In Renju World No. 37 an interview with Sasha Klimashin was published and his forecast was following:
1. Meritee
2. Sushkov
3. Sinyov
I agreed with his prediction, although I was not so sure about the 2nd and the 3rd places, it seemed to me that Igor might be ahead of Volodya.
In the first round the third question already got some answers - the games were really competitive and exciting. Like two years before, in the first round Ando met a Japanese player who had performed remarkably during the year. In Beijing it was Nishizono, now Ishitani. It was the dullest game of the first round, Ando quickly proved his better theoretical preparation in D11 and got a point. Stefan Karlsson showed some uncertainty by trying to catch the Korean Kim also in D11 with already a known uncorrect variant. Unfortunately Kim made flaws in the order of the moves and lost.
Seemingly a rather dull variant (D3, first 17 moves from the first game of the match Nakamura-Meritee) was placed in the game Sinyov - Gaulitz. To my surprise there was no talk about a draw, both players piled stones in a cluster separate from the other, but it seems that Igor did it better, because he won the game Similar "clusters" emerged on the board in the game Gardström - Lin Shieng Min. Black was more skilful again. Although theoretically not very good, but surely a very exciting game was played between Kostya Nikonov and I. Kostya is the leader of current e-mail WC and definitely a troublesome opponent because of his theoretical preparation. Lucky for me he let some inaccuracies slip through and allowed me to win. Out of the favourites Sushkov got the most inconvenient opponent in the first round, he had to play with Nara, who has not got worse place than 4th on WCs. The game was the last to end, but with Volodya winning. The second round. D3 in all six games! A couple of draws could have been expected, but still all the games showed positive results! A rather long and difficult game was played between Ando and Kim, but in the end Kim simply did not close a three-move win by placing his stone in the other corner. Gardström managed to obtain a serious lack of time against Sushkov and finally he had no chances.
The game between Stefan and I was probably my worst game on the tournament. Fighting with heavy sleep, I glared at the renju-board for several hours with an empty glance without understanding anything. Stefan himself did not have to do anything to win - a deserved loss for me.
In the longest game of the round the Japanese reached a position where there were only a few free spaces left on the board. Ishitani had about 20 minutes left, Nara a few seconds. However the one who made a mistake in a simple spot was Ishitani...
In other games Igor overcame Lin (Lin slipped in a completely unexpected place after 50 minutes of thinking) and Kostya subdued Joachim. It was a miserable game for Joachim. He tried to lose tempo at every possible moment and he succeeded in it too...

Standings after two rounds:
Ando, Igor, Volodya, Stefan - 2
Kostya, Nara, Petter, Ants - 1
Joachim, Kim, Lin, Ishitani - 0

In the third round Stefan met with an uncomfortable opponent for him - Petter. Stefan handled D8 unexpectedly insecurely and lost quickly.
There was an interesting game between Ando and Nara. Ando did not rush to destroy his opponent in D11, instead he demolished Nara with a strong positional game. In another central game Igor defeated Kostya in D3. Volodya had to play with me. Obviously he did not want to hurt his friend and played clearly softly in the meantime, but although he gave me the initiative, he did not let me win. The first draw of the tournament. Joachim placed a losing 12th move in D11 against Lin, which Lin should have known from Ando's renjuclass. But Lin acted in a bit peculiar way, by walking around the hall while his own time was running (He did that constantly during QT and also the finals in spite of Ando's remarks. This behaviour should probably be ascribed to the nervousness of an unexperienced player.) and could not find a win. First point for Joachim. Ishitani also opened his score by defeating Kim. In the fourth round Ando was white in D3 for the second time on this tournament and did not give Petter a chance to fight for a long time. Igor played "iron concrete" against Stefan, a variant of D3, where at the first glance black can not lose at all. But unfortunately Stefan was not able to be careful with his time resources and received a painful zero. Volodya subdued Joachim and Nara defeated Lin. Kim got his first point, when he managed to win Kostya. The game between two outsiders - Ants and Ishitani, finally settled into a draw.

