Korean Prime Minister's Cup 2011

[Javaness2]

I assumed it was another of the little errors on the website, and that the guy was an invited guest. Last year my picture was wrong

[xed_over]

I assumed it was another of the little errors on the website, and that the guy was an invited guest. Last year my picture was wrong

that makes the most sense

[ahd]

Australia: Yangil Jin 4d, by the skin of his teeth.

[dankenzon]

Let's keep an eye tonight in WBaduk (Orobaduk) client for the games

Remember as soon as they are finished and report the result they remove it so we should wait to see them

I always collect them but I won't be online at that time today.

Dankenzon

[trout]

Chen Jijian defeated Yoo Byoungyong and took the cup.

[xed_over]

congrats to Canada, placing 4th

what happened to USA?! Defeated by Costa Rica?

[dankenzon]

Juan Vargas from COsta Rica is playing around 2k-3k and his style is very "honte". It is not impossible he could beat the USA player

[oren]

Juan Vargas from COsta Rica is playing around 2k-3k and his style is very "honte". It is not impossible he could beat the USA player

Certainly since the US didn't send a strong player. It was odd.

[snorri]

Frederick Balwit 1 kyu ?!
Who is he? Never heard of him.

Some searching suggests he's the AGF teacher of the year, 2011.

I wanted to check the AGA board minutes for Sept 2011 for more info, but seems they're not up yet.

Edit: grammar. there != they're

Maybe the Koreans invited him, deciding that if he's actually teaching go to a lot of people in the U.S., then maybe helping him get stronger is a more efficient way to promote the game than inviting someome who is strong, but does nothing for the community. (Of course, some of the strong reps in the past, like Yuan Zhou, also teach.)

Still, I expect the answer will be really bizarre.

[hyperpape]

I can't imagine that Korea intervened in the US selection process. The most logical story I can come up with was that there was a last minute problem with the selected representatives and they turned to someone with a strong record of contributing to the AGA community.

If true, that's probably defensible, but it reflects poorly on the AGA that we're left in the dark about it. I sent an email to the e-journal folks saying that I'd appreciate announcements of who is representing us in advance. They may not be directly responsible for doing anything more than publishing what they're given, but I figured they know who (if anyone) is responsible for providing them with that information.

[daniel_the_smith]

I can't imagine that Korea intervened in the US selection process. The most logical story I can come up with was that there was a last minute problem with the selected representatives and they turned to someone with a strong record of contributing to the AGA community.

I don't know much. I'm trying to figure out if I'm allowed to quote minutes before they are officially accepted. If so I'll say everything I know, if not (and for the moment)-- well, your guess is pretty close.

[daniel_the_smith]

I wanted to check the AGA board minutes for Sept 2011 for more info, but seems they're not up yet.

Jie Li wanted to make some corrections, so those minutes were not approved last night, you'll have to wait a bit more. However, I can spare you the wait-- this issue was not discussed at that meeting.

[xed_over]

I can't imagine that Korea intervened in the US selection process. The most logical story I can come up with was that there was a last minute problem with the selected representatives and they turned to someone with a strong record of contributing to the AGA community.

I don't know much. I'm trying to figure out if I'm allowed to quote minutes before they are officially accepted. If so I'll say everything I know, if not (and for the moment)-- well, your guess is pretty close.

I don't have an issue with that, personally -- and congrats to Balwit for having an opportunity to represent. But I suspect that other strong players might resent not having an opportunity to represent, as it does go against the published selection methods: http://www.usgo.org/tournaments/KPMC/

I just don't like being in the dark

[pwaldron]

I don't know much. I'm trying to figure out if I'm allowed to quote minutes before they are officially accepted. If so I'll say everything I know, if not (and for the moment)-- well, your guess is pretty close.

Quoting is probably frowned upon, but a general summary that catches the spirit of the discussion is no doubt acceptable. Ditto for last night's board meeting.

Here I was looking forward to Monday morning reading, and now I have to wait for a whole month! Dunno if I can stand it.

[daniel_the_smith]

Well, since no one is answering my emails, that sounds good to me.

We were told that there had been some sort of administrative screw-up; the exact nature and perpetrator was left unclear (mainly due to the fact that most of the board had just expressed a strong confirmation of the policy to not enter an executive session discussing personnel without having notified the person beforehand). But we were told it was definitely entirely the AGA's fault, not that of the player or anyone else. An attempt will be made to compensate the player. Balwit was already attending the event, but not as a player. The mix up was discovered too late to find a better solution than to have him play, apparently-- and I got the impression that we were fortunate that it worked out as well as it did. We were assured that whatever happened would never happen again. Hopefully I don't have to express how embarrassing the situation is for the AGA. It was thought that the Koreans believed us when we said the late switch was due to an administrative mistake on our part, but the timing is particularly poor considering the ongoing discussions of working with them to start an american pro system.

So, that's all I know. In particular, I don't know what exactly the mistake was, who made it, or what has been done to prevent it from occurring again. Also, as I hadn't been following the tournament, that was a pretty unexpected bit of bad news...

Any inaccuracies in the above are entirely my own, of course. Also, I'll have more to say about the board meeting in other threads, later.