The fourth SportAccord World Mind Games officially opened at an evening ceremony held on December 10 in the banquet hall of the  V-Continent Beijing Parkview Wuzhou hotel near the Beijing International Conference Center, which is the competition venue. Thirty go players representing the best of China, Chinese Taipei, Europe, North America, Japan, and Korea will compete with each other December 11-17, rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s best bridge, chess, draughts, and xiangqi players. Counting all five disciplines, there are 150 contestants, drawn from nearly forty countries and territories on six continents. Click here for Ranka Online’s reports on the SAWMG’s Opening ceremony and draw and Players Converge on Beijing for the 4th SportAccord WorldMind Games.

download SGF file

Michael Redmond 9P’s gives a commentary (right) on the Round 1 game between France’s Fan Hui 9P and China’s Shi Yue 9P. “Shi Yue showed powerful fighting, starting with a center-oriented opening that developed into a big fight,” says Redmond. “Two early mistakes on Fan Hui’s part made this fight difficult for him.” Redmond also noted that “In the 1st round for women, Europe played well, got only one win out of it.”

Click below for other first-round games:
DainelKo-ChangCheHao.sgf
Dinershteyn-MiYuting.sgf
IlyaS-Tuo.sgf
LinLi-Huiren.sgf
Mingjiu-ChenShihIuan.sgf
NaHyun-Ida.sgf
Seto-KangDongYoon.sgf
Yuki-Park.sgf
DinaB-KimChaeYoung.sgf
NataliaK-ChangKaiHsin.sgf
Okuda-SvetlanaShikshina.sgf

photo: EGF President Martin Stiassny (above right) drawing for the European team
– based on reporting by James Davies on Ranka Online; edited by Chris Garlock with technical assistance by Myron Souris

via American Go E-Journal http://ift.tt/1GpWwt0