2003-10-03Semi-finals

Baduk TV is covering the games of today and will broadcast them on Sunday (www.onbadook.com). The playing room looks like a TV studio. Of course this gives a little bit of extra pressure for the players. Dmytro is the first to sit down, then gets up again and leaves the room again. "I do not want to be the first to sit here", he says.

We were invited by the organisers to provide them with some feedback on the organisation and give some tips for improvement. The fact alone that we were asked to do that shows such a professional attitude, that we were actually a little bit stunned by the request. Martin and I compiled a list and we talked it through with Professor Lee who was really happy with our remarks.

Back to the games. Dmytro is already in byoyomi when Korea still has 44 minutes on his clock. He makes a mistake and has to resign. A while later Emil resigns too: he is too far behind. From the very beginning of the game, it looked like he did not have enough territory.

Drama in the final

So the final is between Japan (Satoshi Hiraoka) and Korea (Kim Jughwan), as expected.

Emil and Dmytro are playing for 3rd and 4th place, but of course all attention in the commentary room goes out to the final between Korea and Japan. It is being commented upon by the two professional referees, and there is a life broadcast of the game on the Internet (probably www.tygem.com). Black, the Japanese is playing in a very territory oriented thick and slow style, trying to make it impossible for the Korean to use his fighting skills. In the beginning that strategy seems to work, but black falls behind in territory and after about 100 moves the professional verdict is that white is winning. But it is still very close, the byoyomi phase starts and litlle errors might have big consequences. Winning a won game is one of the most difficult tasks in baduk.

The professional verdict is a bit biased towards the Korean player. When they say he is five points ahead, the public counts only 2. In the end, it seems a half point game that can go either way. But the Japanese player handles the last ko very skilfully and the game goes his way.

In the counting phase a white stone falls off the board, put on the board again by black. When it becomes apparent that it is 7 points on the board for black, white refuses to believe it and wants to see the game score. The referee is called but he can only confirm that he had already counted the game to be a half point win for black. The Korean player's dreams are scattered.

Note: we got most of the game records this evening. But they are on floppy and I do not have a floppy drive with me. So games will have to wait until I am back.

This is it from Incheon. I am going to do some celebrating because Emil came third. Yes! A convincing win over Dmytro with 12.5 points.

During the closing ceremony we got so many presents, it is unbelievable, I hope to be able to carry them all back home. I will finish this part of the website as soon as I can.