt let him find correct way... Cao quickly overplayed Eged as well as Okabe Yin and Nowak Nykl. Round was awful for russian stars. Tarannikov lost to Ting Wei-Lin and Savrasova against Ono. Yulia had only 1 point after 4 rounds... Osumi made rather “quick” draw against Wei Yuan-Lu with 123 moves. Standings after 4 rounds: 1.-2. Cao and Chen 3,5 4. - 7. Karlsson, Osumi, Nowakowski, Nowak, Okabe 3 8.-11. Wei Yuan-Lu, Eged, Ting Wei-Lin, Tamura 2,5 Still 19 players had theoretical chances... The Fifth round. Leaders Chen and Cao met on the first table. Cao played risky variant, but Chen even didnt try to attack seriously, he played very passively. But as very often, Cao fell into time-trouble and coundnt use his advantage in position, so draw was made after some battle. Stefan met Tamura, who have showed rather good results in Japan. Unfortunately Tamura was not in best shape in Pardubice and failed to get in top in QT neither in BT. Stefan won and he had still good chances to reach in top 4. 28 Osumi used his D8 tactics with 4th move well-known from TWC 2008 (Japanese team used it rather succesfully even with RIF rules) against Nowak and defeated him. Nowakowski played i11 with 2 alternatives against Okabe. Okabe played safely long variant and was satisfied with draw, however Nowakowski had serious time-trouble as usually. Lu beat Eged, Nykl Lin, Tarannikov Yin, Ono Jonsson, Laube Fitzermann. Standings after 5th round: 1.-4. Cao, Chen, Osumi, Karlsson 4 5.- 7. Nowakowski, Okabe, Lu 3,5 8.- 13 Tarannikov, Nykl, Laube, Ono, Lin Huang-yu, Nowak 3 Still about 13 players had theoretical chances... The Sixth round. Chen succeeded to beat Osumi. Stefan played unsuccesfully against Cao and was defeaten by Chinese champion. So, Chen and Cao got very close to AT now. Very good chances had also Okabe and Nowakowski, who overplayed 2 Taiwanese guys, Lu and Lin Huang-yu. Laube made serious mistake against his country mate Nykl and lost. As now Nykl had one point more and also better quality than Laube, question who will take Czech place was almost decided. Dramatic game between Tarannikov and Ono was detaily discribed by Yuri in his article in previous issue of RW, so I dont touch it any more here. Ono got his 3rd win in row and suddenly was among candidates to final. Nowak lost his last dream about final beeing beated by Eged. Only 8 players were left among candidates after this round: 1.-2. Cao and Chen 5 3.-4. Okabe and Nowakowski 4,5 5.-8. Osumi, Nowakowski, Karlsson, Nykl 4 Last round. Maciej didnt chose enough good tactics against Chen and great Polish player missed his chance. Okabe secured place in final making draw rather fast with Cao. Osumi tried to overplay Nykl, but failed. Stefan fell into trap against Ono. Stefan actually told me before QT, that he and Nakamura summary have played in all finals of AT, but not once together. So, he was ready to follow „law“ :). I think Stefan felt a bit relieved to be more together with family and didnt upset because of missing final. 29 Final results Pl Participant Country 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 Ko-han Chen Chinese Taipei + 2 Dong Cao China 61 171 5½ 71 1½ 91 4½ 5½ 31.50 3 Takayuki Ono Japan 151 10 4 Hiroshi Okabe Japan 100 211 31 171 6½ 5 Yuuki Osumi Japan 6 Maciej Poland Nowakowski 7 Igor Eged Slovakia 8 Ondrej Nykl Czech Republic 31 7½ 91 2½ 51 61 Pts Buch 40 101 211 101 2½ 28.00 18 111 91 1 5 29.50 13 2½ 1 5 29.00 14 16 10 8½ 4½ 29.50 ½ 1 20 191 231 181 4½ 131 221 1½ 20 241 14½ 6 14 10 4½ 28.50 1 14 16 15 4½ 28.00 0 1 1 22 15 12 160 5½ 4½ 23.50 ½ 1 1 9 Stefan Karlsson Sweden 181 231 161 10 22 20 30 1 4 27.50 10 Yulia Savrasova Russia 41 50 170 30 24 23 18 1 1 1 4 25.50 11 Yuriy Tarannikov Russia 140 241 121 150 17 20 30 1 1 4 24.50 160 271 110 241 19 14 80 1 1 4 22.00 Chinese Taipei 70 200 + 27 16 40 1 1 4 19.50 14 Wei-yuan Lu Chinese Taipei 111 8½ 15 12 3½ 29.50 5½ 71 60 ½ 0 15 Ting-wei Lin Chinese Taipei 30 14 22 111 80 70 3½ 24.00 ½ 1 12 Pavel Laube Czech Republic 13 16 Huang-yu Lin Pawel Nowak Poland + 231 121 251 90 81 50 70 30 13 0 3 28.00 17 Licheng Yin China 191 20 101 40 11 18 27 0 0 1 3 26.00 17 10 1 0 3 25.50 18 Peter Jonsson Sweden 90 261 201 60 30 19 Adrian Fitzermann Poland 170 60 251 211 12 20 26 0 0 1 3 22.00 20 Renee Pajuste Estonia 220 131 180 270 26 19 11 1 1 0 3 20.00 21 Jinrui Yao China 50 27 25 22 190 + ½ ½ 1 3 19.00 Kazumasa Tamura Japan 201 70 8½ 251 90 China 261 90 22 23 Xi Hu 40 60 130 15 21 2½ 25.00 0 0 25 10 24 2½ 23.50 1 0 ½ 24 Shinichi Ishitani Japan 80 110 261 120 10 + 0 23 2½ 21.00 ½ 25 Emma Warner Sweden 271 160 190 220 23 21 0 ½ + 26 Tord Andersson Sweden 230 180 240 + 20 27 19 0 1 0 27 Monika Zowadova Czech Republic 250 120 31 2½ 15.50 2 15.50 21 13 26 17 1½ 21.50 201 ½ 0 0 0 Biggest surprise of QT – Mr. Black Horse Ono overplayed many western stars and reached to final. Among spectators you may see Sushkov who was probably happy that to see in final one more „new face“ instead of very dangerous Yulia :) and Stefan. About World Championship and Czech Republic by Ants Soosõrv „I dont know any other country except Czech Republic where everywhere is so beatiful“. Such words have said by very smart and nice person, who have also been in many other countries. Can you guess who have said it? Yes!, you are smart too, it was said by Irene Karlsson indeed. Aleš Rybka found time before WC to be with Karlssons and me and show country. So, i had possibility to see enough to agree Irene :). But of course, it was only my second time to be in this country and i need to come again and again. 32 I admire Aleš – how can he reach to do so many things? His job doesnt give him much free time, but he had energy to work very hard for WC. Because of world chrisis it was almost impossible to find sponsors, so he needed to sponsor himself. During competitions he coudnt work alone, fortunately Petr Neuman, Monika Zowadowa and many other Czech players helped him. World Championship was played in Pardubice, 5.-6. biggest city in Czech Republic, with around 90 000 inhabitants.Tournaments were played in school – good choice during chrisis, because of low rent. As number of players werent very big, it was possible to place them to 2 rooms AT separately on all others together. It was not very popular decision, but there was no other options. Accomodation possibilities were cheap and totally ok from my point of view. During free day we had some sport – table tennis, basketball, football, hiking. Some people who had too heavy party at previous night needed just to rest :) 33 On photo you can see European basketball star Johann Lents, who sometimes play renju and gomoku a bit too :) We hope to get millions of new female readers after publishing this photo :) 34 Player of the month in Hungary – FebruaryGergő Tóth This interview was made by gomoku.hu team in the head “Player of the month” 35 1. When did you start to play and what inspired you in the beginning? Like others, I used to play a lot of five-in-a-row games with my classmates at school on boring lessons. At primary school I mainly played in the breaks between the lessons because I used to listen attentively to the teachers, but at secondary school graph paper was turned up even on the lessons from time to time. On the other hand only a few people know that my first encounter with the game did not happen on a graph paper. My grandparents had a logic game set called 'Ötöd-ölő' /five-killer/ with pink and yellow discs. More games could be played on the 11x11 size board: Haszami Soga (Japan war), Go-bang, (Nine Men‟s) Morris and naturally Five-in-a-row. Most often we created home-made games or played five-in-a-row with my grandparents and sometimes with my cousin. I remember a case when I and my cousin were spellbound by playing to the first 100 win on a sunny summer afternoon. I remember the final score punctually up to the present: the standing was 99-99 but he succeeded in winning the final party so I failed. It's typical but we played an ultimate game after the last one and I managed to win so we could finally agree on a fair draw. After this event I played more frequently at school and the bigger shape we managed to create the better the game was considered. Later I found an internet portal called 'jójáték' and started to play online, then one of the players, László Pilter (Dream) showed me the server www.kurnik.org where I registered in January 2005 first and since then I still play there. 