By Wil Huang

It was another gorgeous day in sunny Los Angeles. The temperature was around 25c. perfect for our tournament on the beach today.

My imagination of Mr. Vladimir Talski was that he must be a strong and tough man just like the way he plays Renju. However, the first impression I got after picking him up in the morning at Los Angeles International Airport was quite surprisingly unexpected. He has medium height, light brown hair. His intelligence, humor and politeness were just as impressive as his Renju skill.

Nick has the white cap, Talski on the right, I am standing behind them

The beautiful Santa Monica beach was as charming as usual. White sands. Blue waves. Girls with bikini passed by on roller blades as fast as eyes can catch them. Screams of excitement kept coming from the roller coaster rides of the amusement parks 200 yards away from our tournament site.

Shortly after Nick arrived around 11:50 AM, before I even remembered to get nervous, our tournament started with Nick and I playing the first game. I opened an I6 (Sample game #1) as I had planned the night before with a very dangerous and risky White 6 when Nick had chosen to play black as I expected. After a very tight and daring white defense, the strategy had paid off for me on my first ever live competition game. After almost one and half hours of nerve wracking experience, I felt exhausted yet so exciting. Less than one hour later, before I completely realized what had just happened, Vladimir had already beaten both me (I6, Wil opened) and Nick (D3, Nick opened) with less than 25 moves in each game! I was wondering why I had tried that exact same strategy again with Vladimir after I lost to him on that same I6 by his very smart black attacks. After 3 games, we all decided to continue the next round the next day in Nick’s house.

Sample Game #1:   Black: Nickolai Alexandrov    vs     White: Wil Huang (Open)
Black 5 Alt = G10

I arrived at Nick’s place about 11:50 AM on July 5^th. The 2^nd round of our tournament continued. I had only slept for about 5 hours and had to drive for an hour to reach Nick’s home, so Nick let me have a rest and started the game with Vladimir. Vladimir opened an I11 playing black. They spent almost the entire 2 hours of time limit and ended with what we all considered the best game of this tournament (Sample game #2). The strength and counting ability of Talski had shown undoubtedly that he is the best Renju player in the US and one of the top players in the world. With high hopes, over confidence, as well as lack of experience and patience, I lost both games after that to Vladimir (I11, Vladimir opened) and Nick (D3, Nick opened) without even spending half of my time limit!

Sample Game #2:   Black: Vladmir Talski (Open)      vs       White: Nickolai Alexandrov
Black 5 Alt = G9

We concluded our tournament with champagne then went to relax inside a Jacuzzi. It was a good tournament, except with too few people attended yet an unforgettable experience for me!

The sport of Renju is only at its birth stage in the US. We need more players, more training, and more attention. With dignity, hope, hard work and support from the Renju world, I am sure that someday we could be competing in the world-class level as a formidable opponent.