News

European team in China C league
By Ali Jabarin | European Pros | 22.06.2017 12:15| Views: 7616
Last week, for the first time, a European team participated in the Chinese C league.

The C league is an annual 7 round team tournament with teams consisting of 4 members, this year it was held in Quzhou where 26 teams fought for the top 3 spots qualifying to play in the B league.

*note:the C league is held concurrently and at the same venue as the B league and female B league.
tournament hall, ~250 players
The European team (in board order):

1.Ilya Shikshin 1p
2.Ali Jabarin 1p
3.Pavol Lisy 1p
4.Mateusz Surma 1p

the 4 players were chosen from the 5 EGF pros, the 5 played an inner preliminary where Artem finished 5th and so he didn't make the team this year.
(and since we will have 6 soon, there will be more competition for these spots next year) 
the board order was determined by EGF rating at the time of the team's creation.

Back story:

It was by our request that the team was created, a year ago we approached Li Ting and asked her if it would be possible to create a team and participate, a few months later we got confirmation we can play, and Li Ting even secured a nice sponsorship for the team.

Initially our intention with going to the event was getting some international tournament practice, in no other event can we get almost 30 tournament games against Chinese pros. Almost all of the players participating in the C league are active young professionals, Chinese teams are allowed to include one amateur player on the 4th board, those were usually top amateurs like Hu Yuqing (twice WAGC champion) and Wang Chen, or young players who are trying/expected to turn pro. Meanwhile the 1st and 2nd boards were usually at least from the top 250 according to China's pro rating list, one very notable 1st board was 2 times international tournament finalist Qiu Jun 9p (played the final of Bailing Cup against Ke Jie in 2015) who just a year ago was still playing in the A league (his team finished 3rd in the C league this year).
we even had team uniforms and hats!
Round 1:
0-4, not the way we had hoped to kick things off. I lost a half pointer after making a small endgame mistake which was pretty painful, but at least it helped assure us that our opponents are beatable.

Round 2:
1-3, Mateusz got our first win, this was a small boost for the rest of us, meanwhile on the 2nd board I had one the most regretful losses in my life, blundering away a completely won game which also cost us a tie score. Falling asleep that night was not easy...

Round 3:
2-2, Ilya won on the 1st board against Shi Yulai 1p, who is a very promising upcoming player, a couple years ago he was the strongest student in Ge academy (the school participants in the CEGO program go to, also currently the strongest go school in China), won't be surprising to see him playing in the A league soon.
The game was a classic Ilya game with lots of fighting and huge moyos, the opening was favorable for Shi but later Ilya killed a corner and followed up with clean endgame giving his opponent no chances to come back.
Mateusz beat Zhu Fengyi 1p for his second consecutive win, earning the team a tie in this round.
the atmosphere at dinner was noticeably lighter this day.
Ilya shikshin 1p
Round 4:
2-2, another tie, this time Pavol won against Li Xiang 4p ranked 198th in China, this was officially the highest rated opponent our team beat, Ilya's opponent from round 3 is considered stronger but since he hasn't been pro for long his rating is lower. Pavol killed a group in an early fight and played very safely keeping his lead for the rest of the game.
Mateusz got yet another consecutive win this time against Yang Qian 3p (who earlier this year won the St.Petersburg tournament), at this point there was some hype starting to build around Mateusz, personally I was very impressed that he not only won 3 games, but also won them convincingly and just straight up felt like the better player in most of them.

Round 5:
2-2, I finally picked up a win on the 2nd board against Xu Jiawei 2p, it seems both of us have a pretty calm style, after a successful opening where a large side all converted into points and settling all of my groups my opponent simply didn't have enough. After throwing a game or two earlier in the tournament I was worried I'd end up with a 0 score, so getting a win here was super relieving.
The other win came from none other than Mateusz on the 4th board, by this point the rest of the team is feeling a mix of happy, jealous and shocked, and the hype around him from Chinese go fans was huge.
After this round there was a break day.
Mateusz on a dream run, 4th straight win.
Round 6:
0-4, our good run didn't carry over the break, we played the team which was probably our weakest opponent of the tournament and we didn't win any games. Personally this was the first game of the tournament where I felt like I just played bad and didn't even make it hard for my opponent.
Mateusz's dream run was ended in a close game against Yao Xiaotong 1p where he lost by 2 points.
 
