Forum.Gomoku.pl

[Okcthunder]

Myślę, że byłoby to ciekawe wydarzenie, które chętnie zobaczyłoby wielu entuzjastów gomoku.

[zukole]

[sandra113]

Ladies and gentlemen,

Today, 20 Sep, Łukasz Majksner (also known as Usiek and undothefuture) and Denis Osipov (also known as c0sm0s) will start playing their match of four 30 min games at 21:00 Warsaw time. Two games will be played today, and the remaining two tomorrow at the same time.

Łukasz Majksner, Poland, is a team world champion (and best on the 3rd board) and also won the 3rd place in Czech Open 2015. He is the winner of the Black Meijin series of online tournaments and a very well trained online blitz player - he almost never misses "Monday Blitz Evenings," a series of tournaments on 1 min games, and regularly qualifies to play in its monthly Grand Final, where only a few best players advance to, and once won it, earning the title "Player of the Month."

Denis Osipov is one of the best Russian players. His real-life rating is 1745, which is the 15th line in the world ranking list. In 2015, he qualified to play in the final of the Russian gomoku championship (together with 9 other players) and took the 6th place. Concerning online tournaments, he played in the IRP championship the last year and won 75% of his matches, which turned out to be one of the best efficiencies across all participants that season. His well-known nicknames on playok.com include c0sm0s and nirrvana, both being 2000+. His another nickname, russroulette, is 2433.

Rules of the match: gomoku, exactly five-in-a-row (overlines do not count as wins), swap2. The players are allowed to use only their brains, i.e., they are allowed only to look at the board shown on the screen and click. It is not allowed to use programs to analyse a position, use libraries, written notes, literature, analyse a position on a real or virtual board by placing stones, get hints from other people, etc.

Undoubtedly, 30 min are an excellent time control. It allows making well-thought moves and competing on the ability to perform a deep analysis, and, at the same time, it is not too long

Here is how you can watch the match:
1. Go to http://www.playok.com/en/gomoku
2. Click on "GUEST" (unless you want to register an account or use an already registered nickname of yours).
3. In the upper part of the screen, change the playing room to "#100... bieniasze" and "#300... dobrocin" to see in which of these two rooms the match is being played, and click on the table at which it is being played. Łukasz will be on the nickname plgomoku, and Denis' nickname will be c0ms0mol.

Come watch

[sandra113]

Both matches advertised above - Furla vs Usiek and Denis vs Usiek - proved to be very interesting and entertaining. I will now share my impressions from them below

[sandra113]

I would like to first share my impressions from the match between Furla and Usiek, aka Ilya Muratov and Łukasz Majksner, respectively. I believe the match is definitely worth describing in detail for gomoku fans

As I wrote in the announcement, the match consisted of eight games, 7 min per player in each of them, and was played on September 7.

When I helped organise the match, Usiek told me a draw was the best he could hope for, but agreed to play. It was a great pleasure to see that the apparent fear of being beaten hard in full view of many players was outweighed by the desire to enjoy the game and help promote gomoku.

However, I did not fully share Usiek's pessimistic view on possible outcomes. Statistics of tournaments with the same time control - Black Meijin and White Meijin - indicated that none of the two opponents was considerably superior at this time control, although Furla had won all three of their games against each other in these tournaments. As they seemed more or less equally good at this time control, I thought that the outcome of the match was going to highly depend on psychological factors.

Psychologically, seven minutes are a very challenging time control. It requires players to really think, as opposed to 1 min games, but is not long enough to avoid silly, highly regrettable mistakes that make it difficult to focus in subsequent games. It is definitely not easy to accept a mistake that renders all previous efforts to make well-thought moves and follow a strategy in a game totally wasted. It is especially not pleasant when such a mistake results in a loss that undermines the chances to take a high place in a tournament or win a match. It is no wonder that each week quite a few players quit the White Meijin tournament before it ends, supposedly mainly out of anger due to mistakes made - at least one of my friends, who is quite good at gomoku, once confessed that this was the reason of his quitting one of the tournaments.

I advertised the match on the Polish and Russian gomoku discussion boards (this site and vk.com/gomoku, respectively) and also sent many private messages on playok.com.