2. What does gomoku mean for you and why do you consider the game more interesting than others? In the beginnings we played gomoku because we got bored and anyway it was a good feeling to be a winner or to play a good game just for fun. I liked to play against every kind of opponents: I played with a weaker one, winning caused a good feeling, and if I played against stronger ones I could develop myself. Against opponents who had similar abilities as me great battles could be played. I started to realize just after my first live tournament that this game can be about more than just having fun. Besides the game teaches you to see forward, how to think in sharp situations, to calculate the thoughts of your opponent, you have to make your own decisions in each move which is similar to real life - you must be responsible for all your acts. I've already learned a lot of things through playing which I could use in real life. 3. What are the greatest successes and which event are you the proudest of? Up to now my greatest success is the 5th place achieved in the Gomoku World Championship held in Pardubice, Czech Republic in 2009. It was a great honor to meet the best players all over the world and I'll always remember my good result and these 2 weeks as a wonderful memory. Naturally I took part in several national and international tournaments before and I always got good results: in spite of never 36 having the first place I was on the podium 7 times, my last achievement was the silver medal in the Hungarian Winter Gomoku Championship in Budapest but I finished 4th 3 times. In my first tournament - which was international - I got 4th place in Budapest in 2005, in my first international championship I got also 5th place at Mind Sports Olympiad in Prague. In the Polish Open in Cracow I got 7th place which is my worst result ever but I consider it good because I had only a half point less than the silver medalist. Here, in Cracow there was held a Standard gomoku championship also and I got 2nd place and a little amount of money as prize too, which makes me memorable this event. Besides live tournaments I took part in a lot of online championships, too, but I don't really care mush these results because I don't consider them as serious as live tours. On the other hand I achieve a great success with get to know a lot of people from different cultures and have a lot of friends through the game and I can just never forget the atmosphere of international tournaments. The 2 weeks of GWC held in Pardubice will always be a pleasant memory from which I can draw positive power every time I think about it. 4. What are your aims in the future and do you have any particular object in the year 2010 or later as a player? My main object outside the board is to popularize gomoku somehow so we want to establish a national federation in the near future or at least a central body to let this mind game know wider and not to make people consider it as a childish game. Besides as a player I'd really like to win a live tournament at last. As an organizer last year we made an invitational tournament in my hometown, Mezőkövesd so I'd like to repeat it even with players abroad. I'd like to invite as many foreign players as I can with special regard to the Romanians, on one hand my town is not too far from the Romanian border and on the other hand there are some very talented players in Romania who have never had the opportunity to participate in a live tour so far. If I could reach them to come to a live tournament I'd be very satisfied. 5. Would you like the game to become more popular in Hungary and worldwide? Do you have any plans or ideas to make the game thrive/prosper? Of course I'd really like the game to become more popular all over the world and I'd like to make people regard this game as appreciation. To reach this we have a lot of things to do. What I consider important is the establishment of a national federation as soon as possible. Besides the federation what comes to my mind is organizing tournaments, meetings, popularization of gomoku in different forums like in festivals (including Sziget Festival) or amongst chess players. In the Czech Republic there was held a more-rounded championship amongst secondary school students with nice awards. I'd like to know more details about it because this initiative sounds good. The idea of the online gomoku classroom was also a good one, only the permanent teaching should be solved somehow. 37 6. How do online and live games and tournaments differ from each other for you? Which do you prefer? What type of time limit is ideal for you and why? I prefer live games to online games much more. The atmosphere of live tournaments is very pleasant and charming, moreover in the most cases playing on the Internet you don‟t know who is your opponent and whether s/he is in a bad shape or not and the question of using a program or not cannot be answered. In live you can fight against your opponent face to face, every moves matter, you cannot undo so you have to take bigger responsibility for your acts. The possibility of making a mistake and the measure of tension is bigger, you have no opportunity to use aids. Thus in live, the difference between players‟ skills can be seen cleaner. While in the case of online playing, the speed means a lot, in live, the well built strategy can bring the victory. Of course, in a 20 minutes time limit live game, speed is also important, but for example in 50 minutes time limit you can hardly beat your opponent on time. Just because of this, the ideal time limit is 80 minutes for me, but I would try longer aswell, for example 2 hours. More than 2 hours could be too much in my opinion. If we are talking about ideal time limit, I find it important to notice that the extra time is very important. It doesn‟t have to be much, I mean 30 seconds after each move is ideal, because then you can write your moves anytime with no problems, and you can not really lose or win on time. Of course, online gaming has its advantages aswell. It is harder to take online games seriously enough, thus lately I‟m focusing on this. Another advantage of online playing is the variety of opponents. You can have different kind of opponents to play with, you can try yourself against much more players than in live. And another thing; you have the possibility to try new variants via the net, you can see how vital are each new tricks, variants and analyzes. 7. What do you think about Euroleague, the international team competition? How have you done so far and how does it go now? Euroleague. I have mixed feelings about it, but mostly positive. First of all, this is a great approach to unite different gomoku nations all over the borders, this is a good example of cooperation and teamwork. This is the biggest online event for years, in which more than 10 nations played so far. It is great that the rules are developing year by year, and that an international committee was set. The job of the committee is not easy, I already signed for the committee that a Hungarian member would be useful aswell, next to the Polish, Russian, Czech, Slovakian and Slovenian members. And about my personal things concerning Euroleague. I first joined Euroleague in the second half of the season 2004/2005 as the member of team Goodboys, in which I had teammates like Maciej Nowakowski, Gábor Gyenes, Ferenc Rostás and Péter Pásztor. My very first game was against The Team (Attila Demján, István Virág, Gábor Rácz, Viktória Szilasi, Sándor Török), who won the first season with winning all the matches. Unfortunately the statistic of this game was lost, but I remember that I won 4 games out of 8 against The Team. 38 In the next years, I completed a season as the member of Borsod Team. The most memorable match was in the first round, in which we beated Polar Bears (we were the only team who could do this in this season), the winner of this season. Later Polar Bears changed name to North Pole and won the season 2008/2009 aswell and they are leading after 4 rounds in the current season too. In 2006, we foundered the Cube team with Attila Demján, Rudolf Dupszki and Gábor Gyenes and one year later Attila Szentpéteri joined us. We made very nice results with the Cube team, we got 4th place in the first season of Cubes, 2006/2007, then we got two consecutive 2nd places in the season 2007/2008 and 2008/2009. It hurts a bit that we couldn‟t win so far, but we are still working on it. In the last round now, we lost against Valahia, which was one of the worst memories for me personally. I think we played good, but we learned from this match that we have to be flexible, and we have to play well in 10 min games, just like in longer limited games. We realized that there are so big differences between the time limits, we simply can‟t play on the same way every time, against each opponent. 8. What do you think about the cultivation (development) of a player? How do you think can a player be developed efficiently? When someone plays gomoku at first time, or any other mind game, it can be measured how talented is the player. Schnell games reveal the talent, I mean not skill, but specific talent. Good abilities are very important, but no one has to be a super talent in order to be a great player. The first few months, if the player plays a lot, the development can be seen easily, and smaller achievements can make us motivated, they can give us impulses. The best playing site for doing this progress is www.playok.com, because of the settable parameters and the variety of opponents. It‟s not worth to analyze at the beginning of our career, but we can study a lot by playing with various opponents. But the well known moment will arrive in each player‟s career – the feeling that you can not develop more, you can‟t play better, and you reached the maximum. Many players give up the development after this feeling, they get stuck on a level because they don‟t change their ways and tools to improve themselves. I have to say, that there is only one way to overtake this level: Only with sacrifice time to practice, doing hard exercises. An experienced teacher can help us a lot these times, but if we don‟t have, we have to manage it on our own: analyzing our own game, others‟ game, analyzing positions, playing against programs, playing with ourselves, searching longer combinations, trying other mind games. These times it‟s worth to focus on longer time limited games and to observe standard theories, in order to make ourselves a strong base. If we know well the standard theories, we can change to study pro and long pro games and the different openings of swap2 rule. The knowledge of basic theories is surely necessary after a certain level, because the intuitive, improvisation style can be easily wrong in some case. A player who knows theories can easily beat a stronger player, who doesn‟t know theories. I would notice here, that I don‟t agree with a popular approach amongst beginners: “I 39 don‟t analyze, I play clear