On December 9, 2011, the inaugural Sports Accord World Mind Games kicked off in Beijing, China.
The Sports Accord World Mind Games
Go players at the opening ceremony. Can any readers name everyone in the picture?
Participants from the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe and gathered to pit their minds against each other in Bridge, Chess, Chinese Chess, Draughts and Go.
There are two Go events held at the games – mixed Pair Go and the mixed team competition.
The mixed team event is a round robin between six teams (four males and one female per team) – China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the USA.
This is an exciting and rare opportunity for top amateur players from the USA and Europe to take on top Asian professional players.
Mind games results so far
So far in the mixed team event, three rounds have been played.
In round 1:
- China defeated Europe
- Korea defeated Taiwan
- Japan defeated USA
In round 2:
- Japan defeated Europe
- China defeated Taiwan
- Korea defeated USA
China's Piao Wenyao plays Europe's Jan Simara.
In round 3:
- Japan defeated Taiwan
- USA defeated Europe
- China defeated Korea
The match between China and Korea drew a lot of attention because winning would give them a good chance of winning the event.
Team China emerged victorious with Gu, Xie and Li winning their matches.
Round 3 China vs Korea results
The detailed results were:
- Lee Sedol defeated Kong Jie
- Gu Li defeated Choi Cheolhan
- Xie He defeated Park Junghwan
- Lee Younggu defeated Piao Wenyao
- Li He defeated Kim Hyemin
Team Korea in uniform. Lee Sedol (foreground), Choi Cheolhan (background).
China and Japan remain undefeated so far and the winner of the China vs Japan match will likely win the event.
The round robin will continue on December 13 and 14 and mixed Pair Go will take place on December 15 and 16. See Ranka Online, the AGA E-Journal and the World Mind Games official website for more news.
About Jing
In the Jie / Hiroshi game, why does W let B build such an impressive wall? A 3,3 invasion at this point seems rather counterintuitive.
I understand what you mean Dave and it’s good to think twice about giving black a lot of influence like that. Invading at 3-3 is a common technique in positions like this, where black has extended on both sides of the 4-4 point (at K16 and Q10).
The basic idea is that white can live in the corner in sente and will make one of black’s extensions become somewhat inefficient (K16 in this case). However, you’re right that black’s wall is impressive and there are other ways to play.
For example, white could invading at R12 or consider approaching the top right star point on either side. However, since white would be invading inside black’s sphere of influence, black would be able to attack severely and create solid territory in that area while white struggled.
It would be a different game and it’s playable, but not necessarily ‘better’. It really depends on your style. The 3-3 invasion is the low risk option. I would consider other options though and you should play what feels right to you, develop your own style and enjoy the game.
The topic of “early” 3-3 invasions came up on L19 recently. As David said it’s the low risk option: you get points and an alive group and quite possibly sente (that’s why black played o17 rather than the usual move of p17), whereas knight’s move approach gets you a weak group. See http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=84254#p84254 and my subsequent post.
Catalin looked absolutely bullied on the left side of his game with Kong Jie. It’s insane to see someone so much better than me get beaten so seemingly easily.
Yes, I looked at that game and thought the same thing. Kong Jie is just really really strong and his play in this game was quite educational.
Professional players are usually regarded as 5D stronger than similar D level amateur players in China.
I enjoyed watching Jiang Mingjiu’s game against Lee Sedol. Jiang tried to play very solidly in the opening (to avoid fights, I believe), but anyway, he had no chance…
Another funny game was Catalin Taranu vs. Yamashita Keigo (Japan), which was really short. Catalin overplayed and was punished quickly… He had to resign after move 70 or so
I think Jie Li did well in his games, even against top pros.
best game was Jan simara vs piao wenyao he lost by 6points only.. pretty surprising
On a related note, will we see anything like Aguilar’s exciting run again?
The game between Yamashita Keigo and Lee Sedol was very nice too. Half point for the korean.
I just hope that one day south america can also participate. It would be very nice to see a mixed team of Brazil, Argentina and other countries from our continent.
Yes, South America and Oceania Menezes