WAGC 2012: "kghin" takes 4th Place!

  You may remember that Peter Liu 2p (MilanMilan), in anticipation of the World Amateur Go Championship (WAGC), shared with GoSensations some of his predictions and told us that Chan Chi Hin (kghin 8d on KGS) would have "less than 5% probability of entering Top3" this year.

Be that as it may, Chan beat the odds by taking 4th place, with a score of 6 wins in 8 rounds!

 As I was blessed enough to represent my country this year at the WAGC, I got the chance to meet many KGS stars in person, including kghin. Unfortunately, he is only comfortable speaking Chinese so we didn't get to talk much. My general impression is that he seemed to be a model son. Actually, two days ago I had an interesting conversation with Chan's father, who was always accompanying him. Among other things, I learned that (surprisingly) kghin likes soccer more than Go!

In the picture at the top of the page you can see Chan Chi Hin 6d (right), playing Lou Yuxiang 5d from Singapore.

Please allow me to say something about Lou here: he is a really kind person, and also very smart (it seems that he will go to Cambridge University next year); he often served as a translator for the players (besides Chinese, he speaks English really well). Lou took 9th place in the tournament. (PS: Of course I am trying to get him to play on KGS!)

    That game was played in the decisive 6th round (in which the Chinese representative Qiao beat Lee from Korea and became the only undefeated player in the tournament). By winning this match against Singapore, kghin got his 5th win in the tournament, making him a force to be reckoned with. As was said before, from a total of eight games, eventually he (only) lost two, to the players from China and Chinese Taipei (whom are both to become pros soon).

 It was possible for Chan Chi Hin to get 3rd place, but in the end it came down to SOS and the Chinese Taipei had the edge.

Still, 4th place is a great result for Chan and Hong Kong.

Congratulations to kghin!