EGC 2008 Newsletter 2
2008-02-09
52nd European Go Congress 2008.
Newsletter 2, February 2008
The EGC is approaching and new registrations are dropping in at a steady pace. At the moment (February 9th) there are 422 people from 27 different countries registered in total, 348 of which are planning to play in the tournaments. In January there were on average 1.5 new registrants per day, compared to 1.3 in December, 1.4 in November and 1.1 in October.
The professionals who have confirmed their participation in the EGC 2008 so far are Masataka Saijo 9p, Shigeyuki Muraoka 9p, Young SunYoon 5p, Mika Hashiguchi 4p, Seung Hee Kang 2p, Yuki Shigeno 2p and Meien Kurebayashi 2p. We are very grateful for their kind collaboration. We have sent invitations to Nihon Kiin, Kansai Kiin and to the pro organisations in Korea, China and Taiwan to send additional professionals, so we are hoping to have at least 10-15 professional teachers present in Leksand.
The Symposium on Go History and Go in Art and Literature will take place July 29-31. More details are found on the invitation page at http://egc2008.eu/en/events/symposium.php . Confirmed speakers so far are Masataka Saijo, John Fairbairn, Erwin Gerstorfer, Motoki Noguchi, Didier Kropp, Ichiro Tanioka and Peter Shotwell. If you want to present anything at the symposium, please let us know. The presentations will be open to all congress participants.
The detailed planning for the Japan days August 2-3 will begin soon. Apart from go and shogi, items which have been on the table so far include kendo, iaido, manga/anime, taiko (drums), shakuhachi (flute), koto (string instrument), dance, ikebana (flower arrangements), origami, calligraphy, tea ceremony, haiku, art, food, Japanese cars and motorcycles and park golf (Leksand reportedly has the only park golf court in the world outside Japan). At some point there will of course necessarily have to be a big Japanese party. If you want to contribute anything along those lines, we will be happy if you let us know.
Likewise the Wednesday excursions are not planned in detail yet, however a steamboat tour around lake Siljan with stops at different places, or a bus tour around the region are nice possibilities. It would be possible to arrange a trip to Stockholm as well for one Wednesday, but we are a bit in doubt that such an excursion would be too hurried and tiresome.
Many of the places where goplayers will be staying are suitable for nice gatherings and parties. Most such activities will probably be organised by the participants themselves. However in particular Jonas, the chef at Folkhögskolan is keen to arrange thematic evenings with Scandinavian, Japanese, Chinese or Korean food.
There are very nice physical sports facilities around the congress venue. In particular the potential for golf, tennis, baseball, football, ice skating and ice hockey is striking. Another interesting possibility is church boat rowing, a Siljan specialty. If we can get teams of 20 together, there is a great chance to try the beautiful boats
( http://www.triggerphoto.se/search/index.php?search=kyrkb%E5t )
and perhaps even arrange a competition.
The program for the outdoor performance stage Dalhalla in Rättvik is found at www.dalhalla.se and during the congress weeks it includes most notably guest performances by the Shanghai Opera House August 7,8,9, with Giuseppe Verdis Otello and Carl Orffs Carmina Burana.
Transport from the airports to Leksand:
We have had questions from some participants about how to get in particular from Stockholm Arlanda Airport to Leksand on the Friday or Saturday evening. As a matter of fact the train company has not decided finally on the time table for July-August yet, they will do so in February. What we know is that the last train from Arlanda airport to Leksand in the evening will probably leave around 18.00, or possibly around 20.00. We are planning to arrange pick up of late arrivers in Arlanda, but details will follow soon in the next newsletter.
We are now working on translations of the EGC web page. In the first place translations to Russian and Japanese are under way. If anyone wants to help with translations to other languages, please let us know.
Please forward this letter to anyone you know who hasn’t registered yet but may be interested to come. The registration fees will go up a bit after March 15th and following that date we will have to ask for a small administrative surcharge on the bookings of accommodation. It is also wise to register early in order to have a wide choice of accommodation. If you don’t want to receive a couple of more newsletters like this, please tell us so. Likewise, if you have any queries or suggestions for the organisers, write to: info@egc2008.eu .
Welcome to Leksand in summer!
The EGC2008 team