Report of the event "AMBASSADOR’s CUP"

Bucharest , 30th november-2 december 2007

Cupa Ambasadorului este un turneu organizat de jucatorii romani de GO sub patronajul Ambasadei Japoniei in Romania.

Istoria acestui eveniment, care intentioneaza a fi anual de acum inainte, a inceput recent cu ocazia primei sale editii ce a avut loc la Teatrul National din Bucuresti din data de 30 noiembrie pana pe 2 decembrie 2007. Dar semintele a ceea ce urma sa devina cel mai mare turneu de GO organizat vreodata in Romania au fost sadite mai dinainte, asa ca as dori sa incep cu ceea consider eu ca este adevaratul inceput.

In noiembrie 2006 am fost invitat, impreuna cu reprezentantul Federatiei Romane de GO, doamna Marilena Bara, la o intalnire cu domnul Kanji Tsushima, Ambasadorul Japoniei in Romania. Discutia a fost concentrata in mare parte pe situatia comunitatii romane de GO. Avand in vedere ca tentativele mele precedente de a implica ambasada Japoniei in promovarea jocului in tara noastra nu au avut succes, imi aduc aminte cu placere de deschiderea pe care a aratat-o dl. Tushima si sincerul interes in a raspandi cultura japoneza in Romania.

Somewhere in june 2007, I was teaching GO together with a colleague from Saijo Association, Radu, at a school in Bucharest. 

     We were invited there to hold a workshop during their japanese culture festival. Our good relation with teachers of japanese language and with the schools where they work started four years ago, with the very special occasion of the visit of sensei Saijo Masataka in Bucharest, and the excellent workshop he held at the Ion Creanga highschool in front of  about 100 delighted children.

     Since then the bonds got stronger and besides teaching GO here and there in schools, we always had a GO corner at their festival.

     Mr. Tsushima visited the festival this year and the result of this second meeting with him was that me and Radu received an invitation at his excellence's residence, not long after. Beside us, representatives of the japanese language teachers from schools and university   were invited, along with the staff from the cultural section of the embassy. 

     The theme of the evening's discussion was, I believe, what can be done to better spread the values of japanese culture in Romania.

     Stimulated by the tasty sashimi and the excellent wine, as well as the pleasant and skillful way of Mr.Tsushima to lead the discussion, I dared to propose the organizing of a GO tournament under the patronage of the japanese embassy. My argument was the credibility that GO, a relatively unknown game in our country, would get if its image was sponsored by Japan, where GO has the dimensions of a national game and has a long lasting tradition. My secret hope was that, since all the Go players have a longing for Japan and a strong attraction

towards its culture, they will answer the call and will participate at this event in great numbers. I was proved wrong, the number of people who finally attended the event exceeded my wildest expectations...

     A few days later, I received a call from the embassy that the project was approved and we can start working on organizing it. 

     As a person who is presently a link between the japanese and european GO, I took it as a personal responsability  to see this event organized as best as possible. 

     The first steps were to contact every person I knew is actively involved in romanian GO life and to invite them in the organizing team, as well as quickly search a location and set the date of the event.

     From the beggining to the end , luck smiled on us, it was like someone up there really wanted this project to turn into a beautiful thing.

     An excellent location was found at the National Theatre of Bucharest, the art galleries held there by the National Museum of Contemporan Art.

     The Museum generously offered to sponsor the event with a large hall, perfectly set for the kind of activity we needed. The hall can easily accomodate a tournament as big as 200 participants. 

     The date was set on the 1st of December, a very significant thing because this is the Romanian National Day. In this day we all sing our national song : „Wake up, Romanian people”...  For the romanian GO community, the coincidence is not lost, I really hope the „AMBASSADOR's CUP” was a turning point and players throughout the country woke up to our common responsability to further spread and promote the game. 

     The preparations for the tournament were long and laborious and I have to say that without the group of enthusiastic volunteers from the Saijo Association, a GO movement I created when I came back from Japan with the purpose of playing and promoting GO, not much would have been possible. Again luck smiled when students from the Academy of Economic Studies decided in october to start playing GO and quickly found a great sponsor in Dragos Nicolaescu, executive director at Fujitsu Siemens in Romania and at the same time a man who never lost his love for the game of GO. The students needed training for the tournament they organized with the generous help from Dragos and they contacted Saijo Association to ask for teachers. Iulian Dragomir, a member of our club, answered immediately and for two weeks he had daily intensive lessons with the students. On my return from Ireland, where I was teaching for a week, I continued his work with lessons at the Saijo club. 

