Denis Dobranis Wins European Student Championship

Website of The International Go Federation Posted on by


Participants of the European Student Championship in Timisoara

This year’s European Student Championship was held on 15–16 September in Timisoara, Romania. The Student Championship is traditionally one of the smallest EGF events and this time it brought together five participants who played out a round robin.

Dobranis brothers Denis 5d and Darius 3d topped the tournament table in the end with one defeat only. They tied in all the tie-breakers but since Denis beat his brother in the last round – he was crowned the champion. Third came Boris Dovcik 2d who lost only to Denis and Darius; the fourth and fifth places went to Daniel Dobridoreanu 1d and  Daria-Maria Mesesan 3k. respectively.

The complete tournament table is available at the EGD.

Report by Artem

Transatlantic Professional Go Team Championship 2023 Starts

Website of The International Go Federation Posted on by

The 2023 Transatlantic Professional Go Team Championship will be held online – the North American Go Federation and the EGF teams will play three rounds on 16 September, 30 September, and 7 October, nominating three players for each match. Below is the pairing for the first round (EGF vs. NAGF):

  • Andrii Kravets 1p vs. Ryan Li 4p
  • Stanislaw Frejlak 1p vs. Eric Lui 2p
  • Pavol Lisy 2p vs. Kevin Yang 1p



The games will be played on the OGS at 18:30 CEST and players from both teams will provide live commentary on the EGF Twitch channel.

The EGF team won the previous event of this kind organized in 2019, see the article on the EGF website for more details.

Report by Artem

Dominican Republic to host the 5th Latin American Go Congress in October 2023

Website of The International Go Federation Posted on by

Last June, the Ibero American Go Federation decided in an extraordinary assembly to designate the Dominican Republic as the host country for the 5th Latin American Go Congress, to be held on 12–16 October in the Caribbean city of Punta Cana.

Within this event the following Championships will take place:

  • 23rd Ibero American Go Championship
  • 5th Latin American Youth Go Championship
  • 6th Ibero American Pair Go Championship
  • 3rd Latin American Female Go Championship
  • Final match of the 7th Pandanet Latin American Go Team Championship between Brazil and Peru



In addition to these events, the congress will feature professional players who will do lectures, game reviews and play simultaneous games with the participants.

The venue of the Congress will be the Hotel Impressive Punta Cana, located on the coast of the Caribbean Sea. Some cheaper hotels close to the venue include Palmas de Punta Cana, Terraza Art Villa Dominicana, and Hotel Art Villa Dominicana.

The event is co-organised by the ‘Asociación Dominicana de Go’ and the Mexican Go Association.

For further information and to register, please visit the Congress website.

Manja Marz and Johannes Obenaus Win European Pair Go Championship

Website of The International Go Federation Posted on by


Johannes Obenaus and Manja Marz

The European Pair Go Championship was held on 16–18 August in Leksand, Sweden, and brought together 14 pairs from various countries. After six rounds, two pairs topped the tournament table with one defeat only: Manja Marz 4d and Johannes Obenaus 6d from Germany were ahead according to the tie-breaker (SOS, sum of opponents’ scores), while Ariane Ougier 4d and Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia 7d from France finished second. They were followed by a group of six pairs with three wins and three losses.

The weekend following the Pair Championship, on 19–20 August, the 16th Leksand Open tournament took place at the same venue. Lukas Podpera 7d remained undefeated after five rounds and thus was crowned the champion. Woo Hoyeung 5d came second and third place went to Denis Dobranis 5d.

Report by Artem

65th European Go Congress: Conclusion

Website of The International Go Federation Posted on by

The 65th European Go Congress (EGC) took place in Leipzig on 22 July–5 August and brought together players from all over the world.

As usual, the EGC included such important events as the European Pandent Team Championship and individual European Championship. Andrii Kravets 1p claimed both Championships, winning the former as a member of the Ukrainian Team.

The biggest tournament at the EGC traditionally was the Open European Championship with almost 700 participants from more than 30 countries. The winner was Ryu Insu 7d from South Korea, followed by his compatriot Kim Daehwi 7d; third place went to Dominik Boviz 6d from Hungary.

