Your New Digest 1

Round 7

Wed, 16 May 2012 01:42 GMT

Ivan Ivanov

The fourth and last day of the tournament began as smoothly as the preceding three days. The bus brought the constestants to the Guangzhou Chess Institute half an hour before the starting time. At board 1, China's Qiao Zhijian and DPR Korea's Ri Kwang-Hyok were in their seats 15 minutes early, Qiao to take a short nap, Ri to survey the playing area. At board 2, Korea's Lee Hyunjoon, looking fully recovered from his defeat yesterday, sat waiting for his Hungarian opponent Pal Balogh, who was seated cross-legged on the floor at board 6, talking with Romania's Cornel Burzo under the imposing gaze of Cornel's Danish opponent Jannik Rasmussen. On the other side of the playing area, Bulgaria's Ivan Ivanov and his Cypriot opponent Dimitris Regginos were in animated conversation at board 27.

At 8:55 chief referee Hua Yigang began the daily litany: mobile phones must be off or muted, spectators must be outside the blue ribbon encircling the playing area by 9:20, the GAC Trumpchi World Amateur Go Championship will now start.

Play began with a demonstration of the tombstone tesuji by Qiao Zhijian in the bottom right corner on board 1. The resulting fight ended in a ko in the top right corner. Qiao won the ko but had to concede the top right corner territory and also give Ri the superior position in the center.

During the course of the intense fight on board 1, Spanish WAGC sophomore Pau Carles was defeating Croatian veteran Zoran Mutabzija on board 20. The next games to end were on board 26, where Brazil's Nadeen Prem beat Mongolia's Bayarjargal Shartolgoi, board 12, where Luxembourg's Andreas Gotzfried beat South Africa's John Leuner, and board 9, where Germany's Benjamin Teuber beat Slovenia's Leon Matoh.

Chan (left) and Chen

The game on board 2 featured the avalanche joseki, again courtesy of Pal Balogh, but it was not enough to enable him to overcome Korea's Lee. On board 3, the low-teen match between Chinese Taipei's Chen Cheng-Hsun and Hong Kong's Chan Chihan was won by Chen. Meanwhile, on board 1, Qiao was showing that he could win by the traditional method of taking corner and side territory and reducing his opponent's center. Faced with a certain loss, DPR Korea's Ri conceded the game by letting his time run out. Having disposed of Ri in round 7, Lee in round 6, Chen in round 5, and Chan in round 4, Qiao had given China a fairly firm grip on a second consecutive World Amateur Go Championship. Qiao had also beaten both remaining players with only one loss (Chen and Lee), so he was drawn down to play Benjamin Teuber from the two-loss band in the final round.

Elsewhere in the two-loss band, Finland's Juri Kuronen, Japan's Nakazono Seizo, Romania's Cornel Burzo, Russia's Igor Popov, Singapore's Lou Yuxiang, and Thailand's Saechen Panjawat all won their games. These six will join Chan, Chen, Lee, and Ri in competing for places among the top eight. Benjamin Teuber is also in contention, if he can topple China.

- James Davies

Teuber v Chen

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:37 GMT

Benjamin Teuber

White: TEUBER Benjamin (Germany) 6d
Black: CHEN Cheng-Hsun (Chinese Taipei) 7d

Commentary by Yang Shuang 3p, transcribed by Chris Garlock

Click here to start the game viewer. Here is the game record (sgf format).

Interview with Fang Xiaoyan

Tue, 15 May 2012 19:33 GMT

Fang Xiaoyan, the extra Chinese player added to the tournament roster for pairing purposes, has been attracting interested attention from the other contestants. When she drew a bye in round 5, Ranka took the opportunity to interview her.

Fang Xiaoyan

Ranka: Hello, Miss Fang! We want to know something about you. Where are you from?
Fang Xiaoyan: I’m from South China. My hometown is Chaozhou.

Ranka: When did you learn to play go?
Fang Xiaoyan: I began learning to play go in 2006. After graduating, I joined the Donghu Qiyuan. I worked there and learnt go at the same time. My work is teaching children’s classes and it has occupied most of my time, so I haven’t actually spent much time in improving my own level of play.

