^{(psst. This is my 100th post! Celebrate!)}

Arrival

Leo and I came in early to wait others, when the appointed time of meeting at 9:30 am was up, we started getting anxious. Would no-one come? We called @markkujantunen, and he told he was on his way, so we relaxed a bit. But where were the others?

Waiting for other players in front of the venue, Café Oskari.

Camera body: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: Sigma ART 50mm ƒ/1.4
Aperture: ƒ/5
Exposure: 1/200 s
ISO: Dual-ISO 100+200

At 9:50 am we finally saw one of our club members and two others coming, and so did Markku as well eventually. Good, games could finally start!

Games

Leo participated too.

Camera body: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: Sigma ART 50mm ƒ/1.4
Aperture: ƒ/1.4
Exposure: 1/60 s
ISO: Dual-ISO 100+1600

We had decided we'd list him as a 20 kyu player so he'd play against us all with a 9 stones handi. In the first round Leo played against me, and I was dumbfounded over how well he played. I had never seen him play under real pressure and he really blew my mind with how solid his play was. I was actually having a hard time when I realized he was fast gaining a 100 points in the center and it started to look like there was no way to enter and reduce.

I had to gamble a bit, and started poking at his almost non-existing weaknesses to reveal a true weak spot. And I did find it in the top part of his area. I managed to slither my way in, and now he was in trouble. I knew the game was over, so I secured my areas. But alas, his time was soon up and we didn't get into counting.

Antti & Petteri in deep contemplation.

Camera body: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: EF-S10-18mm ƒ/4.5-5.6 IS STM
Focal length: 10 mm
Aperture: ƒ/4.5
Exposure: 1/40 s
ISO: Dual-ISO 400+1600

I am fairly sure I destroyed all his potential in the center, and while I had the corners and most of the sides of the board, it was more than enough to win in points.

Leo managed to score a win in the next round, against Petteri ^6 kyu, brother of our club member Antti ^1 dan. Understandably he lost all the other games, but he got a lot of valuable advice when we reviewed our games afterwards. I'm betting he's going to pass my rank 7 kyu in no time.

It's a tough game.

Camera body: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: EF-S10-18mm ƒ/4.5-5.6 IS STM
Focal length: 10 mm
Aperture: ƒ/4.5
Exposure: 1/13 s
ISO: Dual-ISO 400+1600

Conclusion

In the end, I didn't manage to win any other games than the one I played against Leo. So in points (rank + games) I got the 5th place, and Leo got 6th. Aside from the apparent loss in the tournament, I'd wager the absolutely coolest thing for Leo was, that he got officially ranked as EGF 18 kyu by @markkujantunen, our prominent 3 dan in front of everyone. In case you are interested, here's Markku's account of the tournament day.

_{Image of the venue, shot by @markkujantunen (Click photo to read his post).}

I am very proud of Leo. He showed great courage when he decided to attend, and pulled it all through to the end without any meltdowns I've seen during his earlier games. He's grown a lot both physically and mentally, especially the latter.

So all-in-all it was a great day! After the games we rewarded ourselves with a meal in the Vesijärvi harbour in one of the restaurants.

(Most of the photos came out underexposed, I have no idea what happened to the light meter in my camera, it just didn't want to settle to one value, it jumped about 10 stops up and down, I couldn't tell what settings to set. So you may find these shots a bit noisy after I had to pump up the exposure quite a bit in post.)

More photos tomorrow! :)