Life In 19x19

Ilja Shikshin, Csaba Mero and Jan Hora qualified as the European representatives to the SportAccord World Mind Games in Beijing later this year.

http://www.wmsg2012.org/results/saqualifier

Who has been eligible to participate in that qualifier?

5 rounds, then Wins, SOS is of insufficient quality in relation to the importance of the seeding tournament.

As far as I know, participation was based on invitation of top European players, and Zeno van Ditzhuijzen was added at the last minute to make an even number of players (I think after Gilles van Eeden cancelled). Who were invited exactly, I do not know.

Thank you. Now I wonder: how were those 9 top invited selected? I can guess, but...

It is a shame there were only 10 participants. I think the calendar is a little too full at the moment, with the EGC, then SAWMG qualifier, then WMSG. If you want to play it all, you effectively have to stay in Bonn/Lille for up to five weeks.

BTW, Robert, do you know why there is (virtually) no representation from Germany at the WMSG?

HermanHiddema wrote:It is a shame there were only 10 participants. I think the calendar is a little too full at the moment, with the EGC, then SAWMG qualifier, then WMSG. If you want to play it all, you effectively have to stay in Bonn/Lille for up to five weeks.

BTW, Robert, do you know why there is (virtually) no representation from Germany at the WMSG?

Germany is pretty careful about not entering France these days...

Seriously though, that's surprising that folks IN Europe aren't sending delegations...

HermanHiddema wrote:Robert, do you know why there is (virtually) no representation from Germany at the WMSG?

1) The WMSG organisation took too long to inform the countries about their right to send players.

2) The executive of the German Go Association was too busy with the congress organisation. Only a week(!) before the congress, I was asked whether I would wish to participate.

3) Apparently the German Go Association loses money by having held the congress. So there was no convincing promise of financial support for at least a few players.

4) E.g., I ended up with the option to play in up to three tournaments but the shortness of planning, travel expenses (for a few days probably more than for 2 weeks congress), (3), still unclear tournament system (in particular, it is still unclear whether I might play in the top groups) and so relatively low motivation to win games, the decreased WMSG status due to prohibited participation of professionals, and personal reasons have been my reasons not to participate.

RobertJasiek wrote:Who has been eligible to participate in that qualifier?

Here is the list of invited players:
1 Shikshin Ilja 2748 2748 Russia 7d 1
2 Taranu Catalin 2735 2738 Romania 7d/5p 2
3 Dinerstein Alexandr 2694 2728 Russia 7d/3p 3
4 Kachanovskyi Artem 2676 2693 Ukraine 7d 4
5 Pop Cristian 2653 2673 Romania 7d 5
6 Burzo Cornel 2626 2656 Romania 6d
7 Silt Ondrej 2650 2650 Czechia 6d 6
8 Balogh Pal 2609 2645 Hungary 6d 7
9 Mero Csaba 2629 2640 Hungary 6d 8
10 Zeijst Rob_van 2627 2627 Netherlands 7d 9
11 Simara Jan 2608 2608 Czechia 6d 10
12 Zatonskikh Anton 2606 2606 Russia 7d
13 Derbarre Thomas 2604 2606 France 6d 11
14 Bajenaru Dragos 2583 2606 Romania 6d
15 Teuber Benjamin 2600 2600 Germany 6d 12
16 Florescu Ion 2570 2594 Romania 6d
17 Lisy Pavol 2564 2594 Slovakia 5d 13
18 Tormanen Antti 2589 2592 Finland 6d 14
19 van Eeden Gilles 2525 2590 Netherlands 6d 15
20 Mitic Dusan 2552 2589 Serbia 6d 16
21 Hora Jan 2565 2585 Czechia 6d
22 Kuin Merlijn 2553 2585 Netherlands 6d
23 Dickhut Franz-Josef 2584 2584 Germany 6d
24 Podpera Lukas 2579 2583 Czechia 5d
25 Jabarin Ali 2579 2579 Israel 6d
26 Surin Dmitrij 2568 2579 Russia 6d
27 Kravets Andrii 2578 2578 Ukraine 5d
28 Gerlach Christoph 2575 2575 Germany 6d
29 Macfadyen Matthew 2501 2573 UK 6d
30 Bohatskyi Dmytro 2562 2569 Ukraine 6d
31 Blomback Fredrik 2550 2566 Sweden 6d
32 Mezhov Oleg 2556 2556 Russia 6d
33 Dimitriev Ruslan 2521 2551 Russia 6d
34 Brouwer Peter 2528 2548 Netherlands 6d
35 Mitic Nikola 2543 2546 Serbia 5d
36 Prokop Jan 2512 2546 Czechia 5d
37 Deaconu Lucian 2543 2543 Romania 5d
38 Zhurakovskyi Bohdan 2538 2538 Ukraine 5d
39 Danek Vladimir 2501 2537 Czechia 5d
40 Drouot Paul 2531 2536 France 5d
41 Lin Viktor 2520 2534 Austria 5d
42 Groenen Geert 2510 2533 Netherlands 6d
43 Janssen Frank 2530 2530 Netherlands 6d
44 Colmez Pierre 2512 2528 France 5d
45 Lazarev Alexej 2490 2527 Russia 6d
46 Serban Mihai 2495 2519 Romania 5d
47 Surma Mateusz 2518 2518 Poland 5d
48 Savolainen Javier-Aleksi 2477 2517 Finland 5d
49 Sankin Timur 2507 2516 Russia 5d
50 Soldan Leszek 2484 2515 Poland 5d
51 Campagnie Remi 2512 2512 France 5d
52 Nijhuis Emil 2485 2512 Netherlands 6d
53 Eijkhout Michiel 2487 2504 Netherlands 6d
54 Seailles Jeff 2503 2503 France 5d

1st criteria best max. EGF rating since 1st June 2011 till 31st May 2012
2nd criteria better current rating in case of 1st critera is the same
by 31st May 2012

Because of small compensation for tickets/hotel (200 euro only) and maybe other reasons, most of invited players refused to take part.
Because of 2 players max from the same country rule, Oleg Mezhov from Russia was not able to take part. But he will play in WMSG.

Thank you!

So the SAWMG allows also players with professional ranks?

Has the travel support been for the qualifier, the SAWMG or for both?

Lukas Kraemer is not in the rating list, at least not among the top 54 players.

RobertJasiek wrote:Lukas Kraemer is not in the rating list, at least not among the top 54 players.

Strange that he is not in the list, since his peak rating in the given period was 2510, and his current rating on June 1st was 2486, both of which are better than some players in the list.

Sport Accord preliminary: only 200 euro per person
Tickets&hotel must be paid by players

Sport Accord Main Event in China: 500 euro, plus free ticket, plus free hotel.

I suggested to invite 8 players instead of 16 and give them 400 euro instead of 200, but EGF refused. So, I ignored this event. 200 euro - clearly not enough to cover flight from Moscow and hotel for 3 days

"I feel this setup is unacceptable. You keep expecting us to lose money and accept very low money
prizes instead of finding a way to select players that doesn't cost money"
from the letter of Catalin Taranu to EGF.

Personally I feel it was much better to play preliminary online, or send players by rating

Was it necessary to play a SAWMG qualification tournament? Otherwise, e.g., the top 3 EGC players could have been sent.

Right, much better way. I have nothing against choosing players by EGC results

Perhaps, to generate some money, the EGF should ask the same entry fees that the Bridge event asks at the WMSG.