Shortly before the match, I reminded about it on the Russian gomoku discussion board and encouraged people there to predict the outcome of the match. Four players said that Furla would win, with predictions being 5-3, 7-1, 6-2, and again 6-2, one prediction being accompanied by the patriotic motto "Vpered Rossia" ("Advance Russia"), while only one guy said the match would end in Usiek's favour, 5-3.

Both players appeared on playok.com on time and started playing the match on the time agreed.

The audience gathered quickly. The number of spectators varied during the match, reaching a value of 30 about 40 minutes after the match started. I made a screenshot at that moment and have attached it to this review. In this screenshot, you can see some well-known players, including Mikhail Kozhin, Denis Kachaev, Zoltán Lászlo, Andrey Litvinenko, Alexei Lebedev, and Wei-Yuan Lu, who decided to watch the match despite that it started at 2am Taiwan time.

I guess that the presence of such a great audience was a factor motivating both players to do their best and utmost to win the match.

Russian supporters outnumbered Polish ones, with the proportion being roughly four to one, despite that I had appealed to Polish gomoku players by posting an announcement on this discussion board, saying, "Come watch and support your brave compatriot in his battle against such a strong opponent."

To better understand what was happening in the games, I ran Yixin and used it to evaluate positions during the match.

In the first game, Furla put an opening close to a corner. Despite that the opening was somewhat wide and thus not absolutely peaceful, Usiek chose a color instead of adding two stones. What followed can be well characterised by the term "trench warfare," as both players played safely and accurately. At some point, Usiek played too safely, and Furla took the initiative. Usiek, however, defended quite accurately, so Yixin did not even show any advantage of Furla over Usiek. Soon both players had less than one minute left, and it is only then when Usiek finally yielded to the pressure. He first gave Furla an opportunity to play a win that starts with a yobi and is a few moves long, which Furla missed as it was not obvious given the time left. Then Usiek gave him a second opportunity to play a short win starting with a yobi, and Furla played it. 1-0.

Right after the game, Usiek said that one of his moves was a misclick.

Obviously, losing such a tough game in the last minute was not pleasant at all, and I became a bit afraid that Usiek might have got slightly off balance psychologically.

In the second game, Usiek put a central opening, to which Furla added two stones. Usiek attempted to surround Furla's stones and had to play very accurately to prevent Furla from playing a tight win. Yixin did not find any tight win in real time. However, Furla broke through to the upper part of the board. There, Usiek defended in a sharp way, trying to accumulate his stones on the right side. Having not so much time left, both players missed Furla's VCT, which required five stones of his colour to create a 4x4 fork. The game went to the fast-clicking stage. Usiek won on time, having a simple VCF and 6 seconds left when Furla's time expired. 1-1.

Usiek did not seem psychologically affected by his defeat in the first game.

In the third game, Furla again put a wide corner opening, and this time Usiek added two stones, obviously not considering the opening familiar or peaceful enough. Thinking carefully on each move, Usiek was able to take the initiative and achieve a huge advantage. After one of Furla's defensive moves (i6, to be exact), Usiek spent a huge amount of time trying to find a win. There was actually one, but it was very long, 10+ stones of Usiek's color to a winning fork. Usiek finally played a three in the wrong direction, either missing his win or making it considerably longer. However, later in the game (after f4), he had a VCT, but, again, it was quite long, 10+ stones of Usiek's color. Usiek missed it. Having very little time left, he created a VCF threat, missing Furla's VCF. Furla played it and again took the lead in the match. 2-1.

In the fourth game, Usiek put a sharp opening, which he prepared for the last Team Gomoku World Championship and used in it against Stepan Tesark. Stepan did not add two stones, and the game proved to be very sharp and ended in Usiek's favor when there were 35 stones put on the board. Furla, however, did not risk playing the opening, but his two stones created a substantially unbalanced position. Usiek chose the right colour and soon built a huge advantage. Furla spent almost all of his time choosing defensive moves. Having a huge advantage both in time and on the board, Usiek eventually converted it into a victory by a five, equalising the score. 2-2.