     The Student Tournament took place in november and there I had the opportunity to meet Dragos, who imediately agreed to sponsor the "AMBASSADOR's CUP ". Beside the computer we received and used as first prize in the tournament, I have to send my special thanks to Oana Olteanu, Dragos's adviser, who helped me with precious advices on organizing, as well as a gorgeous presentation in power point about Japan . We used it at the 

opening ceremony  and during the tournament with great esthetic effect .

     My calls to the GO world outside Romania also did not remain unanswered. On behalf of the romanian GO players I am genuinely grateful to Nihon Kiin for its quick response to my appeal for aid. I got official recognition as their representative for the event, as well as a generous donation in GO souvenirs that were used as prizes for participants. The European GO Federation also answered to my worries about playing materials and sent a donation of 30 sets of GO stones. To this we are very thankful, the lack of playing materials is a permanent question mark for the GO promoters in Europe. 

     Finally, the day of the event came closer and the activity of our organizing team became frantic. Two hours before the beggining of the opening ceremony, the hall was a mound of busy ants. Setting up a ceremony with a festive table, press conference, special invited guests, was no easy feat for a team without much experience in organizing. But our enthusiasm overcame all obstacles and there we were, at the beggining of the festivity, ready to welcome our guests.

Friday, 30th november,  at two o'clock in the afternoon the hall started to fill with people. They were welcome by our two beautiful hosts of the ceremony, two girls, both GO players, dressed in traditional japanese kimono who saluted the guests both in japanese and romanian. 

The speeches of the special guests:

     His excellence Mr.Kanji Tsushima, academy members Solomon Marcus and Gheorghe Paun, Mr. Dragos Nicolaescu from Fujitsu Siemens and me, were followed by a small GO rules presentation I held on a demonstration set . The generosity of Mr. Tsushima to the Romanian GO world materialized also in the greatly appreciated gift of two demonstration sets, used by GO instructors to teach in schools. We received them from his excellence in a festive manner.

     Next, we had an artistic moment thanks to the courtesy of the Ion Creanga highscool. A group of six girls came with their teacher to delight us with a few japanese songs.

     At the end, after the kampai speech offered by Mr. ambassador, in a relaxed manner there was the press conference and free talks between the invited guests. 

     The media representants crowded around Mr. Tsushima, who defended his low rank at the game of GO with an amazing counterattack: he is an impressive 6 Dan in Kendo...

     The real GO tournament started saturday, 1st of December. The organizing team panicked in the morning when an enormous number of participants started to flow in the playing hall.

     Will there be enough playing tables? We were preparing emergency measures when the total number of subscribers for the tournament was announced. 

     No less than 139 players, not counting the 4 referees and me, who had some small lessons during the rounds with the outside guests and the children who finished their games extremely fast. For a national tournament and even for european standards this is a big success in participation.

     Among the participants, 30 were children, 35 were young people between 15 and 22 years and the rest were adults. The ratio of male-female participation was also encouraging: 109 men to 30 women. The youngest participants were three girls of 5 years old, while the eldest was a man of 56 years old. 

     The tournament was held in a 5 round  MacMahon system, but the players were split in 5 groups based on ranks and prizes were given at the end for each group.

     The prizes for the lower four groups were provided by ATCOR, whose representative among us was Vali Costea, to whom I owe warm thanks for the tremendous help in organizing.

     The competition was fierce in the first group, where the winner would receive besides the first prize, the cup that would crown his success.

     The winner was Cristian Pop, followed by Cornel Burzo and Florescu Ion. 

     At the closing ceremony, on the 2nd of December,  Mr. Tsushima did us the honor of personally handing the diplomas beautifully signed by him to all the prize winners. 

     All in all, the impression of the participants was very positive. Nobody left empty handed, thanks to the generosity of the embassy of Japan and Nihon Kiin, each participant got a Fujitsu bag  with pens, engraved cups, T-shirts and for children even more. The atmosphere during the tournament was just great.

     We hope that the second edition will be an european one and are looking forward to beat the record we set this year.