games, who analyzes at home, that cheats on a way”. Some players say this, like I did when I was a beginner. But this sentence leads to the thought, that who has more talent and plays more nicely, that has winning advantage over another player on paper. Gomoku has much more elements, not only this. Hard works and practices are important in my opinion. Here fits my favorite phrase: “Talent enjoys advantage – the right to work harder than others”. Another thing what helps is to try ourselves on several playing sites. As I noticed, different gomoku cultures play in different style. I tried the following sites: vinagames.com (Vietnamese), vint.ee (Estonian), doizece.ro (Romanian) and fiveinline.com (offline). But this is still just game theory, psychological readiness will be important in a while. It is important to know the opponent, his/her soul mood, inner thoughts, to choose a suitable strategy, which is the best possible for us, and the worst for the opponent. It matters a lot to choose the proper style (offensive, aggressive, defensive, passive, etc.), and to know how does our opponent: play in time trouble, how good is to innovate a theory against, prefers center or corner, actual shape, the quality of his/her game in a better position, in equal position and in worse position, how fast can he/she find certain attacking or defending moves, how good is his/her position evaluating skill, and so on. We can prepare for all of these things, thus we can also develop. Eventually I would push everyone to come to a live tournament, because the live experiences and the atmosphere can‟t be compared to anything else. I remember, after my first live competition, I felt myself a beginner though I played for a year then. Man sees differently the board if it is directly in front of, from a new approach, and not even mentioning the exciting, tense moments. There are several moments, in which we can observe the position for 20-30 minutes, and we can find ourselves in a new state, with which we can find more easily a suitable move and get correct conclusions faster, than let‟s say in the case of a 2-3 hours long analyze. If someone wants to be a strong player, this is necessary for sure. 9. How did you feel yourself in the tournaments held abroad so far? What's the difference between a Hungarian and a foreign tournament? How would you motivate Hungarian players to take part in national and international live tournaments? I already talked about it, only positive things. 10. How do you think is it worth to appreciate and handle successes and failures? What have been the greatest success and failure of your career yet? What made you happy the most and what made you the saddest? To say it briefly, we have to handle each achievements and failure on its place. The achievements are necessary in order not to lose the fun for playing, and we can and we must to learn from the failures aswell. Analyzing right after a game counts a lot, because we can know our mistakes and learn from them. 40 My best result is my 5th place on the Gomoku World Championship in 2009 for sure, though I played many games below my real skill, thanks to my weak psychological readiness. I don‟t think I could have better place than 4th place, but I had many games in which I found myself in a losing situation fast after from a very good situation, thus I feel I couldn‟t do my maximum. My biggest failure is the 2009 Hungarian Meijin Championship for sure, where I got 4 th place out of 6 players, though my goal was to be among top 2. It was a big disappointment to lose the first game there, and this 4th place was a very bad sign right before the World Championship, but fortunately I could write it up. I find the objectiveness as the most important factor of handling failures and achievements. We won‟t be overconfident, we can realize that we might didn‟t win on our own, but on opponent‟s silly mistake, and we can also know where we played wrongly, what are our mistakes. 11. Finally I would like you to show us the most memorable and interesting parties of your life. It can be more matches, even online or live ones. Gomoku World Championship 2009, Qualification Tournament Round 6, Gergő Tóth - Demján Attila 0,5:0,5 R: + Used time: 89-96, 77 moves My most memorable game so far was played against Attila Demján, in the 2009 Gomoku World Championship Qualification Tournament. We know each other for a long time, we played a lot but still this is my only 0,5 points stolen from him. Over 41 our friendship, it was two of us who presented Hungary, and since from this 3 days long competition, only the first 8 could go to the Final, it would‟ve be good for us if we could‟ve meet somewhere in the last day, and probably make a “peaceful” draw, which would be probably fine for both of us, and of course the tiring games and days would make more chance to make a tie. In opposition with this, we already met on the 2nd day, in the 6th round, so we had no intention to talk about a draw, we both think that dealing a game is not good in sports. Moreover, we both had 4 points, so I wanted to prove that he is not ahead me, only by coefficients. I could beat more strong players in the rounds before, like Michal Zukowski, Andrey Sviridov or Michal Kozimor – against who the victory made me more confident, but Demján is better in each element of gomoku than them, I found him the one who has the most chance to be the champion, so if I probably can beat him, I make a huge step to reach my dream, to get into the final, plus my chances would be bigger to reach a really nice result. The game was opened by Attila, and I didn‟t expect anything else but some central opening. We analyzed together a lot before and during the WC, so I already knew enough theory not to lose on theory. I also thought that he might probably put a corner opening in order to prove that he is stronger, or that he wants to play a nice game, moreover we both wanted to find ourselves together in the final, plus in the round before Attila played a draw with Artur Tamiola in a 2 hours long battle from a corner opening, thus I had no point to be nervous before our game. In opposition with this, he chose an opening from which he could‟ve suspect that I really don‟t like: h8-h7-d9. My first thought were that it‟s his own home opening, who knew how well did he analyze it, so at first I wanted to put 2 more stones, using the swap2 option. The next scene what I remember is that my opponent took a walk while I was thinking and when he came back, I was about to put the two more stones for which he said with some happiness, regret and humor “No!”, thus I immediately changed my mind and kept black. I expected two possible 4 th moves, 4-4 and 4-20. Since most of the players find 4-20 black surewin, I expected 4-4. Fortunately we just analyzed a variant with Tamiola 5 minutes before this game. Tamiola found the variant 4-4, 5-5, 6-6, 7-7 playable before the game. Since I trusted the later became World Champion, and Demján played these moves aswell, we arrived to the 8 th move. Here I was trying to find the ideal continuation, 9-23, 9-18 or 9-20? After a while I chose 9-9, which stabilizes the position. At first sight white can depart to each direction, but has to be careful because the 3rd stone can be dangerous later. After 1010, I had a small fear, black seemed to be closed and stuck, I especially was afraid of 10-19 because of connecting lines. I still was afraid of losing fast, around 20 moves, so I really tried to stabilize. After a long thinking, I decided to play 11-11, for which 12-12 was a bit surprising for me. It seems to be a defending move, but Attila always tries to be sure in his decisions, and he is familiar with the phrase from José Raúl Capablanca “Each move is the part of a plan”. So I tried to figure out his intentions and I got the conclusion that 12-20 would be too early to attack, so he wants to make some possible connections in the 42 left-down corner. From one side, I didn‟t want to make a hurry attack 13-23, plus I was afraid that he goes for the intersection e7 and makes an important point there, so I simply killed this possibility and played 13-13. Of course I counted a lot and I didn‟t see win for him if 14-14 and 15-15. Until 19, the moves are logical. Though 19-19 gives itself, I tried to find an alternative solution, but finally I found 19-19 the perfect move so I made it. This moment we played for a while already, and first time in the game I could breathe easily. Near 20 moves are on the board, the position is near equal, plus I had 30 minutes, my opponent had 22 minutes left, which is not a usual case for me. Although my position evaluating ability is not so good, I thought that I am thinking and doing well, so the game can be better, not thinking about the result. My opponent used a lot of time for the next move, he used near 20 minutes. Since everyone knows that he likes to attack, to keep the tempo and that he is very aggressive aswell, I was wondering where he will go. 20-20: Very nice, calm and multi-faceted move, I expected something like this. I didn‟t want to let free the right wing, and I neither wanted to make unnecessary usage of the 3 rd stone yet, plus it seemed that if I don‟t defend right now, white will have win, and Demján is famous from that he can find every win 9 times out of 10, even in time trouble. Probably there was a better move, but I was satisfied with my 21. 