Ilya Shikshin's pitfall

Today was an exceptionally thrilling day for KGS'ers, with so many exciting games being relayed at the same time.

For starters, for many it was the first time that they could see professionals playing live (the games were played in Bordeaux, and they were broadcasted by EuroGoTV). The Shanghai Team faced the Xi'an Team (Chinese League), so the players were not just any professionals: among others, we got to see the masters Qiu Jun 8p, Hu Yaoyu 8p and (from the other team) the legendary Chang Hao 9p (who lost his game against Huang Chen 5p, by half a point...).

Personally, I was very impressed by the way professionals act during their games: they would stare at the opponent for a long period of time, place their head very close to the goban, and slam the go stones in the board (really hard!)... I guess these psychological tricks (if I can call them that) must be expected.

The games from the EGC were also very stimulating. Catalin Taranu 5p beat Kai Naoyuki 6d (from Japan), Alexander Dinerchtein defeated Dmytro Bogatsky 6d and - exciting news for France: - Thomas Debarre 6d managed to win his game against Christian Pop 7d (by 1,5 points).

Today's biggest sensation was the Ilya Shikshin 7d vs Ondrej Silt 6d match (you can see it here). After the joseki in the upper right, White was not careful enough and he allowed (missed?) Black 81, a fine tesuji, followed by B83 (anothertesuji, to capture the White stones). White lost so many points there! Later Ilya tried to play actively, but Black never gave him a chance. It was an impressive victory by Ondrej Silt!