Ranka: You meant that you started teaching go after you graduated from university, is that right?
Fang Xiaoyan: Actually I graduated from a normal college for preschool teachers. The Donghu Qiyuan held a recruiting program in our college. The instructors taught us how to play go and introduced us to teaching methods. I started from the fundamentals and improved my skills gradually.

Ranka: What ages are your students?
Fang Xiaoyan: From 3 to 10.

Ranka: Do you have any special teaching methods for children?
Fang Xiaoyan: Yes. The most important thing is to get their interest. Coaxing and encouraging always works well.

Ranka: Could you share some details with us?
Fang Xiaoyan: Learning go is quite boring for such young children. Teachers need to find clever ways to keep them interested. In our class, we tell the students stories that help them to understand the go principles. We also use rhymes, which are easy to remember.

Ranka: It sounds interesting. How many students have you taught?
Fang Xiaoyan: Well, about 350 students per year. And I have been teaching for six years.

Ranka: How much time have you spent in training yourself?
Fang Xiaoyan: For the first three years, I practiced more often than now. At that time I played go every day after class and improved a lot. Then I had to take care of the management of the whole Qiyuan, including instructor training, curriculum planning, and so on, so I did not have much time to train myself.

Ranka: Is this the first time that you have participated in an international tournament?
Fang Xiaoyan: Yes. This is the first international competition that I have ever taken part in. Sometimes I’ve played games with the teachers in the Donghu Qiyuan, but never such important games as here.

Ranka: How have you been feeling during the tournament?
Fang Xiaoyan: Nervous, extremely nervous, and also excited, because in these games I can meet players from different countries. It has been a great opportunity for practice as well as communication. The pity is that I have not been able to win.

Ranka: Have you talked to your opponents? What do you think of them?
Fang Xiaoyan: Actually I only talked to one of them, because I cannot speak languages other than Chinese. In round 1 I met Ri Kwang-Hyok, the contestant from DPR Korea. In the beginning he played slowly. Perhaps he wanted to give me a chance. He started to fight when he had ten minutes left and won the game. In round 2, I was late so my time was reduced. I was not in a good mood and did not perform well. In round 3 my main territory was surrounded and I lost. I felt good in round 4, but I tried to save two stones, and my opponent captured a group in a corner. My losing streak finally ended in round 5, but only because my Moroccan opponent did not show up.

Ranka: Good luck to you in rounds 6, 7, and 8!

- Photo by John Pinkerton

方晓燕是本次赛事中第二位中国选手，因参赛人数为单，主办方邀请她加入补缺，因此她备受关注。她在第5轮中轮空，Ranka借此机会对她进行采访。

Ranka: 方老师，您好！我们想了解一下您。您的家乡在哪？
方晓燕：我是南方人，家乡在广东潮州。

Ranka: 您是从什么时候开始学围棋的呢？
方晓燕：学围棋的话是从06年（开始）。06年毕业的时候我来到东湖棋院，在东湖棋院边做老师边学围棋，主要的工作是教小孩子下棋。真正自己下棋的时间不多。

Ranka: 那您是在大学毕业后就来到棋院开始教学吗？
方晓燕：我是幼师毕业的。当时东湖棋院的老师来到我们的幼师学校（上课），同时需要选拔一些新鲜血液，一边教我们如何教学，一边教我们下棋。我就从最基本的开始，慢慢练习提高。

Ranka: 那您的学生是什么年龄段的呢？
方晓燕：从三岁到十岁都有。

Ranka: 教这么小的学生您会有一些特别的方法么？
方晓燕：主要是兴趣教学，一是哄小孩子，二是多鼓励他们表扬他们。

Ranka: 具体是怎样的呢？
方晓燕：因为学棋是很枯燥的，要想他们静下心来必须找到方法去引导他们。我们上课教学是采用讲故事的模式，帮助他们记忆，把棋艺融入情节，教他们步法、图例等，同时也会用儿歌的教学法。

