41st World Amateur Go Championship Concluded

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The 41st World Amateur Go Championship (WAGC) took place in Russia, Vladivostok from June 3 till June 9. It was the first time for this event to take place in a non-Asian country.

Each IGF member country has a right to line up one representative for the WAGC. This year the total number of participants was 57.

Due to the COVID-19 traveling restrictions, participants who could not reach Vladivostok were allowed to play online with anti-cheating measures applied.

After six rounds of intense struggle, Ma Tianfang 7d from China won the title of world champion. He was followed by Chan I-Tien 7d from Chinese Taipei and Kim Dabeen 7d from South Korea.

The best result among European players was demonstrated by Lukas Podpera 7d from Czechia who took 4th place. He lost only to the champion, Ma Tianfang.

Stanislaw Frejlak 7d finished 5th in the final standings. He demonstrated impressive performance by defeating Morikawa Shunji 5d from Japan on round three and the champion Ma Tianfang on round four. Stanislaw was close to beating the record of European players at the WAGC – 3rd place (Ronald Schlemper in 1991 and Artem Kachanovskyi in 2013). Unfortunately, Stanislaw lost the 5th game to Chan I-Tien 7d from Chinese Taipei and the 6th game to Lukas Podpera 7d from Czechia.

The victory of Stanislaw against Ma Tianfang was the second time when a European player defeated a representative of China at the WAGC. Ronald Schlemper did it for the first time in 1991.

For more information such as tournament table and photography see the 41st WAGC website.

Below you can view the record of the game between Stanislaw and Ma Tianfang.

 

Download SGF

 

Report by Artem

1st Mexican Internet Go League Kicks Off

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On May, Sunday 27th, the 1st Round of the 1st Mexican Internet Go League kicked off with the participation of 58 players from eight countries. Although most of the players are Mexicans, half of the players in the top group are foreigners. You can see the full participant list behind this link.

The new feature in this tournament compared to previous Mexican internet tournaments is that players are divided in groups by strength, and within each group a round-robin tournament is played. Players were divided in seven groups, out of which four groups had eight players and three had nine players.

The number of rounds to play depends on the number of players in each group. Eight-player groups play seven rounds and nine-players groups play eight rounds on nine different dates, caused by the odd number of players. You can see out the pairings for the full league here.

The winner of each group receives a prize of a game board and books provided by the Chinese Weiqi Association.

At the time of writing, three rounds have been played in the league. You can view the current standings here.

Report by Emil García

First China v. Latin America Female Championship Ends with Victory for Latin America

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Organised under the Strategic Agreement China and Latin America recently signed up, the First China v. Latin America Female Team Championship was played from April 24 to May 9.

The four-round match was played on OGS and was played on eight boards. Each round, team captains would set their line up as they wished. Each female player from the Latin American team was chosen from a different country and the Chinese team was made up of youth players.

Each round players from both teams would have to connect through Voov, a Chinese videoconference application, along with a referee on each side.

Out of the four rounds, Latin America won three and tied in one. The scores of each round were respectively: 5-3, 4-3, 4-4, and 6-2. You can see the full results behind this link.

It turned out a very interesting experience in which both parties enjoyed through the exchange of these games. Keep looking forward to next China–Latin American matches!

Report by Emil García

Ibero American Go Federation Signs Strategic Cooperation Agreement with Chinese Weiqi Association

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Directors from Latin America and China

On April 27, the signature ceremony of the ‘Strategic Cooperation Agreement’ between Ibero American Go Federation and the Chinese Weiqi Association CWA took place through an online ceremony.

Latin American directors Treasurer, Diego Guerrero from Venezuela, Secretary, Luciano Salerno from Argentina, and President, Emil García from Mexico connected via Voov, which is China’s Tencent video conference platform in its International version.

CWA officers were physically present in Beijing, with the presence of CWA’s Secretary General Wang Yi, Vicepresident Chang Hao and President Lin Jianchao among others.

During the ceremony, pre-recorded speeches from Latin American National Association’s Presidents were given by both Chinese Weiqi Association and Ibero American Go Federation presidents, where it’s worth pointing out Mr Lin Jianchao’s words: ‘The cooperation will focus on the practical difficulties and needs encountered in the development of weiqi in Latin America … The Latin American region has made significant progress in weiqi and has become one of the regions with the most potential for the development of weiqi in the world.’

