Ehm... http://www.europeangodatabase.eu/EGD/To ... y=T110826A - the Romanian players scored better, Vanessa Wong was the best contestant for the reserved female place. But I see no indicator in the tournament table that Jan Simara did better than the mentioned players.

Ninja'd.

Ah, I see. I remembered that the Romanians did well and the Russians not so well, but didn't remember Shikshin got 4th place.

On the bright side, Go is not Checkers:

Yes Ilya qualified, and at the time of the qualification tournament it was believed Russians were eligible even though it was an "EU" team. There is a Canadian player in the "USA" team (there were USA/Canada qualifiers). The Russians are certainly a part of the European Go scene so I'm disappointed they were excluded at the last minute. I wonder if Vanessa, playing for the UK, will be eligible next year .

Alex got it mostly right. Ilya withdrew from the EU team without giving any reasons -- actually he did not even notify the organizers. EGF learned that he was unable to attend only indirectly.

When Alex, and Artem afterwards, were nominated as replacement, SportAccord rejected the nomination stating that they are not from an EU country and cannot play for an EU team. Despite IGF's protests, SportAccord stood firm. It is not true that "suddenly Chinese decided to reject any former USSR countries".

As to why SA accepted Ilya at first, but later rejected Alex and Artem, it makes no sense to me. But because of Ilya's very late withdrawal, there was little time to react or to seek detailed explanation. EGF had to assemble a team in a matter of hours and offered Jan Simara as the alternative.

-- Just want to set the record straight.

But as long as I remember both Iliya Shkshin and Alexander Dinnerchtein participated in the previous World Mind games. And also it makes no sense to let players participate in prelimaries and not accept them to the main event. Why don't they check USA team which consists of players of chinese origin, including 2 chinese professionals.

So I wonder what is better to let former USSR countries represent Europe or chinese professionals represent USA?

you're trying to compare apple and oranges here. the situations just aren't comparable

our "Chinese profesionals" are US citizens

edit: I thought all this discussion had already been rehashed in this older thread:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4558

Let's take the conversation back to the event and back to Go.

Here are some photos and games from the World Mind Games event for those who are interested in more news. We included one of Jie Li's games and one of Catalin's. It was a very near miss for Jie.

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David

Go Game Guru: Learn Go | How to Get Better at Go | Go Game Shop | Go Boards | Baduk TV

Call me biased, but I think statements like "Japan will probably take bronze" (at usgo.org, but not Go Game Guru or Ranka) are true, but not the best reporting. Ditto for "whoever wins the Europe-USA game will avoid last place". Go ahead and report that the Western countries are huge underdogs, but don't announce the results ahead of time.

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Occupy Babel!

If anyone is biased, it would be the original author. Personally, I wouldn't write something like "X will probably take Y". Then again, on paper, I think this Taiwan team is stronger than Japan.

I believe what I'm quoting came after Japan beat Taiwan. So the content of the prediction was that Japan would lose to China and Korea.

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Occupy Babel!

Does anyone know what the time controls are for these games?

Team match: 2 hours each side followed by 5x 1 min byoyomi.
Pair go: 1 hour each side followed by 30 second byoyomi.

Which one is the Canadian?

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North Lecale

I believe Huang Ke?

I think the qualifiers included Canada (I'm not sure about that), but I think Kevin Huang is from the US. http://agagd.usgo.org/Player_Card.php?key=6016, http://www.go-canada.org/documents/Memb-02f.pdf.

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Occupy Babel!

For those who arent aware it's being streamed on youtube live



with videos of matches and highlights

Hmm, some people posted concerns about the lack of Go content in earlier videos and 'bad' English commentary in later videos, but the channel has deleted all such thoughts

Wake up to basic PR

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North Lecale

What people need to understand is it's not dedicated coverage for Go, it's shared coverage and slips backwards and forwards between chess and other mind games running. I'm grateful for any english coverage, as that's rare enough for a live match between pros. Hopefully it will spur on more events to be covered in english. i watch it while watching the game on IGS which prevents me missing any moves