Standings after four rounds:
Ando and Igor 4
Volodya 3.5
Petter, Nara, Stefan, Ants 2
Ishitani 1.5
Kostya, Kim, Joachim 1
Lin 0

In the fifth round Volodya beat Igor in D8 with black and settling accounts for the second place. Like all the clever players Ando also understood where my weak spot was and placed D11. Unlike in the game with Volodya I took black this time, but could not do anything. Fifth point for Ando. Stefan got his third consecutive loss. Joachim played his losing 12th move in D11 again and Stefan did not know it. Kostya beat Lin. Kim got his second win by defeating Nara. So now the score between them is 2 : 0 in Kim's favour!
Ishitani and Gardström made a draw and now there were seven players with two points. Petter could wallow in the 4th place with 2.5 points. The sixth round. Tireless Joachim played his "breadwinning item", the losing 12th move in D11 against Ando too. Ando carefully checked all variants before he began to win. Ando was not the only one to get a point practically without playing. Ishitani made a heavy mistake and Igor got an ultraquick point. Volodya did not slip either, he defeated Kostya. Petter was securing his fourth place by winning Kim. Stefan finally won - his opponent was Lin. I was able to find probably the only variant in D8 that Nara knew and I did not. But the reason for my loss is rather bad concentration and scanty competitiveness.

Standings after six rounds:
Ando 6
Volodya 5.5
Igor 5
Petter 3.5
Nara, Stefan 3
Ishitani, Joachim, Kostya, Kim, Ants 2
Lin 0

The fourth day of competing could set things straight, because Ando had to play with Igor and Volodya. The seventh round and the opposition Igor - Ando. Igor, who seemed to fear Ando panically, could surprise only in choosing the opening - D8. Ando took black and Igor's position collapsed quickly. The situation was still extremely exciting, because Volodya did not slip against Lin. Kostya won Stefan and in a crucial game concerning the fourth place Nara won Petter. In a completely incomprehensible way Joachim once more played his losing move in D11 against Ishitani in spite of his loss from Ando. He was punished with a loss, which made reaching top seven strongly doubtful. I had to play with Kim. An international match between Estonia, Latvia and Finland in testing whisky had taken place the previous night (the Finnish contestant tried to use dishonest moves by constantly switching to Campari J) and therefore I tried to end the game quickly by imitating an attack with white at the first possible moment. My confidence had an effect and my opponent gave away a point almost without competing. The eighth round and a very crucial game Ando - Volodya. It was clearly in favour of Ando that his game with Igor in the previous round had ended so quickly. He had time to rest and also prepare carefully for the game. Ando explored the database and the games of the final and came to a decision about which variant Volodya would probably play. A half-hour serious analysis followed and as it came clear later, the point was already Ando's. Volodya sweated behind the board for a long time without knowing that it was too late, he should not have played such a risky variant against Ando. Now Ando had an effective lead - 1.5 points and stopping him was improbable. Another significant game in this round was between Igor and Nara. In case of Nara winning, Igor's third place would be in serious threat, but Igor won and increased the distance to the closest pursuer to 1.5 points. Petter advanced to the fourth place again by defeating Kostya. Kim showed his powers again, he overplayed Joachim. With this Kim maintained realistic hopes to stay in top seven and bring a place in the finals for Korea on the next WC. Stefan and Ants also won, by subduing Ishitani and Lin accordingly.

Standings after eight rounds:
Ando 8
Volodya 6.5
Igor 6
Petter 4.5
Nara, Stefan, Ants 4
Kim, Kostya, Ishitani 3
Joachim 2
Lin 0

The ninth round. Ando had a very severe battle with Kostya, it was probably the most difficult game for him on this WC. Ando's first point that came through a losing position. It was not easy for other medal pretenders either - Sushkov had a losing position with Kim and Sinyov needed some luck in his battle with me. But in the end the stronger players took what belonged to them...
Stefan rose to the 4th place by subduing Nara while Petter lost to Joachim. Lin received his ninth loss, this time from Ishitani.

Standings after 9 rounds:
Ando 9
Volodya 7.5
Igor 7
Stefan 5
Petter 4.5
Nara, Ishitani, Ants 4
Joachim, Kim, Kostya 3
Lin 0

The tenth round. After a difficult game with Igor, I was late for the next round and the game between Ando and Lin had already finished by that time. This was not a serious game of a world championship, I am not sure if Lin even looked at the board.
Igor's game was also over quickly. At last he was punished in D5 and Kim was the one who penalised him.
Stefan's plans for the fourth place backfired when Volodya outwitted him in the endgame of D8. Out of the other pretenders for the fourth place Petter and Nara were victorious against me and Joachim accordingly. Kostya was successful against Ishitani.