The 3-year agreement aim is to promote the development of go in Latin America, and to deepen exchanges and cooperation between China and Latin American people through go. It is based on seven main points:

1 Weiqi Equipment Support Program
Go Equipment and electronics will be provided from China to develop local gameplay in Latin America

2 Weiqi Cultural Forum
A platform for exchanging cultural perspectives between both parties where topics of shared interest will be discussed.

3 Latin American Go Congress
Its organisation will be supported by the CWA along with the participation of Chinese professional players both online and onsite.

4 Latin American Weiqi Championship Circuit
Supported by the CWA, assistance will be provided to organise National Weiqi Championships held by each National Go Association taking part in the Circuit, which must be no less than four countries per edition. Winners of each of the Championships in the Circuit will play in a final match to decide the ultimate Circuit Champion.

5 China-Latin America Series
Team matches between China and Latin America are divided in four categories: Youth, Female, Mixed Doubles and Open.
This has already started as an online match and has the expectation of becoming a live match either in China or a Latin American country in the near future.

6 Development of Youth and Women
Competitions, training, and exchanges are forecasted.

7 Talent Training Program
Assistance to train players, trainers and referees with the assistance of Chinese players, trainers and referees will be given as a seminar during the Latin American Go Congress.

As of now the 1st Female Latin America-China Series has taken place and the Youth Series will be played in July. It’s also worth mentioning that five countries have proposed themselves to be part of the 1st Latin American Weiqi Championship Circuit for this year, these being: Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Mexico.

This seems to be a very promising scenario for Latin American Go, so we expect to hear more about this agreement soon.

Report by Emil García

11th Season of PGETC Concluded

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Pandanet Go European Team Championship (PGETC) is an annual go competition in which member countries of the European Go Federation (EGF) are represented by teams consisting of 12 players. The tournament is organised in two stages: online league and final.

In the online league, all the teams are split into groups of ten. Each group plays a round-robin with approximately one match per month. Each team lines up four players for a match. After the online league is finished, the two most successful teams of each group traverse up to the next league, and two teams finishing last fall down to the preceding one. In the A group, the top four teams are qualified for the final. Normally, the final is organised live at the spot at the European Go Congress (EGC), two days before the Congress starts. Last year the EGC was cancelled, so the final took place online. This year the EGC is cancelled as well, so we can expect the same format of the final.

The 11th season of the PGETC started in October 2020. The last round of the A league was played on 18 May, so now it’s decided which teams enter the final:

  • Russia
  • Poland
  • France
  • Ukraine



Among the teams who entered the final this year, Russia became champion five times, France was victorious three times including the previous two seasons, while Ukraine won the tournament once.

Below you can see a record of the game played between Mateusz Surma 2p and Artem Kachanovskyi 2p in the 9th round of the 11th PGETC online league on 18 May.

 

Download SGF

 

Report by Artem

1st Transatlantic Professional Go League Starts

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The European Professional Go League has been held three times. The participating players were the European professional go players with exception of the second season: Ryan Li 3p (at that time 1p) joined the League and was victorious.

On 15 May a new season of the League starts. This time with the support of the North American Go Federation, two American professional go players are participating: Ryan Li 3p and Calvin Sun 1p. The League changes its name to Transatlantic Professional Go League (TPGL).

In addition to the American players, eight Europeans are playing as well:



The two latter amateur players were selected via the online preliminary for amateur players, which took place on 8–9 May.

The League starts on 15 May with a match between Andrii Kravets 1p and Calvin Sun 1p. On 16 May, Pavol Lisy 2p plays against Remi Campagnie 6d. The games will be commented live on the EGF Twitch channel. Traditionally, the live stream starts at 18:00 CEST each weekend.

For more details see the web page of the TPGL.

Report by Artem

3rd Edition of Corona Cup Concluded

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The third edition of the Corona Cup took place online from 8 March till 20 April. 400 participants from 39 countries took part in the competition – the tournament repeated the record achieved by the second edition (400 participants as well; the first edition had 361 participants). Most European countries were represented. Besides, there were participants from countries such as Argentina (1 participant), Brazil (2), Canada (1), Chile (2), China (3), India (2), Kyrgyzstan (1), Singapore (3), and USA (13). From all the countries, Germany had the biggest number of representatives: 63 players.

After six rounds, Kim Seong-Jin 8d remained undefeated, thus winning the third edition of the Corona Cup. Kim Young-Sam 8d was the runner-up this time, being defeated only by the winner. He was victorious in the first two editions of the Corona Cup. The third place went to Stanislaw Frejlak 7d.

