Kawamura Cup 2020

Hello Dear friends

Kawamura Cup was played as first high level fast tournament (earlier we have had top level blitz tournaments) in vint.ee in renju. Before tournament I was not sure how many players will join, and should I make 1 or 2 groups for playing. Finally I decided to have one group for all players and time control 15min+5sec. Thanks for Nakayama-san, Dmitri Epifanov and also for our Korean and Chinese friends we gathered rather big company – 39 players. Unfortunately there was site problem with confirmation, so maybe some players didnt reach to join. Also Martin Hõbemägi, who was very eager to play, forgot to check right starting time and was a bit too late to join. Still, we gathered rather many interested players from several countries. Of course, we were very happy that Kawamura-san joined our tournament. Even, if probably he was not able to concentrate well (what is certainly rather often problem for playing in internet), his participation was a great honour for other players.

Besides Kawamura-san, Nakayama-san and Epifanov, also Inoue-san, Topkin, Mesila and Alexey Mikhailov were among favorites (certainly I missed someone, but not all nicknames were known for me). But Dima Epifanov made very strong tournament. He beat every opponent, except Nakayama-san, whom he had very exiting battle, what ended with draw. Nakayama-san had also good chance to gather 6,5 points, but mistakes in last game against Alexey took from him not only 1-st, but also 2nd place. Georg-Romet coudnt play one round (fifth round against Nakayama-san), but still got high place in competition.

Top 7 – (whole results are avaiable here: https://www.vint.ee/turniiritabel/?id=146026 ) was following:
1. Dmitri Epifanov (Russia) 6,5
2. Alexey Mikhailov (Russia) 6
3. Tomoharu Nakayama (Japan) 5,5
4. Georg-Romet Topkin (Estonia) 5
5. Ants Soosorv (Estonia) 5
6. Jeong Bin (Korea) 5
7. Isoo 5

For me it was first so long tournament in internet. So, I found out it be very long compared to real tournaments, even if my games lasted less than 4 hours. This is good knowledge to organise big internet tournaments . Especially estonian beginners, who took part in Kawamura Cup, were rather boored because of long tournament (and a good weather  ). Next similar tournament, international cup will held June 13th with already 2 playing groups – https://www.vint.ee/yrituse-detailid/?event=772 , but you are welcome to join also smaller events and playing actively in vint.ee!