Artem Kachanovskyi is the Ukraine's answer to Russia's Ilya Shikshin: a young player who is already a major threat to win every amateur tournament he enters. He spoke at length with Ranka before the awards ceremony for the 7th Korea Prime Minister Cup.
Artem Kachanovskyii (photo Ito Toshiko)Ranka: When did you start playing go?
Artem: I started when I was seven years old. A couple of years before that, my father read a newspaper article that explained the rules. At the time, he thought I was still too young for intellectual games, so he waited for two years and then started teaching me. At first we -- my father, my older brother, and me -- learned together from books, by solving problems, and by playing. Rivne, which is my native city, also had, and still has, a go club and a go school for kids. There was a teacher there who liked go a lot and had many go books, and there were some stronger players, I guess you could call them a whole generation of keen players, who were studying go actively, so I had a chance to play with them and learn from them. Later my father became a go teacher for kids, but my brother stopped studying seriously and only played for fun.
Ranka: What big tournaments have you competed in?
Artem: I played in the European U12 Championship in Praha, Czechia when I was nine years old. As a 6-kyu, I didn't expect to accomplish much of anything, but I was surprised to take third place. That was my first serious tournament. I was studying go a lot around then. I liked it. I used to spend evenings with a go board and books, one of my favorite ways of spending time. Sometimes I would wake up at six o'clock to watch pro games or play go on the Internet. I first played in the European Go Congress in 2010. Although I still did not expect to win any prizes, I took second place among European players. After that people started to expect great things of me -- especially my parents. At the 2011 Congress I finished second again. Both times it was Ilya Shikshin who took first place. In 2010 I was one up going into the last round but lost by half a point to a Korean player and lost out to Ilya on SOS. In 2011 I played Ilya in the semifinal. I was winning for part of the time but I couldn't keep the game stable and lost.
Ranka: Have you been to Korea before?
Artem: I came to Korea in 2008 to study go for two months. After that, I've come for tournaments, but not to study.
Ranka: Do you find Korea much different from Europe?
Artem: Well, for one thing, Korean food is interesting but I'm not sure I could survive on a steady diet of it. Anyway, it's always very interesting to come to Korea, China, or Japan and try the food. As for the people, there are definitely some differences between Korean people and Ukrainian or European people. Perhaps Koreans are more emotional. Or perhaps they show their emotions differently, although the emotions are basically the same.
Ranka: Are you satisfied with your performance in this tournament?
Artem: No. I'm not satisfied with my play. I lost to the player from Canada, and in the other games, even though I won, I'm aware of mistakes that I made. I thought I could have played much better.
Ranka: Have you competed in the Korea Prime Minister Cup before?
Artem: Yes, I took fifth place two years ago. But it was an easier field then than this year. To me it seems that the European players on the whole were more successful in this tournament than they have been in the past. European players are getting better, especially young European players.
Ranka: What are your current activities, besides playing go?
Artem: I'm studying computer science at the Ukranian National University, and I'm now also working as a computer programmer. It's an interesting job, somewhat similar to go.
Ranka: What are your future plans?
Artem: I'd like to study go in Asia, and I'm hoping there will be a professional league in Europe soon, but all this may be just wishful thinking. The Ukranian Go Federation has to rely on Asiatic people. We get no financial assistance for popularizing go. At the big go school for kids in Rivne the teachers do get some remuneration but it's very small. The school still has more than a hundred students, but lately, go does not seem to be getting as much attention as it used to.
Ranka: Thank you, and we hope to hear more of you and the Ukranian Go Federation in the future.
One of the participants at the 7th Korea Prime Minister Cup was Shirin Mohammadi, a magazine designer and vice president of the Iran Go Association. Ranka spoke with her the evening before the tournament began.
Shirin Mohammadi (photo Ito Toshiko)Ranka: What are you doing at the tournament?
Shirin: I'm playing in it, but I'm also here to get more information about the game and make contact with overseas players on the behalf of the Iran Go Association.
Ranka: Please tell us more about this.
Shirin: People in Iran are very interested in mind sports in general. Lots of people play games like bridge and chess. Mind games are games that everyone can enjoy. I belong to an organization that is working to import and export games, and baduk is a game that we are trying to import. A year or so ago I was given the job of finding out everything I could about baduk.I wrote over a hundred letters to organizations all over the world. We have also been promoting the game by ourselves. When we hold sports and games events in Iran, and in other countries as well, we take those opportunities to introduce the attendants to the game of baduk. Quite a few of them become interested.
Ranka: That sounds promising.
Shirin: Yes, we now have an enthusiastic group of young people who are playing the game, but we lack someone to teach them. They can only learn from printed matter and the Internet.
Ranka: Do you play on the Internet yourself?
Shirin: Yes, I've been playing on the Internet for the past year. One of my best opponents is Jonathan Fisher, who is very kind in going over the games I play with him and showing me better moves. But you can't improve rapidly just by playing on the Internet.
Ranka: What do you need to do?
Shirin: What we really need is for some professional player to come to Iran to teach. It should be someone who is good at teaching and can communicate in English. It would also be a good opportunity for a professional baduk player to see Iran and experience Iranian culture and civilization.
Ranka: Have you found such a person?
Shirin: The Korea Baduk Association has been extremely helpful, donating sixty baduk sets, for example, and making it possible for me to come here, but we're still looking for a teacher.
Ranka: Thank you, and we wish you success.
Shortly after finishing his game in round six, Poland's mid-teen star Mateusz Surma spoke with Ranka.
Mateusz Surma (photo Ito Toshiko)Ranka: Have you enjoyed the tournament?
Mateusz: Yes, it's been a very nice tournament. I won four games, losing to Japan and the Ukraine.