22 is logical, I would‟ve move the same, it makes connections possible, plus it forces black to defend. I was considering 23-23 and 2324, and by safety reasons, I played 23-23, but now I‟d rather play 23-24. After 24, I didn‟t want to use a lot of time, 25 and 26 arrived fast. The next move, 27 seems a bit risky, but I didn‟t want to play 27-46 or 26-43. I admit, I had a small luck because I didn‟t check the left-bottom corner, I just simply didn‟t want white let to go right side. My plan was to let him attack, and waiting him to make himself confused, because I didn‟t see any win. 28-28 confirms my expectation as he will attack, but I totally forgot to count with this move. I can‟t play to C6, because then he can break through to the right-upper side, which I wanted to avoid, so 29-29 was my only choice. I was woken up after the last move, and I tried to concentrate to defend with all my forces. After 32, I was thinking about 33-37 and 33-33, but even if he changes 30, I think I would‟ve find the defending moves, because I lived together with the game, and I felt myself absolutely in shape. With 39, I survived this region of the game, all moves came pretty fast from 31 to 39 due he had time trouble, and I was playing fast. After 33, I made a notice, I had 17, and he had 4 minutes left. After 40, I became a bit unconscious, I couldn‟t believe that he didn‟t find win and that I truly defended well, so 1-2 minutes had to be passed before I could play 41-41. After 42, my goal was to destroy, and I already started to think about future attacks in the right-bottom region, what I waited long time ago. There are not so many players who can attack much against Demján, I also had to wait 2,5 hours for this, so I was very excited. After 44, I immediately moved 45-45 because this was the most symphatic. After 45, I still remember for a memorable thing: My opponent offered a draw, to be more precise, he told that he will accept draw anytime. I knew that I have never reached a point against him, and who is who could accept this offer in such situation? On the other hand, it was okay, because if he accepts draw anytime, why not to see how he can defend, 43 plus no one is a robot, anyone can make a mistake in time trouble. I refused immediately, and he used one of his fours above in order to get extra time, because he was already under 2 minutes, then he moved 48. This moment I tried to relax, to be calm, because I had like 12 minutes, and my head had thoughts which told that after that many lost games, finally I can revenge him, plus I had nothing to lose, because I can make a draw anytime – I thought. I was checking 49-70, but I didn‟t see win, I saw that he might can defend with 50-49 and then I would have nothing. Thus I played 49-49, which seemed a good idea at first, but at second, it is not a good move. 50-50 proves it, but I wouldn‟t have been in a problem, if I wouldn‟t have tried to be a hero with the next move, 51-51!? Huge mistake, I didn‟t even kill my last chance, but he came back with time because the following moves were logical, until 61, moreover 62-62 means a new possibility for him to attack! I remember I offered a draw here, but he suddenly refused it. My mood and psychological readiness turned incredibly lot, from the calm state, I got back to the same state as I was in the 30th move, plus he made me nervous about not accepting draw, so at this point, the atmosphere of the game became very tense, but I had no choice, I had to play. I found 63-63 a nice move, it seems to close white, but for sure, he tried a new attack: 64. I saw all branches after 65-65, white had no chance to win, I could block all his attempts, 67-67 avoids successfully his winning chances. Fortunately this game was not decided by time trouble, after 77, we agreed a draw, but I don‟t remember who offered it This time all the other games were already ended, and I remember that one of the referees came to our table and warned us to use English, not Hungarian language. It‟s not enough that I was sweating and had a high adrenaline, this warns came aswell! I packed my stuff and we started to go home together, we could arrange all our affairs concerning the game with Attila, fortunately we could have an agreement and avoid unnecessary conflicts. I could sleep well afterwards, because I made 2,5 points out of 3 this day, and I was on the podium at the moment, which I wouldn‟t have thought, especially after my game in the first round, which I lost on a silly way. This game was one of my most beautiful, most emotional, most exhausting and simply best games, from which I could learn a lot and use this profit in the coming rounds. I am proud to reach a half point in such a game against Attila Demján. 2010 February 44 Player of the month in Hungary – March -Rudolf Dupszki This interview was made by gomoku.hu team in the head “Player of the month” 45 1. How did you meet gomoku and what were your first times like? As the majority of players, I met gomoku in the school at first aswell. I don‟t remember exactly for my very first game, but I remember that we played a lot in the 6th and 7th class. I played specifically much with one of my classmates, we even made statistics and we often tried to involve others. This era was followed by a longer pause and we are at the end of 2004 now. On a boring afternoon, I was thinking about what to do at home, and not surprisingly, finally I voted for playing. These times internet was new for me, but I heard for some people that I can play against others via the net. After a while of searching, I found the playing site called flyordie. Gomoku was still beloved by me those times, just like long time ago in the school. The opportunities of getting know each other, having chat just made me more enthusiastic. I played about a year on this side, and I‟ve heard here about the other playing site called playok, where I also started playing. At the beginning on playok, I needed some time to get used to the new rule, swap2, but as soon as I felt playok comfortable, I had no doubt where to continue playing. 2. When did you decide that you want to be a serious player? What was your motivation? At first, ranks and points motivated me, later the official tournaments. Around these times, I got an invitation from the Euroleague team called Cubes for the season 2006/2007. It was a big honor from them, but on the other hand, I felt that there are high expectations, so I only could hope that such an amateur like me can be profitable for the Cube team. As time has passed, Euroleague motivated me and simply being stronger and stronger. Then arrived the 29th of November 2008, the date of my first live tournament. I would like to say thanks once again here for those, who made me confident enough to take part, most probably I wouldn‟t have participate without these people. After this and my second live tour, the taste of victory made me even more motivated. Nowadays the live tournaments, Euroleague and analyzing are motivating me. 3. What is your biggest achievement so far? And failure? Considering online achievements, my biggest success are the Euroleague seasons. I like to remember to the match against North Pole and Woodenheads B in the last season and the match against Team Estonia in the current season. I also liked my result in the friendly match Hungary vs. Czech Republic. My biggest online failure is the friendly match Hungary vs. Poland and the Euroleague match against Valahia. Considering live playing, my biggest success is my victory on my very first live tournament, where I know, I needed big luck. The achievement for which I am the most proud is my victory on my second live tournament, my 2nd place on a Hungarian 46 invitational tournament, and the 1,5 point which I could steel from Attila in the 2009 Meijin Final (I have to say I believe that I can do a better result). My biggest live failure is my 3rd game in the 2009 Meijin Final and my irrational attacking combination in the 5th game (In spite of this I think it was a nice game). These are the two games in which I really wished to show what I can do…Nevermind. 4. Would you like to continue your career? What do you expect from the future as a player? Of course I am not thinking about retiring, though I play less lately by several reasons. I still like the game. As I already mentioned, I would like to orientate to live tournaments, it does not mean that I‟m not interested in online competitions, but in my opinion, true skills can be shown above 1 hour time limit. I would like to win Euroleague with my team. And in live, if I will ever have enough motivation, I would like to play on some international competitions, be among top 8, and afterwards anything can happen. I also would like to make my skills higher; my goal is to make my game better, spiced with brave, offensive, aggressive elements. Ah, and I would like to see further on the board, I want to make my visualization better. 5. What are your impressions from the Hungarian tournaments? Do you plan to take part on a competition abroad? I only can say good words about Hungarian tournaments; I really loved and love them. For my biggest happiness, there are more and more serious tournaments with bigger time limits (meijin competition, invitational tournaments). At the moment, I am not planning to take part on international competitions, I mean not on those with 20 minutes time limit. However, I took into consideration the European Championship this year in Estonia. 6. What time limit is ideal for you and why? How important is the time limit in a game in your opinion? Currently, for me, the higher time limit the better in general (of course it does not matter who is my opponent). In my opinion, I can analyze different situations correctly, if I have enough time to think, I am able to find the best move in relatively most of the cases. Shorter time limits are better for the fast players, who have good intuitions. Longer limits are suitable for those, who can see through the whole board, who can analyze well, who can count and evaluate enough combinations. 