Standings after 10 rounds:
Ando 10
Volodya 8.5
Igor 8
Petter 5.5
Nara, Stefan 5
Ishitani, Kostya, Kim, Ants 4
Joachim 3
Lin 0

In the last round Lin got his first win, when Kim did not notice a one-move 4x3. A win would have given Kim a place in the top seven...
The game between Igor and Petter did not take long either. Petter's weak spot came clear - Igor was white in D8, left the stronger 5th move on the board and won rather easily.
Stefan fought Ando with a persistance of a Viking, but still had to recognize the superiority of his opponent. A brisk game between Nara and Kostya was won by Nara. Ishitani needed a win against Volodya to get into the top seven, but the opponents settled with a draw in a rather competitive position. I succeeded in getting a point from Joachim after playing badly for a long time.
The final results:

My evaluation of the players:

Ando Meritee - Just as good as the table of results shows. Of course, with worse luck he could have lost 0.5-1 points, but that would not change the essence of the matter. He is surely the best player in the world at the moment.

Vladimir Sushkov - It seems to be tough luck to get 9 points in WC finals and not the first place... At the same time Volodya emphasised that he came to Japan to rest... His playing was not at all as impressive as Ando's, but still - to come to WC to rest and take 9 points in passing. Yes, without noticing Volodya has become a Great Player.

Igor Sinyov - At times I wondered why the heck all players (almost all) must go crazy precisely against Igor and present him points. So a third place with luck only? No, I cannot name any other player from this tournament, who would deserve the place more than Igor.

Hideki Nara - Bravo, old master! Not a step backward the 4th place! A veteran of WC finals (Nara is the only one to play in all six WC finals) played in a very concentrated and competitive way and despite his poor theoretical knowledge he gave everything of himself.

Petter Gardström - He showed again that he is a serious player. I believe that he did the best he could at the moment, I doubt he had much time to prepare for WC. I hope this will not be Petter's best place on WCs.

Stefan Karlsson - His level of training was not the same as two years ago, therefore I think that he can be rather satisfied with himself. He did his result by showing that he can take the 6th place being in a bad shape.
One must admire Stefan's stamina, when between two difficult tournaments - QT and AT, he had to play a significant part on RIF General Assembly and fight for a situation, where a person whose main weapon is demagogy would not dominate.

Ants Soosõrv - I thought I was in a better condition than on previous WCs regarding my playing skills and theoretical preparation (I have never had a significant amount of this). This is why my result does not satisfy me. I did not do well as a trainer either. But on the positive side - the games were exciting and I enjoyed them.

Shiniti Ishitani - He was exact and persistent in defence. A decent performance. The small theoretical knowledge does not make anything more possible. He did not disgrace Japan for sure - on his first WC he collected the same result as Hayakawa and Nishizono, who made their debut on the previous WC.

Kim Byong Yun - A great find for the world of renju! A little bit of experience and this man will beat us all! This time he was not yet able to keep his nerve at a crucial moment (Anders Henningson actually commented, that Kim's face does not express any emotions for the simple reason that he does not feel anything, he only concentrates on the game).

Kostya Nikonov - On the one hand it is a pity that Kostya did not make it into the top seven. On the other hand, could we leave three places for Russia for the next WC as it was so difficult to move Volodya and Kostya out of the top seven.. It will not get boring in WC finals with players like Kostya, he plays in the last margins of agressiveness.

Joachim Gaulitz - Some time ago Jocke told me that he will go to Japan, but not play in the finals. He said that he will probably not participate on Swedish QT either. Therefore it was a surprise to meet him in the finals. But the solution was simple - Joachim mentioned that playing in the finals was a direct order from his girlfriend Marika Joachim did not perform any heroic deeds on the tournament, but he did the most important thing - beat other Swedish players so they would not get too arrogant

Lin Shieng Min - The fact that a player gets only one point on a tournament does not necessarily mean that the player is much weaker than the others. But Lin still has a lot to learn and hopefully he will do that.