Artem Kachanovskiy, the new European 1p, advanced to the 13th Sankei Cup main tournament with 3 wins over pros, including a half point win against Sonoda Yuichi 9p, who is famed for his centre-oriented style (he opened with two 5-4 points) and challenged for a few big titles some decades ago. In the first game he beat Hashiyama Shozo 7p (aged 74) by a whopping 26.5 points after he outread him in the first fight to capture a large chain of stones. Note also the clever empty triangle of 180 which set up a nice endgame tesuji (did Hashiyama really miss that?). His 2nd game featured some spectacular fighting and trades and kos against Inoue Naoki, a 27-year-old 3p. And then topped them off with the half point win over 64-year-old Sonoda.

The other western pros were Mateusz Surma (EGF 1p from Poland), who beat young 1p Sato Yuta by resignation (nice reading at the end from Mateusz to reduce deeply inviting a cut and then sacrificing it to kill a big chain) before losing to the rather more experienced 51-year-old Moriyama Naoki 9p. Gansheng Shi (AGA 1p from Canada) beat Shintani Yosuke 1p with a spectacular "I let you connect and kill it all" sequence before losing to 55-year-old Kiyonari Tetsuya 9p. Eric Lui (AGA 1p from USA) lost to female 8p Yoshida Mika (winner of various female titles).

More details and game records here:

http://eurogofed.org/index.html?id=85

Well done to all players for commendable performances, and big congratulations Artem!

That is encouraging for the western pros. Are they starting to be taken seriously by the pros from CKJ or are they considered as a novelty to be encouraged but still not "real"? Is there any provision for western pros to be promoted?

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

Too bad for Sonoda Yuichi, a player I quite like. But congrats to the Western pros!

According to the Kansai ki-in page, there are other games scheduled tomorrow (11/4):
- Eric Lui vs. Nishi Takenobu 1p
- Artem Kachanovsky vs. Yahata Naoki 1p
- Gansheng Shi vs. Arai Miyu 1p
- Mateusz Szurma vs. Taguchi Misei 1p

Apparently it is possible to see the games live on the Kansai ki-in website. Has anyone tried it?