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The 2nd Pisa International Weiqi Cup took place at the Meeting Art Craft Center of Pisa, Italy, on September 5-6, as a Bonus C-level of the Grand Prix Circuit. A total of 52 players from 13 countries participated. Shin Youngsoo 7d from Korea won with a perfect score.
The second edition of the PIWC was looking very promising this year, with a decent prize pool and very good playing conditions, appealing food all around and the sea right there under the warm lights of the setting sun.
Not far from there…can you feel the Italian vibe calling?
Nevertheless, another big event decided that this was a pretty good time of year for an event and invited most of the strongest amateurs in Europe: the World Amateur Go Championship, held in Korea from September 6 onward. What a pity for Europe’s strongest to miss the Italian adventure because of a world-class event, pff.
Fortunately, since countries have several strong players, Pisa still welcomed a top group able to entertain the spectators with incredible games.
Let’s introduce briefly this reduced top-group (8 players). The strongest on paper, a Korean player noticed at the last European Go Congress: Shin Youngsoo, who was then registered as 5d and quickly corrected to 7d, based on his very solid performances and style (a winning style, to be more precise). Spoiler (but you read that in the intro anyway, and also in the title, so…), Shin Youngsoo won the tournament, defeating all his opponents.
The top group also welcomed interesting players, such as the runner-up in the U21 European Youth Go Championship and Italian star Davide Bernardis 6d, the U12 champion Larion Syrotkin 4d from Ukraine, the young Oliver Skocic 3d from Croatia, also improving very quickly, and other solid players, such as Fu Tianyi 6d and Sherry Liu 5d from Switzerland and the Czech combo Jan Sebela 3d and Frantisek Caha 3d, both having a habit of playing at 5d level sometimes, according to our investigation.
In the very first round, when everyone was full of motivation for the win and not yet anticipating the dinner, the surprises had already begun.
First of all, Oliver Skocic 3d defeated Sherry Liu 5d, creating the first upset of the tournament (is that a spoiler to say first, implying there were more? But maybe they weren’t and it’s a trap to not spoil that there might be only one, how can you tell?).
Then, Larion faced the very intimidating 7d Shin Youngsoo on the first table, which, oh happiness, was broadcast online. It turned out the game was rather close, as Larion proved once more he could nearly take down top players (if you recall, he had almost outplayed Mateusz Surma 4p in the first round of the European Championship!). Youngsoo was nevertheless a bit too strong, but please have a look at the game.
Later in the tournament, when all “tops” got crushed by Youngsoo, it was mostly a battle for second place and the Holy Grail: the direct qualification spot for the European Grand Prix Finale, which will take place at the end of January 2027.
Davide, then Tianyi facing the Youngsoo wall.
In the fourth round, Davide got rid of Tianyi, which looked very much like a victory for second place.
But…
In the meantime, the Czech ambush was there. In the fifth round, Jan Sebela 3d, who had just been beaten by Youngsoo, had to face Davide, a last chance to make it onto the podium.
And…
Jan outplayed Davide, who started to feel second place slipping though his exhausted stone-handling-fingers. (a very weird feeling, most likely, combining bitterness with the light viscosity of immaterial matter, usually translated as “oh no…”). New upset!!
Davide vs. Jan
But…
As usual in such Go tournaments with tight battles, it ended up in a SOS fight, which was favourable to Davide, and also to Tianyi, who had beaten Jan in the first round. What a poor reward for beating a 6d!
Eventually, the results were as follows:
🏆 Youngsoo Shin 7d 🇰🇷 5/5
🥈Davide Bernardis 6d 🇮🇹 3/5
🥉 Tianyi Fu 6d 🇨🇭 3/5
🏅4th Jan Sebela 3d 🇨🇿 3/5
5th Frantisek Caha 3d 🇨🇿 3/5
6th Sherry Liu 5d 🇨🇭 2/5
7th Oliver Skocic 3d 🇭🇷 2/5
8th Larion Syrotkin 4d 🇺🇦 2/5
Davide thus qualified for the Grand Prix Finale, and the top five EGF players collected qualification points.
The best three, (from left) Tianyi, Youngsoo and Davide, with the organizers and sponsors.
The tournament ended with the prize-giving ceremony and the players could spend the evening going home or enjoying more bites of the Italian architecture, delicious food and beauty of the city.
You can find the results here
The games can be found on the EGF1 broadcast account.
And you can watch the replay of the commentaries by Andrii Kravets 4p for round 3 and round 4 on the EGF Youtube channel.
A huge thanks to the organizers and the Pisa Confucius Institute (sponsor) for this great edition, to the players for their fair play and for smiling despite the bitter SOS battle, to Andrii for the online reviews, and to Frantisek Caha for sharing many photos and updates live from the venue!
The next Grand Prix Event will be the International Istanbul tournament, Bonus C level, on October 10-11!