Forum.Gomoku.pl

[sandra113]

We announce the 1/4 final stage and kindly ask the participants to arrange and play their matches.

The period of the 1/4 final stage is Mon 8 May - Sun 21 May (i.e., two weeks).

At least one of us (the organisers) - Usiek, Zoli, or Sandra - needs to be sent a message at least 24 hours before each match.

We wish every participant good luck and a lot of fun!

[sandra113]

Just showing a nice example of how WBC matches are attended by spectators - forty-six spectators, including Attila Demjan, in the screenshot below

[sandra113]

Zoltán László and I wrote an article that is intended for those who are relatively new to one-minute gomoku and describes, step by step, how you can become a real ace of this kind of sport - like Zoltán himself or even better, as there is no limit for improvement! The article is below. Enjoy!



Basic principles of one-minute gomoku

Written by Zoltán László and Sandra Jones

11th May 2017

The idea to write this article came to one of us, Sandra, who was inspired by the success of Gomokuworld's Online World Blitz Cup 2017 and wanted to give some material to those who are relatively new to one-minute swap2 gomoku to help them better understand this kind of sport and make progress. Obviously, progress is achieved by practice, but it seemed to her that it is essential to understand some basic principles and to practice in the right way, unlike she often did - she usually simply clicked to entertain herself, not trying hard.

To write a good and accurate article, Sandra asked Zoltán, one of the best one-minute players, for help, and the result is this article, which was written jointly by us and essentially conveys Zoltán's philosophy.

His philosophy is based on the notion that in one-minute gomoku, there are four essential components of skill: defence, attack, speed, and creativity. Of them, defence has to be learned first. Correspondingly, there are a few levels you have to consecutively pass in order to become a good one-minute player.

Initially you are at level 1 - absence of elementary skills, that is, you often miss simple wins of yours and your opponent. Let us call this level "beginner."

As long as you miss simple wins, studying more complicated things (e.g., tricky swap2s and openings) will not help you play better. You first have to learn to instantly see simple wins.

Thus, your first aim is to reach the level at which you never miss a two- or three-moves-long win. To achieve this aim, you must pay attention in your training games primarily to this aspect, that is, to focus on not missing a simple win.

Hard training will lead you to reaching level 2 - let us call it "advanced." In a game between an advanced player and a beginner, the former is more likely to win because he makes fewer mistakes.

And it is only now, when you practically never miss a two- or three-moves-long win, that it is time to start working on the next component - attack. Basically, it is about fighting for the initiative and/or advantage. In a match between two advanced players, the most decisive factor is who is better at attack.

Here, you can choose between two different attacking tactics, positional and direct. Of course, sometimes you cannot really choose, or, to be exact, sometimes the choice is dictated by the position. You need to understand the basics of positional play - that is, the idea of accumulating resources in a certain area to later use them to create threats. And the most dangerous kind of a direct attack is a double attack. A double attack is basically an attacking move that creates a position in which there are at least two different ways to continue the attack and the defending player can block only one of them.

Obviously, one cannot learn to play gomoku only by playing one-minute games, so you need to play longer games as well. Thorough thinking will help you understand deep reasons for each move and help well understand gomoku in general, which is essential for playing gomoku at a high level.

When you reach a certain level of quality of your moves, you are at level 3 - let us call it "expert" - and starting from this level your speed matters a lot. In a game between an expert and an advanced player, the former is more likely to win, although the difference is smaller than between level 1 and level 2, and if two experts face each other, usually the most decisive factor is speed.

A good example is the WBC match between Matiss and BBJ as well as the WBC match between Gergő and Fire. Matiss and Gergő tried to out-calculate their opponents and were crushed by speed.

Another good example is the WBC match between Peking and Zukole. They are very good at calculating, but came to competing in speed. Zukole was losing 4-6 after the first ten games and then started playing faster, which allowed him to eventually win the match.

Note that if you start playing too fast and focusing on the clock rather than on the position, you may start missing wins and giving the initiative and advantage to your opponent, but if you start thinking too deep, you may be crushed by speed.

As soon as you reach the expert level, you need to start working on your speed. This is done by learning shapes in the process of playing as well as by analysing positions in which you had a difficulty choosing a move or from which you lost. It is really critical to analyse your mistakes and correct them.

Zoltán denotes this by the Hungarian word "rutin" and explains that it is an automated algorithm, i.e., in each position he knows how to play, how the opponent can respond, and how to play next. Having played dozens of thousands of games, he says he can easily predict next moves from the opponent's style, and this is obviously a big advantage.