Ranka: 这样上课还真是挺有趣的呢。到现在为止，您一共教过多少名学生呢？
方晓燕：每年加上暑假大约会有350名学生，我已经教了六年棋了。

Ranka: 除了教学以外，您平时大概会花多少时间在训练上呢？
方晓燕：我自己的训练呢，在前三年比较多，会经常下棋，当时主要的工作负责教学，上完课回去就可以练习，那段时间进步比较快。后来还兼顾了管理工作，像是教师培训、学生管理这些方面的事情，基本没有什么时间去练习了。

Ranka: 这次是您首次参加国际比赛吗？
方晓燕：对的，我第一次参加正式的比赛。我也会参加棋院里面教师之间的竞赛，可是基本没有参加过其他比赛。

Ranka: 那您对这次比赛感觉怎么样呢？
方晓燕：很紧张，非常紧张，也很兴奋。见到来自不同国家的选手，跟他们下棋是很好的锻炼，也是交流的好时机。这是很好的一个机会。这次代表中国队却没有赢过，觉得有点遗憾。

Ranka: 那您有和四位对手交流过吗？对他们的感觉如何？
方晓燕：因为语言不通，只和一位能讲中文的对手聊过。第一轮是对朝鲜的李光赫，他很强，他的节奏比较慢，可能是因为让着我的原因，前面下了大概有一个小时。后面我的时间还剩下三十分钟，他只有十分钟了，他一下子吃掉我一大块棋子，结果我输了。第二轮开赛之前，我中午回家休息，迟了到场，时间被扣掉一点，情绪不是太好，没有下好，被围了一个大空，然后就认输了。第三轮的比赛在杀棋的时候我脱先了，被对手中间一个小飞，整块棋被围起，结果也输了。第四轮算是下得不错，可是为了救两个棋子，整个角上的地盘都被抢了，也输掉了。今天上午对手没有出席，就自动赢了。

Ranka: 那祝您接下来的比赛好运！

Round 6

Tue, 15 May 2012 05:03 GMT

As always, China's Qiao Zhijian was in his seat ten minutes early. This time, he used those ten minutes to take a short post-prandial nap, while in the facing chair Korea's Lee Hyunjoon carefully positioned his belongings and then passed the time by looking around the playing area. Behind him, at board 2, Chinese Taipei's Chen Cheng-Hsun was also looking around, waiting for his German opponent to sit down. At board 3, DPR Korea's Ri Kwang-Hyok and the U.S.A.'s Yuan Zhou were busily avoiding each others' gaze. More relaxed were Hong Kong's Chan Chihan and Singapore's Lou Yuxiang at board 4.

Mijodrag Stankovic

When play began at 2:30, Serbia's Mijodrag Stankovic needed less than 40 minutes to dispose of Australia's David Bofinger. ‘Against a 5-dan opponent I chose to fight,' said 2-dan David, ‘but it was the wrong fight to choose.' Macau's Chan Kouk-Wang (5 dan) was almost as quick in beating Spain's Pau Carles (3 dan).

On board 1 Qiao immediately launched into the same Dosaku opening that he had used successfully in the morning round, once again playing his initial moves in less than one second each. The game took a similar course, with black (Qiao) securing considerable territory while white (Lee) constructed a framework, inside which he tried to destroy an invading black group. At one point it looked as if he had a fair chance of catching the invaders, but running wild inside opponents' frameworks seems to be Qiao's specialty, and as in his morning game, he successfully brought his invaders to safety. Lee resolutely switched strategies and tried to win on territory, but this appeared difficult. Toward the end of the game Lee started a ko on the lower edge, but by this time all the black stones were connected into a single group, and white did not have enough ko threats. Qiao won the ko, started another (indirect) ko that eventually Lee had to win to avoid losing the top left corner, and won the game by 2.5 points.

Do Kanh-Binh

Elsewhere, the players from Chinese Taipei, DPR Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong successfully overcame opponents from Germany, the U.S.A., Belarus, and Singapore. DPR Korea's Ri Kwang-Hyok will be the next to try to defeat Qiao Zhijian tomorrow morning. The low-teen duo from Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong are also in the five-win band, which means they are still in contention for the championship; they will play each other in the round 7. Another player in this band is Hungary's Pal Balogh, who used the avalanche joseki to defeat Slovakia's Pavol Lisy in round 6, and will face the Korean Lee in round 7.

