World Amateur Go Championship


	Home / MyStuff	Go Library	Forum	Articles	Blogs	Tournaments	Users

World Amateur Go Championship

Printer Friendly

Posted by Cornel Burzo.

The 30th WAGC (World Amateur Go Championship) was held in Japan, Fukuroi City, Shizuoka Prefecture during may 26th-30 and the games were played at Ecopa Arena near Ecopa Stadium where in 2002 the World Soccer Championship was the host of many important matches.

66 participants from 66 countries and territoires have been accomodated at Kuretake Inn Kakegawa and Business Hotel Gen Kakegawa.

30 years ago 25 players from 15 countries took part in the 1st edition of the WAGC held in Tokyo. The Winner back then was the latter famous 9d pro Nie Weiping of China who scored a perfect 8-0.

This year 70 participants were expected in the 8 rounds swiss system competition but only 66 could make it to the tournament.

In may 25th all the players arrived and got accomodates in Nikko Narita Airport Hotel and completed their registration in the afternoon and played some friendly games all evening.

Buses were provided the next morning for the players and officials transfer from Narita to Fukuroi City which is located 200km west of Tokyo.

On May 26th after check-in the hotels there was a press conferrence, orientation and the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Internetaional Go Federation (IGF) where all players had to attend at Kuretake Grand Hotel.

During orientation all tournament rules have been explained and the draw for the 1st round has been made.

After 6.30 p.m the Openning Ceremony started with few speeches of the officials, first of all Mr. Otake Hideo 9p the new president of IGS said a few words followed by the professional chief referee Mr. O Rissei 9p and other guests then all participants had dinner, made a toast and enjoyed the short performance with live music and traditional dance.

The tournament started on may 27th with 2 rounds per day starting at 9a.m and 2p.m till may 30th.

During the rounds all players had lunch at the playing site and could ask any of the professional referees or special guest Mr. Redmond 9p for comments which was really great opportunity to learn and improve everybody's skills.

After 4 days of intense matches the winner of 30th WAGC who managed 8-0 was China representative Yuqing Hu 8dan who also won in 2005 which is an amazing performance.

On may 31st all players played a goodwill match in the morning against the local people who prepared some presents for us in order to bring home good memories from Fukuroi City, Japan and after lunch we got in the bus on the way to Narita Airport but had few hours break for sightseeing at a Zen Temple to practice Zen and enjoy the beautiful landscapes.

On june 1st most participants started their trip back to their home countries and hopefully will come next time again more experienced and motivated to win the World Go title in China 2010.

Share it:

Comments

User

Post

Please login to post comments