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DINERCHTEIN WINS RUSSIAN CHAMPIONSHIP; NEW PAY-PER-VIEW SYSTEM DEBUTS

Alexandre Dinerchtein 3P has won his first Russian Championship. Playing in the Russian Championships for the first time in several years, Dinerchtein swept the tournament with a perfect 7-0 score. Ilya Shikshin was second with 6-1 and will represent Russia in the 2011 World Amateur Go Championships (WAGC), and Oleg Mezhov took third with 5-2 and will play for Russia in the 2011 Korean Prime Minister’s Cup (KPMC). All three are teachers on Insei-League.com. Dinerchtein had bypassed the tournament in recent years because as a pro he couldn't win the right to represent Russia in international events like the WAGC or KPMC, but as of 2010 he could play for a place on the Russian team in the European Team Championship. The Russian Championships – held November 27-28 in St Petersburg -- also premiered a new type of live broadcast on KGS, with one board each round open for all to watch (check the EuroGoTV3 account on KGS for game records) and the other -- commented live in Russian by dan player -- limited to members of the Russian Go Federation or Insei-League.com, or those who paid a $15/year fee. “A lot of Russian go fans were very unhappy because it was not possible to access this (commented) game live,” reports Dinerchtein, who suggested the idea. However, with less than 10% of players attending Russian go tournaments members of the Russian Go Federation, Dinerchtein hopes the special access for members to live game will help the Federation to increase membership. “It's a very bad situation,” adds Dinerchtein.”Go fans like to watch games of top players free of charge, but they don't want to support the Federation in any form.” He says that he hopes that other countries will also consider this idea as a method of increasing membership. Click here to view the Championship’s deciding game between Dinerchtein and Shikshin, with live commentary (in Russian) by Timur Sankin (SanKingTim on KGS), courtesy of the Russian Go Federation and KGS.