So Gavin took a flight all over Europe to Vladivostok to represent Ireland at the World Amateur Go Championship 2021. 6 rounds of intense go to try and top the world of Amateur Go!

First day was busy with the Opening ceremony and recovering from the trip.

Today was the first round and Gavin faced the first person he had met during his trip, namely Olli Aleksi ERVELÄ, 2d from Finland.
The game is below.

[glift sgf=”https://www.irish-go.org/wp-content/grand-media/application/wagc2021-day1.sgf”]

Let’s see what Gavin thinks of it:

First round is finished. I won by resignation. I also played the Russian Cup and won my first game too.

“In the first round I played Olli who coincidently was my first friend here..we were playing and reviewing together before the draw so us playing each other first was a bit of a surprise. The game was very tough and the pros did not like my opening at all. But I still managed to pull through. Fighty fight 🙂 “

I looked at the game and I agree the fuseki doesn’t look so good for Black who gives too much point. White probably aware of the lead starts to play quite conservatively for a while and Gavin manages to scoop out territory in most places until suddenly a big ko gets triggered and Gavin immediatly seizes this opportunity to reverse the game. This required a lot of reading though as suddenly alive groups became dead for both players…

Well done Gavin, brilliant start.
Tomorrow Gavin plays David Mitchell an Australian 4d.
https://wagc2020.org/pairings_en