In other notable results, Vietnam's Do Kanh-Binh defeated Alexander Eerbeek. ‘I played like a 10-kyu,' was the Dutch champion's comment. In a match between two players who reside in Canada, French seed Remi Campagnie downed Canadian representative Xianyu Li. In games matching Europeans against Latin American opponents, Italy's Carlo Metta, Switzerland's Felicien Mazille, and Argentina's Eduardo Lopez picked up their third wins by defeating Costa Rica's Luis Cajiao, Colombia's Carlos Acuno, and Austria's Lothar Spiegel, while Ireland's Colin MacSweeney picked up his second win by beating Brazil's Nadeen Prem. And most notable of all, Fang Xiaoyan made this a perfect day for China by defeating Mongolia's Bayarjargal Shartolgoi.

- James Davies

Chan vs Qiao

Tue, 15 May 2012 02:16 GMT

Chen Chin Hin

White: CHAN Chi Hin (Hong Kong) 7d
Black: QUIAO Zhijan (China) 7d

Commentary by So Yokoku 8p, transcribed by Chris Garlock (translation by Ting Ting Chen).

This game gets really complicated very quickly, with multiple eyeless groups fighting each other with predictably fatal results.

Click here to start the game viewer. Here is the game record (sgf format).

Round 5

Tue, 15 May 2012 01:22 GMT

David Bofinger

The weather had been gradually improving since the tournament began, and early risers on May 15 were treated to a sunrise. The bus brought the players to the Guangzhou Chess Institute by 8:30. The playing room was set up with boards 1, 2, 7, and 9 next to the computers that would broadcast the Korea-DPR Korea, China-Chinese Taipei, U.K.-U.S.A., and Czechia-Japan games on the Internet (sports.sina.com). Lee Hyunjoon, Qiao Zhijian, Zhou Yuan, and Lukas Podpera were in their seats at these boards by 8:50. Soon they were joined by their opponents Ri Kwang-Hyok, Chen Cheng-Hsun, Samuel Aitken, and Nakazono Seizo. Lee and Ri signed fans for their game recorder.

The round began on time at 9:00. Fang Xiaoyan, the second Chinese player, had drawn the bye against Morocco, so after starting the clock, she got up to watch the opening of the game between Leslie Perez, the Chilean player, and David Bofinger, the Australian, on the adjacent board.

Qiao Zhijian

On board 2, Qiao Zhijian chose a variation of the Dosaku opening and played his first ten moves in less than one second each, quickly constructing a huge black framework in the bottom half of the board. Unflustered by this blitz, Chen Cheng-Hsun took eight minutes to consider White 16 and countered by framing the upper half of the board. Black was the first to invade and a fight developed. White succeeded in killing the invading black group in the top right corner, but not in killing the larger invading black group that devastated the rest of the upper side. Black, for his part, converted almost all of his framework to territory, taking a clear lead. Once safely ahead, Qiao began to play more slowly and enlarged his lead by cutting off some white stones in the center. When the last neutral point had been filled, Qiao scooped up the white prisoners and, in the Chinese manner, returned them to their bowl, to the dismay of Sun Yuan, the observing referee. Since both players were familiar with Chinese counting Qiao suggested that they count the score in that way, but Chen said ‘Let's not bother' and conceded defeat.

There were fewer fireworks on board 1, but after a good opening and a bad middle game, Lee outplayed Ri in the endgame and then won the final one-point ko to prevail by 2.5 points. Lee will move on to confront Qiao in the afternoon. This has been the pattern in recent World Amateur Go Championships: the decisive game is played between China and Korea in the 6th round.

On board 7, Samuel Aitken (U.K.) used his fifth move to make a three-space extension from the third line to the second line, a new pattern that has been appearing in professional games. He and Yuan Zhou (U.S.A.) battled it out for the next two and a half hours, but in the end Samuel resigned and Yuan departed at a run to catch the 11:30 bus for the hotel. Yuan's next opponent will be Ri Kwang-Hyok.

On board 9, Lukas Podpera and Nakazono Seizo also battled it out for two and a half hours, but today Mr Nakazono's Japanese supporters had the satisfaction of seeing Japan's amateur Honinbo score a convincing win.

