1st Grandslam

[tiger314]

A pretty big weekend for the EGF, 21350 euro to be divided between the top 8 players (if my math is correct). I just have the feeling they are not doing it very well in the PR department. There is literally nothing about it anywhere, not even on the EGF homepage. EuroGoTV website is maybe the only place with a mention. It seems like the EGF is missing a chance to "sell" itself. Also, does anyone know anything about the pairing? The tournament system is on the official website (http://www.eurogofed.org/EuropeanGrandP ... m2015.html), but I cannot find the pairings anywhere. Since it is a knock-out tournament, I presume there is no need to pair on the spot like it is usually done with Swiss/MacMahon tournaments.

[topazg]

Yes, I agree, first I'd heard of it - and is it being streamed anywhere? I want to watch

[tiger314]

The EGF guarantees broadcasting on the web, referees and professional commentary.

Hopefully

[topazg]

The EGF guarantees broadcasting on the web, referees and professional commentary.

Hopefully

Yes, but I failed to find any streaming sites or anything for it

[tiger314]

I found this on EuroGoTV website:

All games live on EuroGoTV and KGS
accounts EuroGoTV1, 2, 3 and 4

I should have looked there earlier, but one would think it would also be on the tournament website.

[p2501]

One would think this would be published in a broader scale, given the magnitude of this tournament. I guess some people are stuck in their old ways - although I'd rather blame lack of new willing blood, rather than shortcomings of the present old guard. For a normal tournament this would have been fine. But not for a professional tournament.

I had press access to the playing rooms and can post photos if there is interest.

[wineandgolover]

I think the lack of publicity was a missed opportunity. The prize money was big, and this was the first tournament of its kind.

I also think the lack of live on-line commentary was a missed opportunity. I understand that there was professional commentary in Berlin, but it would have been nice if somebody live broadcast that on KGS. Or better yet, if a pro did it on KGS, him or herself.

To my knowledge there hasn't been an announcement of the results here or on Reddit, two more missed opportunities.

The good news is the was just the first grand slam. We can hope that they will do better next time. Big it up, baby! Try to make the event match the prize money.

[Boidhre]

I'm surprised this wasn't being broadcast on Twitch.tv with professional and/or high dan commentary attached. Only on KGS or wherever is fine so long as you want to restrict your potential audience to go players.

[RobertJasiek]

Local kibitzing was prohibited. IMO, there is too much money for place 1; better distribution would better compensate travel costs of the other Grandslam players. Eberhard Diepgen, a former mayor of Berlin, was a Schirmherr (what is this in English) of the side tournament, of which a few immaterial details were mentioned in a Berliner newspaper. Better than no media, but indeed by far not enough media representation. Instead, there has been good representation of the generous sponsors.

[Cassandra]

Schirmherr (what is this in English)

= "patron"

[tiger314]

I had press access to the playing rooms and can post photos if there is interest.

Please do, since no videos seem to exist and there are very few pictures of the latter rounds, I think we will all appreciate any pictures you might have.

Local kibitzing was prohibited.

Could you please elaborate? For those of us that weren't there, were there rules more strict than during other top European events?

IMO, there is too much money for place 1

The point is to make the main prize more eye-catching. It is true that chess, for example, seems to distribute prizes more evenly, but tennis grandslams usually have 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize in 4:2:1 ratio like our Grandslam.

[oren]

I'm surprised this wasn't being broadcast on Twitch.tv with professional and/or high dan commentary attached. Only on KGS or wherever is fine so long as you want to restrict your potential audience to go players.

Anything but twitch... too many ads.

Youtube would be good.

[tiger314]

Youtube would be good.

Yeah, YouTube is probably the way to go. If we get Go videos to come up as related to Chess videos, that might be better publicity than everything done in Europe during the last several years. But I am probably just daydreaming

[p2501]

Local kibitzing was prohibited.

Could you please elaborate? For those of us that weren't there, were there rules more strict than during other top European events?

Only tournament staff, players and press had direct access to the playing rooms.

[Javaness2]

Slightly disappointing to see that the Paris Open was organised at the same time. Attendance at both events was almost equal. I guess that Paris didn't want to alter their tradition.