Lee Hyuk Wins
The Ing Memorial Tournament in Helsinki on March 10-12 was won by Lee Hyuk 7 dan, South Korean but working as an economist in a Moscow institute, undefeated on 6 wins. The strong 24-player invitation tournament gathered players from 11 countries, almost all from the elite 2500+ rating group, for an event with average grade fractionally below 6 dan. The tournament system was a six round Swiss. Classified results can be found on the dedicated web pages, with a full gallery of the players.

Youth Champion Diana
Amongst those taking part were Diana Koszegi of Hungary, fresh from victory in Sinaia, Romania in the U-18 section of the European Youth Championship at the start of the month. She justified her grade of 5 dan with two wins.

Dinerstein and Guo Hard to Separate
Runner-up was European Champion Alexander Dinerstein, 19, from Kazan, who has moved the opposite way to Lee to become a full-time Go student in South Korea; his decisive and very close last round game with Guo Juan ended controversially. Dinerstein is on a five-year plan of study, trying to break into the professional ranks in the hardest school on the planet: the Korean apprentice leagues. Every year the top four players in the top division of ten are granted pro status. There are ten divisions; he is now in Level 8, so needs to make up about 70 places before he is 24, when his leave to play in the leagues expires.

(L-R) Guo Juan with Ing bowl and timer; winner Lee; Diana Koszegi.

Photos Ari Karppinen, with permission.

Ing Things
The event commemorates Ing Chang-Ki, the Taiwanese billionaire and major sponsor of go as played by humans and machines, who died in 1997. It uses his preferred set of rules, and distinctive hexagonal Go bowls providing a self-checking 180 stones; also special timers.

In this case however the dispute cannot be laid at the door of the Ing system, which caused no major problems. As ever, the play of the game changes only in the most marginal way with the rule set.

Anatomy of a Dispute
The crucial Dinerstein-Guo game was played until the finish, the points were counted and Dinerstein won by 1 point. Neither of the players called the arbiter before finishing the point count, so the result could not be changed according to any tournament rule.

According to one of the organisers the established facts and basis of ruling were this:

1. Only after the count did Guo say she wanted to make a protest.
2. The reason given was that the game had continued after Guo had stopped the clock (to mark the end of the game).
3. Dinerstein didn't think he had done anything wrong because he had not given his permission to stop the clock.
4. According to the rules the game cannot be continued after stopping the clock.
5. So, if Dinerstein thought the game was not yet finished, he should have asked an arbiter to start the clock again; but also Guo should have asked the arbiter after the first "illegal" move by Dinerstein.
6. The move should have been taken back and the clock restarted - and the game should have continued.

Guo's protest was perhaps an expression of her own disappointment. She did have considerable support from the other players, from the point of view of etiquette.

Lee's Strength Here is an example of play from the third round, showing the depth of analysis required at the top European level.

(1-6)
White: Lee Hyuk (7 dan)
Black: Matthew Macfadyen (6 dan, UK)
It seemed likely that the issue would be decided by fighting in the centre, as we join the game at move 79. Black cut in the lower left. White 6 is a loose kind of netting play.

(7-36)
Next Black pulled out the cutting stone. This was based on a misconception. According to Macfadyen his analysis was faulty, because he missed the tesuji White 36. That is, in anticipating White 18, he had a prepared sequence for walling in White's central stones, assuming that a return to 33 on the edge worked to capture White 18 and 22.

(1-16)
The rest is carnage, as Black struggles to gain safety for the stones on the lower side, ultimately finding one eye only and no exit.