This goes to show that computer wizards are best kept out of sight in a backroom
chained to the tools of their trade.
Special live report by Pieter Mioch
29 May 2006
In Round 3, Hungary's Pal Balogh blundered away his game against US of A's Joey Hung who is promptly dubbed the 'Insei Killer'. The other match earmarked in yesterday's report between Cristian Pop from Romania and Australia's Wei Qian ended in a victory for the insei team. By the way, the representatives from Canada, the USA and Australia are often Chinese-speaking and, perhaps because of that, quite strong. Unexpectedly, however, only once has one of this trio made it into the top three (Dong Ming Liu from Australia came third in 2002). The group I was talking about previously, the ex-inseis, are one possible threat to the top contenders. This WAGC I think that one point of interest is how the insei group does against the Canada, USA and Australia trio. It would, of course, be even more interesting if one of the above could dethrone a go great from the go countries China, Korea and Japan.
"What?! doesn't this one make any sound?....."
Hiraoka Satoshi looks at the flashing red light on the clock at his left, letters scrolling along on the display:
_ F_O_R_F_E_I_T_ _ F_O_R_F_E_I_T_ _
More perplexed than disappointed, the quiet Japanese representative seemingly doesn't mind the result too much, but as any go player can tell he's bleeding on the inside. This game of the 4th round was the first clash of the Titans, the first meeting of two heavyweight participants having a shot at the title. Hiraoka held the black stones while Cho Tae-weon from North Korea played White as he lost the nigiri.
Talking of which, nigiri, or guessing odd or even, is used every round
to determine the colours. For some time the organisers of previous tournaments
tried to decide only the first round by nigiri and for the other seven
rounds let the computer do the deciding, but as one computer wizard from behind
the screens remarked, "we are making negative progress, yes we are, he,he,he..."
This goes to show that computer wizards are best kept out of sight in a backroom
chained to the tools of their trade.
Hiraoka, right, playing Cho, might have spoiled his chance of winning this world amateur championship for the second time. He won the event on his 1994 debut and finished runner-up four years after that. At 35 years old he is less than half the age of the last Japanese representative, the "Pro Maker" Kikuchi Yasuro. Still, as the other contenders for the top prize are without exception in their teens, Hiraoka is twice as old, and for some this was an indication that he would not be able to pull winning the 2006 WAGC off, regardless of his very high level. Perhaps it was the bad vibes created by those pessimists or perhaps they just showed superb insight. Fact is, after a shaky start in the game Hiraoka lost the "invisible" ko which appeared in the lower right corner and skilfully managed to get back in the game. Well into the yose the consensus was that Hiraoka couldn't lose, and the gathered Japanese specatators were glowing quietly. Although, truth be told, there were perhaps more spectators who spoke Korean.
Diagram 1
Round 4
Hiraoka Satoshi (Japan) v.
Cho Tae-weon (N. Korea), W+T
This invisible ko thing is rather interesting. When you look at Diagram 1 you can see that Black can make ko but if he starts from 1, White can take first at 6. As Black does not have any decent threats, he'll probably have to settle for something like 7 and 9 in this diagram, resulting in another ko. This is unsatisfactory for Black as White has plenty of threats, such as move 10. Instead of Black 7, a ko threat at A would be smaller compared to the game. In the game, Black first exchanged A for White C, after which Black B has gained value as a ko threat. This is because White has invested one stone at C, a single move wasted or captured - a big difference.
Diagram 2
So, Hiraoka decides to create some threats that White cannot easily ignore at the bottom first, even before the ko has started! 18-year-old Cho decides after a few seconds to answer Black 1 at 2, but when Hiraoka quickly crosscuts the North Korean representative takes some time to think matters over. Then, with just a hint of a frustrated sigh, Cho eliminates the ko aji and, by playing at 4, takes the whole right corner, worth about 40 points - not a bad piece of real estate at all. Thus ends the story of the invisible ko fight.
Hiraoka's family, by the way, stayed with him during the first day of the tournament but later went back in order to let the husband/father concentrate on the tournament. Hiraoka's small daughter, when saying farewell encouraged her father to do his best: "All the way to the top, dad, I'm sure you can win!"