7. What is the difference between central and corner game? Which one do you prefer and why? What does a player need to play well from both central and corner/edge openings? 47 In the case of central game, the theory knowledge, analyzing skills have bigger role, while in corner/edge game, analyzing the distance between the edge and the stones and observing certain dangerous situations are important. In general, there are more possibilities for the starting moves in a corner opening than in a central one. In central playing, a small, a very little mistake can result the end of the game, while in corner playing, players are “allowed” to make some small mistakes, they are able to make corrections. Before, I preferred central playing, but lately I play more corners, in order to compensate the difference. Central openings are often dangerous weapons, they can work well against many players but they can also shot us aswell. From one side, our opponents can prepare with tricky swap2s, which is the smaller danger. On the other side, we can find ourselves stuck in the hole of playing without real thinking – using only central openings can result the reduction of proper thinking and the lack of efficiency. Plus there are some situations in which we can only achieve a draw, if our opponent has big enough theory knowledge. Of course it depends on many factors of the game, but it is possible. In my opinion, to be strong from both central and corner openings, the player needs proper theory knowledge, situation analyzing skill, good visualization and practice, practice, practice. 8. In your opinion, what is your best skill in gomoku? How can someone achieve this skill? First of all, I find one of my best skill my fighting spirit, and the will to be a better player. I could not pick one game-technical skill exactly. Perhaps my theory knowledge and the good situation-analyzing skill. To have good theory knowledge, you have to analyze a lot – I would emphasize here that I think this is the best way to develop ourselves. And to have a good situation-analyzing skill, you have to play a lot, it doesn‟t come fast, and we have to play from various situations, against various opponents. 9. In your opinion, what is your worst skill in gomoku? How can this weak point be improved? I could name two things here. One is, that my visualization skills are not good enough, I wish to see further on the board. The other is that sometimes I miss one or two possible moves of my opponent while I am thinking on a tough situation, which moves can cause problems for me. My visualization skill could be improved by playing more games with longer time limits, and solving VCT and VCF problems. Maybe I will start to work on it once… 10. How did you like to be one of the two players in the very first Hungarian Gomoku Meijin Championship FINAL? What was the final like? How could you evaluate yours and your opponent’s performance in the 5 games and in the whole match? 48 It was a big honor for me to be the part of the very first meijin final. The organization was very good, I hope that I could provide a nice performance for the spectators, one thing is sure – I really loved to play in the final. The first game can show well how the whole final went on – this all was a real rollercoaster. The first game was the only one in which I had a certain plan. According to the Japanese tradition, nigiri, I had the right to put the opening. I chose an opening named after a great Russian player, Alexei Ritter, with which I had two primary goals: To make Attila confused and indecisive plus to show self confidence. Unfortunately just some parts of my goals had success. There was a branch, and I knew that Attila usually plays that. Before the game, I could analyze it and realized that Attila prefers to play a losing variant. So I knew that he keeps black in this opening, and usually plays the losing variant. I also took into consideration that he will figure out my plan, but I wouldn‟t mind because then we would play from 50-50 situation, or if he puts swap2, which is not a problem either because I like to be challenged. I could not play my plan, he found out my intentions and chose another branch, starting from the 5 th move. Then I hoped that it‟s time for me to play aggressively, but I was wrong. He was playing very offensively and when I got the tempo, I got soon trapped and the planned 1 point turned out to be 0. After the failure, I was not desperate totally. I felt if I don‟t have chance to win the final, I still can play well and show a great performance. Attila played well, but if I don‟t make a mistake, I could have had good chance for a draw at least, but as we know, there is no „if‟ in sports. Probably thanks to the good approach, I could win the second game. I don‟t think that I played so good, I would say that my heard made me go ahead. I decided to attack the whole game, of course it didn‟t succeed. My opponent played logically, and I guess he can better decide if he made a mistake or not at the important moment of the game, which decided the result. I would like to pinpoint here that I was very lucky in this game, because I didn‟t see a very dangerous attacking combination of my opponent, which if I would have seen, the result would have been different maybe. The third game is one of my most painful game ever. When I have psychological advantage, I shouldn‟t play such weakly. But let‟s say that the “the winner of this tough fight of the two warriors was the more experienced warrior” (sounds much better). The struggle continued one week after. The score was 2:1 for my opponent. My last chance, I can‟t lose (if my opponent reaches 3 points, he wins). This game was a very exciting one. Attila put a well known central opening, but he shifted it one intersection closer to the edge. I could have very similar thoughts as he had in the first game…why did he shift the opening? After I realized that I won‟t answer this question in the coming 1,5 hour, I put a swap2 which I liked; if we have to die, let‟s die nicely. Eventually, the game ended as a fair draw, we both played well I guess and I still had chance to be the Meijin. Remembering the last, 5th game, two things come into my mind. The big dumbness from my side, and the thing that I would probably repeat the wrong movement. With a small exaggeration, I knew during the game that I am over attacking myself, but we 49 make mistakes, we are human, but why did I do it in such an important moment from one of my favorite opening. But in exchange for my mistake, chance gave me a gift in the shape of such a beautiful game. At the end, there was nothing rest just shake hands with my opponent for his well deserved victory. In this game I played well except that one mentioned mistake, and Attila could play without any mistake. Considering the whole match, I could say that Attila played his high level game, which was expected and I can put my performance close to my expectations aswell. I think the match had great atmosphere, the games were spectacular and high level, in addition with my mistakes at some points. In spite of this, I really enjoyed the final and I hope this is not the terminus. 11. Finally I would like to ask you to show us your most memorable game from your career (it can be online and live aswell, and can be more)! Euroleague 2007/2008, cRUSaders vs. Melt Cube Rudolf Dupszki - Alexey Ritter 1:0 R: +, 35 moves 13 28 3 21 22 12 My first choice is my game against “fracass” from the 27 25 33 34 11 match cRUSaders – Melt 35 26 23 6 10 Cube. Important to know: The time limit is 10 minutes, 29 24 8 19 2 5 9 rule is swap2, my opponent put the opening and I 10 1 18 9 8 swapped, I was black. Ritter 30 4 7 14 7 was one of the best players ever in the Euroleague 32 31 11 15 13 16 6 seasons, he lost extremely 12 17 20 5 rarely and won many games very confidentially from his 4 own opening. c d e f g h i j k l Before this game, he always beated me, so the statistics were not on my side. So, considering everything, he had much better position over me before the game. And as we‟ll see, I could win this game, this is why I really like sports, and this gives the beauty of games for me. I would not like to analyze this game from game technical point of view, although there are interesting moments in it. This is not the reason why I chose this game. This game is a very nice memory for me, I was very happy that I could beat Ritter (to be 50 precise, I have to say that I won only once against him, made draw once and lost four times). And on the other side, to make everyone remember: Of course, stronger player is stronger player and statistic can say that you have no choice, but if you work on it and if you really want to win, it‟s only up to you, how many times you can we rewrite statistics. Hungarian Gomoku Meijin Championship 2009 FINAL Round 4, Dupszki Rudolf - Demján Attila 0,5:0,5 R: swap2, +, 14 Used time: 102105, 66 moves 13 13 27 10 12 I chose my 4th game of the 65 48 8 17 6 20 9 10 Hungarian 62 61 37 23 2 18 22 14 3 28 11 9 Gomoku Meijin Final 2009 to be 64 66 36 1 35 21 15 4 5 8 the most 56 55 39 34 54 25 12 7 memorable live game. The 60 32 33 26 30 45 46 6 parameters: 90 63 57 52 49 31 41 44 5 minutes + 30 58 53 51 50 38 42 40 43 4 seconds/move, swap2 opening 59 47 3 rule, my 2 opponent swapped after a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o my swap2, I was playing as black. I already talked about the antecedents, but let‟s do it once again. The score was 2:1 for my opponent, if the result is 3:3, he wins the whole match. So if I want to be the Meijin, I can‟t lose this game. My opponent put me a central opening which I am