Schayan Hamrah, the Austrian player at the KPMC, found himself facing China’s Hu Yuqing in the fifth round. Ranka interviewed him just after the game ended.

Ranka: How did it go?
Schayan: I was crushed. He was too strong.

Ranka: Well then, tell us about your games yesterday.
Schayan: In the first round I had an easy win against the player from Iran. In the second round I played Milan Jadron from Slovakia. I had played him before. Slovakia is not far from Vienna, so I often go to Slovakian tournaments, and Czech tournaments. I like his fighting spirit. Games with him are always full of action, and this time I won. Then my game against Kwinten Missiaen from Belgium went very smoothly for me, and I won by a safe margin of about 15 points.

Ranka: Tell us something about yourself.
Schayan: I was born in Vienna, but I come from a Persian background. My parents are Iranian. They settled in Vienna in 1990, where my father was a university student. I’m now 17 years old, attending high school. I’ve been playing go for three and a half years. I have dual citizenship, so I might be able to represent Iran at some future tournament.

Ranka: How did you get started?
Shayan: I encountered the game by coincidence on the Internet. Then I saw the movie ‘The Beautiful Mind’, about a mathematician, in which there is a scene with a go board and they get very emotional about it. That was when I decided to learn to play, so I went to a go club in Vienna.

Ranka: Are you glad you started playing?
Schayan: Of course. What a question!

Ranka: Do you play on the Internet?
Schayan: I like to play lightning games on KGS, but I don’t like to play long games on the computer. It’s a bad atmosphere. I made an exception to play in the Pandanet team tournament, however, for the sake of Austria.

Ranka: Thank you very much.