Life In 19x19

The 2015 WAGC will be in Bangkok, Thailand this year from 5-12 June. I didn't manage to find the website yet, but this Thai page has some videos introducing some of the participants:

http://www.thaigogenius.com/-36/item/52 ... nship.html

(look at all those trophies Rafif Fitrah of Indonesia has! and Cornel Burzo shows of his skiing skills)

Merlijn Kuin definitely has the right mindset going into the WAGC : D

The crème de la crème of the go world in a show with everything but Yul Brynner.

Fedya wrote:The crème de la crème of the go world in a show with everything but Yul Brynner.

Hardly.

The WAGC is more than a song!

It's an entire musical!

For anybody who didn't get the reference in my original post, it's to this (Youtube video, whould be safe for work)

and as if by magic, the website appeared
http://intergofed.org/13-igf-news-feed/ ... nship.html

A few countries are fielding surprising choices, at least surprising for me.
Austria having a 5kyu and Croatia having an 12kyu are probably the big examples.

Looking forward to the coverage

It makes me feel old to realize only 13 of the competitors were born when I played my first go stone.

Would the existence of the new European pro system have any effect on who goes to WAGC? If people have to pay their way maybe some strong players might rather save their money for the pro qualification process.

gowan wrote:Would the existence of the new European pro system have any effect on who goes to WAGC? If people have to pay their way maybe some strong players might rather save their money for the pro qualification process.

Not sure, but paying the trip to WAGC (even when recieving a little funding) is probably the biggest factor. Plus, not everybody even wants to go there.

the euro pro system weakens the field a little bit, but not a lot. I think that its main effect is the straightforward elimination of players from the system. The expense of the circuit is nothing new. About 10 nations a year are now no longer playing due to the cost of half a plane ticket (return) , which is sad, but inevitable.

Found this website too:

http://www.pandanet.co.jp/event/worldam ... line_e.htm

I am looking at the results after round 4 (http://www.pandanet.co.jp/event/worldama2015/live_e.htm)

There are several players at the bottom of the table with 3 wins, but their ranking is in the 50s. Even though the tournament is seeded (which is reasonable) surely all players should start out equal in a championship such as this and these players should be ranked above all those with only 2 wins. I understand that these players probably have a much lower rank, but that seems irrelevant.

Anyone understand the rationale for this?

I think they use some form of McMahon, something like just two groups separated by 1 point? I saw it some past year but I don't see that information now.

I read that Martin Finke was running the draw, and that there was a supergroup. Which indicates that a McMahonish system was present