Furla responded by putting a sharp opening in the next game. The opening was not very wide, but it was near the centre. The two stones added by Usiek did not make the position look considerably softer, but excluded playing from memory. He was obviously up for a sharp game. He got it. Both players had to spent a lot of time on each of their moves. At some moment, Furla had a huge advantage on the board, but only one minute was left of his time, while Usiek's clock showed approximately one minute and forty seconds. Usiek probably could achieve a time win by choosing good defensive moves, but it was difficult in such a sharp position and mutual time trouble. Furla won by a five and took the lead again. 3-2.

In the sixth game, Usiek put a central opening. Furla added two stones and was able to build an advantage. Usiek defended accurately, but had to spend a lot of time choosing defensive moves. It is only after the 45th stone was put on the board that Usiek made a mistake due to a time trouble, letting Furla play a simple VCF. Usiek's clock showed 0:15 when the game ended. 4-2.

In order to achieve a draw, Usiek had to win the remaining two games,

In the seventh game, Furla put a corner opening. Usiek did not add two stones and carefully chose his moves, achieved an advantage, but found himself considerably behind in time. Nevertheless, he was able to play a nice win (starting with f7) by connecting the upper and lower "front lines." 4-3.

Right after the game, Furla said he regretted one of his moves. In Furla's opinion, it attracted Usiek's attention to a particular place of the board and thereby helped him find his win.

With the score being 4-3 and one game remaining, this moment was the climax of the match.

"You must do it," typed one of Furla's supporters in Russian in the table chat.

In the last game of the match, Usiek again put the sharp opening he used against Stepan, but this time Furla added two stones in a balanced way, and the game looked more or less balanced for a while.

"Damn," typed Furla in Russian in the table chat. He realised he had just missed an opportunity to win the game by a playing a simple VCT.

At that moment, Usiek had a considerable time advantage and seemed to be in a good position to play for a time win.

When Furla had less than a minute left - but definitely not just a few seconds left - he did not block Usiek's three. Usiek did not respond at the drop of a hat. Apparently, he carefully checked, in disbelief, whether he was not missing something. He was not. 4-4.

"Well, I missed it," typed Furla in Russian in the table chat, in response to the question sign typed by Polina, a Russian player.

The match ended as a draw.

Both opponents thanked each other for such a good match.

They made mistakes, but mistakes are unavoidable in 7 min games. For this time control, they played really great.

Obviously, their psychological readiness played a role. I am sure both players experienced the full spectrum of emotions during the match. Being down 0-1, 1-2, and 2-4, Usiek was able to come back in the score, revealing his fighting spirit.

I really enjoyed watching the match and guess I am not the only one who feels grateful to both players for the wonderful entertainment they provided. I also guess I am not the only one who has been inspired by this match to better understand the game and become a better player

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spect.jpg The screenshot

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[sandra113]

Here are the links to the games of the match between Usiek and Furla, but I have also attached a PDF file with the games as the links will expire in about 6 months:
1st game
2nd game
3rd game
4th game
5th game
6th game
7th game
8th game

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games - sep - 7.pdf Games of the match

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[sandra113]

I am now sharing my impressions from the match between Denis Osipov and Łukasz Majksner (aka c0sm0s and undothefuture, respectively).

As I wrote in the announcement, the match consisted of four games, 30 min per player in each of them, and was played on September 20-21.

There were many spectators, and their peak number was 30, as in the match between Furla and Usiek. I saw, in particular, Zoli, Gergo Toth, Pavel Laube, Attila Hegedus, Ilya Muratov, Mikhail Kozhin, and Denis Kachaev watching the match.

The match ended 4-0 in Denis' favour, but was not really one-sided, in contrast to what its final score suggests. Denis managed to win all four games, but they were pretty intense.

You can have a look at the games by following these links:
1st game
2nd game
3rd game
4th game
As the links will expire in about 6 months, I have attached a PDF file with the games.

In the first game, a critical moment came after Denis played h8. Here is the position after this move (also shown below in the image entitled "A critical moment in the 1st game"; click on the image to better see it). Usiek, who was black in this game, had to choose how to block Denis' three, from above or below. Later, I performed a deep computer analysis and found that the block from below leads to a huge advantage for black, while the block from above gives a huge advantage to white. However, finding this requires a really deep calculation. Usiek overlooked one thing when he analysed the lower block during the game, as he said later. As a result, he concluded that the lower block would result in a huge disadvantage, and chose the upper one, which did not look good either, but at least gave a hope. After Usiek chose the upper block, Denis played accurately and did not give Usiek a chance to equalise the game.