familiar with. But he shifted the opening one intersection left. I thought that he had a real plan, it is not just a bluff. Thus I decided to put two more stones and let him choose color. With this option, I made my chances bigger and I still had the feeling of my bitter lose in the 3rd game, so I wanted to make my psychological disadvantage smaller. The reason of concrete swap2: I was ready to take any kind of risk, I created this swap2 to let both colors have chance for victory, but in the same time, not letting big chance for draw. I was thinking if he chooses black I will make him stuck, winning positions and if I can do this, total attack at the end. If he keeps white, I have two ways: If I feel that the position is block able, I try to defend, and then I steel the tempo and start some 24 19 29 7 51 16 11 attacks. In this case, there are too many “if” and there is no big chance to make it real. My other choice as black was much more sympathic for me: immediate counter attack. The game started, I put my swap2 which included the message “I don‟t have anything to lose anymore, only you. If you want to win, work for this. One thing is sure; I won‟t let you win easily”. After I put the two more stones, I really hoped that he will choose black and I can attack as white. It didn‟t happen, he kept white and played the best 6th move at first sight (I would‟ve move there aswell). I felt stuck after the 6th move. After long minutes of thinking, I decided to take risk and start a counter attack 7-7. I was counting a lot how could I attack if 8-L10 or 8-J8. But my lack of skill of considering opponent‟s moves showed off here, my opponent played 8-H10. I got shocked suddenly, “I can pack my stuff, new record, fastest lose, cool”. What happened, I asked myself. My self confidence disappeared, but luckily I could bring it back. I was counting heavily, finding the solution. Finally I found 9-9, which is not just a good answer, it even makes Attila confused. Attila was thinking a lot about the 10th move and finally chose the good move. From this moment, logical moves were played, I think we both played the best possible moves, or close to that. 29-29 is probably a smaller mistake from my side, I wanted to feel myself in safety, that‟s why I blocked passively. At this point, time became a more important factor of the game, I had more time than Attila after 29 moves, but we both had not so much time left. I didn‟t think much about 31, I wanted to put pressure to my opponent. 38-38 seems a strong attack from Attila, smaller dilemma for me where to block. Soon I could decide that 39-39 is the best possible. After 47, Attila‟s attack was over. I had a relief, I won‟t lose this game for sure. So it is sure that the 5 th game will have importance. After 48, we both had smaller time trouble, but of course, my goal was to win the game. There were no proper sized spaces on the board, to make a winning attack among normal circumstances, but we had abnormal circumstances. I hope I remember well, Attila had 1,5 minute and I had 5 minutes after 48 (important factor the 30 seconds extra time after each move). I saw some possibilities on the left wing to make some attempts. In order to improve the pressure, I tried to play as fast as possible, which was pretty unusual for me. Anyone is able to make mistakes with such short time left as Attila had. My opponent didn‟t do it and he killed my last attacking chance with the 66th move. Thus the game ended with a fair tie. 2010 March Some important news from Hungary 10. The first English written gomoku book is coming soon, The Struggle of Black and White 2! The author, Attila Demján already finished writing the book and currently a smaller team is working on the other parts of the 52 project. The book will be available worldwide and will be released around May-June 2010. Some words about the book: The book is about the most popular central gomoku openings in the past few years and their theories. It presents the most playable and popular openings until now, with introducing their history, complicatedness, playability, popularity, statistics and of course all the theories. Being in possession of the knowledge of these theories give us a strong base, safety and a helping hand to improve ourselves easier and more effectively than before. There are tons of diagrams and figures which explain each theory, the value of each branch and move. The book includes many example games with comments aswell, from which we can have a clue why the introduced theories were set. While we are working on this book, we are also working on the translation of The Struggle of Black and White 1, which was already written in 2008. This book is about the basics of gomoku, it introduces standard theories with nice example games. The first book provides help for beginners, who need to know the basics of the game, who need to know the basic theories. The second is on the next level, it provides the knowledge which can be set after knowing the basics. We will try to publish the two books in the same time. Further details will be available later on www.gomoku.hu. 11. Since most of the “professional” gomoku players agree that the current official rule, swap2, is not fair enough, I started to work on a new rule. Since swap2 means too big advantage for the starting player, sooner or later we will have to use a new rule. I think I found a good solution, and created a new rule. My suggestion is the following: 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Opening player puts 1 black stone anywhere on the board The currently white player has two choices: play the 2nd move or swap The currently black player has two choices: play the 3 rd move or swap The currently white player has two choices: play the 4th move or swap The currently black player has two choices: play the 5th move or swap The currently white player has two choices: swap to black or keep white The game goes on until someone reaches 5 in a row Thanks to this rule, both players have right more times to change the situation until the 5th move, so it means that home preparations can be still played, and also much more newer, unknown positions can be shown on the board. The game will always start from a position which is based on the compromise of both players. 53 12. OGTWC is coming! The very first Online Gomoku Team World Championship is coming soon. The leaders of each gomoku nations have already started to talk about the parameters of the competition and as soon as they will have an agreement, the details of the competition will be published. Most likely the time limit will be 30 minutes/player, the rule will be swap2 and the system will be round robin. Until that, I advise every player to prepare for the championship. Attila Demján www.gomoku.hu Correction of error In previous issue – 63-64 is hidden diagram – on page 8 under photo. Sorry... So we publish Demyan – Lu diagram again together with Attila's comments Demján (66) – Lu (77) 1:0, R: +, 37 moves, 1=f5 I really wanted to put the opening against the friendly Taiwanese guy and have an easy game but unfortunately it was his chance now. He put an expected 50-50 opening, my plan was to play very offensively and forcing him to fail. 9 and 11 are a little bit risky, but if he doesn‟t defend them well and start attack then I am good I guess. It just happened, he tried some strange attack which I could block, then take back the tempo and win the game. 21 was the key of my victory. 54 TALLINN OPEN OF RENJU, GOMOKU AND PENTE AND TALLINN MARATHON Tallinn Open is finished. In renju some world top players like Sushkov, Taimla and Oll took part. Tournament was won by Oll with 7 points out of 8, followed by Taimla by coeficent. Sushkov got 4th place with 6 points. We had also blitz tournament, Stefan Karlsson, Andry Purk and Johann Lents joined there as well. Results of both competitions you can see at: http://renju.net/media/tourninfo.php?tournament_id=627 We had also gomoku tournament, what was unfortunately not so strong. Sushkov won, followed by Tauri Purk. Results are here: http://renju.net/media/tourninfo.php?tournament_id=628 And finally, we had pente as well. Here won Timo Ilu with 6 points. Tauri Purk was 2nd again with same points. 3. place got the only guest in this tournament Stefan Karlsson with 5 points (totally 12 players) And one more news. Tallinn will have international running marathon 2010 September 12th. I invite renju- and gomoku players to take part there. I have talked with Stefan Karlsson, Vladimir Sushkov, Peter Jonsson and Madli Mirme and said its interesting idea :). Maybe some people like Konstantin Nikonov, Ando Meritee or many others might be interested. http://www.jooks.ee/index.php?id=1〈 =en or www. tallinnmarathon.ee you can see more information. Its also possible to chose 10km distance instead. l Participant Country 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pts Coef 1 Oll, Aivo Estonia 41 51 30 61 81 21 71 91 7 37 2 Tunnet Taimla Estonia 12 11 1 1 1 0 1 10 1 1 7 3 4 1 5 1 7 31 3 Soosõrv, Ants Estonia 61 71 11 20 91 40 81 51 6 38 4 Sushkov, Vladimir Russia 10 12 10 1 1 51 20 31 61 81 6 33 5 Salula, Ain Estonia 10 0 11 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 4 6 9 2 3 4 37 55 6 Mirme, Madli Estonia 10 11 12 30 91 1 10 50 1 40 1 4 30 7 Pajuste, Renee Estonia 10 12 11 91 30 20 80 1 1 10 1 4 30 8 Jonsson, Peter Sweden 11 12 0 1 0 10 0 0 0 1 9 7 1 1 3 4 3 30 9 Väljataga, Paul Estonia 11 12 70 60 81 1 30 50 1 10 3 30 10 Lillemaa, Argo Estonia 12 11 50 40 60 1 70 80 1 20 2 30 11 Purk, Tauri Estonia 81 20 50 90 12 0 10 0 6 7 1 0 2 27 12 Olumets, Erko Estonia 10 11 20 80 40 0 0 70 90 60 0 . Tallinn Gomoku Open Estonia, Tallinn, December 2009 (12-28 - 12-29), Gomoku - swap2 rule 25 min per player + 5 sec per move Preliminary round: Pl Participant 1 1 Sushkov, Vladimir 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pts 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 ½ 1 1 1 1 4½ 1 1 1 1 4½ 1 1 1 3 1 1 2 1 1 2 Purk, Tauri 0 3 Soosõrv, Ants 0 0 4 Salula, Ain 0 0 ½ 5 Lillemaa, Argo 0 0 0 0 6 Olumets, Erko 0 0 0 0 0 7 Raid, Dennis 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 Raid, Eric 0 0 0 0 0 0 Final (points sum) 56 0 0 Pl Participant 1 1 Sushkov, Vladimir 2 3 4 Pts 1 1 1 10 1 1 8 1 5½ 2 Purk, Tauri 0 3 Soosõrv, Ants 0 0 4 Salula, Ain 0 0 4½ 0 The automatic rating calculation system. (by Andrey Serdyuk) The system is located at http://renjuoffline.com/rank-out It takes the official games database of http://renju.net as input data and performs calculation on weekly basis. Ratings are calculated starting from earliest tournament, proceeding further, tournament by tournament. Tournaments with invalid data (such as invalid end date) are skipped until their data is corrected by administrators. For every tournament the system calculates rating difference for every player's game (Rdiff) and then applies those differences to player's rating when the tournament is over. Rating calculation formula ---------------------------Rdiff = K*(Sa-Se) where Rdiff - rating difference for single game K - K factor (depends on type of rating: established or provisional, see below) Sa - actual score (0 for loss, 1 for win and 0.5 for draw) Se - expected score (see formula below) The expected score is calculated as following: Se = 1/(1+10^((R2-R1)/400)) where R1 - is player's rating (player whose rating is calculated) R2 - is opponent's rating Established and Provisional ratings -----------------------------------If the player has 10 or more games against Established players or 20 or more games against any players and gained 3 points from Established players or 6 points from any 57 players then such player has Established rating. Other players have Provisional rating. K factor. --------K factor is a coefficient which defines maximum rating deviation from player's game result. For Established player playing versus another Established player the K factor = 32 For Established player playing versus Provisional player the K factor = 0 (player does not gain or loses any rating points) For Provisional player playing versus Established player the K factor = 64 For Provisional player playing versus another Provisional player the K factor = 16 Also, established ratings are updated at 15 May 2009 with Official Rating from http://stepanov.lk.net/rifrat/rifrat.html, so actual calculation for established players starts from this date. News CORRESPONDENCE RENJU - CURRENT SITUATION, FUTURE OF CORRESPONDENCE Dear renju players! At first I have to apologize. World Championship in Correspondence Renju was missed for a year and it is completely my fault. Sorry! I have to congratulate the winners of WC in Correspondence Renju - 2008: World Champion Zhang Jinyu, China Vice-Champion Balanova Jelena, Latvia and bronze medalist Potapov Aleksey, Russia. Now let's go on. World Renju is on the crossroads. We are choosing and deciding our future. And Correspondence Renju must go with the times. A lot of strong correspondence players decided to stop playing because of boring RIF rules, it is much more obvious in Correspondence than in a real game. 58 Now it's time to return because new renju theory is to be created. And we know that correspondence games are the best quality games so they push the theory far beyond. But we have a couple of troubles on the way. First of all, we have to decide which opening rule/rules to choose for this tournament. Since we are free to choose, let's do it ourself! The second problem is that there is no servers which support all brand new opening rules and give an opportunity to hold a tournament at the same time. RenjuOffline isn't ready for tournament holding and doesn't support e-mail playing, PBeM doesn't support some opening rules, only Yamaguchi. We are moving on to get an appropriate server, and any help will be highly appreciated. If you are interested in Correspondence Renju WC restoring, please, send me a message with the following information: 1. Your name, country, city. If you speak for several players or club, please, note them. 2. Did you play in Correspondence Renju WC before? Do you have Correspondence rating? You can find it here: http://stepanov.lk.net/pbemrat/ret2007.html 3. Desired opening rule (any rules from the following set: RIF, Taraguchi, Yamaguchi, Soosorv, Sakata). 4. Will you play with rejection system? 5. Will you play by Taraguchi? Y/N Yamaguchi? Y/N Soosorv? Y/N 6. Any comments and notes are highly appreciated. My contacts: renjusignup at narod.ru; owene at pisem.net; PBeM user Owen. Friendly yours, Epifanov Dmitry aka Owen. English - Slovenian Dictionary (Angleško - Slovenski slovar) Hello - Živjo 59 Good morning – Dober dan Good evening – Dober večer Good night – Lahko noč Goodbye - Nasvidenje Welcome - Dobrodošli Have a nice trip! – Srečno pot Yes - Da No - Ne I dont know - Nevem What is your name? – Kako se imenuješ? (Kako ti je ime?) My name is... – Moje ime je … (Imenujem se …) Nice to meet you – Me veseli How do you do? – Kako si? Do you speak English? – Govoriš Angleško? Today is nice weather – Danes je lepo vreme .. What is the time? – Koliko je ura? Thank you - Hvala Please - Prosim You are welcome – Si dobrodošel I am sorry – Se oproščam (Oprosti) Enjoy your meal – Dober tek 1 - ena 2 – dva 3 - tri 4 - štiri 5 – pet 6 - šest 7 - sedem 8 - osem 9 - devet 10 - deset I offer you draw – Ponujam remi I resign - Predajam Good game – Dobra igra Silence, please! – Prosim za tišino! (Brez pogovarjanja!) Let's play a game of renju! – Odigrajmo igro Renjuja Good move – Dobra poteza! Where? - Kje? What? - Kaj? Who? - Kdo? Why? - Zakaj? When? - Kdaj? How much? - Koliko? What does it mean? – Kaj to pomeni? 60 Little - Malo Much – veliko Beer - Pivo Monday - Ponedeljek Tuesday – Torek Wednesday -Sreda Thursday - Četrtek Friday - Petek Saturday - Sobota Sunday – Nedelja Polish Pente Championship (pro, 7 rounds: match and rematch, 20 min) Krakow, February 27.-28. 1. Skrzypczak, Mikołaj 11 2. Tamioła, Artur 10 3. Gaweł, Krzysztof 9 4. Małowiejski, Piotr 7 5. Górnicki, Karol 7 6. Harmasz, Adam 5 7. Pociask, Konrad 5 8. Godlewski, Filip 2 Gomoku Swap2 Tournament (20 min, 12 rounds) 1.Fitzermann, Adrian 9 (M-Buch =72) 2. Lange, Jarosław 9 (71) 3. Majczyk, Marcin 9 (69) 4. Harmasz, Adam 8.5 5. Tamioła, Artur 8 6. Miśkiewicz, Mateusz 8 7. Żukowski, Michał 7.5 8. Tarasiński, Paweł 7 9. Gaweł, Krzysztof 6.5 10. Bieniek, Piotr 6 11. Małowiejski, Piotr 6 12. Podwyszyński, Karol 6 13. Gorzecki, Marek 6 14. Skrzypczak, Mikołaj 6 15. Białkowski, Łukasz 6 16. Puszkarewicz, Paweł 6 17. Śmietana, Sebastian 6 18. Leszko, Michał 6 19. Bohdankiewicz, Marcin 5.5 20. Pietrusiak, Michał 5 21. Kądziołka, Patryk 5 22. Jakubczyński, Jarosław 5 23. Boratyński, Krzysztof 2.5 24. Borowicz, Adam 2 25. Gwóźdź, Szymon 1.5 61 Gomoku Standard Tournament (10 min, 13 rounds) 1. Wileczek, Michał 10 2. Majczyk, Marcin 10 3. Żukowski, Michał 9 4. Świder, Krzysztof 8 5. Gorzecki, Marek 8 6. Pietrusiak, Michał 6 7. Miśkiewicz, Mateusz 6 8. Kądziołka, Patryk 6 9. Puszkarewicz, Paweł 4 10. Podwyszyński, Karol 4 11. Jakóbczynski, Jarosław 3 12. Białkowski, Łukasz 3 13. Majoch, Mariusz 1 SOME NEWS FROM ESTONIA First about renju and gomoku European championships. We are sharing information in 2 homepages, renju.net and renju.ee (choose from menue champioships), so you can check fresh info there, but we bring here what is clear at the moment. Tournaments will held in Hobbycenter Kullo summercamp in Karepa, 110 km from Tallinn to east, 29 km from Rakvere to north. Nearest town from Karepa is Kunda (10km). We will have special buses going to Karepa: July 2. 10.00 from Tallinn Hobbycenter Kullo (Mustamäe street 59) July 5. 10.00 from Tallinn Hobbycenter Kullo (Mustamäe street 59) Special buses will take you also back to Tallinn, departure July 12. ca 12.00, arrival to Tallinn ca 14.00-14.30 Accomodation and food costs 18 euro per day, so staying 7 days (July 5.-12.) costs 126 euro, 10 days (July 2.-12.) costs 180 euro. Accomodation is in small summerhouses (4 beds), we will try to accommodate 3 people to one house, if we dont have too many people in camp. Food - we will get campfood (it have been ok so far, not restaraunt, but still good :) ) 3 times per day. We will have small bar (non-alcoholic drinks, ice-cream, some chocolates and similar stuff will be represented) Tournament fee is 20 euro 1 EUR is 15,6466 EEK Tournament rules Renju QT, Renju AT and BT - Taraguchi rules Gomoku AT - swap2 Time control. RQT - 90 min per player + 15 sec per move RAT 120 min per player + 30 sec per move GAT 90 min per player + 30 sec per move RBT 60 min per player + 30 sec per move 62 Tournament Director is Sander Sulane ([email protected], +37256359556); Vice Director of Tournament is Madli Mirme ([email protected], +3725247774) Main referee of all tournaments is Ants Soosyrv ([email protected], [email protected], +372 56697382) Please make your registration to EC before June 10., sending us also short information about yourself - age, occupation, hobbies, achievements in renju or gomoku, photo, we plan to make small bulletin Program is about following: July 2. - arrival of players 19.00 renju QT, round 1. July 3. renju QT, rounds 2.-3. July 4. renju QT, rounds 4.