WAGC 2006 Day 5: Exclusive interview

Special live report by Pieter Mioch
31 May 2006

31-year-old Cristian Pop, left, is one of those we talked about before, an ex-insei or pro wannabe. He's also one of the few participants not having much trouble with the ambience. Especially players coming to represent their country for the first time here in Japan are a bit dissapointed by the Huis ten Bosch park. It is very nice but it is not at all like Japan - you might as well have stayed at home! Let's hope that for future WAGC a more traditional Japanese setting is selected, something straight from Zatoichi for example.

Cristian learned to play go in 1990 together with the now pro 5-dan Catalin Taranu. They were and still are good friends, so when Catalin managed to become a pro at the Nihon Ki-in in Nagoya, it seemed the natural thing to do for Pop to visit his old go buddy. He managed to become an insei and tried to repeat Catalin's feat, beating the other insei in order to make pro. In a game with his main insei rival Yamamori Tadanao (now pro 5-dan), however, Pop lost by half a point and for a while lost confidence. From the start Pop had told himself that he would try only once to become the best of the insei and thus gain pro status. So, when he failed to do it, by a very small margin, true to his word, he went home after almost two years in Japan, to marry his girlfriend who had waited for him.

Cristian Pop's strength probably would have been sufficient to make pro had he stayed on as insei another year and tried once more. Reaching his pro 1-dan goal, however, was not just a matter of playing good go. He sometimes had a hard time in Japan, just living in a strange country far away from home.

Pop: "Well, you know, all is quiet and safe here, but sometimes it can be really difficult. You get to feel homesick and, although I understand Japanese a little, it is hard to adapt to the culture here.

"What do I think about this WAGC? Well, I like it here. Doesn't look much like Japan, though. The field of players at the top is extremely strong, I feel. Besides the top countries Japan, Korea and China, there are usually one or two strong players from elsewhere, but this year it is much more. The top field is very impressive."

While I am talking with Cristian, a tv lady with camera asks for an interview to which he readily agrees. Although the questions are all in Japanese, Pop remembers enough to understand most of it. He does take some time before answering, though. Especially when the nice-looking lady asks, "What bad things did you do when you were in Japan?" When asked later, the lady explained that she wanted to hear about Pop and Catalin's nightlife, but Pop didn't rise to the bait. "Well," he said, "For one thing, I think I didn't study hard enough..."

After returning from Japan, Pop married and went back to university. He also started teaching go, much in the way he was taught himself when he was an insei. Like Catalin, Cristian Pop, too, was taught by Saijo Masataka 9-dan. Now, as do Catalin and Cornel Burzo (both friends of Pop) he supports himself mainly by teaching go and doing go-related work.

This diagram shows the game played between Pop and the player from North Korea, Jo Taewon. There is no official record of this game and I made this when recording the game USA-Japan at the table nearby. Pop didn't know the joseki in the upper left corner and Jo punished him for it without mercy.

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