In the second game, Denis built a huge advantage, both in time and on the board. I would like to show you the win he played, which I find quite interesting: here (also shown below in the image entitled "Denis' win in the 2nd game"). (Denis was white in this game.) In this position, there was only one move leading to a win findable in a 30 min game, h13. This move was not obvious, and Denis played it.

As had been agreed, the first two games were followed by a 24 hours pause.

Zoli said that Denis played amazing. Usiek emphasized that Denis was especially good in choosing strategically good moves. I also talked a bit to Denis, and he said, "This is exactly my main principle, which is to think about the game as a whole, not focusing on local tactics. However, sometimes such an approach results in a quick loss."

In the 3rd game, there was a thing related to sportsmanship. Usiek put a very sharp opening near the centre, and Denis thought six minutes and then suddenly disappeared without saying a word. In a minute, the game automatically ended. Denis came back in 15 minutes or so, telling he had a problem with his router. The players put the same position on the board and started playing, each having 30 minutes. I suggested Denis have only 24 minutes (not 30), as he had already spent 6 minutes before he disappeared, but Usiek refused. Well, it was his own choice

Soon, Denis misclicked, not blocking Usiek's three. It was an obvious misclick. Unfortunately, there was no way to undo the move as the "no undo" option had been chosen. The players again put the position on the board and started playing, each having 30 minutes.

The game was incredibly intense. Denis won by a five when he had only four seconds left. Usiek had two seconds left at that moment.

In that game, Usiek was pretty much close to a victory as he missed two wins. The wins were not very long, but they were somewhat "narrow," not straightforward at all, and thus not very easy to find. Here are the positions in which Usiek had a win: here and here (also shown below in the images entitled "First missed win in the 3rd game" and "Second missed win in the 3rd game"). (Usiek was white in this game.)

The fourth game developed from a corner and looked more or less equal for quite a while. Again, Denis achieved an advantage both on the board and in time (7 min vs 3 min after L7) and won by a five.

Anyway, the match proved to be very interesting, in contrast to what the final score suggests. 30 minutes proved to be an excellent time control for online matches. I am thankful to both players for focusing and playing very well.

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position1.jpg A critical moment in the 1st game. Click on the image to better see it.

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position2.jpg Denis' win in the 2nd game. Click on the image to better see it.

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position3.jpg First missed win in the 3rd game. Click on the image to better see it.

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position4.jpg Second missed win in the 3rd game. Click on the image to better see it.

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games sep 20 21.pdf Games of the match

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[sandra113]

I am looking forward to the match of 30 min games between Denis Osipov and Rudolf Dupszki, the current world champion. Both players have agreed to play it, but the dates are yet to be fixed. As soon as they are fixed, I will post an announcement in this thread, so stay tuned to it

[sandra113]

Ladies and gentlemen,

This Sunday, 25 Sep, Gergo Toth (also known as Vessago) and Oleg Bulatovsky (also known as Gelo) will start playing an online match of four games in the morning at 10:30am Budapest time.

The time control is 30+5, i.e., in each game each player initially has 30 minutes and gets 5 additional seconds for each move made by him.

The first two games will be played starting at the time specified above, and the remaining two either immediately after the first two or on another day.

The match will be played on https://logic-games.spb.ru/gomoku/?lang=en
(Don't worry, this site has an English version and does not require registering or installing a client program.)

Gergo Toth, Hungary, is currently the sixth in the world ranking list, with a rating of 1892, and the current vice-champion of the world. He won the Team European Championship in 2014 as a member of the Hungarian team, playing at the fist table, and took the 1st place in his last tournament this year, the 13th Fishparty, finishing above the current world champion. He is also exceptionally strong online: Last season, he was the runner-up in the IRP championship and earned 25 points in his 30 Euroleague games, achieving the highest efficiency in the Euroleague last season among those who played 20+ games.

Oleg Bulatovsky, Ukraine, has a rating of 1683, which is the 30th line in the world ranking list. In 2014, he won the Polish Open and also the Team European Championship as a member of the Hungarian team (which he joined for exceptional reasons). He is also quite strong online, as last season he took the 4th place in the IRP championship and earned 43.5 points in his 70 Euroleague games.

