Ilya's 5th game was broadcast on WBaduk, showing the interest in their games. He lost though by resign (behind by about komi) against 'JSW' 2p. He played the 2 space high shimari popularised by AlphaGo and the game was fairly territorial without big fighting. The decisive point to my eyes was when he attacked a few stones (on the left side) and played a peep which his opponent ignored to escape, Ilya captured the tail in gote whilst his opponent got centre thickness, who then came back to answer the peep: I think he needed to either get more in the fight or get sente to follow-up the ignored peep (bad timing initially?). Maybe the opening was already a little bad for him. He did later nicely harass the thickness and force it to make 2 eyes but it wasn't enough.

Really appreciate that you keep us up to date about this wolfking! I hope European professionals will continue to show good results!

'JSW' is Jiao Shiwei 2p, ranked 162 in CWA ranking with an ELO of 2292 (for comparison Ke Jie has an ELO of 2751). I was watching the game on Fox Go Server and felt the same when Ilya captured the tail in gote. He did get a lot of territory on the left but probably gave opponent too much center thickness.

There were two games broadcast on Fox Go Server from Round 5, this one and the one between Ida and Zheng Yuhang 3p. Just shows the interest of Chinese media in these two teams.

Results from round 5, played on June 13th.

Yet another tie by Team Europe vs Team Yunnan! I think at this point we are not that surprised by the result. The team is confident and maybe they can get a win in the final two rounds.

1. Ilya Shikshin 0:1 Jiao Shiwei 2p
2. Ali Jabarin 1:0 Xu Jiawei 1p
3. Pavol Lisy 0:1 Li Wei 3p
4. Mateusz Surma 1:0 Han Enyi 6D

Surma has been unbeatable! And Ali gets his first win! Now everyone on the team has at least one win. This will definitely boost their confidence going forward. I wish at least one of them keep a blog to document this experience.


Team Japan came back in a big way and swept Beijing Qinglan 4:0. Ida got his first win.

1. Ida Atsushi 1:0 Zheng Yuhang 3p
2. Yu Zhengqi 1:0 Ying Yitao 3p
3. Hsu Chiayuan 1:0 Lei Zhenkun 2p
4. Shibano Toramaru 1:0 Chen Xuan 1p


For the Taiwan teams, Haifeng Qiyuan tied with local team Quzhou Hongxin 2:2, Zhonghuan beat Peking University + Beijing Go Institute 4:0. Haifeng's women's team tied Jiangxi Go Institue 1:1.

Thanks! I will try my best.

Some photos from round 5.

Mateusz vs Han Enyi 6d

Ilya vs Jiao Shiwei 2p (The lady walking by Surma's table is Korea's Oh Yujin 5p, playing in WBL this year)

Ida vs Zheng Yuhang 3p

Overview of the gaming hall

Do you have a link to a results page?

Yes. Here is the link: http://www.eweiqi.com/index.php?m=conte ... 3&id=28431
The results unfortunately are pictures embedded in the page so Google Translate won't help. But if you know Chinese there will be no problem. And there are many more photos on the linked page.

There are no games scheduled on Wed June 14th. Play will resume on June 15th. Here are the match ups for round 6

Team Japan vs China Pingmei

1. Ida Atsushi (B) vs Kim Sonjin 4p (W)
2. Yu Zhengqi vs Tong Yulin 4p
3. Hsu Chiayuan vs Shu Yixiao 4p
4. Shibano Toramaru vs Li Chengsen 3p

People from the US probably recognize Tong Yulin 4p, who attended US Go Congress in 2015 and won the US Open Masters Division. Team Japan has so far accumulated 5 points, 3 behind the leaders (two teams tied at 8 points). They will likely need to win the last 3 rounds to have a shot at A-League.

Team Europe vs Beijing Yiben Qingyuan

1. Ilya Shikshin (W) vs Gao Yu 3p (B)
2. Ali Jabarin vs Feng Hao 1p
3. Pavol Lisy vs Yang Wenkai 1p
4. Mateusz Surma vs Yao Xiaotong 1p

The last two positions of Beijing are held by 2016 new pros and Feng Hao is ranked 361 in CWA ranking so Team Europe has a chance to tie or even win this one.

Sgf files from round 5

Shikshin vs Jiao

Ida vs Zheng

@wolfking: Thank you for your great effort to report this.

By the way, do you have a link for the current standing of both leagues (B & C). What are the tie-breakers in orders (I guess number of win, then captain's win?)

You are very welcome!
There is no central place that kept a standing. For the BL and WBL, if you following this link, you can find team's score at the bottom of each match up results table. But they did not show the score for CL. So the only way to get a standing of CL is to go back to results of each round and calculate ourselves. But the top teams are always reported at the top of each league so that should give you some idea which teams are in front.

As for tie breakers, it goes like this: 1. compare total round scores (if a team wins a round it gets 2 points; a tie, 1 point); 2. compare number of won games; 3. if still tied, compare total opponents round scores; 4. number of won rounds; 5. positional win rate, starting from position 1; 6. head to head records; 7. positional head to head from 1 to 4; 8. compare opponents final standing, from strongest to weakest; 9. If all fails, random draw!