The Czechia-Japan game was the longest of the round. The fastest was the game between Mongolia and Portugal, over in less than an hour and described as ‘an easy win' by Portugal's Daniel Tome. The most dramatic involved the players from Romania and Singapore.

Benjamin Teuber

‘I had the game in my pocket for at least 90% of the time,' said Romania's Cornel Burzo after it ended, ‘but with the clock counting the time, I got stressed and tried to shorten the process by killing a group. The moment after I played the stone I realized it was a catastrophic mistake. I went from something like a hundred points ahead to a hundred points behind.' Singapore's Lou Youxiang earned his fourth win, and a chance to take on Hong Kong's Chan Chihan in the next round.

Elsewhere, Germany's Benjamin Teuber became Chen Cheng-Hsun's next opponent by beating New Zealander Longyang Li. In a European youth match, Slovakia's Pavol Lisy defeated the Netherland's Alexander Eerbeek. In other European matches, Austria's Lothar Spiegl defeated Spain's Pau Carles, Belgium's Francois Gonze defeated Norway's Pal Sannes, French seed Remi Campagnie defeated Luxembourg's Andreas Gotzfried, Lithuania's Albertas Petrauskas defeated Bulgaria's Ivan Ivanov, Serbia's Mijodrag Stankovic defeated Ireland's Colin MacSweeny, Sweden's Martin Li defeated Bosnia's Dragan Paunic, and Hungary's Pal Balogh defeated Jannik Rasmussen, the giant Dane. Pal and Pavol will meet in the four-win band in the 6th round.

- James Davies

Zhou vs Nakazono

Mon, 14 May 2012 20:18 GMT

Seizo Nakazono

White: ZHOU Yuan (U.S.A.) 7d
Black: NAKAZONO Seizo (Japan) 8d

Commentary by So Yokoku 8p, transcribed by Chris Garlock (translation by Ting Ting Chen).

The fourth-round contest between the US and Japan turned into a controversial and dramatic slugfest involving a series of severe attacks, both players in overtime, a key losing move in the late middle-game, a ko fight with both players in their last period of overtime and a sudden loss by Japan on time, complicated by a clock dispute that went all the way up to the tournament’s chief referee

Click here to start the game viewer. Here is the game record (sgf format).

Round 4

Mon, 14 May 2012 17:49 GMT

With all players present except the still missing Moroccan, the afternoon round started a few minutes early. Two games were over quickly, Luis Cajiao of Costa Rica winning in fifteen minutes, by forfeit, against Morocco, and Martin Li of Sweden taking only a few more minutes to force Bayarjargal Shartolgoi of Mongolia to resign.

The game between China's Qiao Zhijian and Hong Kong's Chan Chihan also proceeded at a fast pace. Qiao built straight black walls that cut off weak white groups. Chan fought back valiantly, even managing to isolate one of Qiao's walls, but Qiao blithly abandoned it and cut off another of Chan's groups. Chan's attempt to save it was unsuccessful, and endangered one of his corner groups. Qiao's victory by resignation was not entirely unexpected.

Lee (left) and Matoh

Taking black against Korea's Lee Hyunjoon, Slovenia's Leon Matoh played his first three stones in a diagonal triple star-point formation (4-4, 10-10, 16-16). Lee gained a lead in the opening, which became decisive when Leon made a mistake in the direction of play in the middle game. Lee then simplified the game by winning a ko fight, becoming strong in the center, and won by resignation.

Italy's Carlo Metta also played on 10-10 in the opening, and with more success, defeating Portugal's Daniele Tome.

Lukas Podpera

The game between Chinese Taipei's Chen Cheng-Hsun and Czechia's Lukas Podpera ended in another victory for the Far Eastern player, but it took some time to get the victory nailed down. ‘I was not crushed,' Lukas said afterward. ‘I was behind by about five points, then I made a mistake by playing a move that he could ignore and I was behind by ten points, and that's how far behind I was when I resigned.
‘We both knew about each other,'Lukas continued.'I knew he had been U16 world youth champion and was playing at the professional level. He must have known about me because he played much more slowly in this game than in his first three games. I did not feel badly about losing. So far the tournament is going nicely.'

