The 53rd Prague International Go Tournament, Old Hunter's Cup, took place at the beginning of May  in a new venue, the Hotel Olympik - Congress. 195 players registered for this 6-round tournament and 182 from 22 countries actually showed up, which is a new record, 15 players more than last year. Amongst the top competitors were 6 go professionals and 10 more players of similar strength including Kim Dohyup from Korea, who won this tournament 3 times. The new congress hall is very spacious, with a capacity of over 300 players, a number which we can aim for in the future.
All participants and visitors could enjoy very good conditions, many were accommodated in the same hotel, all players could freshen themselves up with quality tea, which was offered free of charge by the experts from the tea rooms (arranged and paid for by organisers).

Spectators from all over the world were also in for a treat, as the top 5 boards from the tournament were streamed on the OGS server. The first two boards allowed automatic transmission to the internet, 3 more games used a human recorder. Pairings, results and game records were continuously updated and are still available on the tournament web.

The players and visitors could also enjoy 2 go robots called „SenseRobot“ which play go on a real go board using mechanical hand and high level AI software; kids especially liked playing with the robots very much.



Lukas Podpera 7-dan, the Czech champion, scored a great success by winning this tournament, with Andrii Kravets 2-p from Ukraine coming second and last year’s winner Kim Dohyup coming third (after losing to Lukas). Financial awards were given to top ten players and a large number of other successful players, including the best player in every rank. The prize for best female player was won by Manja Marz 4-d from Germany.

The organisers and (hopefully) also players appreciate the continuous support of sponsors, let´s name Old Hunter´s Whisky Destilery, Wube Ltd. (both are owned by Czech go players) and Korean company Sungwoo Hitech, joined by several smaller sponsors.

We have a small but skillful team of organizers, we can arrange and run such an event as 4 (four!), so I don´t need to envy the team of 25 volunteers in Paris ;) These were: Josef Moudrik (speaker + web), Ales Cieply (draw + referee), Jaroslav Kotowski (equipment) and myself. Let me thank our game recorders „Laman“ and „Pulcik“ who are able to transmit 2 boards simultaneously.

Briefly to the rounds: In the 1st round Ben0, the new pro, lost against Jan Simara by half a point, which might be a start of his unusually weak result.

In round 2, Lukas Podpera beat Mateusz Surma and Andrii Kravets beat Ali Jabarin, important games for final placing. Round 3 saw the win of Lukas P. over Kim Dohyup.

In round 4, Andrii Kravets beat Lukas and took the sole lead with 4-0. Round 5 saw the loss of Andrii to Mateusz Surma, while Lukas and Kim won their games, so we had 4 players on 4-1 score.
In the final round 6, Lukas and Andrii won their games and Kim won over Mateusz. With 3 players on 5-1, SOS points decided the order: Lukas Podpera, Andrii Kravets, Kim Dohyup. There were also 3 players on 4-2, compatriots Stanislaw Frejlak and Mateusz Surma from Poland and Valerii Krushelnytskyi from Ukraine, who had unusually bad start (1-2) but managed to win next 3 rounds and take 6th place.

If you are interested, you can find 32 recorded games (all of them with good fights) and 200+ photos on the tournament web.

-- written by Vladimir Danek