ГоБиблиотека: ГранПриЕвропы/1997/Хельсинки

Grand Prix d'Europe 1996–1997

21 Tour

Helsinki 1997

Helsinki, June 28-29, 1997

Pl. Name Str. Co Cl MMS Pt. SOS 1 2 3 4 5 TPt 1 Lazarev Alexej 6D RU Pet 10 5 41 9+ 3+ 5+ 2+ 4+ 15 2 Bogdanov Viktor 6D RU Pet 9 4 38 12+ 8+ 10+ 1- 5+ 11 3 Siivola Matti 5D FI Hel 9 4 38 10+ 1- 13+ 7+ 8+ 11 4 Laatikainen Vesa 5D FI Hel 8 3 40 7- 9+ 6+ 11+ 1- 8 5 Lounela Olli 4D FI Hel 8 3 38 15+ 14+ 1- 8+ 2- 6 6 Roads Francis 4D UK Wan 8 3 34 8- 11+ 4- 14+ 12+ 5 7 Paatero Lauri 3D FI Hel 8 3 24 4+ 0= 0= 3- 10+ 4 8 Pedrini Enzo 3D IT Mil 7 2 40 6+ 2- 12+ 5- 3- 3 9 Gorzhalcan Vladimir 2D RU NN  7 2 37 1- 4- 11- 13+ 14+ 2 10 Jones Alison 2D UK Wan 7 2 36 3- 22+ 2- 12+ 7- 1 11 Jantunen Markku 1D FI Tam 7 3 35 13+ 6- 9+ 4- 15+ 12 Karppinen Ari  2D FI Hel 6 1 37 2- 15+ 8- 10- 6- 13 Li Bo 1D CN Pek 6 2 34 11- 17+ 3- 9- 18+ 14 Alanko Otso 2K FI Hel 6 2 33 23+ 5- 15+ 6- 9- 15 Jones Andrew 3D UK Wan 6 1 33 5- 12- 14- 16+ 11- 16 Heino Jarmo 3K FI Hel 6 3 26 17- 23+ 18+ 15- 19+ 17 Gavrilov Oleg 3K RU St P? 6 3 21 16+ 13- 19+ 22+ 0= 18 Stepin Sergej 3K RU St P? 5 2 27 21+ 19- 16- 20+ 13- 19 Ronkko Seppo 6K FI Lap 5 3 25 20+ 18+ 17- 27+ 16- 20 Torikka Mauri 6K FI Tur 5 3 23 19- 21+ 22+ 18- 24+ 21 Rovio Teemu 6K FI Tam 5 3 22 18- 20- 25+ 23+ 22+ 22 Kohonen Sari 3K FI Hel 4 1 26 26+ 10- 20- 17- 21- 23 Berezin Alexandr 5K RU St P? 4 1 23 14- 16- 24- 21- 28+ 24 Alenius Jyrki 10 FI xxx 4 3 17 29+ 25- 23+ 26+ 20- 25 Saarinen Mikko 14 FI Ota 4 4 15 28+ 24+ 21- 29+ 27+ 26 Sokolov Ilja 13 RU St P? 3 3 11 22- 0+ 28+ 24- 29+ 27 Lampen Tapio 6K FI Ota 3 1 9 0= 0= 0= 19- 25- 28 Siivola Sinikka 12 FI Hel 2 2 12 25- 29+ 26- 0+ 23- 29 Aleksejev Alexandr 14 RU St P? 1 1 13 24- 28- 0+ 25- 26-

Report by Vesa Laatikainen

While the rainy and cold weather was reigning the continental Europe and the British islands, the warm and sunny Finland saw the Russians, the Britons and an Italian entering Helsinki Grand Prix in the last weekend of June. Pihlajamдki school, near the local devil's churns from the iceage, was a spacious site for the 29 players in the competition.

Aleksei Lazarev hasn't lost a game in the last two years in Helsinki Grand Prix. That is a tournament winning strategy. Viktor Bogdanov and Matti Siivola both dropped a game against Aleksei and peacefully shared the second place. Vesa Laatikainen repeated his WAGC'97 loss against Lazarev in the last round, after losing the first round game against Lauri Paatero. (I would like to some time win against Aleksei but as it is, the fourth place remains.) Olli Lounela, Francis Roads, Lauri Paatero, Enzo Pedrini, Vladimir Gorzhaltsan, Alison Jones – they all followed and scored according to their ranks. We also had to promote four of the kyu players. No GP points for Oleg Gavrilov this time.

This was the first time Helsinki Grand Prix appeared as a cut-down two-day version. It might make it easier to attend but then, when are we supposed to get into the sauna? The sauna was now arranged after the tournament in Sunday evening. Surprisingly (not), almost everybody had reserved time to bath, to feel the spirit of «lцyly» in the sauna and to refresh themselves swimming in the lake Kuusijдrvi. The only small complain was that we Finnish sung “out of tune”, my goodness gracious me.

What else: we played go outside through the midnight without any further light than the sky. The weather was better than anywhere else in Europe that time. In the restaurant “Lappi” go players could taste reindeer meat, Lappish mushroom soup or plenty of salmon. Those who didn't feel like they had played enough could continue their Grand Prix round in Petrozavodsk the following weekend.