The other competitions attracted numerous participants, too: more than 500 players in the Weekend Tournament (the winner was Park Junghun 7d) and almost 400 in the Rapid Tournament (winner: Kim Daehwi 7d).

For more details and articles, see the website of the 65th EGC. You can find quality pictures at Harry van der Krogt’s Flickr.

Report by Artem

Andrii Kravets 1p Wins European Championship 2023

Website of The International Go Federation Posted on by


Top three (from the left): Andrii Kravets 1p, Ali Jabarin 2p, and Ashe Vazquez 7d

The 2023 European Championship took place at the European Go Congress in Leipzig on 23–30 July; it brought together 32 strongest European players to battle in a double-elimination system until eight players were selected for a knockout.

Despite losing in the second round to Jonas Welticke 6d, Andrii Kravets 1p won all the remaining games and thus was crowned champion. In the final he beat Ali Jabarin 2p by 1.5 points; you can see that game at the end of this article. Ashe Vazquez 7d defeated Fredrik Blomback 7d in the match for third place.

Andrii Kravets is the first European Champion from Ukraine. Just before the tournament started, he also won the Pandanet European Team Championship as a member of the Ukrainian national team.

For more information, read the article on the EGC website.

 

Download SGF

 

Report by Artem

Ukraine Wins Pandanet European Team Championship 2023

Website of The International Go Federation Posted on by


The Ukrainian team singing their national anthem on the podium

The final of the Pandanet European Team Championship took place in Leipzig on 21–22 July and brought together the top four teams of League A of the online stage: Ukraine, France, Czechia, and Israel. After losing their first match against the Czech team, the Ukrainian team won the two following matches and repeated their last year’s success, claiming the champions’ title for the third time. The runner-up was the Czech team and the team of France came third.

For more information, visit the web page of the PGETC 2022/2023 finals.

Below is a record of the game played in the third round of the final on the first board of the match between France and Ukraine.

 

Download SGF

 

Report by Artem

Mateusz Surma 2p Wins 6th European Professional Championship

Website of The International Go Federation Posted on by

The 6th European Professional Championship took place online on 21–25 June and brought together eight professional players split into two groups. Two players passed from each group to the next stage – a knockout, where the championship was decided.

Mateusz Surma 2p remained undefeated both in the group and knockout stages and thus was victorious. His opponent in the final and the runner-up was Antti Törmänen 1p, the only participant certified professional not by the EGF but in Japan. In the match for third place, Ali Jabarin 2p beat Stanislaw Frejlak 1p.

Below you can see a record of the final game played between Antti and Mateusz.

 

Download SGF

 

Report by Artem

6th European Professional Championship Starts Soon

Website of The International Go Federation Posted on by

The 6th European Professional Championship will take place on the Online Go Server on 21–25 June. The participants are split into two groups of four players and a double-elimination system is applied in each group. The four players that pass the group stage (two from each group) battle in a knockout tournament to determine the winner.

Group A:
Jan Simara 1p
Ali Jabarin 2p
Tanguy Le Calve 1p
Antti Törmänen 1p

Group B:
Mateusz Surma 2p
Artem Kachanovskyi 2p
Andrii Kravets 1p
Stanislaw Frejlak 1p

The first round starts on 21 June at 11:00 CEST. European professionals will comment on the games live on the EGF Twitch channel.

The previous European Professional Championship took place online in September 2020. The winner was Ilya Shikshin 3p.

Report by Artem

Pandanet European Team Championship 2022/2023 – Online Stage Concluded

Website of The International Go Federation Posted on by

The Pandanet European Team Championship is an annual competition for national teams with an online part and a face-to-face final. The online stage of the 13th season started in October last year and brought together 36 teams split into four leagues from A to D playing out a round-robin, approximately one game per month.

The last round of League A took place on 16 May. The top four teams qualified for the face-to-face final: Ukraine, France, Czechia, and, for the first time in the history of this event, Israel. The final will take place at the European Go Congress in Leipzig this summer, two days before the start of the main event.

Below you can see a record of the game between Tal Michaeli 4d (Israel) and Ondrej Kruml 6d (Czechia), which was played in the last round of League A and allowed the team of Israel to take 4th place.

 

Download SGF

 

Report by Artem