As soon as you build your own "rutin" and achieve a speed comparable to that of, say, Fire, you are at level 4 - let us call it "master". In a game between a master and an expert, the former is more likely to win, but the difference is less than between level 2 and level 3.

It is only after you become a master that you should learn more subtle things. One of such things is that the time that your opponent spends on his moves depends on your moves, so you can try to confuse your opponent by putting him in non-obvious positions. Also, besides in-game traps, players can use pre-game traps like various schemes or prepared swap2s. Pre-game traps may be quite effective in a tournament like the WBC because the opponent has no time to analyse.

Such subtle things are what it means to be creative, which is the last remaining component on the list in the beginning of the article, and learning such things will make you a real ace of one-minute gomoku - like Zoltán or even better, as there is no limit for improvement!

[zukole]

Ponoć specjalnie dla protiza tekst jest również dostępny w PDF

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principles.pdf

Pobierz Plik ściągnięto 517 raz(y) 32,65 KB

[sandra113]

Tonight at 20:00 Warsaw time the first quarter-final match will be played - Valtteri Pulliainen, also known as Fire, faces Adrian Czychowski, also known as Adero! Both players are great surprises of this championship. They never played in live tournaments, at least in those shown on gomokuworld.com. Valtteri is pretty quick, accurate, and reasonable in making his moves and seems to have found a good balance between time and quality. Adrian's play was praised by Russians on the Russian gomoku discussion board, especially for his non-standard tactical solutions.

To watch the match, go to playok.com/en/gomoku, click on "guest" (unless you want to use an already registered account of yours), change the playing hall from "bieniasze" to "dobrocin" and click on the table at which Adrian and Valtteri are playing. Adrian' nickname is wbcadrian, and Valtteri's nickname is wbcfire. Come watch

[sandra113]

Today (Sat 20 May) is a great day for one-minute gomoku fans - two WBC quarter-finals will be played today!

And the first of them is between Michał Żukowski, also known as Zukole, and Piotr Bieniek, also known as Gacul. The match starts at 15:00 Warsaw time. Both players have extensive experience of live games, occupying the 8th and 21st lines of the world ranking list, respectively, and Michał won the blitz tournament of the recent Polish live gomoku championship. They are also very strong one-minute players, being ranked by the experts third and ninth in this World Cup, respectively. While these ranks may create an impression that Michał has a better chance to win, they do not mean much in the heat of such a high stage. A crucial factor is who is stronger psychologically. Each of the two opponents has already had a tough match in this World Cup and demonstrated psychological strength - Zukole won 16:14 against Peking, and Gacul won 17:15 against Mark. Now only one of these two elite Polish players can advance further. Do not miss such an epic Polish derby

To watch the match, go to playok.com/en/gomoku, click on "guest" (unless you want to use an already registered account of yours), change the playing hall from "bieniasze" to "dobrocin" and click on the table at which Zukole and Gacul are playing. Zukole' nickname is wbczukole, and Gacul's nickname is wbcgacul.

Note that there is a small but finite risk that the match will be postponed. You can always check the the up-to-date time of the match in the official schedule: https://sites.google.com/site/worldblitzcup2017/schedule

[sandra113]

And the second quarter-final to be played today (Sat 20 May) is between Rudolf Dupszki and Adrian Fitzermann, also known as Adif. The match starts at 17:00 Warsaw time.

Rudolf is the current world champion in live gomoku and third on the live gomoku world ranking list. He was previously considered by many rather slow for one-minute gomoku, but intensive training before this World Cup made him a really very strong one-minute player. He won all his matches in this World Cup so far and advanced to the quarter-final stage with ease.

His opponent, Adif, is currently fourth on the live gomoku world ranking list and is famous for his one-minute skills. The experts ranked him second in this World Cup. He is fantastic at quick calculation and finding smart moves and often puts traps.

The upcoming battle is something more than a match between two players - both opponents were helped a lot to prepare. Rudolf was especially helped by Zoli, who played with him at least about 300 one-minute games, which amounts to 7-8 hours of intensive playing time. Adif is a member of the famous Euroleague team "The Lords of XO," known for its team spirit, and at least a few times was seen training with them during this World Cup. He is the last Lord remaining in the Cup, so the entire or almost entire team is expected to come support its last warrior.

Do not miss this epic battle!

To watch the match, go to playok.com/en/gomoku, click on "guest" (unless you want to use an already registered account of yours), change the playing hall from "bieniasze" to "dobrocin" and click on the table at which Rudolf and Adif are playing. Rudolf' nickname is wbcgomotaku, and Adif's nickname is wbcadif.

