As with every year, preparation for the tournament seems easy until the final day before participants arrive.. Preparing all the rooms so that everyone can play is a hard job.
On Friday I walked about 8 kilometres whilst carrying tables and other equipment.
During the whole tournament I walked/ran on average about 6 kilometers a day.
One of my non-physical activities was collecting some thoughts about and impressions of the KidoCup.

The first one is....He who organized the children's-tournament on Sunday.

Stefan Budig 4d, Germany: Es gibt nichts besseres als spielend zu lernen! (There is nothing better as learning by playing!)

Helping children, parents, players (new and experienced ones), changing batteries, new clocks, cleaning up and so many more activities I was able to do as Best Boy of the KidoCup. As always my best reward is to see the smile on a face when problems were solved.

We had 180 participants this year.
In the main tournament 165 players participated, of which 40 where females.

The Top 8 Players were engaged in a separate round-robin clash.

For the first time in 9 years a German baduk player, Jonas Welticke, was able to qualify for the top 8 group.
For the third year in a row the first reserve was Benjamin Teuber who is the record-holder for second place finishes in the German Championship. He could now play once more in the main tournament, this time starting as one of the favorites for first place due to the lack of many other strong players who are instead playing in the world-championship in China, which is taking place at the same time as the KidoCup this year.

Saturday the first two rounds of the main tournament and the first two rounds of the clash between the top 8 titans was played.

Saturday evening was filled with a Poker-tournament and a baduk-party. The small football field outside was used to sit down, play guitar, sing songs, and drink beers.

On Sunday a tournament for children was organized. We had 7 young players fighting battles on 9x9. More could have been playing in this tournament if most of them had not decided to instead play in the main tournament.

Emma 35k, Germany: Ich finde es schön. (I love it.)

1. Veronica 36 Kyu
2. Emma 35 Kyu
3. Platon 37 Kyu

All of the children also played a lot simultaneous games (against the visiting professionals and strong amateur players from Korea) on top of competing in their own tournament.
In between games the free time was filled with playing football outside on a small football-field.

Players also enjoyed a tasty Korean lunch, which was served thanks to the Korean cultural club in Hamburg.

On Sunday the Top 8 players played another 3 rounds.
At the end of the day the top 3 players had all lost one game.

On Sunday evening a big event started, the Rengo-tournament. 34 teams played the Omikron Rengo-tournament. Prizes were given in two categories, the first three teams in the tournament and the first three mixed (Male/Female) teams in the tournament.
For mixed teams it is possible to win two prizes this tournament.

Barbara Knauf 3d, Germany: I really loved the rengo-tournament on Sunday.

One of the organizers, Tobias Berben also played in the Rengo-tournament together with his daughter Hannah.

Hannah Hebsacker 20k, Germany: Es macht sehr viel spaß!!! (it is a lot of fun!!!)

Omikron Rengo-tournament the first three place were divided as follows:

1. Dobranis/Dobranis
2. Knauf/Bantla
3. Hamrah/Pittner

Whilst for the Mixed teams:

1. Knauf/Bantla
2. Jürgens/Wolff
3. Stellwag/Teuber

One Monday the top 3 players all won their first game so all was to be decided in the now crucial final round.
Alexandr had to win his last game to keep alive his chance on winning the tournament, else the winner would have been decided between Ilja and Pavol who played each other in the last game.
At the end Alexandr won his game against Dominik and Pavol won against Ilja, so in the end Alexandr was able to win the KidoCup this year.

Lots of exiting games and tense moments throughout the competion, especially for the scribes.

Mateusz Surma 1p, Poland: Very well organized tournament, no delays :-)

Jonas Welticke 6d, Germany: It is a bit unfair that you can loose all 7 games ? Please change !

Ilja Shikshin 1p, Russia: I like Kido Cup, cos it's tournament system round-robin is the best to define the strongest player.


Kido Cup 2017, Top 8:

1 Dinerstein Alexandr 3p ru 6
2 Lisy Pavol 1p sk 6
3 Shikshin Ilja 1p ru 5
4 Surma Mateusz 1p pl 5
5 Kachanovskyi Artem 1p ua 3
6 Frejlak Stanislaw 6d pl 2
7 Boviz Dominik 6d hu 1
8 Welticke Jonas 6d de 0

All detailed results of the Top 8.

