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.
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(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.
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Illustration: How to solve the
following VCT?
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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:
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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
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j
4
They are also likely to consider
2
6
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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:
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11
5
4
6
2
3
1
10
8
9
11
10
9
8
7
12
13
A
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6
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4
3
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(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.
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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.
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5
2
1
9
10
4
3
9
8
8
6
7
7
6
5
e
f
g
h
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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.
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12
15
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8
2
7
9
1
10
6
3
5
10
18
9
17
13
8
16
7
4
6
14
5
4
d
e
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h
i
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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!
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12
18
11
5
6
1
2
14
10
13
3
8
9
4
7
24
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n
2
3
5
7
6
6
7
5
8
4
3
f
14
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i
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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Tournament Director is Sander Sulane (sander@plokk.net, +37256359556); Vice
Director of Tournament is Madli Mirme (Madli.Mirme@gmail.com, +3725247774)
Main referee of all tournaments is Ants Soosyrv (asoosyrv@hotmail.com,
Ants.Soosyrv@mail.ee, +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:
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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)::
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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
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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
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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.
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