So you must be the strongest player in Ireland…

Yeah about that… I honestly feel quite lucky to have been the representative at both the 44th World Amateur Go Championship in Tokyo and the 19th Korea Prime Minister Cup in Taebaek Korea. There are definitely stronger players in Ireland and stronger Irish players that are eligible. On the active rankings for Ireland, at the time of writing, I’m 22nd, and even if you filter that for eligible players I’m probably not in the top 5 even!

It was a question that gets asked every so often at these tournaments, and if you want to know more about our selection criteria check out the KPMC one and the WAGC one. The gist is that I got a bit l lucky with other players either not wanting to go, or not being available to go, plus a few points from previous top 8 tournaments. It looks like it could be a while before I get to go again, so I’ll have to work hard to make it happen!

Taebaek

After probably 24 hours or so of travel, flights from Dublin to Abu Dhabi to Seoul, and a 4 or so hour bus ride from Seoul to Taebaek we arrived at the beautiful Taebaek hotel, which we really have to thank the KBF and sponsors such as Taebaek city itself for having us. The rooms were huge, two players per room, but it was more like a mini apartment!

Rounds 1 & 2 were held in the Taebaek Gowon Gynamasium, while rounds 3 to 7 were in the hotel itself and all other events, like Pair Go, the “Can you Go, kid” event and simul games with pro players.

I didn’t get to see much of Taebaek overall, it was heavily raining for a few days, and we were kind of on the outskirts of the city. It’s possibly a 30-minute bus ride or a decently long walk away, so it was quite quiet around, especially on Sunday when everything looked closed. We genuinely also were in the middle of mountainside forests, surrounded by big mountains of trees! I also missed the coal museum tour on the last day, as both myself and my roommate slept in, staying up too late on the last night. Apologies to the KBF for that!

Games

I have a rough record of some of my games from the tournament, but generally, even when I can remember the games afterwards, I still usually am not able to get the endgame in the correct order! It’s something I’ll work on, especially as I study more of Go Endgames. Luckily (or unluckily) all of the games were recorded by Go Pros(?) above the board, and the records will eventually be transcribed and uploaded on the KPMC website.

In the seven games I played, I played vs Israel, Brunei, Portugal, Hungary, Lithuania, Columbia and Spain. Overall I have some mixed emotions about the games: generally happy to have gotten to be there and play, sad for some of the losses and even some of the wins – it depends on how I played really. I’m considering doing a more detailed look and review of the games once the proper game records are up, but for now, here are some of my thoughts:

• Israel 5d – no expectation to win, but still wanted to try my best. In the middle game once behind maybe I should’ve still played the proper moves to at least try to keep the endgame close
• Brunei 2d – slept badly ~3 hours, but I think played reasonably well until I lost focus near the end and missed a very obvious atari. If only I looked back at the whole board a few more times!
• Portugal 1k – I feel like I played badly, should’ve died with one of two groups and got lucky to capture some stones
• Hungary 1d – The one move game, my opponent slept in but got revenge by beating me on one of the last days while I was having some soju. He’s quite strong, so not sure I could’ve won the game even if it happened.
• Lithuania 3d – Apparently the game was even, or maybe I could’ve been slightly ahead, up until the start of the endgame, where he mentioned after I probably lost about 4 points in two places and so lost by about 9 points. So not too upset with my play, but I need to study endgame!
• Columbia 3d – I had to fight to keep the game even, but I felt like he had a simpler game plan for the endgame which was to hold onto his centre. I think I tried to be too active and crumbled once under time pressure eventually.
• Spain 1k – I already lost to this guy in Toulouse at the 2024 EGC weekend tournament, and this time was no different. Twice now Sanrensei hasn’t worked out, he just generally got the better of sequences and trades both times!

Other Events

I got to play a game against Eunkyo Do 1p, where I placed 4 stones, and held on for a little while in complicated fighting, but then briefly Blackie (Kim Seung-jun) 9p took over, and I crumbled and died with a group XD.

I played in the Pair Go with my teammate from Chile. We actually won two games, a game vs Czech Republic & Philippines which was very lucky, and a 2 stone game as white vs Serbia and the twin sister of the Austrian player which ended up a draw on the board! We lost two also: one in a 4 stone game as White against Kazakhstan and Argentina where we had no chances, and one with myself and Iran (replacing Chile) vs Ecuador and their teammate with a random opening! The random openings were for even games after round 1 I believe, with coordinates being selected randomly for Black and mirrored for White.

I also played in the Can you Go, kid event where I won two games against young players, one luckily against Austria (which may be the last time I get a chance to win that matchup!) and one against a young Korean player. For my efforts, I won a nightlight and box of snacks that I shared around with other players and my roommate, and surprisingly and hilariously a certificate for not letting the kids win in 2/2 games! I’m still laughing a little writing this.

One other really amazing thing was that each player was gifted a drawing of themselves playing, which the amazing artist Zoe managed to create in such a short time: 59 players in probably only 5 days!

More info and photos

There should be more photos and information online, from various go federations and associations, and on social media. Here are a few I found:

• KPMC website for results, eventually the game records and hopefully some photos.
• EGF website news section
• EGF facebook page
• Some Instagram and Facebook pages for associations Argentina, Asian Go Federation, Brunei, British Go,
• The amazing artist Zoe on Facebook and Instagram.

I’ve borrowed a couple of photos – the ones of me playing which I didn’t take – so let me know if that’s an issue.

I suppose, just a final comment or two: I really enjoyed my visit to Korea, the tournament the 19th KPMC, meeting lots of new people, the amazing venues and staff, really great food. I wish I could’ve stayed longer to see more of Taebaek, Seoul or Incheon, and Korea in general, and I’m slightly jealous of those who did! I’ll have to work hard to try to go back as a Go player, or save up to go back as a tourist at the very least!