The game between DPR Korea's Ri Kwang-Hyok and Romania's Cornel Burzo was one of the last to finish. Cornel made the most of this rare opportunity to challenge a North Korean opponent, but resigned at 4:35.

At this point the French-Hungarian game was still going, Remi Campagnie vs Pal Balogh, and it was going well for the Hungarian. Pal used the same variation of the avalanche joseki that he had tried against DPR Korea'sRi Kwang-Hyok in round 2. Later he set up an exchange that put him far in the lead, and eventually Remi resigned.

Nakazono (left), referees Liu and Sun (center) and Zhou (photo by John Pinkerton)

By now all games had ended except for the Japan-U.S.A. contest. Mr Nakazono's Japanese supporters had again gathered to watch, and they had seen him pull ahead by at least 15 points on the board in the late middle game and endgame. With only a few moves left to be made, Yuan played a connection on the first line and hurriedly pushed his clock button two or three times in succession. Mr Nakazono responded by waving his hand at the clock. Both players then appeared to be in doubt as to what the clock was doing. After a while, the clock announced ‘Overtime,' meaning that Mr Nakazono had lost on time. Mr Nakazono's supporters protested that the clock had malfunctioned. A group of five referees gathered around the board to try to sort the situation out. Executive chief referee Liu Jing was summoned. In his presence, the clock's internal records were verified and the clock was repeatedly tested. The final decision was that the clock had not malfunctioned and its announcement would stand. Mr Nakazono conceded the game.

The undefeated players are now all from the Far East: Qiao Zhijian (China), Lee Hyunjoon (Korea), Chen Cheng-Hsun (Chinese Taipei), and Ri Kwang-Hyok (DPR Korea). Tomorrow morning the two Koreans will play each other while Chen Cheng-Hsun challenges Qiao Zjhijian.

Also on the slate for tomorrow morning are matches in the three-win band between Slovakia and The Netherlands, Denmark and Hungary, Romania and Singapore, Finland and Hong Kong, the U.K. and the U.S.A., Germany and New Zealand, and Czechia and Japan.

- James Davies

（以下中文翻译为节选）

中国乔智健对中国香港陈志轩的对局节奏相当紧凑。乔智健执黑，砌墙切断白棋。陈志轩激烈还击，一度成功隔离黑方。乔智健从容不迫，放弃苦战，转而切断另一角的白棋。虽然陈志轩负隅顽抗，可是并不成功，反而把自己的棋送入险境。最终陈志轩认输，结果并不出人意料。

在另一桌，斯洛文尼亚的莱昂•马托执黑先行，他的头三子连续下在星位上(4-4, 10-10, 16-16)，而对手李炫准从开局就一路保持决定性优势，即便中场出现失误，也没有太大影响。最后，李炫准成功占领中腹，对手认输。

中华台北陈正勋胜捷克洛卡斯•波德皮耶拉，胜果得来不易。洛卡斯说：“当时我大概落后5目，后来走错了一步，差距拉开到10目，我只好认输。”他继续说道：“我们都相互认识，我知道他曾参加过U16世青赛，已经达到职业选手的水平。他也认识我，这一场他明显比之前要下得慢一些。虽然我输了，但感觉还算良好。这次比赛相当顺利。”

最后，全场只有日本与美国的对局还在进行，来自日本的棋迷都围在边上观战。棋局进入官子阶段，中园清三领先对手15目。棋局将要结束之时，周源匆忙中连续按了两次计时键，而中园清三没有注意到自己并未把钟按过去，他们并没有发现问题所在。过了一会，计时器鸣示中园清三“超时”，这意味着他的告负。他的棋迷显然无法接受赛果，试图为他争取重赛的机会，几名裁判加入调解。最终，执行裁判长刘菁声明计时器经过反复测试，计数准确可靠，他宣布维持原赛果。中园清三无奈遭遇失利。

截至本轮比赛结束，四连胜的几位选手都来自亚洲，他们分别是：乔智健（中国）、李炫准（韩国）、陈正勋（中华台北）和李光赫（朝鲜）。明天早上将会由李炫准对李光赫，陈正勋对乔智健。

Round 3

Mon, 14 May 2012 01:49 GMT

Fifteen minutes before the start of round 3 on May 13, Qiao Zhijian, the main Chinese contestant, was already seated at his board. After defeating opponents from Italy and Singapore in the first two rounds, he would next face the player from Macau. The other players took their seats a little before the 9:00 starting time. Once again Hua Yigang and Yang Shuang gave the starting instructions in Chinese and English, and play began.