The Korean professionals and some strong amateurs played several simultaneous games during the weekend.
Also with the help of Yoon Young sun several games from both the top 8 and the main tournament were analyzed.
A journalist from Korea attended the tournament as well, interviewing several people especially Mr. Park as main sponsor.
Hopefully we will soon get to see the article about his impressions about European Baduk.

Mr. Park Chi Moon 7dan from Korea was one of the strong amateurs attending this years KidoCup.
A book he has written about the clash between Cho Hun-Hyeon vs. Nie Weiping in the first Ing Cup played in 1988-1989 “The Match” (4 copies) were included for the lottery at the prize-giving.
I had a quick review of the book and it looked very exiting to get a copy of it.
One game discussed in the book, there is one move per page, and analysis it both in Korean and English.
So it is a must be for all baduk players interested in deep analyses of a game and also for people trying to learn the Korean language.

Oh Kyu Chul 9p:
It was impressive to see so many people enjoy playing baduk and being friends
I wish that this tournament will develop further this way and more baduk players will enjoy to enter and play here next year.

Young Sun Yoon 8p, Korea: Aller bestes Turnier in Deutschland! (the best tournament in Germany!)

Hyuk Lee 7d, Korea: Beautiful tournament in the beautiful city Hamburg.

Lee So Yong 6dan:
It was impressive to see so many people play so serious and still enjoy their games.
I hope next years more activities like simultaneous games will be organized.

Last but not least we have the send special thanks to Mr. Park Jang Hee 5d CEO from the company Kido Industrial CO., Ltd who as the main sponsor and fanatic baduk player was available at the venue for all three days to play baduk.

Park Jang Hee 5d, Korea: Meeting old and new friends, having fun while playing Baduk.

The best part of the weekend came at the end where Mr. Park warmed the hearts of all players at the prize-giving ceremony when he announced that next year the 10th KidoCup will be held once again in Hamburg. An overwhelming ovation was given to him as a gift for being so generous once more.

The organization plans special activities for this anniversary edition.

In the main tournament the clashes over six rounds could not be overseen.
Red faces in at all boards, loads of excitement when a big group suddenly disappeared from the board, or suddenly was left with just one eye..... the smell of Ko and time pressure was part of the perfume in all rooms..

All players sleeping at the gym of the school had to shower a lot because if these clashes.
At the end we were able to get a winner of the towel contest.

Male – Female contest in forgetting towels 7-0.

So next years we can sell some freshly washed towels which have been used drying out stressed baduk players..

The main tournament ended in a victory for Hamrah Schayan 5d from Vienna, who finished the tournament with five victories.
Benjamin Teuber 6d from Hamburg with four wins, who lost his last game against Klara Zaloudkova 3d from Prague, added to his total of second places in tournaments.
Martin Ruzicka from Freiburg got third place with four wins.

In the end 24 players won a prize for winning 4 games and another 12 players won a prize for winning five games.

A complete list with results of the main-tournament can be found here:

KidoCup 2017 Main-Tournament.

Also prizes in the permanent lightning tournament were won in 3 categories:
Most played games, won by Justin Dzioba 15 Kyu who played 25 games
Highest percentage, won by Frank Tawussi 6k with 100%
Most won games, this price was shared by Justin Dzioba and Frank Tawussi, both won 14 games.

Some players of the main tournament were so nice as to give me a short comment/impression about the KidoCup:

Lukas 13k, Germany: Das baduk spielen hat mir spaß gemacht. (I loved playing baduk)

Adriana Tomsü 1d, Czech Republik: Lost and Found Thanks! :)

Kristin 20k, Germany: Immer wieder eine neue Herausforderung. (always a new challenge)

Matthias 4k, Germany: The best best boy!

Jana Hricova 2k, Czech Republik: This tournament is simply great, like always.

Arwen Paulina Pittner 18k, Germany: Ich finde das Turnier sehr gut weil es gut organisiert ist, und es neben Turniere gibt. (I love this tournament a lot because it is well organized and has some side tournaments)

Engin Keles 3k, Germany: Das geilste Turnier das ich jemals besucht habe!! (the best tournament I have ever played!)

Marieke Ahlborn 1k, Germany: Super angenehme Atmosphäre, sodass man sich gut auf die Partien konzentrieren kann, mit sehr toller Organsation. (Very pleasant atmosphere, so that one can concentrate on the games to be played and with a very good organization.)

Joachim Neumann 6k, Spain: My favourite tournament!

Gerry Gavigan 10k, Great Britain: Kido is very friendly and a good place to come for a tournament.