As there isn't a topic on this yet and I'd be interested in your thoughts, here's one.

Today it was time for the 7th round, the result being that Song Jun Hyup (who is he btw, a quick googling didn't enlighten me) remains the only undefeated player in the top group, and Kim Young Sam and Ilya Shikshin share the 2nd place with one loss each. Here is a link to Round 7 results.
Although I'm not active in the tournament scene, the top 10 players are fairly familiar names and I haven't heard of any big surprises so far. Do you think Song Jun Hyup will stay undefeated until the end? So far he seems to have been a notch above all others. And me being Finnish, if someone's been watching Antti's games, how is he doing - any sign of his past year's studies showing?

Also, if anyone heard any interesting news about the tournament from friends playing there etc., it would be nice to get to know some inside information, as the coverage on their website is not very extensive.


(I posted this in General section, as EGF forum is very inactive, please move the thread if needed)

Well, the website contains at least the results and the relayed top games: among them one of Antti's losses. http://www.egc2012.eu/congress/main-tou ... w-song-jun

I would say Antti is definitely doing fine, no loss against a fellow European player so far. With the ko rounds starting in round 8 the european top 8 play against each other, so if any other player from outside the euro top 8 manages to beat Song Jun Hyup (who already beat almost all title aspirants) it would definitely be a surprise + it probably wouldn't cost him the title as only 2 players with less SOS have 6 wins currently.

I hope Mateusz will win today against Cristian Pop, as I would like to see how he perform against top europeans (even though considering his performance in the tournament, his chances of winning aren't that high). I am quite surprised that after few years in Korea, Mateusz isn't much stronger. Guess improving from 5d to 6d is like improving from 10k to 1d...

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Formerly Gorim

Well, he did beat CPop online in the European Teams Tournament this year:

http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/eur ... ounds/35#2

Yeah I know that, I meant his results in the Open Championship not the weekend tournament. Also Cristian isn't really in shape it seems, although his yesterday game was very good.

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Formerly Gorim

Were his games bad? Because he'd be the underdog against Ilja, a teensy tiny favorite against Debarre, but basically even, and an underdog against Song.

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Occupy Babel!

Hi Gorim, check EGD for Ilya Shikshin for example and take a look at his ranking graph, you will see how many years it take to improve from 5d to 6d and then from 6d to 7d. Improving from 10k to to 1d is not hard enough to be adequate comparison model , it may be hard but it's much more easier to get 1d even after one year of hard work than to advance from 5d to 6d. You don't see such improvents at the top, unless somebody is a prodigy . In spite of that I would say that Mateusz is doing extraordinaly well, and I would love to say that it is possibly for him to get 7d to the end of this year because he is young, devoted to the game, and a real hard worker but still it is not posible to advance to 7d quickly. Take into the account that he just received a promotion to 6d few weeks ago. Kyu players often underestimates the gap in knowledge and skills in high dan strength area.