I arrived in Helsinki today to take part in the Open Nordic Championship tournament. A Helsinki go player is putting me up. I had to drive to Tampere first because my computer was acting up so my employer gave me a new one. That tripled the distance I had to drive to get to Helsinki. I did manage to get a few shots in Helsinki.

Helsinki Cathedral

This is from Eira near the western port.

This is also from Eira but towards the east. Here's the tournament announcement on suomigo wiki. It's a six round McMahon tournament where each player is given initial points according to his rank. There is no time to play a full cup with enough games to get a winner reliably. The highest ranked participant is a British Chinese 6 dan who can win the tournament but not the title. Then there are two Finnish 5 dans and three Finnish 4 dans. Then there are five 3 dans with yours truly among them. My chances of snatching the title are slim. But I'm aiming at beating my peers and playing above my level. There are 15 dan-level players and some kyu players in the mix. At my level there is a good distribution of suitable opponents so I'm expecting four or five out of six games to be really interesting. But I'm going to have to go to bed. Good night!