SA Open and other Go news

I can’t believe it’s been over 3 weeks since my last general update. Mea culpa, I’m afraid.

But before I get on to the news for the last 3 weeks, I owe Tim (at least) a report on my activities at the South African Open Go Championships held in Soweto about 7 weeks ago. Jaco, Rory and I took the same 1Time flight up to Joburg, and we joked around a bit about the plane, since it’s some German job, where we boarded the plane by climbing up a set of ladders and entering the rear-end of the craft.

Andre picked me up at the airport, and the next day we spent chilling out at his place, while we downloaded some software we might need, etc.

Saturday was the first day of the tournament, and my first visit to Soweto, specifically Dobsonville. One thing that astounded me was the number of minibus taxis operating in the area. Those used to the Cape Town level of taxis have no idea what it’s like in that area. In any case, we found the hall OK, and got everything set up fine.

My first game was against Dave Gale, a 3-kyu from Joburg, who I have a good record against. I was confident I could win, but got myself into trouble from the beginning, played too obstinately, and in the end I was easily beaten. Not the best start. Because of my loss, I was paired down the next round, against one of Soweto’s home-grown talents, Thabiso Lemeke, an 8-kyu. Thabiso’s style is distinctly Sowetan: never-say-die, and make everything a fight. It was quite draining, but after a few tight moments, I came out ok, and his positions started collapsing. He caught me out with an oiotoshi towards the end, and he managed to capture a few cutting stones and resurrect two of his dead groups in the process, but at that stage it was too little, too late. I still won comfortably. Thabiso did well in the rest of the tournament, though, upsetting Rory and Pablo, earning a promotion to 7-kyu.

My third round game was against Dave’s son, Ben Gale, comfortably the strongest player at the tournament at 3-dan. Our post-game analysis seemed to indicate things were still pretty even after around 40-50 moves, but then I made a poor strategic decision and things started going downhill. I got pretty comprehensively thrashed, although I had him sweating at times. I was pleased I managed to keep him thinking so much that he entered overtime, and a long time before me. However, I also finally ended up there, with the game turning out the longest of the last round. Ben won 6 of 6 to win the tournament.

Rounds 4-6 were scheduled for Sunday. Rounds 4 and 5 were good chances I missed. In Round 4, I played Ben’s brother, Bob (2k). Things were level-pegging for a long time, I think, but then I thought I had an opportunity to kill, and things got hairy. In the end, a ladder was crucial, but there were a number of options for redirecting the ladder, and we both spent a LOT of time reading and re-reading. In the end, my reading was flawed, and he saved his group, leaving me way behind. A disappointing result. Round 5 was against Paul Edwards, a 1-dan who won the Veteran’s prize this year. I can’t remember the details, but I think I had some good chances, but he managed to pull off a win.

Between Rounds 4 and 5, Andre and I went off to the local shopping centre for lunch. The people there were quite amazed I didn’t have any shoes, and I, in turn, was quite amazed by the Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in the centre. The KFC is near the entrance of the centre, and food orders and payments operate similar to those in banks in Stellenbosch: there are containers below bulletproof glass, in which one places one’s money, and the food is also put in there. The containers are then slid backwards and forwards between the customer and the cashier. I was disappointed to have left my camera behind.

Over lunch, the players also enjoyed some amateur soccer on the grass outside the centre. During our tournament, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates were playing in a stadium nearby, so the Go players could occasionally hear the cheering from the stadium.

After three consecutive losses, I was paired down again, this time against Pablo Casado, who also plays at the Joburg club. He entered the tournament at 6-kyu, but had, earlier in the day, first pulled off an upset win against Rory, and followed that up in the fifth round with a brilliant performance against Paul Edwards, where he pulled off a win. I knew Jaco and Thabiso had beaten him, but I wasn’t sure what to expect. I thought I should be able to win, but felt quite nervous. In the end, he handled a joseki badly, and that put me in the better position. There were later some chinks in my armour to exploit, but he missed them, and I managed to repair the damage in time, and got a reasonably comfortable victory. However, he played well, and the victory margin, although comfortable, was not flattering to me. All in all, a good game.

No prizes for me this year, either. With 2 out of 6 wins, against a 6-kyu and an 8-kyu, and 2 upset losses, against a 2-kyu and a 3-kyu, my 9th position was rather disappointing, considering I should have expected a top 5 finish. In the end, the home crowd was pleased by Sipho Mampe’s second place, and Welile Gogotshe’s third. Sipho was a 1-kyu at the start of the tournament, but his 5/6 result with only a loss against Ben earned him promotion to dan-level.

Congratulations to all the players, and thanks to Andre Connell and Sello Leopeng for organizing the event, and to SAGA for their support. Pictures of the event are available on the SAGoclubs website gallery: just click here.

Since then I’ve also played in another internet tournament. This time I got my first tournament game against Victor Chow, and managed to hold my own for an entire corner joseki. Ended up playing too close to thickness really early, though, and from then on, I was just mincemeat. I came close to beating the new 4-dan from France, Matthieu le Hir, with a big kill based on a nice tesuji which it seems he missed from the post-game analysis, but my surrounding stones weren’t strong enough, and he managed to break out and save them. No luck after that. I pulled off one win to finish joint 5th-7th, but that’s not enough to guarantee top group qualification again in early May, so I’ll have to see what the entry levels are for that tournament – hopefully I may make the top group.