[sandra113]

The central and last remaining quarter-final will be played today at 21:30 Warsaw time between Zoltán László, also known as Zoli, and Vladimir Nipoti, also known as Bano.

Zoli is a young rising gomoku star and was ranked by the experts the strongest in this World Cup. So far his performance has been up to the expectations, as Zoli convincingly won all his matches, inflicting a heavy defeat on each of his opponents and, in particular, beating 21-0 a couple of them. Zoli is also good at live gomoku - despite a very long break from playing live, he finished second in the recent Hungarian Open Meijin championship, above such gomoku legends as the world champion Rudolf Dupszki and the Czech champion Pavel Laube. Zoli is famous for his self-confidence, and one of his well-known playok nicknames is thekingg, which is very telling.

Bano is the last remaining Czech player in this World Cup, the last warrior representing such a strong gomoku power. He is currently 6th on the live gomoku world ranking list and has extensive experience of playing live as he has participated in about three dozens of live tournaments shown on gomokuworld.com. Bano is also a very strong one-minute player, as he was ranked fifth by the experts. Interestingly, many Russians have expressed their support of Bano in the upcoming match against Zoli.

Will Zoli heavily defeat Bano just as he defeated the previous opponents, or will Bano be able to stop the self-proclaimed king? The match will show! Come watch it

To watch the match, go to playok.com/en/gomoku, click on "guest" (unless you want to use an already registered account of yours), change the playing hall from "bieniasze" to "dobrocin" and click on the table at which Zoli and Bano are playing. Zoli' nickname is wbczoli, and Bano's nickname is wbcb.

[sandra113]

A screenshot showing 72 spectators watching the match between Bano and Zoli, including Attila Demjan, Ondřej Nykl, Artur Tamioła and many other great players!

[sandra113]

The semifinal stage was announced on Monday on the tournament website, https://sites.google.com/site/worldblitzcup2017

The participants are kindly asked to arrange and play their matches. The period of the semifinal stage is Mon 22 May - Sun 4 Jun (i.e., two weeks). At least one the organisers (Usiek, Zoli, or Sandra) needs to be sent a message at least 24 hours before each match.

The semifinals are:
Zoltán László (Hungary) vs Michał Żukowski (Poland)
Adrian Fitzermann (Poland) vs Adrian Czychowski (Poland)

Good luck to the participants!

[zukole]

Cytat:

Zoltán László (Hungary) vs Michał Żukowski (Poland)

Środa, 31.05 o 22:00.

[sandra113]

I would like to show you the current standing of the unofficial team competition in the WBC Here, each player brings 1 point to his team for each round he successfully passes - group stage, 1/16 final stage, 1/8 final stage, etc. For example, Usiek successfully passed the group stage and the 1/16-final stage and thus brings 2 points to Poland. And here is the standing:

1. Poland 25
2. Hungary 12
3. Czech Republic 9
4. Russia 6
5. Finland 3
6. Estonia 2
7-9. Latvia 1
7-9. Slovakia 1
7-9. Ukraine 1

Poland is the indisputable leader here So now we know which country is the strongest and most developed in terms of one-minute gomoku

And now the analogous WBC statistics for the Euroleague teams:

1. Get Rekt 14
2. Demons and Wizards 9
3. The Lords of XO 8
4-5. Czech Payback 5
4-5. Dasha and Bears 5
6. Outsiders 4
7. Dark Team 3
8-9. Asgardia 2
8-9. Trump Army 2
10. Way to the Sun 1
Not participating in the EL 7

So now we know which clans are the best at one-minute gomoku

[angst]

21:00 dziś: Adifek - Adero!

Pozdrawiam

Angst

[sandra113]

Thanks Piotr

Yes, today at 21:00 Warsaw the first semifinal will be played - between Adrian Czychowski, also known as Adero, and Adrian Fitzermann, also known as Adif! Adero is a great surprise of this championship, but will he be able to make one more sensational result, this time against the last remaining Lord?

To watch the match, go to playok.com/en/gomoku, click on "guest" (unless you want to use an already registered account of yours), change the playing hall from "bieniasze" to "dobrocin" and click on the table at which Adero and Adif are playing. Adero's nickname is wbcadrian, and Adif's nickname is wbcadif.

[sandra113]

Adero did not show up, and we found the reason he told us later not compelling enough to warrant re-scheduling the match. Thus, the match is considered +:- in Adif's favour. Adero is allowed to play the match for the third place.