Nordic Tournament Report: 2020 Rabbitty Six
With this post, we at ngd are starting a new incentive. We want to support go players and organisers in Nordic countries, and the way we propose to do so is to exchange ngd gift vouchers for tournament reports by organisers.
We offer €40 value (either a half-option subscription or two observer subscriptions) in exchange for a written tournament report with a few photos, which will uploaded on this website. Additionally, if you send a game record from one of the decisive games of the tournament, we will review it.
If you are a tournament organiser and would like to apply for this exchange, please contact Antti by email. (A web form will be added later.) If you have a different kind of a cooperation idea, we are of course open to hear it!
2020 Rabbitty Six report by TomiP
The annual egf a-rated Rabbitty Six tournament started in cloudy weather on September 5. This has been the largest tournament in Tampere, Finland for a long time, and it also used to be the second-largest tournament in Finland. Due to the recent dwindling of the number of Finnish go players and a rescheduling caused by the COVID-19, this year we only managed to get ten participants. In the end, we had a small and cozy tournament in big premises – the venue could have easily accommodated 200 players.
This was the first time the tournament was held in Tredu Sammonkatu, a local vocational school. The games started 11 am on Saturday, with three rounds played on Saturday and two on Sunday. Time settings were 60 minutes of main time and a Canadian byō-yomi of 15 stones in 5 minutes.
After the three rounds on Saturday, around 6 pm, we started our traditional Bonus tournament. True to the style of Finnish go tournaments, we had a sauna warmed up for the players, and in-between bathing sessions the players played a free-paired handicap tournament with a time setting of 10 minutes. The twist in this not-so-serious tournament is that you get one point for each game you win – but also one point for each normal-sized alcoholic beverage you consume. For your sake, we took no photos from the Bonus tournament. This time the win was tied 10-10 when the tournament ended at midnight, and the players left the tournament premises to get some much-needed sleep.
Sunday’s activities started 10 am with a teaching session by Olli Ervelä 2-dan. The content was from his game against Timo Puha 3-dan, and it included some of his opinions combined with suggestions by the ai. I tried to memorise Olli’s tips, as I was set to play Timo on the following round (unfortunately I lost by 8.5). The first Sunday round started at 11 am, and the final round was played after a lunch break. We held the closing ceremony at 5:30 pm; Timo Puha won the tournament with a perfect score of 2d+ 1d+ 2d+ 1k+ 2d+. Timo received a price of €50 + ngd half-subscription. Second place received €35 and third €15. The biggest upset of the tournament was Tim 7-kyu (now 3-kyu) winning against Juha 1-dan. The full results can be found here.
After the tournament, as per tradition, we headed to Konttori (local pub and our weekly go club gathering spot) for a few drinks and games. We had forgotten to eat anything after lunch and were all very tired from the tournament. Therefore, around 9 pm we decided to cut the evening short and all head home to rest.
Attached below is the winner-deciding Timo v. Olli game with a commentary by Antti.
Comments (2)
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Recent comments
Would you care to comment on the "joseki" from 18 to 22? To me it feels like white wasted a move here, but it was claimed to me that AI considers this a perfectly valid joseki with even result. In particular, black connecting 21 in sente feels like a free move. aTdHvAaNnKcSe!
You could probably call 17–22 an ‘after-jōseki jōseki’, that is, a standard and fair sequence that is played later as a follow-up to a jōseki sequence. As you say, the AI evaluation is that this 17–22 sequence does not benefit either player, i.e., it is supposedly ‘fair’.
Although I forget the source, I recall Fujisawa Shūkō (Hideyuki) supposedly having said that ‘whoever likes to play 17–22 as Black should quit go’ – surely an overstatement, but it shows his preference for White’s resulting, thick shape. Fujisawa probably thought that instead of 19 in the game, Black should be aiming to play something like r11 and get the invading stone out – and if it doesn’t work immediately, then you should prepare for it. Giving White a 100% living group, by comparison, leaves you with fewer future prospects to look forward to.
It seems to me that you can compare the final shape at 22 to that resulting from the standard 3-4 point joseki where the opponent plays a one-space high approach, you attach below, and the opponent blocks from the outside, connects, and makes a three-point extension. Black’s corner territory is three points bigger in the result in this game, but White’s group is also a lot stronger and is already securing some territory of its own. Furthermore, the n17 attachment may later be surprisingly effective.