Dimitris Regginos

The playing area is roughly square, with five rows of six boards each. On the board in the top left corner of this area, Azerbaijan's Bahadur Tahirbayov played his first black stone flat-side up, belly-side down. Dimitris Regginos, his Cypriot opponent, smilingly turned the stone over so that it was belly-side up, which is the Chinese custom. In the top right corner of the playing area, Japan's Nakazono Seizo and Korea's Lee Hyunjoon commenced play under the watchful eyes of a dozen of Mr Nakazono's fans, who had come over from Japan to lend moral support. In the bottom right corner of the playing area the two youngest players, Chen Cheng-Hsun from Chinese Taipei and Chan Chihin from Hong Kong, went to work against Finland's Juri Kuronen and Canada's Xianyu Li.

The Azerbaijan-Cyprus game continued at a deliberate pace, but on the diagonally adjacent board South Africa's John Leuner and China's second player Fang Xiaoyan, a go instructor who teaches the most popular children's class at the Guangzhou Qiyuan, were playing briskly. John built up a 20-point lead and Xiaoyan resigned. ‘I expected to be crushed by having her kill one of my groups, but they all lived,' John said. ‘She is not as strong as I feared. Now that I've won a game, after underperforming in the first round, where I lost to Colin MacSweeny from Ireland, who is ranked 1 kyu, and then being outclassed by Remi Campagnie in the second round, I feel better.'

The Finland-Chinese Taipei game also ended fairly quickly, in victory for Chinese Taipei. ‘I did my best,' was the Finn's wry comment. On the adjacent board Hong Kong was equally successful against Canada. Far Eastern low-teen power remained unbeaten.

Lee (left) and Nakazono

The players from DPR Korea and China stayed even with them by beating opponents from Macau and Austria, and on the top-left board, Dimitris scored his first win by beating Bahadur, the Cypriot shodan overcoming the Azerbaijan 6-dan.
In the Japan-Korea match, for the second straight round Nakazono Seizo found himself in difficulties, and this time he was not able to extricate himself. Then after losing his confrontation with Lee Hyunjoon, he had to confront his assembled supporters. ‘Don't worry,' he told them with exemplary sang-froid, ‘It's not over yet.'

Lisy (left) and Burzo

One of the most interesting matches of round 3 was the game between Cornel Burzo and Pavol Lisy. Cornel, the Romanian go instructor, proved superior to Pavol, the Slovakian student, by 3.5 points, but Pavol did not give up without trying one last invasion of Cornel's largest territory, which failed; then he filled the last neutral point.

After this game ended, only the contestants from Bosnia, Germany, Serbia, Sweden, Thailand, and the U.S.A. were still playing. Serbia's Mijodrag Stankovic was the first to concede defeat, resigning to Thailand's Saechen Panjawat. Sweden's Martin Li played his game out to the end but lost by 8.5 points to Germany's Benjamin Teuber. Shortly afterward, Bosnia's Dragan Paunic lost by 17.5 to the U.S.A.'s Yuan Zhou, and the round was finished in time for the players to board the 11:30 bus for lunch at the Baiyun Hotel.

Only seven players still remained undefeated, and six of them will meet each other in round-4 matches this afternoon: China vs Hong Kong, DPR Korea vs Romania, and Chinese Taipei vs Czechia. The seventh undefeated player, Korea's Lee Hyunjoon, was drawn down by the computer to play Slovenia's Leon Matoh. Two other key round-4 matches will be France vs Hungary and Japan vs the U.S.A.