Round 7:
0-4, after round 5 our team placement was getting better and we were feeling quite good, hoping to even pick up a win in one of the last two rounds, but unfortunately losing all games in rounds 6&7 meant we finished on a low note in 26th place.

Prize money (pre-tax):
Ilya, Ali and Pavol each received about 25,000 RMB (~3300€).
Mateusz's impressive run earned him 50,000 RMB (~6600€).
our sponsorship was quite generous, and definitely the largest one in the C league, probably even larger than some B league teams.
winning all 28 games would have gotten the team around 90,000€!, so we must try hard to win more games next time.
reviewing games back in the hotel rooms
and last but not least, a shout-out to the team’s sponsors: CEGO, Tsinghua Weiqi Fund, Tsinghua Redbud Capital, Ge Yuhong Go Academy and special thanks to Li Ting for putting the whole thing together.
family photo, (from left to right) sponsors, team, organisers, coach.

Game records:

Mateusz vs Yang Qian (partial, moves following B113 omitted)

Download Sgf-File
European team in China C league
No comments posted...
Leave a Comment
* Name
* Email (will not be published)
*
Please, enter the name of go in korean!
*
* - Required fields

Calendar

DateCoCityEvent
27.05.2023
28.05.2023
HU Budapest Hungarian Grand Prix
27.05.2023
29.05.2023
GB London 4th Not The London Open
17.06.2023
18.06.2023
PL Wiselka Porfirion Cup Tournanent 2023
17.06.2023
18.06.2023
NL Utrecht Toernooi van Utrecht
01.07.2023
02.07.2023
RO Bucharest Dream Primer Cup
06.07.2023
09.07.2023
LT Slabada, Moletai district Lithuanian Summer Go Camp
15.07.2023
16.07.2023
CZ Pardubice Pardubice - Radek Nechanicky MemorialC
22.07.2023
23.07.2023
TR Istanbul 3rd Bogazici Tournament
22.07.2023
05.08.2023
DE Leipzig 65th European Go Congress
23.07.2023
30.07.2023
DE Leipzig European ChampionshipA
06.08.2023
13.08.2023
ES Sepúlveda Spanish Go Camp
16.08.2023
18.08.2023
SE Leksand Pair Go Championship
16.08.2023
20.08.2023
SE Leksand Swedish Summer Camp
19.08.2023
20.08.2023
SE Leksand Leksand OpenC
19.08.2023
26.08.2023
HR Zaostrog 5th Summer SEYGO Festival
22.08.2023
28.08.2023
NL Groesbeek Dutch summer go camp
24.08.2023
25.08.2023
HR Zaostrog Zaostrog Open
09.09.2023
09.09.2023
GB Edinburgh, Scotland Edinburgh Open 2023
09.09.2023
10.09.2023
PL Wrocław V Wrocław Open 2023
15.09.2023
16.09.2023
RO Timisoara - Temeschwar European Student Go Championship
16.09.2023
17.09.2023
RO Timisoara - Temeschwar Walter Schmidt Memorial
23.09.2023
24.09.2023
IE Dublin Confucius Cup DublinC
29.09.2023
01.10.2023
RO Vatra dornei Japanese Ambassador's Go Cup
30.09.2023
01.10.2023
TR Istanbul 22nd International Istanbul Go Tournament
07.10.2023
08.10.2023
AT Vienna Vienna International
14.10.2023
15.10.2023
PL Warsaw 3rd "China Town" Weiqi Cup
19.10.2023
22.10.2023
CZ Prague Grand Slam 2023GS
21.10.2023
22.10.2023
RS Belgrade 45th Belgrade Open
28.10.2023
29.10.2023
DE Mannheim 25. Mannheim AjiC
03.11.2023
05.11.2023
SK Trenčianske Teplice Championships for seniors OPEN Slovakia 2023
18.11.2023
19.11.2023
RS Niš Niš Open 2023C
28.12.2023
31.12.2023
GB London 49th London Open Go Congress
28.12.2023
31.12.2023
GB London Grand Prix Final 2023
30.03.2024
01.04.2024
FR Paris 51st Paris International TournamentB
18.05.2024
20.05.2024
DE Hamburg KidoCup/Affensprung

See also the full EGF Calendar and the EGF World Calendar.

You can submit your event by filling this form

Awesome Baduk
Awesome Baduk lessons from pro teachers
www.awesomebaduk.com