All views expressed are those of the author and may not be those of the IGF
Against all expectations, most probably including his own, Japan's Hiraoka Satoshi won the title. This is the second time he has managed to do this - the first time was in 1995 at the 16th WAGC.
The 2006 WAGC was the first time for me as official "head game recorder" (the hours are longer but the pay's the same)! Watching the top players in action from up close is, of course, great. A very nice thing about recording is also that just for the duration of the game you come to feel that you are on the same level and or wavelength as the actual players….
Hiraoka handled himself extremely well in round 7. Whether Joey Hung was just nervous or whether it was a carefully adopted strategy to try and get his opponent’s goat I don’t know. What happened was that Hung talked much and took many pictures right up to the moment the game started. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but at the top board players are often quiet and focus a minute or two before the game starts. Sometimes one remarks about the weather, but that’s it.
This game was interesting because black’s style at times resembles a bit of a handicap approach. When I asked around I heard that this is at the same time Joey’s strength as well as his Achilles heel. One thing is clear from looking at his past results, however, he is not a player to be trifled with. And although Hung's style might at times be questionable, in this game it was evident that if Hiraoka had made but one slight mistake, black’s stones would come out perfectly, making it all but impossible for the opponent to win this game.
Round 7 Joey Hung v Hiraoka Satoshi, W+R
In this 7th round game, though, Hiraoka kept his cool and Black’s attack ran out of steam, after which it was white’s turn to counterattack, killing enough stones to force Black to resign. Looking at the diagram white escaped with the help of tesuji white 7. Hiraoka didn’t seem too happy with it though as he was reluctant to make the black stones stronger. After the game USA’s representative was not happy with black 28. Hung felt that this move should have been at 29 and that since developing the right side is all important letting the black stones at the left fend for themselves.
Beating Hung, Hiraoka kept himself in the race for the top seat, although only few people actually seemed to believe him capable of beating the genius from China, 13-year-old Tang Weixing.
Up to Round 7 Tang was all but unstoppable. He had had no trouble to speak of with any of his opponents. When listening carefully to the game commentaries Ishida was doing about once a day, however, it became clear that, although extremely skilful, Tang too was only human and made mistakes, if only very few.
By the way, even if, for example, Hiraoka managed to win their direct confrontation with Tang in Round 8, most people believed that the SOS score would still put China, or perhaps North Korea, ahead. Maybe Hiraoka believed this too and didn't feel any pressure, or maybe he's just the strongest player in the field. Fact is that after a little bit of a shaky middle game where White used aji on the right to set up a ko, Hiraoka skillfully managed to put the game his way and make this into a masterpiece.
Round 8 Hiraoka Satoshi, +11.5, v. Tang Weixing
Diagram 8, the game deciding furikawari. From black 1 Hiraoka goes down a one-way street leading up to the big swap or furikawari. The problem is, although the top black stones seem to be captured and the lower right white stones look dead there actually is very much aji left. As white needs an extra move to kill black and as black needs one more move to effectively capture the white stones the situation is unclear. All the same, the potential capture of black is bigger and as the white stones at the bottom are still eyeless the game is promising for black. A dangerous-looking ko in the endgame wasn't even necessary to ensure his win. In his commentary afterwards, Ishida Yoshio (pro 9dan) called out, "Hey, Hiraoka! What were you thinking setting up a dangerous ko like this? How many times do you want to win this game?" Hiraoka answered with a grin, "Well, if White loses this ko his whole group (on the right) dies, so actually I was pretty confident that it was alright for me to play like I did."
Straight after his win, Hiraoka was jumped on by the press. Since it seemed that his opponents of previous rounds had played a good last round it became clear that Hiraoka actually had a chance to win the whole thing! "What about this - they say you are probably going to win!" Hiraoka, without a hint of anxiety: "Well, let’s just wait and see. That is the only sensible thing to do, isn’t it?"
By the way, this is the 3rd world title for Hiraoka, first at the 1995 WAGC, 2nd at the First Incheon World Amateur Baduk Championship in Korea in 2003 and now at the 27th WAGC. The Nihon Ki-in awards an 8-dan diploma to WAGC winners which would make Hiraoka 16-dan! At the Ki-in, by the way, an 8-dan diploma goes for 1,771,500 yen or well over USD 15,000! Now, should the Ki-in just give Hiraoka the money, make him 16-dan or professional 1-dan?