Rules of the match: gomoku, exactly five-in-a-row (overlines do not count as wins), swap2. The players are allowed to use only their brains, i.e., they are allowed only to look at the board shown on the screen and click. It is not allowed to use programs to analyse a position, use libraries, written notes, literature, analyse a position on a real or virtual board by placing stones, get hints from other people, etc.

As we have recently found, thirty minutes are an excellent time control for online matches. It allows making well-thought moves and competing on the ability to perform a deep analysis, and, at the same time, it is not too long.

The Fischer time control excludes winning by outclicking in a mutual time trouble.

Thus, this match is a perfect opportunity for both players to demonstrate, in full view of many spectators, who is the true lord of this game

Here is how you can watch the match:

1. Go to https://logic-games.spb.ru/gomoku/?lang=en

A menu with four options will pop up.

2. In the menu, under "Welcome," click on the right button ("Play as a guest"), unless you want to register or use an existing account. After you click on that button, a short Russian text will appear below it, and you must click on the button just below this text. (This button just means that you understand the limitations of using a guest account and agree to proceed.)

3. To make the board look like on playok.com, you must click on "Options" below the board. Then, under "Marks," you must select "Stones" and then click on "OK" below.

4. In the upper left corner, click on "In Game." Below, find the game being played by Gergo and Oleg. Gergo will be on the nickname vessago, and Oleg's nickname will be DizzyBlack. Click on the game and enjoy

Come watch, and do not forget to go get your popcorn

[sandra113]

The match between Gergo and Oleg is proving to be very interesting. The current score is 1-1.

The two remaining games will be played on another day yet to be determined. As soon as it is, I will make an announcement.

The peak number of spectators was 17-18 or so. That is quite a considerable figure, but it is only a half of the peak number of viewers for the past match between c0sm0s and Usiek. Apparently, the time of the kick-off, 10:30am, was not perfect in terms of attracting spectators, but it was really nice to see a considerable number of them at such an early hour. Interestingly, almost all of them were Russian-speaking. At least, they watched the match on the Russian version of the site.

Here is how you can have a look at the two games played today:
1. Go to https://logic-games.spb.ru/gomoku/?lang=en
2. Choose "Play as a guest" and click on the button a bit below.
3. Under the board, click on "Rating."
4. Somewhat below, choose "Swap2."
5. In the search field, type "vessago". It is Gergo's nickname.
6. Click on the result of the search and choose "Show profile," then choose "Swap2."
7. Here you will see the games. Just click on them to see them on the board.

(I have also attached the games to this post as diagrams. You must click on the diagrams in order to properly see them. Gergo added two stones in the first game and ended up being black, while in the second game, Oleg did not add two stones and again chose white.)

In the first game, Gergo was able to took the initiative and achieve an advantage, but it came at a price - the vice-champion of the world spent considerably more time choosing his moves than Oleg did. Step by step, Gergo was building a winning position, but finally lacked just a small amount of time to win the game and found himself balancing at the brink of a time loss. Exploiting the time advantage, Oleg took the initiative and won the game. Formally, his victory was a time win as Gergo's time expired, but there was already a simple win for Oleg on the board.

Later, my computer analysis revealed that Gergo had missed at least four wins before Oleg took the initiative, but none of those wins is easy. Early in the game - after k5, to be exact - there was a very long win, which Yixin finds at depth 17 and in more than an hour. Although the other three wins (after i10, i12, and j9) are considerably shorter (depth 9, 9, and 8, respectively), they are not straightforward at all and thus were not easy to find during the game, especially given the time left.

The second game developed similarly to the first one, but this time Gergo managed to find a win just in time, by the skin of his teeth. He had just a minute left when the game ended.

It is worth emphasising exceptionally powerful playing by Gergo, which resulted in him strongly dominating in both games, as well as fast and accurate defending by Oleg, which eventually led to his victory in the first game and might result in a similar victory in the second one if Gergo did not find his win in time.

I am curious whether any of the players is going to modify his tactics in order to succeed in the match. Oleg may want to try playing a bit differently as Gergo strongly dominated in both games. However, even if Oleg plays as today, he may win if Gergo does not change anything in his approach to time management in this match.

