Great Wall of China

Now I am a true man! (*)

(*) “He who has never been to the Great Wall is not a true man” (Chinese:不到长城非好汉 / pinyin: Bù dào chángchéng fei haohàn)

Bear vs beer

Maybe it's a stronger type of beer?

And the winner is...

... Kang Dong Yoon, 8p. Congratulations!


2nd place for Park Jung Sang, 9p (left); 3rd for Li Zhe, 6p from China, who won against Wang Xi, 9p.

Let the final begin!

The final of the Open Individual is between Park Jung Sang, 9p (left), and Kang Dong Yoon, 8p. Both players are from South Korea, which confirms its leadership in the Professional Go World.

Picture at the dusk

Dusk as seen inside the Pavillon of Broad View, inside the Summer Palace (or Yi He Yuan (traditional Chinese: 頤和園)) in Beijing, China.


Maybe the photographer recognize herself from the silhouette? ;-)

Kiss of the dragons

Beijing （北京）

As seen from the top of the Temple of Buddhist Virtue.

The Italian (amazing) National Team

Good luck to everybody!

(thanks Marta&Marco for the idea of the starry background)

WMSG2008: Opening Ceremony

A few shots taken during the opening ceremony of the WMSG2008.
Good luck to all the participants!

4 members of the Chinese Army bring the National Flag on the stage.


Gu Li, the top Chinese 囲碁 player and one of the strongest players in the world, swearing the solemn oath on behalf of all the players.



The beautiful Alejandra, standard bearer for Costa Rica, wearing the national traditional costume.



The less beautiful but nevertheless fascinating costume of... Swiss?

Chinese traditional costume for the beautiful girls escorting the guests on the stage.



The first dance: tying all the world with knots.


The 囲碁 dance. Simply sublime.


The dance representing Chess: a sneaky bishop killing the opponent's king and kidnapping the queen.


Starry starry "sky" with the shining WMSG logo.

The 1st world mind sports games

The 1st WMSG is a multi-event game and for the first time in human history the five mind sports are integrated as one game. The five mind sports are: bridge, chess, go, draughts, and xiangqi, which have the longest history, the widest popularity and widest influence in the world. It is not only a creative pageant in the sport circle but also an abundant content and large scale exchange for the traditional culture of human being and wisdom.






The Italian standard bearer, Francesco (Go) and Irene (bridge).

"Let the games begin!"

the Chinese way to beach

There seems to be a common denominator to the asian way to the beach: the umbrella. (see also what's going on in Japan)

Well, someone prefers the Italian way ;-)

Starry night in sanya

Well, the sky was not so starry, after all. But I like the picture :-)

Sanya

Sanya (Simplified: 三亚; Traditional: 三亞) is the southernmost city in Hainan (海南) province, China. It is commonly known as "the Chinese Hawaii", and in fact there was a very pleasant weather.