If I may repeat something I have said before: when reading about the history of the professional organisations in the various oriental countries I have always been struck by the immense amount of work done by the pros themselves to create their own environment. They did not sit around waiting for sponsors or students. They went out and nurtured them, working so hard in a couple of cases that it led to nervous breakdowns and early deaths. Some pros even gave up for a while - Iwamoto becoming a coffee-farm worker in Brazil springs to mind, but quite a few joined the civil service or journalism, or whatever, so that go was effectively just their hobby. The Chinese players even had to put up with the Cultural Revolution, so the likes of Nie Weiping ended up being re-educated on farms with only a go board in their heads. The Koreans relied essentially on one man: Cho Nam-ch'eol.

I don't see even desultory attempts by western wannabe pros to emulate any of this admin/PR effort, or any strong personalities. While it may be too early to predict gloom or doom, it seems hard to predict any fireworks either.

As expected, Shikshin took the second pro spot, defeating Andrii Kravets in the semis and Cornel Burzo in the final.

He played the last game under some time pressure, because apparently he had a plane to catch and could not afford to spend much time in byoyomi. Shikshin was ahead in the endgame when Burzo forgot to play a forcing move, lost a big group, and resigned.

Oh, and for those who care more about the clothes, here's the previous two pros (Lisy and Jabarin) at a match in Japan:

I don't recall ever seeing a Japanese pro with his elbow on the table before.

_________________
Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

Found one for you in 30 seconds of googling:

http://www.seattlego.org/wp-content/upl ... t-move.jpg

But that is clearly in the review stage. I was thinking about during play.

_________________
Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

3 points.

1. Special armrests are provided when playing on a floor board, so elbow leaning is expected.

2. Leaning on a table is usually not recommended for pros for a couple of reasons - it obscures the view of the game recorder and it impedes proper breathing. It has little to do with politeness. (but uberdude's image is not a good choice anyway).

3. (specially for Dr Straw, a Sakata fan) Stuart Dowsey used to like pointing out how Sakata would pick his toe nails during games. It adds a certain nuance to the foot sweep tesuji.

Clothing and personal appearance are not big issues during play in the pro world, but focusing your attention on the board at all times and sitting up straight are things you get brayed into you as an insei. Our current idol Sugiuchi Masao was regarded (gratefully) as such a martinet when he was an insei teacher. And recall the famous incident when young Kitani and Murashima were both given a loss because they were tired, poor things, and took a rest during an Oteai game. It's about attitude, not appearance.

Ok, how about Blackie (Kin Seungjun 9p), Korean rather than Japanese. And what a suit!

Interestingly, as can be seen in honte's second set of photos, the semi-finalists (Shikshin, Surma, Pop and Kachanovskyi) are focussed on the board immediately (at 2-5 moves into the game).

Personally, I have the experience of playing a young Korean insei who did not focus on the board. Rather, he would study the position after my move for 5 seconds, then look at the ceiling and do all the calculation in his head. And his reading was frightfully accurate too

I think it bodes well for the new professionals that the two top seeds rose to the top in a double elimination tournament. There are a lot of opportunities for the supposedly better player to make a mistake that leads to elimination in that sort of tournament. That they won demonstrates mental fortitude as well as go strength.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the new European (and North American) professional go scene. I wish these young men the best, and I hope that they (or their successors) are able to make valuable contributions to the development of go worldwide.

*Grabs Popcorn* okay, this is worth seeing





As far as I've heard, starting from next year, only one shin-shodan shall emerge every year.

Congratulations to Surma 新初段 and Shikishin 新初段! Go S^2

_________________
On Go proverbs:
"A fine Gotation is a diamond in the hand of a dan of wit and a pebble in the hand of a kyu" —Joseph Raux misquoted.

I recently stumbled on that story http://rongen17.home.xs4all.nl/Cho/Stor ... ry002.html
I guess it drills down the point that paying attention to the board is important

I remember there was an article on a similar fashioned website, about how one top pro would start mumbling japanese kids songs when he is ahead, another would break a bunch of match sticks on his lap to cope with the stress, and a few more weird stuff O_o

There has been a rumour that Ilya (congratulations also to Surma) had to win his promotion game fast in order to get his plane. Did he get it?

Can anyone explain why Ilya has been awarded 3p rank and Pavol a 2p (the other two are 1P)?

Where did you hear that?

My guess is someone looked at his EGD page and saw his GoR as "2755 (3p)". In the EGF rating system 7d at 2700 is considered equivalent to 1p (New 1ps into the system are set at 2700) with 30 rating points per pro dan rank (rather than the 100 per amateur rank) so 2755 translates to 3p. When Pavol and Ali got their 1p they got reset to 2700, getting a rating point boost (from 2654 and a peak of 2686 for Pavol, and from 2658 (peak) for Ali, since then Pavol has risen to 2717 and Ali dropped to 2673). Ilya's 2755 on the other hand is earned from his skill in winning games rather than pro qualification tournaments, so it would be rather perverse if his rating were to be reset down to 2700!

It seems to have been corrected in the meantime, but the original email announcement of this tournament http://www.andalucia-go.org/index.php/en/tournaments-and-activities-of-agoa/seville-go-tournaments-col-210/162-xviii-seville-go-tournament-2015 spoke of 3p's and 2p's

It's a mistake. Just ignore it, they will fix it by today.

There are four european professional players now:
[*]Pavol Lisy 1p
[*]Ali Jabarin 1p
[*]Ilya Shikshin 1p
[*]Mateusz Surma 1p

I don't think they'd be so silly as to reset the GoR downwards This is not the first time the EGD has tricked somebody on the subject of a professional rank. Perhaps this means a change request is in order?!

On a side note, I think that the treatment of pro ratings is a bit naive. The idea that 3 ranks normally means 1 stone is something that seems to have handed down from folklore, and bears scant resemblance to reality.

_________________
North Lecale

Yes, but I don't think it matters much whether some Asian 9p has a GoR of 2940 or 3000 when a European 6/7d loses to them in the WMSG or such a tournament, and there's not a lot of those games either (and even if the European won somehow the change in rating points gained from beating someone 200 vs 300 GoR above you is not much). The resetting of new 1ps at 2700 when they are not 2700 strength seems potentially more important, but still rather minor. (I don't mean just the new European pros, but also how about Li Ting 1p for example who lost to 2 6ds in Strasbourg 2014).