The Olomouc International Tournament 2017 was held on the weekend of 27th-28th January in Olomouc, Czech Republic. The pleasant venue and great prize fund attracted 97 players from 9 countries. Eight players, who were 5 dan or stronger, from Czechia, Austria, Hungary and Poland participated in the tournament, which made it a pretty big competition.

Eventually, the winner was Stanislaw Frejlak 6-dan from Poland, who returned from half a year of go training in China only 3 days before the tournament. He studied there with 5 other european players as a part of the CEGO training program. Stanislav told us that this program gave him some confidence.

“I also felt that I gained an experience which helped me when my games weren't looking good for me. I remember many times in China when a game was already hopeless for my opponent but then he was trying some complicated stuff which couldn't work but I was in byo-yomi and collapsed. In Olomouc I tried to do the same... When I was playing Dominik it was already endgame and I counted that my points are not enough so I tried the most complicated move and somehow his group fell into a trouble ^^.”

On the other hand, Lukas Podpera, the only 7 dan participating in the tournament, didn't do very well. Even though he was the favourite, he lost some key games, including the one with Stanislaw Frejlak by 2.5 points (see sgf below).

He also lost to Dominik Boviz by 1.5 points. Therefore, his 11-0 winning streak with him has come to an end.

Final results:
1st place: Stanislaw Frejlak 6D
2nd place: Jan Prokop 6D
3rd place: Ondrej Kruml 5D

See all results here, and other games here from the first day and here from the second.

Lukas Podpera 7d vs. Stanislaw Frejlak 6d

Download Sgf-File