Life In 19x19

I think they should have played each round in a different country. After all it is not expensive to travel to 6 different countries in Europe. Of course, visa and money troubles aside, the events had to be held somewhere. I don't know how the locations where chosen. My impression was that cities likely to hold a grand slam event where chosen, but I have no idea if this was really the case or not. I do know how the venues for the congresses where chosen, that was by vote at the AGM on the bids offered for that year.

There really was no subtext, no allegation of malice in my post, so you don't have to "discover" and debunk it. I put all my observations on the surface, only a part of these are obviously within the power of the EGF to change. The net effect of all this is demonstrably skewed, which is a problem regardless of intentions.

It would, however, been perfectly possible to add a sentence "Nationals of countries represented in the EGF, who were created professionals by <name 5 known Asian professional organisations>, will be treated equally to professionals created by the EGF as far as this is within the jurisdiction of the EGF." (or some lawyerly text to the same end) right after mentioning preference given to "European professionals". Maybe this is what is planned, but so far it isn't there, giving rise to the accusation of betrayal of existing professionals (see Catalin's mail).

When I look at the list of prominent absentee players and Catalin alleging "some people quit" I can't but wonder whether he meant one of them. Catalin should in my opinion have named them, when he invokes "people quit" at all (for the sake of transparency and equal opportunity in communication). Still, this is an open question for me.

tapir wrote:It would, however, been perfectly possible to add a sentence "Nationals of countries represented in the EGF, who were created professionals by <name 5 known Asian professional organisations>, will be treated equally to professionals created by the EGF as far as this is within the jurisdiction of the EGF." (or some lawyerly text to the same end) right after mentioning preference given to "European professionals". Maybe this is what is planned, but so far it isn't there, giving rise to the accusation of betrayal of existing professionals (see Catalin's mail).

I would expect that they would want to talk with the other pro organisation first about some kind of reciprocity. Otherwise, you're putting the EGF certified professionals in an inferior position, because the other professionals have all the same rights, but also additional right within their own pro organisation. Since they are apparently already in talks with Korea about giving EGF pros access to Korean tournaments, that indicates that they may add such language in the future if and when such deals are struck.

HermanHiddema wrote:I would expect that they would want to talk with the other pro organisation first about some kind of reciprocity. Otherwise, you're putting the EGF certified professionals in an inferior position, because the other professionals have all the same rights, but also additional right within their own pro organisation. Since they are apparently already in talks with Korea about giving EGF pros access to Korean tournaments, that indicates that they may add such language in the future if and when such deals are struck.

Well, additional rights by being Hankuk-Kiwon or Nihon Ki-in affiliated while residing in Europe can turn out illusory, e.g. when your federation/tournament sponsor requires you to take the qualifiers according to your Hankuk-Kiwon / Nihon Ki-in affiliation instead of entering on the European ticket. (I understand this is/was the case at times.) Catalin, Alexandre, Svetlana seem to have "paused" memberships and no active play in professional tournaments, matters may be different for Mariya and Diana. For them participating in Asia vs. residing in Europe are pretty much mutually exclusive (there is no part-time, I play only three tournaments a year and forfeit the rest option for them, as far as I understand). I have trouble imagining any superior rights for the foreign created professionals once they moved to Europe. Apart from Diana (who was in Korea at that time) I haven't seen any of them in the open (to professionals) preliminaries of international championships as well.

hyperpape wrote: It looks like Artem hasn't played tournaments since December (http://europeangodatabase.eu/EGD/Player ... y=12662870). Ilya has not since January (http://europeangodatabase.eu/EGD/Player ... y=12013342).

Ilja played last month in a tournament in Finland.