From: "STOUTEN, PIETER [R&D/0467]" PHARMACIA COM> Date: 8 nov 2002 Subject: ISF, 5-dans, Gert Schinder and Artem Kolomiyets On Fri 8 Nov 2002 at 12:14 +0900, bogin YAHOO CO JP> wrote: >I guess I was just surprised that the Renmei decided to award >a 5dan rank to the winner. It quite fortunate for anyone to >achieve such a rank from just one tournament of 5 games. > Well, that's a bit like saying it is quite fortunate for someone to become Meijin from just one event of 7 games (and only having to score 4/7). >I know I would be happy to get it that way. > Nothing stops you. All you have to do is to live in the USA (assuming you are American), beat Larry Kaufman and some other players roughly of Larry's strength or a bit weaker in the ISF qualifier and then score 4/5 (if you are lucky that's enough) against comparably strong players in the ISF itself. It is true that the ISF 5-dan title to some extent is an honorary title, but I am convinced that NSR would not have decided to award it if they did not expect the strongest players at the ISF to be of roughly that strength. As Larry pointed out, it is indeed unfortunate that no play-offs were held for first place and that Gert did not play against the numbers 2 and 3 (Mirnik and Kaufman), but that does not change the fact that Gert lost only one game and had the strongest opponents. Just as much as Gert's victory at the ISF, the performance of Artem Kolomiyets of Ukraine there impressed me. It would be extremely good if Artem were to participate in the 2003 European Championship. He seems a force to be reckoned with and a true contender for the title. Maybe we should start lobbying already? Ciao, Pieter