Ranka: What happened in those two games?
Mateusz: I think I had a chance against at one point in my game with the Japanese player, but he is stronger. Against Artem Kachanovskyi from the Ukraine, I felt that we were playing at about the same level. The came was close for most of the way, but then he survived inside my territory and it was finished.
Ranka: When did you start playing go?
Mateusz: I learned how to play from my father when I was six or seven years old. I started competing in tournaments one or two months after learning. In the first tournament I played in I won all my games. Next I won the U12 division of the Polish championship, at age seven, which was considered sensational.
Ranka: What has been your best tournament so far?
Mateusz: The European Youth Championship last year. I won with a 6-0 score.
Ranka: Have you been in Korea before?
Mateusz: Quite often. I first came in 2009, studied for five months at King's Baduk School, and then returned to Poland. Since then I've been back to Korea several times, staying three months at a time, partly for visa reasons and partly because I have school exams in Poland that I have to pass.
Ranka: What are you doing now?
Mateusz: In Poland I'm in my second year in high school, and in Korea I'm studying at the Choong-am Baduk Dojang. I'm one of only three foreigners there. The other two are from America and France.
Ranka: How are you taught?
Mateusz: We play games and our instructors comment on them.
Ranka: What are your future plans?
Mateusz: I want to be a pro. In Korea or in Europe, it doesn't matter which. Playing go as a profession is my dream.
Ranka: Thank you and good luck.
After losing to Russia's Alexey Lazarev in the morning of the first day at the Korean Prime Minister Cup, Matthew Burral won two games in the afternoon. Ranka spoke with him between these two victories.
Matthew Burrall (photo Ito Toshiko)Ranka: First tell us a little about yourself.
Matthew: I'm studying civil engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.
Ranka: And please tell us about your game against Alexey Lazarev in the first round.
Matthew: It started with a complex fight that lasted most of the game. I felt he had the upper hand through much of the fight, particularly when I made a reading error that let him kill a group. After that, there there was a moment when if I had had more time to think I might have resigned, but I had no time, so I played a move, and then he made a move which made me happy not to have resigned. The fighting then continued, but just when I had a chance to take advantage of a mistake he made, I played a really idiotic move instead, and then I did resign.
Ranka: And what about your game in the second round?
Matthew: I played one of the Korea women (Ki Young-suk). They are supposed to be 7 to 10 kyu. It was not a hard game, but her opening was certainly better than 7-kyu level. I pulled ahead in the middle game, but a lot of her moves showed good shape. She was calm and confident and played as if there were nothing wrong.
Ranka: How many games do you hope to win?
Matthew: I'm out of practice, so I'll be happy to avoid any embarrassing losses. I don't have any plan of attack. I'll just try to survive.
Ranka: It's become unusual for the United States to be represented by a player who is not of oriental ancestry. How did you qualify?
Matthew: The qualifying tournament was the U.S. Open. I finished about fifteenth overall and fifth among U.S. citizens, so there were four players who had higher priority than me for representing the U.S., but they all turned it down. I was surprised when I got the call.
Ranka: How do you rate yourself against the players who finished above you?
Matthew: I won three games and lost three in top group at the U.S. Open. I'd say I'm within striking distance of the top U.S. players.
Ranka: Have you been in Korea before?
Matthew: Yes, twice. The first time was six years ago, when I spent three months at the Yang Jaeho Dojang. The second time was the summer between high school and university, when I studied with Kim Myungwan.
Ranka: How much did those experiences help your game?
Matthew: They were a big help, They made me much stronger.
Ranka: Are you glad you started playing go?
Matthew: Yes! Glad I started playing and glad I started studying the game. I guess I'd attribute much of my academic success to the problem-solving skills I acquired through playing go.
Ranka: Thank you very much.
Ranka spoke with the Japanese player, Kinoshita Nagatoki, aftr his victories over Mexico's Emilio Gutierrez and Turkey's Fatih Sulak in the first two rounds.
Kinoshita Nagatoki (photo Ito Toshiko)Ranka: Please tell us something about yourself.
Kinoshita: I'm a microbiologist at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research. My field of research is bioluminescence.
Ranka: Isn't that the field in which a Nobel Prize was awarded last year?
Kinoshita: Yes, to three researchers, one of them Japanese.
Ranka: Do you have many go-playing colleagues at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research?
Kinoshita: About ten.
Ranka: Please tell us about your go career.
Kinoshita: I started playing at age 11, learning the game from my father. Then I started going to go clubs. I won Japanese National High School Championship once the University Student Championship once, and a qualifying tournament for the Asahi Amateur Meijin once, but this is my first big international tournament.
Ranka: How were you selected to come?
Kinoshita: I took second place in the WAGC selection tournament last year, losing to Nakazono Seizo. As a result, he played in the World Amateur Go Championship in May, and ceded the opportunity to play in the Korea Prime Minister Cup to me.
Ranka: Is this your first trip to Korea?
Kinoshita: No, I've been in Korea before as part of university alumni go team that Mr Nakazono organizes.
Ranka: What is your general impression of Korea?
Kinoshita: Korea is rather like Japan. It would be an easy country to live in.
Ranka: And what are your hopes for this tournament?
Kinoshita: Last year Japan took third place, so I'd like to do as well this year. But what I'd really like to do is beat the Chinese or Korean player. Not necessarily both of them, but one of them.
Ranka: Thank you very much.
Postscript: After this interview Mr Kinoshita took a step toward realizing his hopes by beating Hong Kong's Chan Nai-san, but the next day he lost to the Korean player and then he lost the race for third place to Canada's Yongfei Ge by one SOSOS point. One can only speculate on what the result of a Ge-Kinoshita game would have been: both players had an outstandingly good tournament.
