Life In 19x19

Has anyone seen any sign of a WAGC website yet? The competition date is coming closer...

google "31 wagc"
first entry:
http://www.world-go.org/index.php?opt=c ... 34&lang=en
since it shows a list of countries that participate it should be connected somehow to that tournament (or they copied that list from past wagc websites)
edit: btw, under "news" you can find infos about the 3rd master course in vienna, AT. anyone who wants to participate should register soon, because there´s not much time left (the mastercourse will be in november 27-29th 2009)

List of contestants at: http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/amakisen/wor ... tants.html (not fully complete yet)

I was struck by how very few contestants are now programmers and mathematicians. We now have plumbers, social workers, architects, etc. I regard this as a sign of progress for western go.

I note with approval also the many new faces. Not entirely sure why, but I'd like to see the young Cuban 4-dan do well.

I'm puzzled by the absence of some countries such as Indonesia (which has quite a few strong players of Chinese extraction who have been served quite well by the Kansai Ki-in the past).

Presumably contestants having to pay their own air fare this time has affected who is attending.

John Fairbairn wrote:I was struck by how very few contestants are now programmers and mathematicians. We now have plumbers, social workers, architects, etc. I regard this as a sign of progress for western go.

I note with approval also the many new faces. Not entirely sure why, but I'd like to see the young Cuban 4-dan do well.

I'm puzzled by the absence of some countries such as Indonesia (which has quite a few strong players of Chinese extraction who have been served quite well by the Kansai Ki-in the past).

Presumably contestants having to pay their own air fare this time has affected who is attending.

I find it hard to believe that Indonesia will not attend. The Italian representative has had to withdraw due to illness, but a replacement will travel in his place.

John Fairbairn wrote:I was struck by how very few contestants are now programmers and mathematicians. We now have plumbers, social workers, architects, etc. I regard this as a sign of progress for western go.

I note with approval also the many new faces. Not entirely sure why, but I'd like to see the young Cuban 4-dan do well.

I'm puzzled by the absence of some countries such as Indonesia (which has quite a few strong players of Chinese extraction who have been served quite well by the Kansai Ki-in the past).

Presumably contestants having to pay their own air fare this time has affected who is attending.

it's one problem. Since Indonesia Igo Federation has no official sponsor at the moment, the representative must pay his/her own expense. It is one problem. The other problem, perhaps, is time. The top players seem to be busy at the moment...

I thought expenses were always paid. Is this the first time they have not been?

I really hope Korean tensions do not lead to anyone pulling out of the tournament.

DrStraw wrote:I thought expenses were always paid. Is this the first time they have not been?

yes

Just checked out the players. Really inaccurate info on past representation in many cases. My favorite is Soldan from Poland being listed as a first timer! I am pretty sure this is not only the second time for Thomas Hsaing and Yongfei Ge as well. T Mark just stated the other day here that this was his second trip, yet he is down as a first timer too.

I'm quite sure that the earlier version of the contestants page had an entry count 11 for Leszek. I guess something was lost in the editing at some stage. Judging from my own stats, the entries include the previous entries only.

I'm quite thrilled about the WAGC in Hangzhou. Even though some sponsorship is lost, it's still a major happening in our amateur go world. Of course, don't forget the European Go Congress 2010 in Tampere, Finland :)

Cheers,
Vesa

http://www.egc2010.fi

HKA wrote:I really hope Korean tensions do not lead to anyone pulling out of the tournament.

Can you explain a little what exactly you are talking about? Because I and presumably others have no clue.

tapir wrote:

HKA wrote:I really hope Korean tensions do not lead to anyone pulling out of the tournament.

Can you explain a little what exactly you are talking about? Because I and presumably others have no clue.

Well, this site is not about discussing political disputes. It is hard to believe that folks are not aware that South Korea is accusing North Korea of torpedoeing a ship, killing several.

for others who don't know...

torpedo incident
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_p ... 129703.stm

four months ago, artillery fire exchange
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific ... d=2a6f9995

People may have died this time, but I don't think that this kind of news is anything really new. There's also a number of people in Korea that don't even believe that it really happened - elections are coming up in South Korea. But as HKA said, this is a political issue, and not exactly the scope of this forum.