- James Davies; photos by John Pinkerton

第三轮

在第三轮开始前十五分钟，中国选手乔智健已提早安坐在赛场上。在昨天的第一轮和第二轮比赛中，他战胜了意大利和新加坡的对手，这一轮中他将会与中国澳门的选手对局。其他参赛选手也在9:00前进入赛场。裁判长华以刚先生和杨爽女士再次以中英双语宣读了比赛注意事项，比赛正式开始。

方形的赛场上，棋桌整齐地列成五行，每行有六桌。左上角的一桌由阿塞拜疆的选手巴哈德•塔希尔巴约夫执黑先行，下第一子却把棋子放反了——凸面朝下，平面朝上；他的对手塞浦路斯的德梅特里斯•雷焦恩斯微笑着把棋子翻转过来，使其按照中国惯例凸面朝上。靠右边的一桌是日本的中园清三对韩国的李炫准，他们的对局引来众多棋迷围观——这些都是中园清三的支持者，从日本远道而来，默默地为他打气。最右上角的两桌是本次赛事中最年轻的两位选手：中华台北的陈正勋和中国香港的陈志轩，他们的对手分别是芬兰的尤里•库劳尼安和加拿大的李献羽。

阿塞拜疆对塞浦路斯的一局双方都下得不紧不慢。中国的另一名参赛者方晓燕（来自广州棋院的儿童围棋导师）和南非的约翰•洛伊纳坐在他们对角的一桌，他们的节奏相对轻快。约翰成功地领先对方20目，方晓燕认输。“我本来以为她会吃掉我一组棋子，要是那样的话我就会输，可是她没有做到。”约翰说：“她并没有我想象中那么强。第一轮我没有表现好，败给了科林•麦克斯文（爱尔兰，1级）；第二轮又不敌雷米•坎帕尼尔；现在我终于胜了一局，感觉非常高兴。”

芬兰对中华台北的对局同样非常迅速地决出了胜负，由中华台北胜出。芬兰选手沮丧地说：“我已经尽力了。”对角的另一桌上，中国香港轻易取胜加拿大。几名东方的年轻选手依然立于不败之地。朝鲜和中国的两位棋手积分持平，他们都分别击败了澳门和奥地利的对手。在左上角这边，德梅特里斯首次获胜，打败了阿塞拜疆的巴哈德（6段）。

在与韩国选手的对局中，中园清三再度面临困境，这次他无法扭转败局。他在不敌李炫准后依然非常冷静，转向对他的支持者说：“不用担心，比赛还没结束。”

第三轮中最有趣的比赛要数科尔内尔•布尔佐对利西•帕沃尔。科尔奈尔是罗马尼亚的一名围棋教练，而帕沃尔是来自斯洛伐克的一名学生，结果不难预料，科尔奈尔胜3.5目。虽然对手强大，但帕沃尔并没有放弃，他最后尝试进攻科尔内尔，可是没有成功。

最后结束的是波黑、德国、塞尔维亚、瑞典、泰国和美国。塞尔维亚的米约德拉戈•斯坦科维奇向泰国的赛岑•潘贾沃特认输。瑞典的李向东一直苦战到底，最终以8.5目告负德国的本杰明•托伊贝尔。波黑的德拉甘•保尼克负美国的周源17.5目。第三轮比赛于11:30全部结束，所有参赛者返回白云宾馆用餐。

有七位选手迄今为止保持全胜，他们中的六位将在下午第四轮比赛中碰头，对局安排如下：中国对中国香港，朝鲜对罗马尼亚，中华台北对捷克。而另一位全胜者——韩国的李炫准将会根据电脑抽签结果与斯洛文尼亚的莱昂•马托进行对局。法国对匈牙利、日本对美国也将会为第四轮带来精彩。

文James Davies / 译陈婷婷

Balogh vs Ri

Mon, 14 May 2012 00:10 GMT

Pal Balogh

White: Pal BALOGH (Hungary) 6d
Black: RI Kwang Hyok (DPR Korea) 6d

Commentary by So Yokoku 8p, transcribed by Chris Garlock (translation by Ting Ting Chen).

White gains an advantage in the beginning of this game but then allows Black to get big moves and erase the advantage. Even so, White has one more chance to take the lead in mid-game but misses that as well.

Click here to start the game viewer. Here is the game record (sgf format).