There was an interview of Surma apparently by Sina Sports (in Chinese) after his 4 consecutive wins. The title translates roughly to "European player unstoppable 4 wins in C-League, A pilot's Go dream come true". Mention of pilot is because Surma had aspired to be a pilot at a young age. A few interesting points from the interview:
1. When asked about young talents and other strong players in Europe, Surma listed 17 year old Fionin 6D of Russia, Stanislaw 6D of Poland, 13 year old Spaniard Oscar 4D, and a few players older than him, including Lukas Podpera of Czechia, Andrii Kravets of Ukrain, Tanguy of France.
2. He got quite a bonus for 4 consecutive wins but did not reveal the amount.
3. He started his own company about Go in May, and has written 9 Go books for readers ranging from beginner to about 3 kyu.
4. Asked if he will get a hero's welcome back home, he said he was not sure if there would be any reports about these events in Europe and if any fans knew about this. He might get some congrats from friends but certainly not a hero.
5. for this year's new European pro, he hopes Stanislaw can make it, but the competition is strong and could be anyone.

Results of round 6

Team Japan 3:1 China Pingmei

1. Ida Atsushi (B) 0:1 Kim Sonjin 4p (W)
2. Yu Zhengqi 1:0 Tong Yulin 4p
3. Hsu Chiayuan 1:0 Shu Yixiao 4p
4. Shibano Toramaru 1:0 Li Chengsen 3p

Team Japan did a good job in winning the past 2 rounds and are still in position to earn a promotion to A-League. They have 7 points and are 3 points behind leader Zhejiang Kunlun, which happens to be their opponent in next round! If somehow they can beat Zhejiang promotion will really become a posibility. As of now they are 5th in standing, tied with 2 other teams.

Team Europe 0:4 Beijing Yiben Qingyuan

1. Ilya Shikshin (W) 0:1 Gao Yu 3p (B)
2. Ali Jabarin 0:1 Feng Hao 1p
3. Pavol Lisy 0:1 Yang Wenkai 1p
4. Mateusz Surma 0:1 Yao Xiaotong 1p

Unfortunately Team Europe could not take advantage of the relatively weaker opponent in round 6. They were swept the first time since round 1. Maybe the pressure has gotten to them. One would not be surprised by the result at the beginning of the tournament but after 4 good rounds you start to get the hope up. Surma's game was broadcast live on Fox Go Server, and maybe Jabarin's game too (since I found both game records on Sina.com). It probably feels different when there are record keepers at your table and in some sense the world is watching.

For the Taiwan teams, Haifeng Qiyuan tied Gansu 2:2, Zhonghuan tied Hangzhou Black-White Go Institute 2:2. Haifeng's women's team tied Wenshang Estate 1:1.

Edit: added Taiwan team results.

sgf files from round 6

Jabarin vs Feng
Up to move 50 this seems to be a standard, run-of-the-mill kind of game. But at move 60 I think the game starts to favor white. Maybe black 53 was too submissive and should counter with something more severe? 59 was too slow? Once behind Ali tenuki couple of times on the left to reduce white center, and eventually black left side died.

Surma vs Yao
I think Surma had the control of the game until the very end, when black 113 inexplicably played away from the center fight and tried a probe on the lower side to potentially reduce white territory or help center fight. White ignored the probe to play 114 attachment and black center group died. I think starting from move 60 to about 100 black probably could have done more to bully the two weak white groups but still the game was not over until 113 happened.

We are entering the crucial stage of league play. BL has two more rounds left, CL and WBL have only one round left. eweiqi.com is finally supplying some kind of standing. They listed next round's match up, with team's score next to the name, so you can get a pretty good idea who's leading and where each team is at. I have copied the match up table here, with team's points in parenthesis:

B-League Round 7 match up:

match 1: China-Japan Friendship (7) vs Zhejiang Kunlun (10)
match 2: Llasa Go Institute (9) vs Xiamen Wenguang Financial(7)
match 3: Quzhou Lanke (8) vs 21 Culture - Shanghai Foreign Language Univ. (8)
match 4: Jiangxi Xinjing Titanium Industry (7) vs China Mobile Shanghai(6)
match 5: Shenzhen Hande (6) vs Hulu Island (5)
match 6: Hangzhou Go School (5) vs Hebei Xin'ao (5)
match 7: Chongqing Go Institute (3) vs China Pingmei (4)
match 8: Yunnan (4) vs Beijing Qinglan (2)

C-League Round 7 (final round) match up:

match 1: Hangzhou Black-White (8) vs Guangdong (10)
match 2: Jiangxi Go Institute Qingyi (10) vs Shanghai Jianqiao Qingyi(8)
match 3: China Coal Industry Go Institute (7) vs Xinjiang Aosheng (8)
match 4: Gansu (7) vs Guangxi Yulin (7)
match 5: Hangzhou International (7) vs Haifeng Qiyuan (7)
match 6: Quzhou Hongxin (7) vs Taiwan Zhonghuan (7)
match 7: Hangzhou Go Association (6) vs Luoyang Software (5)
match 8: Hangzhou Go Institute Supor (6) vs New Tianyi Jiangsu (5)
match 9: Hangzhou Tianyuan (5) vs Beijing Zhenghong New Century (5)
match 10: Team MLily (4) vs Beijing Yiben Qingyuan (5)
match 11: Yunnan (4) vs Guizhou Yiyuan (4)
match 12: HeiLongJiang (3) vs Peking Univ. - Beijing Go Institute (4)
match 13: Tsinghua Zijing (Europe Pros) (3) vs Tianjin Univ. Chenrui Dojo (4)

The fascination about the European team has not stopped even after round 6 losses. There was a new interview of Mateusz Surma by Sina. I will go over it briefly.