Anyway, the match is very interesting, so I am looking forward to the remaining two games

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game 1.jpg Game 1. Click on the image to properly see it.

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game 2.jpg Game 2. Click on the image to properly see it.

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[zukole]

Games in renlib are much better than screenshots.

[sandra113]

Thanks, good idea, Michał

By the way, Usiek is going to post material about each online match on gomokuworld.com, including the games themselves and a review. The past matches will also be posted

[sandra113]

Ladies and gentlemen,

Today at 20:00 Warsaw time there will be an online blitz match between Patron and Usiek, whose real names are Stepan Peskov and Łukasz Majksner, respectively.

Stepan Peskov, Russia, achieved the 8th dan in renju and played in the A tournament of the Renju World Championship in 1995, finishing fifth out of twelve participants. He won the Team Renju World Championship in 1996 and seems in good shape now - this summer he won 2-0 against Furla and 2-0 against Paaja in a friendly online match between the teams "Last Frontier" and "Humans-2015."

Łukasz Majksner, Poland, is a team world champion (and best on the 3rd board) and won the 3rd place in the Czech Open 2015. He is the winner of the Black Meijin series of online tournaments and a very well trained online blitz player.

The match will be played on playok.com and consist of 8 games, 7 min per player in each of them.

Rules of the match: gomoku, exactly five-in-a-row (overlines do not count as wins), swap2. The players are allowed to use only their brains, i.e., they are allowed only to look at the board shown on the screen and click. It is not allowed to use programs to analyse a position, use libraries, written notes, literature, analyse a position on a real or virtual board by placing stones, get hints from other people, etc.

Here is how you can watch the match:
1. Go to http://www.playok.com/en/gomoku
2. Click on "GUEST" (unless you want to register an account or use an already registered nickname of yours).
3. In the upper part of the screen, change the playing room to "#100... bieniasze" and "#300... dobrocin" to see in which of these two rooms the match is being played, and click on the table at which it is being played. Łukasz will be on the nickname plgomoku, and Stepan's nickname will be patron (which is "gun cartridge" in Russian).

Come watch

[sandra113]

Ladies and gentlemen,

Today, 1 Oct, Mikhail Kozhin and Łukasz Majksner (also known as Usiek) will start playing an online match at 21:00 Warsaw time.

The match consists of four games, thirty minutes per player in each of them. The first two games will be played today, and the remaining two tomorrow at the same time.

Mikhail Kozhin, Russia, was the renju champion of the USSR in 1990 and 1991 and the renju champion Russia in 1993, 1998, and 1999. He won two team world renju championships, in 1996 and 2000. In the last two gomoku world championships he finished third, above all other Russians. He is the author of the classic book on renju theory entitled "Click of stones."

Łukasz Majksner, Poland, is a team world champion (and best on the 3rd board) and won the 3rd place in the Czech Open 2015. He is the winner of the Black Meijin series of online tournaments and a very well trained online blitz player.

In his previous match, Usiek beat Stepan Peskov, who won the team world renju championship in 1996 playing in the same team with Mikhail, and it is now time for Usiek to face Mikhail himself

Rules of the match: gomoku, exactly five-in-a-row (overlines do not count as wins), swap2. The players are allowed to use only their brains, i.e., they are allowed only to look at the board shown on the screen and click. It is not allowed to use programs to analyse a position, use libraries, written notes, literature, analyse a position on a real or virtual board by placing stones, get hints from other people, etc.

Here is how you can watch the match:
1. Go to http://www.playok.com/en/gomoku
2. Click on "GUEST" (unless you want to register an account or use an already registered nickname of yours).
3. In the upper part of the screen, change the playing room to "#100... bieniasze" and "#300... dobrocin" to see in which of these two rooms the match is being played, and click on the table at which it is being played. Mikhail will be on the nickname loiso, and Łukasz' nickname will be plgomoku.

Come watch

[sandra113]

The two remaining games of the match between Usiek and Mikhail Kozhin have been postponed to Tuesday, 21:00 Warsaw time, as Mikhail cannot play today.

The current score is 2-0 is Mikhail's favour.