10 Aug 2009 6 Comments
Report from the Fourth Korean Ambassador’s Cup
The Australian Korean Ambassador’s Cup championship, qualifying tournament for selection of the Australian Representative to the 4th Korean Prime Minister’s Cup to be held in Korea in October, was held on Saturday August 8. This is a 1-day event, with 5 rounds packed into an exciting day for the 42 participants, ranging from 7 dan players in Section A to kyu players and beginners in Section C.
Two of the strongest players at the 2009 Korean Ambassador's Cup in Sydney
Organised by the Sydney Korean Baduk Association, the venue was as usual the Shilla Restaurant in Campsie and included a delicious Korean lunch. Our “pro-in-residence”, Younggil An 6p, was in attendance and provided commentaries for the players as well as helping with the organisation. Younggil has been living in Sydney for the last year, and is hugely popular with everyone who has benefitted from his generous and lucid commentaries and teaching games — I am comforted by his style of commenting along the lines of “Yes, that’s a way to play; another way might be …” instead of the put-down “What! You can’t play that ridiculous move!. You should play…” (Younggil will be coming to the Nationals in Melbourne, October 3-4, so come along and meet him.)
Play at the Korean Ambassador's Cup, 2009
Section A had a major upset in round 1, with 5 dan Joseph Choi defeating Yiming Guo 7d by 1.5 points. By the end if round 4, it was looking good for Miao Zhao (2008 AGA Champion) on 4 wins; the other strong contenders Guyu Liu (winner of both the the Sydney and ACT 2009 Championships) and David He (2009 Australian WAGC representative) were on 3 wins. But the final round produced two very exciting games, with Guyu Liu defeating Miao Zhao, and Yiming defeating David He in an upset. In the end Yiming, Guyu and Miao each had 4 wins, the same SoS, and only 1 point of difference in SoDoS in each case to determine the top 3 places. Yiming becomes our representative for the KPMC.
The winners at the 2009 Korean Ambassador's Cup in Sydney - and friends
Aug 10, 2009 @ 19:46:09
It all sounds very exciting–but I have to say that I feel a little uncomfortable with the representative for an international event being chosen on the basis of one point of SoDoS. In future years, is there any chance of organising a play-off to break ties (maybe the next day)?
Aug 10, 2009 @ 22:10:06
I agree, but there was no choice in this case. In fact the AGA Committee also doesn’t like a qualifying tournament being a one-day event with short time limits. But again it was just impossible for the organisers to make it a 2-day event. It is proposed the rules for selection for KPMC next year will change anyway – the KAC player with the highest Representative Points to get the selection; since Rep Points earned are determined just by number of wins, not by SoS or SoDoS, this will solve the problem of awarding major prizes on the basis of these secondary tie-breakers. And if the players at the top of the Points table are within 50 points, our rules do call for a play-off.
Aug 14, 2009 @ 23:50:26
OK, thanks for the explanation.
Aug 16, 2009 @ 19:52:59
How do the representative points work? Would the winner be chosen based on accumulated wins including from previous years? Thanks.
Aug 17, 2009 @ 08:54:31
@matjet: start from http://www.australiango.asn.au/Files.php and just keep reading.
@neville: Have we actually ever organised a playoff?
Australian Go Journal » Blog Archive » Fifth Korean Ambassador’s Cup
Aug 09, 2010 @ 21:52:52
[...] report from last year’s KAC was posted to the Journal. It looks like this year’s will be even more fun. (Tagged with: korean ambassadors cup, nsw, [...]