Here are the top five places:

  1. Kim Seong-Jin 8d
  2. Kim Young-Sam 8d
  3. Stanislaw Frejlak 7d
  4. Lukas Podpera 7d
  5. Lucas Neirynck 6d


Below you can find a record of the game played in the 4th round between Kim Young-Sam 8d and Kim Seong-Jin 8d.

 

Download SGF

 

For more details see the tournament table in the EGD.

Report by Arterm

41st World Amateur Go Championship 2021 in Russia

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World Amateur Go Championship (WAGC) is an annual go event organised by the International Go Federation (IGF). Each IGF member country nominates one representative, and in total usually there are around 70 participants.

The WAGC is held since 1979. In 2020, for the first time in go history, the tournament was to take place in one of the European countries – Russia, Vladivostok city. Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the tournament was postponed till 2021. The new dates for the 41st WAGC are June 2–10, 2021. The location remains the same.

Unfortunately, the pandemic doesn’t seem to get any better even despite the vaccination. Due to this reason, the organisers of the 41st WAGC decided to allow online participation for those representatives who are not able to arrive in Vladivostok. In that case, national federations whose representatives play online must ensure the presence of a referee or an official of the federation in the playing-room and/or video monitoring of the competition process. More information on this aspect will be announced by the organisers later.

Representatives from 77 countries are invited to participate in the 41st WAGC:

  1. Asia: 17 countries and territories
    Brunei, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Korea, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia,
    Mongolia, Nepal, DPR Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
  2. Near and Middle East: 3 countries
    Iran, Israel, Turkey
  3. Europe: 37 countries
    Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom
  4. Africa: 3 countries
    Madagascar, Morocco, South Africa
  5. North & Central America: 7 countries
    Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, United States
  6. South America: 8 countries
    Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela
  7. Oceania: 2 countries
    Australia, New Zealand


In case you are an official of the national go organisation in one of the listed countries, and you have not received an invitation yet – please use the following email address to contact the WAGC organisers: n.kovaleva@gofederation.ru (Natalia Kovaleva).

For more information see the 41st WAGC website: https://wagc2020.org/

Report by Artem

European Grand Prix 2021

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The European Grand Prix is a series of tournaments held during the calendar year. Those participants who take the top places in these competitions collect so-called ‘bonus points’. At the beginning of the next year, the Grand Prix Final is organised by the EGF. The players who have won at least one Grand Prix tournament, plus several players who have a top score in the bonus points list, fight for the title of the winner of the Grand Prix. Besides, the two players who have the top score in the bonus points list are automatically qualified for the Grand Slam – the most prestigious competition in Europe with a main prize of €10,000.

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 outbreak almost all the Grand Prix tournaments were cancelled. The Grand Prix Final had to take place online. The winner was Ilya Shikshin 4p.

As the situation with the coronavirus doesn’t seem to get much better at the beginning of 2021, the EGF introduced several changes to the Grand Prix:

  1. From now online and mixed competitions are officially allowed to be a Grand Prix tournament, with a condition of applying strict anti-cheating measures.
  2. New level of Grand Prix tournament appeared – Level D. Level D tournaments provide half as many bonus points as Level C, and the winner gets ‘half of the seat’ in the Grand Prix Final – he has to win one more Level D competition in order to qualify. At the same time, it’s twice cheaper for the organisers to apply for the Level D event. This is the way to stimulate the organisers of relatively small online tournaments to apply for the Grand Prix – bonus points attract strong European players to participate, which in turn motivates the weaker players to take part as well.
  3. Grand Prix tournament organisers have to provide prize money for each bonus point won by the participants. The amount of the prize money depends on the level of the event.



Even though the pandemic restrictions are not getting better, this year there are several tournaments in the Grand Prix Calendar already.

Report by Artem

European Go Journal: New Project Begins

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Cover page of the first issue

The European Go Journal is a monthly journal about the game of go, officially supported by the European Go Federation. The author is Artem Kachanovskyi, a 2 dan professional of the EGF.

The journal consists of three sections:

  • Go news – focusing on Europe, including major worldwide go events. This section contains also game reviews.
  • Reading material: interviews and an ‘art and photography’ chapter.
  • Studying material – analysis of playing situations using AI, go problems, tesuji of the month.



The journal is distributed in two forms: digital and printed. It’s possible to subscribe to the journal on Patreon.

For more information see this article on the EGF website.

Report by Artem