Sport Accord - World Mind Games

[mw42]

I'm surprised to read this on news as well and wonder who made this decision.

From breakfast's (Dinerchtein) KGS+ lecture:

breakfast [3p]: European team:
breakfast [3p]: Taranu, Pop, Burzo, Simara, Wanessa Wong
breakfast [3p]: Ilya Shikshin got the right to play, but ...
breakfast [3p]: he is ill now, so he cannot take part
breakfast [3p]: one story first:
breakfast [3p]: I was the 1st reserve
breakfast [3p]: Artem92 - second reserve
breakfast [3p]: Jan Simara - 3rd
breakfast [3p]: EGF asked me to replace Ilya
breakfast [3p]: and of course I agreed
breakfast [3p]: but suddenly Chinese decided to reject any former USSR countries
breakfast [3p]: so, I was not allowed to take part
breakfast [3p]: Artem92 too
breakfast [3p]: very strange story
breakfast [3p]: EGF allowed us to play preliminary
breakfast [3p]: but SportAccord refused to accept us

I hope he doesn't mind my posting this.

[Psychee]

I don't think other sports in the SAWMG exclude Russian players. Was there anything special about Go?

[Javaness2]

Given they'd entered as the European Union...

[HermanHiddema]

I'm disappointed Ilya Shikshin wasn't allowed to play for Europe; I was looking forward to seeing him fight with pros.

I'm surprised to read this on news as well and wonder who made this decision.

Ilya Shikshin didn't play because he failed to qualify. The qualification tournament featured three Russian players, Ilja Shikshin, Alexandre Dinerchtein and Svetlana Shikshina, but none of them scored well enough to make it to the team. The same is true for other strong candidates, such as Ukraine's Artem Kachanovskyi. Vanessa Wong actually qualified for the female position by winning the last round against Shikshina.

[Laman]

Ilya Shikshin didn't play because he failed to qualify. The qualification tournament featured three Russian players, Ilja Shikshin, Alexandre Dinerchtein and Svetlana Shikshina, but none of them scored well enough to make it to the team. The same is true for other strong candidates, such as Ukraine's Artem Kachanovskyi. Vanessa Wong actually qualified for the female position by winning the last round against Shikshina.

that is not entirely true. final standings were Burzo, Pop, Taranu, Shikshin, Dinerstein, Kachanovskyi, Šimara, ...

i don't find the organisers' decision very fair for the non-EU European countries, letting them participate in qualification and then deny them chance to play in the main tournament

and i say that despite Czechia got "lucky" and this sudden twist in situation resulted in a Czech player going to China instead of Russians and Ukrainians

[tapir]

Ilya Shikshin didn't play because he failed to qualify. The qualification tournament featured three Russian players, Ilja Shikshin, Alexandre Dinerchtein and Svetlana Shikshina, but none of them scored well enough to make it to the team. The same is true for other strong candidates, such as Ukraine's Artem Kachanovskyi. Vanessa Wong actually qualified for the female position by winning the last round against Shikshina.

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.

[HermanHiddema]

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

[jts]

On the bright side, Go is not Checkers:

The morning session in the draughts tournament saw all games end in a draw.

[Uberdude]

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 .

[Hsiang]

breakfast [3p]: European team:
breakfast [3p]: Taranu, Pop, Burzo, Simara, Wanessa Wong
breakfast [3p]: Ilya Shikshin got the right to play, but ...
breakfast [3p]: he is ill now, so he cannot take part
breakfast [3p]: one story first:
breakfast [3p]: I was the 1st reserve
breakfast [3p]: Artem92 - second reserve
breakfast [3p]: Jan Simara - 3rd
breakfast [3p]: EGF asked me to replace Ilya
breakfast [3p]: and of course I agreed
breakfast [3p]: but suddenly Chinese decided to reject any former USSR countries
breakfast [3p]: so, I was not allowed to take part
breakfast [3p]: Artem92 too
breakfast [3p]: very strange story
breakfast [3p]: EGF allowed us to play preliminary
breakfast [3p]: but SportAccord refused to accept us

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.

[Stevenson]

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?

[xed_over]

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

[gogameguru]

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.

[hyperpape]

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.

[lovely]

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.

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.