1. Mateusz liked his results, especially the game from round 3 when he beat Zhu Fengyi 1p. Unfortunately we do not have game record for it.
2. He thinks all opponents are stronger, but not overwhelmingly so and they had chance to win some games.
3. The Pro System has helped to improve the level of top players in Europe, because there were more training and more opportunity to play in tournaments. It also didn't hurt that there were more prize money.
4. Training at home was relatively light, mainly just by doing life death problems. It was not close compare to what he had to do in Korean and Chinese dojos.
5. Due to a busy schedule he has not had time to check out the Ke Jie AlphaGo games.
6. Thinks top pros should have a chance to win against AG with a two-stone handicap.
7. Looked at some AG self play games but found them hard to understand and will not play those moves.
8. Outside Go, he likes to watch movie, play football, and learn juggling!

Detailed match up of round 7

Team Japan vs Zhejiang Kunlun

1. Ida Atsushi (B) vs Byun Sangil 4p (W)
2. Yu Zhengqi vs Wang Xi 9p
3. Hsu Chiayuan vs Zhou Hexi 5p
4. Shibano Toramaru vs Qin Yuexin 4p

Team Japan will have a tough time going against a powerful Zhejiang team, one of last year's demotion teams from A-League. The top two positions of Zhejiang ranked 33 and 31 resp. on Goratings.org, and Wang Xi 9p is undefeated in this tournament. But Japan really needs a win here to have a reasonable chance at promotion. A loss will likely eliminate them from promotion altogether.

Team Europe vs Tianjin University Chenrui Dojo

1. Ilya Shikshin (B) vs Qiao Ran 3p (W)
2. Ali Jabarin vs Dong Ming 3p
3. Pavol Lisy vs Chen Weiting 1p
4. Mateusz Surma vs Sun Pengyu 5d

Last chance to get a WIN in this tournament! Tianjin is not strong and certainly beatable. Chen Weiting is one of several Taiwan born pros playing for non Taiwan teams in this tournament (in case some of you are curious, Li Wei of Yunnan, Pan Tingyu (he is Master's game 1 opponent on Tygem) of Hangzhou Supor, Zhuang Chengjun of New Tianyi Jiangsu, and beautiful Yu Lijun 1p of Hangzhou West Lake are all born in Taiwan. Yu Lijun is currently studying in Korea, and playing in Korea Women's League.).

Results from round 7

Team Japan 0:4 Zhejiang Kunlun

1. Ida Atsushi (B) 0:1 Byun Sangil 4p (W)
2. Yu Zhengqi 0:1 Wang Xi 9p
3. Hsu Chiayuan 0:1 Zhou Hexi 5p
4. Shibano Toramaru 0:1 Qin Yuexin 4p

Team Japan was swept by Zhejiang and has been eliminated from promotion with only one round left. Zhejiang will be promoted to A-League, having accumulated 12 points.

Team Europe 0:4 Tianjin University Chenrui Dojo

1. Ilya Shikshin (B) 0:1 Qiao Ran 3p (W)
2. Ali Jabarin 0:1 Dong Ming 3p
3. Pavol Lisy 0:1 Chen Weiting 1p
4. Mateusz Surma 0:1 Sun Pengyu 5d

Ilya's game was again broadcast on Fox Go Server. Ilya fell behind after the very first skirmish on the lower side and could not recover from that. I will post the sgf when it becomes available. Despite the finish I think team Europe has exceeded expectations and gained valuable experience from participating in such high level competition. And they have really made a name for themselves among the Chinese audience. Sina had one interview of Ilya, two interviews of Mateusz, and 0 interview of all other teams combined! And they will be here for at least two more years. Hope this will have a lasting effect on European Go and western Go in general.

The two Taiwan teams finished in the middle of the pack and did not advance to B-League. Haifeng Qiyuan (7 pts) lost to Hangzhou International 1:3, Zhonghuan (8 pts) tied Quzhou Hongxin 2:2. Haifeng's women's team tied Dezhou Go School and finished at 6 points.

The CL and WBL has finished all matches. Guangdong, Jiangxi Go Institute Qingyi and Shanghai Jianqiao Qingyi advanced to BL. In women's league Wuhan Qingchuan Institute and Hubei Go Association advanced to women's A-League.

Unfortunate to see a 0:4 sweep . Also, just wanted to express my thanks as well for posting these updates, much appreciated!