Website of The International Go Federation

With two rounds remaining in the 4th Pandanet Latin American Team Championship, anything can still happen.

In the A League, Argentina is the leading team with five victories and one defeat, but behind it, four teams: Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, are all tied on four victories.

Next round will be decisive, considering that Brazil will play Peru and Argentina will play Mexico. All of them are looking to secure a spot at the top, as the top two teams at the end of the league will get the chance to play a face-to-face final match at the 4th Latin American Go Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina in mid-October.

At the bottom of A League, things are also unsettled considering that the bottom two teams will drop to the B League. This round, Chile is facing Colombia, with the losing team falling in the demotion zone despite having three victories.

In B League, Cuba, Costa Rica, and Ecuador are all tied at the top with four victories each, so it is not yet clear which two teams will ascend to League A.

Follow this round matches on Sunday, May 24th, 19 hrs GMT-6 in the Latin American TeamChamp Room on Pandanet.

You may look at the complete table of A League here and of B League here.

Report by Emil García

The Corona Cup, a European online tournament named after the ongoing pandemic, has now finished, more than a month after its start. The tournament was held online on the KGS go server. The Corona Cup became extremely popular, attracting many tournament-goers who are for the time being not able to participate in live tournaments. The total number of participants was exactly 361, same as the number of intersections on the go board!

The winner of the tournament was Kim Youngsam 8d (South Korea). Players from 30 different countries took part in the competition.

For more information, please see the following links:
Corona Cup Announcement
Corona Cup Tournament Table

Report by Artem

Soon after the 1st China v. Europe Online Go Tournament has finished, one more online competition between China and Europe was organised. This time the European team played against the Chinese National Junior Team.

This competition is called the 1st China Junior v. Europe Online Go Match. Both the Chinese and European teams lined up ten players. The Chinese team consisted of professional players, at most 16 years old, while the European team was a mix of professional players and strong amateurs.

The match had two rounds scheduled on 19–20 April, one round each day. In each round ten European players were paired up against ten Chinese players.

In both of the rounds the Chinese team won with a 9-1 score. In the first round it was Viktor Lin 6d (Austria) who won his game against Wang Yucheng 1p (China), while in the second round Ali Jabarin 2p (Israel) won against Jin Yucheng 3p (China).

For more game records and complete results please see the match results webpage.

Report by Artem

The Argentinian Go Association has previously announced that Mateusz Surma 2p from the European Go Federation will be running an intensive training bootcamp at the 4th Latin American Go Congress, from October 5th to 9th 2020, prior to the main Championship weekend of the Congress from October 10th to 12th.

Mateusz has previously held a two-week boot camp in Sao Paolo, Brazil, during the 3rd Latin American Congress in 2019 where 12 players from Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, and Brazil did intensive training consisting of daily tournament games, game reviews, and life and death problems.

We interviewed Sebastian Rios 3d from Mexico, who participated in the 2019 bootcamp with Mateusz, to gather his impressions:

In which way was the boot camp a new experience to you?
Sebastian: Having the chance to get direct feedback from a pro was a great experience. Mateusz broadened my horizons, and he made me realise mistakes in my game which I did not notice before.

Do you think the bootcamp helped improve your level? If it did, why?
Sebastian: I think it did help me improve. The thing I liked the most were Mateusz’s game reviews. Nowadays, before making a move, I ask myself many of the questions he made during the reviews.

What are the reasons that would make you participate again in such an event?
Sebastian: Having contact with the go community is always very nice, also for keep improving.

So, if you are interested in improving your play with one of the strongest players in Europe, Buenos Aires 2020 bootcamp is worth considering!

Follow any updates on the bootcamp on the Congress website or in Argentina Go Association Facebook page.

Report by Emil García

The American Go Foundation is sponsoring two Latin American Youth teams to visit the 2020 US Go Congress. The first chosen team is the winner of the 2019 Orion Tournament, an online team match organised by the ‘Asociación de Go Latino Juvenil‘ and supported by the Ibero American Go Federation, FIG. The second team comes from a recently approved sponsorship which is intended to broaden the spectrum of Latin American youth players to visit the US Go Congress.

For the first team, the winner of the 2019 Orion tournament turned out to be Mexico’s ‘Escuela de Arte Pipiolo’, whose three players and a team leader have all costs covered at the congress.

For the second team, Chile was appointed by the Ibero American Go Federation to build up the team. According to FIG, if this kind of support keeps continuing, each year a different country will be chosen to participate. For this team, too, all costs within the congress for three players and their team leader.

The US Go Congress will take place in the YMCA of the Rockies, Colorado, from August 1st to 9th, and there the children will have the chance to play in the US Open, attend lectures by professionals and participate in the numerous side tournaments the congress has to offer, such as pair go and lightning go.

There’s no doubt that this is a great opportunity for cultural exchange and to make new friends through playing go.

Report by Emil García