Ranka talked with Belarusian 1-dan Aliaksandr Chakur shortly after his victory over a like-ranked player from Brunei in the first round of the 2014 Korea Prime Minister Cup.

Ranka: How long have you been playing go?
Aliaksandr: I’ve played go for about ten years. I started to learn in my university days. Then I found a go club in our city, Minsk, where there were other players and also a teacher, Alexandr Suponev. He began to teach me and I started to progress. I played a lot every week.

Ranka: Is there a lot of go activity in Belarus?
Aliaksandr: We have around eighty players, and we sometimes have tournaments.

Ranka: Are you currently the strongest of the eighty?
Aliaksandr: The three strongest players now all play as 1-dan, and then there are three to five 3-kyu players, so I may not be the strongest, but I am one of the strongest.

Ranka: What happened in the game that you just finished this morning?
Aliaksandr: In that game I was stronger. Her opening was much weaker and I killed most of her groups.

Ranka: And what are your hopes for the coming rounds?
Aliaksandr: It’s mostly communication — to communicate with people from other countries — also to play and review games, maybe become stronger, and maybe find some new ways to progress.

Ranka: How often have you been to the Far East before?
Aliaksandr: One time to China, one time to Japan, and this is my third time in Korea, always to play in a go tournament. I’ve played in the KPMC twice before, in 2008 and 2012.

Ranka: How did you do those two years?
Aliaksandr: I won about half my games and lost about half. That’s my usual result, so I hope that this year I will do the same, or maybe better.

Ranka: Thank you and good luck.

Postscript: This year Aliaksandr broke even again. In his next five games he faced opponents from New Zealand, Turkey, South Africa, Portugal, and Peru, with ranks from 1-dan to 6-dan, and defeated two of them to take 31st place.