At the shrine, ready to worship. Perhaps it sounds like I am making it bigger and better than it really is, but for me, no. I have not played another go tournament since last years congress in Toulouse, and this is my time. I get to play a game I love, and spend time with people who feel the same, or something like it.

I am here to play fifteen games in fourteen days, and the schedule is packed:

The main attractions are the Professional Eu Championship, the Open, and the weekend tournament, but there are also numerous other events and tournaments.

We play at the Double Tree by Hilton, just east of the Wisla, and the playing halls look amazing.

There is a moment just before the games start, when everyone is trying to find their place, and people greet their opponents, when some have already started their games (in the go world it is not as strict as in the chess world), and I sit by the board, loving the moment. The moment my game starts I am no longer there; not thinking about what I love or not, only vaguely aware of the sound of stones hitting the boards; I go to a place where only the board, and what is on it, exists.

I once played a chess tournament where a guy got a heart attack next to me. Everyone stopped playing but me. I was possibly calculating some complicated line. When I made my move the ambulance personnel were giving him CPR on the floor, just behind me. In many situations my behavior would have been frowned upon, but in the chess world it was not. I retold the story for almost twenty years before it dawned on me that it could be construed as heartless and cold. I only told it as a story about how focused I could become.

And that focused place is a good place for me. It is a place where time slows down and where the mind is free from distractions. It is the anti-reality, and simultaneously the anti-tiktok. To illustrate what I mean I bring you proof in the form of a youtube video:

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxb-ieETqOm8_92JwXztUL98sqiETpONii?si=eE34ARjjhDRcT2z2

I am not able to read the japanese text, and it is quite possible that they are having a moment of silence, but this stillness at the beginning of broadcasts from Japan, is not uncommon, and I believe our time needs more of this.