-5. For players who arrive in the beginning of camp and dont need to play RQT, we suggest to join Mind Pentathlon (sudoku, chess, bridge, gomoku, russian variant of draughts) in Rakvere. Its possible to play all 5, but also some of them, if you are not familiar with all of them. Information about this competition will uploaded soon, but tournament fee is around 10 euro, time control in chess, draughts and gomoku (swap2) is 10 min per player July 5. renju QT, round 6.-7., arrival of players who have place in main tournaments and couldnt arrive earlier 20.00 Opening Ceremony July 6. renju and gomoku AT and BT , rounds 1.-2. July 7. renju and gomoku AT and BT , rounds 3.-4. July 8. renju and gomoku AT and BT , rounds 5.-6. July 9. some sport and hiking for people who are interested. Intellectual games day organised by estonian site vint.ee (blitz in gomoku, russian draughts and chess) July 10. renju and gomoku AT and BT , rounds 7.-8. July 11. renju and gomoku AT and BT , rounds 9. July 12. Departure to Tallinn Qualification to EC Gomoku: no limitation, all players who know rules and pay tournament fee are welcome. For next GEC we will use same qualification system as in REC (15 best players from this GEC get national place for their country + each RIF member will get 2 places). Renju AT: 63 Rules about dividing places: http://renju.net/organizations/Tournament_Rules_In_International_Championships.pdf Russia - 10 national places Estonia - 5 places (+1 in case of odd number of players in final) Sweden - 4 places Aserbaijan and Uzbekistan - 3 places All other RIF membercountries - 2 places and non members 1 place. 5 players from International Qualification tournament. Participants list so far: Renju AT: Russia: Sergey Artemyev (St. Petersburg) , Yury Tarannikov (Moscow) , Alexandr Kadulin (Podyuga), Pavel Salnikov (St. Petersburg), Yulia Savrasova (Podyuga) , Maxim Karasyov (N. Novgorod) ,Mikhail Kozhin (Dubna), Dmitry Epifanov (Moscow), Stepan Tarasevich (Tver), Evgeny Sumarokov (Podyuga) Hungary: Attila Demjan Estonia: Tunnet Taimla, Aivo Oll, Paul Väljataga, Renee Pajuste, (Andry Purk) Sweden: Stefan Karlsson, Peter Jonsson July 13. Renju tournament in Tallinn July 13. Open tournament, part of traditional Youth Mind Sport festival. All players are welcome! Please contact us about accomodation in Tallinn, we will try to book different variants 6 rounds in Swiss system Time control 30 min per player + 2 sec per move Rules: RS with Taraguchi, Yamaguchi and Soosyrv Tournament fee - 50 EEK 3,2 Euro (some food included) peliminary schedule: July 13. 9.45 - Opening 10.00 17.30 games (including food pause) 17.45 - Closing Visa: If you need visa, please contact Ants Soosyrv before May 15. For invitation we need your full names, birth time, address, passport number, citizenship Results of Estonian QT to RAT (13 players, 7 rounds Swiss, Estonia has 5 places in RAT):: 64 1.-2. Ants Soosyrv and Aivo Oll 6 3. Tunnet Taimla 5 Q 4. Paul Väljataga 4,5 Q 5. Renee Pajuste 4 Q 6. Villem Mesila 4 7. Johann 3,5 Aivo already had place in RAT as previous champion, Ants wont play RAT because of referee duties (but maybe he will play RBT), so they used tournament for training. Tunnet, Paul and Renee got directly place in RAT, Villem Mesila will play extramatch against Andry Purk (highest ranking player who coudnt participate in QT because of his job) and winner get 5th place. Johann is reserve player, if RAT has odd number of players, he will get 6th Estonian place. Full results of Estonian QT to RAT you can see at : http://renju.net/media/tourninfo.php?tournament_id=679 WC 2011 application from Sweden. Next year Huskvarna has been a town for 100 years. The city is a close neighbour of Jönköping where the hosting club KFUM Luffarschack Jönköping is situated. There are good transport possibilities from both Stockholm or Malmö (bus or train). The price is about 75 euro for both ways. Sometimes it is possible to find cheaper tickets. The bus station and the railway station are situated about 7 km from Huskvarna. A small airport with connection flights from both Stockholm and Copenhagen is situated about 15 km from Huskvarna. Huskvarna is actually older than 100 years. The Huskvarna factory is more than 300 years old and is now producing mostly chain saws and lawn-mowers. The town is located by the lake Vättern which is one of the biggest in Europe. The Visingsö island (30 km away) is a very popular place for tourists. The anniversary committee has guaranteed to help us with playing and sleeping halls (exact places are not decided yet). This means we can host people for free in a sport hall or similar. Our club is a part of Jönköping YMCA and we can also expect help from them. The rates for the town hostel is from 40 euro/night for a single room to 20 euro/night in a four bed room. Cheapest hotel with good standard is 75 euro/night in a single room or about 50 euro/night per person in a double room. Tournament fee is 40 euro. If we can find good sponsors the fee can be reduced. Peter Jonsson, Director of the tournament 65 Standings of High League of Russian Champioship Konstantin Nikonov 11,5 Yulia Savrasova 11 Maxim Karasyov 10,5 Mikhail Kozhin 10 Sergey Artemiev 9 Dmitry Epifanov 8,5 (59,75) Stepan Tarasevich 8,5 (54,25) Evgeny Sumarokov 8 (53) Vladimir Filinov 8 (52) Viktor Balabhai 7 Pavel Salnikov 6 Egor Serdyukov 5,5 (33,75) Irina Metreveli 5,5 (33,25) Pavel Makarov 4,5 Vladimir Semyonov 4 Roman Kryuchok 2,5 Results of 5th All Japan Championship 20-21.03.2010 1.Okabe Hiroshi 21-1.0 13-1.0 4-1.0 5-1.0 7-1.0 6-1.0 6.0 2.Kamo Yuki 23-1.0 9-1.0 20-1.0 7-0.0 5-1.0 4-1.0 5.0 3.Yamaguchi Yusui 34-1.0 4-0.0 24-1.0 8-1.0 16-1.0 7-1.0 5.0 4.Nagao Noriaki 11-1.0 3-1.0 1-0.0 14-1.0 21-1.0 2-0.0 4.0 5.Tamura Kazumasa 26-1.0 10-1.0 6-1.0 1-0.0 2-0.0 18-1.0 4.0 6.Nakamura Shigeru 12-1.0 16-1.0 5-0.0 13-1.0 17-1.0 1-0.0 4.0 7.Ishitani Shinichi 30-1.0 25-1.0 14-1.0 2-1.0 1-0.0 3-0.0 4.0 8.Kawasaki Nobuhiko 15-0.5 22-0.5 9-1.0 3-0.0 13-1.0 17-1.0 4.0 9.Tamada Yoichi 19-1.0 2-0.0 8-0.0 23-1.0 25-1.0 14-1.0 4.0 10.Shimoyama Takuma 22-1.0 5-0.0 13-0.0 24-1.0 15-1.0 16-1.0 4.0 11.Arai Kazumi 4-0.0 34-1.0 12-1.0 15-0.5 14-0.0 20-1.0 3.5 12.Nakayama Tomoharu 6-0.0 32-1.0 11-0.0 27-1.0 20-0.5 21-1.0 3.5 13.Isobe Taizan 28-1.0 1-0.0 10-1.0 6-0.0 8-0.0 23-1.0 3.0 14.Kawamura Norihiko 24-1.0 17-1.0 7-0.0 4-0.0 11-1.0 9-0.0 3.0 15.Kudomi Takahiro 8-0.5 20-0.0 28-1.0 11-0.5 10-0.0 25-1.0 3.0 16.Iio Yoshihiro 32-1.0 6-0.0 23-1.0 25-1.0 3-0.0 10-0.0 3.0 17.Ono Takayuki 27-1.0 14-0.0 26-1.0 20-1.0 6-0.0 8-0.0 3.0 18.Iwano Fumio 20-0.0 30-1.0 25-0.0 26-1.0 19-1.0 5-0.0 3.0 19.Tada Ayako 9-0.0 23-0.0 30-1.0 22-1.0 18-0.0 24-1.0 3.0 20.Fukui Nobuhiro 18-1.0 15-1.0 2-0.0 17-0.0 12-0.5 11-0.0 2.5 66 21.Kobayashi Koichi 1-0.0 28-0.5 22-1.0 31-1.0 4-0.0 12-0.0 2.5 22.Mitsumori Masao 10-0.0 8-0.5 21-0.0 19-0.0 27-1.0 30-1.0 2.5 23.Maruta Hiroki 2-0.0 19-1.0 16-0.0 9-0.0 31-1.0 13-0.0 2.0 24.Miyagawa So 14-0.0 27-1.0 3-0.0 10-0.0 26-1.0 19-0.0 2.0 25.Kim Chang-Su 31-1.0 7-0.0 18-1.0 16-0.0 9-0.0 15-0.0 2.0 (South Korea) 26.Kato Yasuhiro 5-0.0 31-1.0 17-0.0 18-0.0 24-0.0 34-1.0 2.0 27.Matsuoka Teruo 17-0.0 24-0.0 34-1.0 12-0.0 22-0.0 31-1.0 2.0 28.Kusajima Masato 13-0.0 21-0.5 15-0.0 33-0.0 35-1.0 29-0.5 2.0 29.Suzuki Junichiro --- --- --- 30-0.5 32-1.0 28-0.5 2.0 30.Kuramoto Hideharu 7-0.0 18-0.0 19-0.0 29-0.5 34-1.0 22-0.0 1.5 31.Miyoshi Takeo 25-0.0 26-0.0 32-1.0 21-0.0 23-0.0 27-0.0 1.0 32.Tadokoro Hosai 16-0.0 12-0.0 31-0.0 34-0.5 29-0.0 35-0.5 1.0 33.Maruta Koji --- --- --- 28-1.0 --- --- 1.0 34.Fujikawa Masaki 3-0.0 11-0.0 27-0.0 32-0.5 30-0.0 26-0.0 0.5 35.Kubo Izumi --- --- --- --- 28-0.0 32-0.5 0.5 SWEDISH CHAMPIONSHIP IN RENJU 2010 The Swedish Championship 2010 was held in Stockholm 16-18 of April. Totally 16 players took part. Stora SM, the highest league, was for the first time played with 5 rounds Round Robin system. This is new, and will continue like this in order to have a tournament of three days instead of five days. Thinking time was 2 hours and 30 seconds Fischer. Stora SM was very tight and the winner was uncelar until the last game. Finally Tord Andersson defended the title he also won last year. Stora SM 1. Tord Andersson 3 2. Stefan Karlsson 2 (4) (SK-KL 1-0) 3. Kristian Lindberg 2 (4) 4. Peter Jonsson 2 (3) 5. Petter Gardström 1 Lilla SM gathered 11 participants and was played with 11 rounds Round Robin during Saturday and Sunday. Bengt Asplund and Björn Wallgren started the tournament very well and long time they seemed to secure the two places to next years Stora SM. However, in the late rounds Emma Warner started to win a lot and finally passed Björn. Lilla SM: 67 1. Bengt Asplund 8,5 2. Emma Warner 8 3. Björn Wallgren 7,5 4. Björn Lind 7 5. Marcus Eriksson 6 (23) 6. Hans Sjöstedt 6 (19) 7. Jan Fanell 4 8. Bengt Nyberg 3 (8) 9. Björn Levinsson 3 (7) 10.Joachim Theimer 2 11.Daniel Nygårds 0 Stockholm the 18th of April 2010, Stefan Karlsson Message from Ando Meritee: Dear renju friends, I am so glad to see one of the greatest TWC coming up soon, with the strongest Japanese team ever! I so wish to be part of this great renju show, but unfortunately I cannot come to Japan this time because of my family reasons - my parents will visit me and my wife in Taipei around that time and I have to take care of them. It is a great pity to miss the renju party. However, I will be watching the games online and cheer for the players. I wish good luck to all the organizers and may this event be successful for renju propaganda in Japan and around the world. All the best! Ando Meritee Short editors message Many thanks to Attila, He Jiabei and other helpers for great materials! Without their help you could see just empty pages :). We were hoping to publish more materials about renju WC 2009, but failed. But be patient, hopefully next issue includes comments from Sushkov and Taimla :). Also we want to bring you many materials about Team WC of course. 68