The 8th Annual World Weichi championship, an international student championship, took place at the Institute of Science - Tokyo on December 15 to 21st. It was organized by the International University WEICHI Federation, Shanghai Ing Chang-Ki Weichi Educational Foundation with the support of the The Nihon Ki-in (Japan Go Association) and Japan Pair Go association.

This year, the competition gathered 16 student-participants, including three from Europe: Ashe Vazquez 7d (Spain/Belgium), Erik Weigert 3d (Germany) and Mihailo Jacimovic 3d (Serbia).

Ashe Vazquez 7d tells us how it all went.


After an opening ceremony run both in Chinese and Japanese, featuring guest appearances by Takemiya Masaki 9p - famous for this "Cosmic Go", Mr. Taki, (Pandanet and Pair Go sponsor), and the Ing Foundation, the tournament started.

My two first games were a one-sided loss against Hong Kong, and a one-sided win against Thailand, followed by a difficult game against one of the other european players, Erik Weigert, who did really well for a nominal 3d.





Erik even won a close game against one of the Japanese representatives in the early rounds, thus making a very promising start to this tournament.




As for Mihailo, the final player from Europe, he lost hihs two first games but managed to win against Li Yuzhang in his 3rd game!

On the following day, I lost to Qu Bo from China in round four.
He comprehensively outplayed me, even though I felt I played fine.


In the last round I was paired against Yan Yuying, representing Nihon University of Japan. The game was roughly even but very polarised as I had a massive moyo. Things ended abruptly after she tenuki'd her group one too many times and died.


I finished 8th place on tiebreakers.

Erik lost to Thailand's representative in the fourth round.
In the fifth round, Erik played the battle of roommates against Li Yuzhang from AlbertaU (Canada). It was a tight game which I thought was quite well played from both sides, and Yuzhang got it in the end.


Eventually, Erik and Mihailo finished near the bottom of the table with one win each. This is not too surprising, as almost every player in the tournament seemed to have solid 4d+ strength.

The tournament finalists were decided by tie-breakers, as four players had four wins. Kitashiba Masashi from Japan played Chan Chi Hin from Hong Kong, to decide the champion. Unfortunately, Chan Chi Hin, who was in my opinion my strongest opponent, blundered a group catastrophically in the early middle game, leading to an early finish!

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